Police: Ohio burglar took empty gumball machine

[May 14, 2011]  MARTINS FERRY, Ohio (AP) -- Police in Ohio are puzzled by a burglar who they say broke into a convenience store and took nothing but an empty gumball machine.

Detective Bob Walton in Martins Ferry says the machine held no coins or gumballs. He also points out that the thief early Thursday didn't touch liquor bottles or cartons of cigarettes displayed nearby.

WTOV-TV in nearby Steubenville reports surveillance video shows the man hurling a brick or sandstone through a store window, then entering and running directly to the 4-foot-tall gumball machine at the back of the store. He fled through the same window.

Walton says police in the eastern Ohio community along the Ohio River can't figure out a motive.

[Associated Press]

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