Another Solved Crime in Ladue and NBC's "Sing Off"


Well, the Ladue Police have been having some good news of late. Besides solving the "non-rape" on McKnight, they tracked and arrested the robbers of the Heartland Bank on Clayton near Warson (near my son's middle school too, where it caused quite a stir!) It seems the bank slipped a tracking device of some sort into the bag with the cash, so it was easy for police forces to track the vehicle and the cash to the culprits. The GPS tracking devices now are small enough to slip into a stack of bills so the criminals do not even know it is there. I think that is pretty cool technology and hopefully will deter these criminals from trying such foolish robberies. It seems in yesterday's case they arrested three people and the actual robbers who entered the bank were women. It seems to be an equal opportunity crime now. As for the small GPS tracking devices, they are also used in "bait cars" that police forces are using to catch auto burglars. I noticed a sign at the Clayton Metrolink garage stating they have bait cars there in that garage. More technology at work helping to make the world a better place!

And now for something completely different, I thought I would talk about what we were watching on TV last night before the news -- a short term (only 4 shows) "Idol" type show called "Sing Off" on NBC. The difference here is that they are all a capella groups, primarily college groups, but not all of them. There is also a barbershop quartet of older ladies from Baltimore and a really good group of older guys from Puerto Rico. At Wash U's Family Weekend, we had attended an a capella concert one night and really enjoyed the great performances of groups like Mosaic Whispers and the Amateurs. I was curious if either of those groups had auditioned for the show since one of the judges is Ben Folds and he produced an a capella choir CD that featured both groups. The college groups on the show sound a lot like the groups that performed here, but I will have to say I believe the best group is Nota, the Puerto Rican group. As for the judges, Ben Folds is definitely the best and Shawn Stockman from Boyz II Men isn't too bad, but Nicole Sherzinger from the Pussycat Dolls is downright annoying. I think I would rather listen to Paula! I believe the viewers will get to vote after tonight's show to see who gets to be on the finale next Monday, so I may have to vote.

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