Laura Rose Carroll, 50, and her daughter, Emily Rose Grover, 17, were arrested in Pensacola, Fla., on March 16 after an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found the duo had allegedly stuffed the ballot box with votes for Emily for homecoming queen last fall. Suspicions were raised when the Escambia County School District reported illegal accessing of hundreds of its students' digital accounts. Authorities said Carroll, an assistant elementary school principal, had access to the student information system, and investigators traced unauthorized entries into the system to Carroll's cellphone and computers, where nearly 250 votes were cast. Fox News reported that investigators also said students reported being told by Grover about her mother's activity. Each was charged with offenses against computers and other cybercrimes, along with conspiracy.
And Raffaela Spone, 50, was arrested in early March in Bucks County, Pa., after prosecutors say she created "deepfake" videos and photographs of at least three girls on her daughter's cheerleading squad in an apparent attempt to embarrass them and force them off the team. Prosecutors said Spone allegedly sent the manipulated images to the girls — shown drinking, smoking and naked — anonymously and suggested they kill themselves, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Parents of one of the recipients contacted police, and detectives traced the messages to Spone. Investigators believe Spone's daughter was unaware of what her mother was doing.
Sour grapes
Andreas Flaten of Peachtree City, Ga., quit his job at Walker Luxury Autoworks in November, visibly annoying his boss, he told WGCL-TV, but he was promised that his final $915 paycheck would be paid in January. When the check didn't come, Flaten contacted the Georgia Department of Labor, and one night in mid-March, 500 pounds of oily pennies were anonymously dumped in his driveway, presumably totaling $915. Flaten has been storing them in a wheelbarrow, but he can't cash the pennies until they are cleaned.
Freedom to fly
Andrew Almer of Fargo has flown an American flag from the balcony of his condominium for two years, but the condo association is now demanding the flag be taken down because it creates too much noise flapping in the wind. "You've got to be kidding me," Almer told KVLY-TV. "It's not rude, it's not nasty, it's the American flag. ... It's not coming down anytime soon."
Home sweet stadium
Vietnam veteran Tom Garvey, 78, of Ambler, Pa., has released a memoir about the "secret apartment" he maintained for two years in an empty concession stand in Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium, once home to both the Phillies and the Eagles, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer. From 1979 to 1981, Garvey lived in an "off-the-wall South Philly version of the Phantom of the Opera," he said, furnishing the apartment with a bed, sink, refrigerator, stereo, coffeemaker, hot plate and seating for guests, who included players' wives waiting for their husbands after games. Cousin Terry Nilon said being in Garvey's apartment, located literally in left field, felt like "Vet stadium was in his living room."
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