Weird Iowa: Penny Pinching Leads to Arrest, Clerk Says No to Robbers, Pro Bowler, Should Biker Be Beheaded?

People don't always respect bowling as a sport. So we've included news about a national standout from Urbandale in hopes that this gives the sport its due.

Tom Hess of Urbandale is one of the "big names" entered in the Professional Bowlers Association Midwest Regional tournament being held this weekend. Hess won the 2011 USBC Masters championship. He was named the 2010-2011 PBA Midwest Region Player of the Year.

Time is money, especially if you're a cab driver. So, police got involved when a 25-year-old Ames man slowly counted pennies intended for a $35 cab fare, according to criminal complaints. 

Police said the driver and the customer had agreed that he could pay in quarters but not just any change, complaints said. The man finally agreed to pay the fare at his home and began counting quarters for the $35 fare; when he started counting pennies and “purposely wasting time” police decided to arrest the man on charges of fifth-degree theft and public intoxication.

And, from police departments around the state we have these oddities.

Two Ankeny men were arrested early Monday after trying to rob a Casey's General Store with a pellet gun. Seth N. Clark, 21, and Tanner K. Sellers, 19, were charged with first-degree robbery, punishable by 25 years in prison. Clark allegedly demanded money from the store clerk while holding a gun. The clerk refused and Clark left the store and got into a car driven by Sellers, police said. Ankeny Police spotted the car, stopped it and arrested the pair. 

Johnston police were called on a report that the parents of a one-year-old boy left him by himself in a parking lot. Ben Cecil Bell III, 28, of 648 34th St., Des Moines, and Dionna Arlene Ashby Ganaway, 27, 6052 Glenn Circle, Johnston, were both charged with neglect of a dependent person.

Iowa City police and firefighters were called to the Hampton Inn because a suicidal man lit his mattress on fire at the hotel. When responders arrived at the inn the man was the only one in the smoke-filled room. Firefighters said the room's smoke alarm had been disabled. The man was arrested and charged with first-degree arson.

And a dispute between two men over an ice cream cone led a West Des Moines driver to tell police he hoped a motorcyclist he accused of swatting his ice-cream cone is “beheaded in a motorcycle accident.” The victim, a 61-year-old West Des Moines man, also told police he wants the motorcyclist charged with assault. The driver had just pulled out of the Dairy Queen on Grand Avenue and was eating his ice cream cone when two motorcyclists reportedly cut in front of him at a red light. A man riding a motorcycle registered to a 22-year-old Adel man reportedly opened the door of the West Des Moines vehicle and smacked the ice cream out of the driver's hand.

Read more weirdness from Iowa:

Weird Iowa: Colbert Mocks Rep. King, Baby Born in Bathroom, and Kid Reportedly Left in Park

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