Someone who should check a little closer

On the paperwork, that is.

San Antonio-based restaurant chain Sushi Zushi will reopen some locations as early as next week, CEO Alfonso Tomita said this morning.

All eight of Sushi Zushi's locations, which include four in the Alamo City, closed their doors on Friday after about 100 employees didn't show up to work because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was conducting an audit of the company, Tomita said. The chain employees about 500 people, he said, speaking to reporters at the location on Basse Road.

A sign hanging on the restaurant's door said Sushi Zushi is hiring for all positions. Tomita said it's particularly difficult to find sushi chefs. Executive chef Luis Ramirez is among those who didn't show up to work last week, Tomita said.

(from the Express-News)

One-fifth of your entire workforce fails to show up for work. Twenty percent. Because of a rumor. Because they are afraid of being deported.

Perhaps it's time to review your hiring practices, Mr. Tomita. You know, to make sure your employees don't all have the same SSN.

Bonus strangeness: Apparently it's "particularly difficult" to find Americans willing to be sushi chefs, so difficult you have to hire illegal immigrants instead.

Remember that next time you fork over $15 for a Yummy Yummy Roll.

Anyone should have seen this coming.

Diego Mascorro, 19, was charged with making terroristic threats through family violence, a Class A misdemeanor. Bail was set at $10,000.

Mascorro's mother went to police headquarters Monday to report that he'd threatened her recently after she locked him out of the house.

She said Mascorro was carrying a gun as he told his mother he could break down the door and get in if he wanted.

Police said his mother told them he “claims he is the king of the house and is untouchable.”

After his mother told him to go live with his father, Mascorro told the woman to go live with her mother, who's deceased, police said.

(from the Express-News)

And what, you might ask, was it that might have suggested that this guy would come to no good?

Perhaps this?

Friends don't let friends tattoo faces.

Sustenance and recreation

It looks like this guy was ready for the munchies.

A high-speed police chase ended in a crash, and police found meat and drugs inside the car.

...

A car matching the speeding vehicle's description crashed near the intersection of Piedmont and Drexel on San Antonio's southeast side.

The driver jumped out and ran, leaving the passenger to face the police.

Officers said they arrested the passenger and found a load of wrapped meat and some marijuana in the car.

(from KSAT-12)

Butcher, dealer ---- hey, when they're all in the same neighborhood, it makes sense to combine trips.

"S.W. Side ‘riot’ not that riotous"

Hahahahahaha!

About a dozen police officers responded to a call about an alleged riot in progress in a Southwest Side neighborhood this morning.

Former City Councilman and Texas House District 117 hopeful Phil Cortez was speaking to members of the media inside his home, where he alleged that his opponent in the Democratic runoff, lawyer Tina Torres, doesn’t live in the district.

Outside, meanwhile, the “riot” consisted of about a dozen pro-Torres protesters, who were chanting that Cortez shouldn’t spend his time keeping tabs on his opponent.

(from the Express-News Newswatch blog)

Man, sometimes you've just gotta love politics in this town.

Someone who should think a little more

About where he consumes the fruits of his endeavors, that it.

Police say the assault happened in the 100 block of Eross around 8 p.m. Thursday.

According to police, the suspect flagged down the ice cream van and somehow got inside.

He assaulted the driver and officers found him a short time later walking in the area with merchandise from the van.

(from KSAT-12)

Walking in the area. Just casually, I assume. With "merchandise from the van". Not a care for the cops at all.

But inquiring minds want to know: How much "merchandise" was he carrying? And was he worried about it melting (this is summer, you know)? Did he have a freezer handy? And what was he eating at the time? A drumstick? A fudgesicle? One of those weird foot-shaped things with a gumball in the big toe? Choco-taco?

Please, please television journalists, ask the right questions! I am genuinely curious!

Car crashes into house

Actually, it was an apartment building. And this time the automobile seems to have been on a course of vengeance on behalf of a human.

Police say 33-year-old Miguel Martinez Jr. was intoxicated when he crashed a 2002 Ford Expedition into an apartment in the 1300 block of Rigsby Road early Monday morning.

But as of Monday afternoon, he's not facing any charges, police said.

When police arrived at the scene of the crash, which occurred around 1:15 a.m., he was bleeding from the back of his head and his upper body was covered in blood.

And police say he's a victim.

According to a police report, Martinez got into an argument with neighbors, then several men used a steel pipe to hit him on both knees and in the back of the head.

Martinez told police that's the last thing he remembers. He said he doesn't remember getting into the SUV or crashing it.

(from KSAT-12)

Of course he doesn't remember. You don't have to when your capable SUV takes over to avenge the wrongs visited upon you.

Someone who should think a little more

About how to win friends and influence people. Especially cops.

Juan Jose Del Toro did whatever he could to escape police custody early Saturday, including attempting to bribe two officers — and attacking one of them — jumping about 14 feet onto a highway and then trying to cling to the side of an 18-wheeler, a recently released police report said.

When an officer stopped Del Toro ... he jumped out of the vehicle and tried to walk away, the report said. He refused to give the officer an ID and then told her there was a warrant out for his arrest and tried to bribe her with $50, according to the report.

When the officer attempted to handcuff him, Del Toro punched her in the face and she fought back ....

Del Toro ran south on Jackson Street and jumped to the lower level of Interstate 35 North. A second officer on the way to help saw an 18-wheeler pulled over and slowly moving forward, so he stopped his cruiser and ordered it to stop, the report said.

Del Toro was hanging on the outside of the cab's passenger side. Once he was in custody Del Toro upped the ante, the report said, this time offering $100 to the officer to let him go.

“I told (arrested person) that I wasn't going to prison for 10 years for a $100 bribe,” the officer wrote in the report of the conversation. “He replied ‘I won't tell anyone you took the money. It will be ok.'”

(from the Express-News)

You gotta love the way cops fill out reports sometimes. The littlest details may prove relevant. Or just kinda funny.

One of the saddest sounding headlines I've ever read

Is this:

"No ‘beer machine' at Alamo"

No, I'm not taking a stand on whether or not it's a good idea to allow alcohol sales at private events after hours on the grounds of the Alamo. I'm expressing amazement at the notion that there could be such a thing as a "beer machine", for which I'm imagining a fully-functioning robotic unit that dispenses beer with mechanical precision (preferably while rolling around on tracks or mounted to a mech frame), not just a pressurized tap. And then I'm realizing that such a thing is not a thing, and that it will never be available to me at the Alamo.

And I'm a little sad.

Making it easy for the police

Sometimes the bad guys seem like they want to get caught. And I think I'm OK with that.

Thursday, the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force arrest Marshall Aponte, 19, at a gas station on West Avenue.

U.S. Marshals said Aponte was wanted in connection with several recent gas station robberies.

According to an affidavit, Aponte not only matches the description of the suspect's physical build, but that they also recovered a text message that he sent to a friend saying, "just robbed the exon" and, "2 pistols and made 300 dollars."

(from KSAT-12)

If my exposure to cops is any indication, one thing they know how to operate for sure is mobile telephones, iPads, and the like.

Bonus strangeness: The robber's booty:

The clerk said he cocked one of the[ handguns] before taking money from the register and leaving with two cans of Bud Light.

I hope they were tall boys, at least. You know, so he doesn't have to get up as often.

Back

I'm back!

OK, I never really went anywhere, I just got busy. But the busy-ness has seemed to abated somewhat, and I think I can get back to doing a little hanging out here and there on the internet again.

And looking out for strangeness, when it comes my way.