• Richard Nippell and Camri Cantwell face robbery charges after police said they broke into a home near Uniontown, Ohio, washed their clothes, took a shower and made some coffee before being confronted by a relative of the homeowner who called for help when she spotted a strange truck in the driveway.
• Patrice Ribes, a French police captain, called it "another gift" that arrived the day after Christmas when a 12-year-old boy in the French Alps was found alive and uninjured after being buried for 40 minutes under snow and ice from an avalanche.
• Penny Emerson, president of an animal-rescue group in Valparaiso, Ind., said a new home was found for Sam, a pointer, and Cosmo, a Lab mix, after a veterinarian refused to euthanize the two healthy canines when the previous owner said his new girlfriend was allergic to dogs.
• John Folse, a chef from Baton Rouge, cooked up 6,800 pounds of gumbo -- containing shrimp, crab, alligator, catfish, oysters and crawfish -- in a 1,068-gallon pot for charity and to set a Guinness world record during tailgating at the Independence Bowl.
• Steve Bago, president of a Vietnam Veterans of America chapter in Clinton Township, Mich., called it a "little Christmas miracle" when the group's mobile Vietnam War memorial, stolen a week ago, was recovered in Detroit.
• Brian Petross, 42, of Anchorage, Alaska, accused of using a stolen front-end loader to smash the front window of a business during a burglary, faces vehicle-theft and other charges after he was caught when he used the loader as his getaway vehicle, police said.
• Lee Cowart, a Miami-Dade police detective, said a father was dragged along as he tried to jump onto his three-wheel motorcycle to stop it when his 3-year-old daughter somehow started the cycle, drove off on it and crashed into a fence, leaving her seriously injured.
• Leida Crisostomo, 52, of Naples, Fla., accused of using a plastic gun to rob a mail truck and then riding away on a tricycle, later telling sheriff's deputies that she was God, has been charged with armed robbery and other counts, authorities said.
• Nathaniel Lewis, 34, of East Vincent, Pa., who barricaded himself in his home on Christmas night and shot multiple times at SWAT team officers, surrendered nine hours later after a negotiator sang "White Christmas" to him, authorities said.
A Section on 12/28/2018