DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Des Moines police have caught a man who says he wanted to steal home plate at the city’s minor league baseball park. Polk County court records say Daniel Igel, listed as homeless, was arrested Friday morning at Principal Park, home of the Iowa Cubs, a Chicago Cubs affiliate. He’s charged with felony burglary. Igel’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

A court document says Igel was found after he climbed a fence to get into the park. He told officers he was trying to steal the plate and had scaled the fence the night before and tried to break into the press box. He says he hid in a dugout to evade officers who responded to a security alarm.

(Radio Iowa) — From superheroes to spooky creatures, Iowans are snapping up new costumes for this weekend’s Halloween parties. Jenny Mally, marketing director for the Theatrical Shop in West Des Moines, says the movies are a big influence this year. “‘Joker’ has been a big request, ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Beetlejuice,’ ‘Adams Family,'” Mally says. “We’re getting lots of requests for clown costumes and I don’t know if that’s because of the last ‘It’ movie and even ‘Wizard of Oz.'”

The younger Halloween shoppers are looking for a certain type of movie character.  “All of the superheroes are really popular for kids, Spiderman, Batman, Wonder Woman,” Mally says. “Also for kids, Forky from ‘Toy Story,’ and we’ve got this costume called the Cemetery Bride, which is a combination between a ghost and a vampire. That’s also been popular this year.”

Mally says interest in political costumes is slow even though the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucuses are about three months away. “We haven’t seen a lot of that,” she says. “We do have Trump wigs and that kind of thing available but there really haven’t been a lot of requests for that.”  Many Iowans are holding Halloween parties this weekend as October 31st falls on a Wednesday this year.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s first female lieutenant governor, Jo Ann Zimmerman, has died. Her daughter Beth Boland said Wednesday that her mother was 82 when she passed away Tuesday night at a hospice in Des Moines, surrounded by her family. Boland says Zimmerman died of complications from pulmonary fibrosis, which had been diagnosed seven or eight years ago.

Zimmerman was elected lieutenant governor as a Democrat in 1986 and served alongside the Republican governor, Terry Branstad. She was defeated by Republican Joy Corning in 1990. Before the 1990 state election, the governor and the lieutenant governor ran separately. In 1992 Zimmerman helped found the Democratic Activist Women’s Network to help support female candidates.

Boland describes her mother as fearless, saying that “when she saw an injustice or something that she didn’t think was fair, she went about to fix it.”

CARROLL COUNTY, Iowa – Iowa Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officers have charged two Glidden men with numerous deer hunting violations, including poaching, from an investigation stemming back to November 2018.

Officials say 39-year old Joshua R. Snyder was charged with one count of interference with official acts, two counts of illegal possession of antlered whitetail deer, illegal transportation of deer, and several tagging and license violations in Carroll County. Snyder was also charged with three counts of illegal take/possession of antlered whitetail deer, deer hunting with a prohibited rifle, falsely obtaining a duplicate any-sex deer bow license and tag, illegal transportation of deer, and several other tagging and deer license violations in Taylor County.

His father, 59-year old Kenneth F. Snyder, was charged with four counts of illegal possession of antlered whitetail deer in Carroll County, as an indirect result of the initial investigation. Initial appearances for both men are scheduled for late October and mid-November.

The Creston Police Department reports a Creston man was arrested Tuesday afternoon. 37-year old Ed R. Wysocki was arrested on an Adams County Warrant for Failure to Appear. Wysocki was released to the custody of the Adams County Sheriff’s Department.

AMES, Iowa – Oct. 23, 2019 – A public auction of state-owned vehicles, equipment, and other surplus items will be held by the Iowa Department of Transportation on its grounds in Ames, Saturday, Nov. 2, beginning at 9 a.m. The sale will be held in the auction building south of the Iowa DOT’s sign shop on South Fourth Street in Ames. Passenger vehicles to be sold include Ford and Chevy sedans, pickup trucks, and sport utility vehicles and Dodge minivans. Shop equipment items include dollies, tools and an air compressor. Office equipment includes tables, chairs, and computer stands. There will also be several changeable message signs, weed eaters, much more.

Items for sale may be inspected at the sale site from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Nov.1, and from 7 to 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 2. Please bring a driver’s license or state-issued identification card with you to the sale. The information from your driver’s license will be scanned into the system and a bid number will be printed for you to use at the auction. For those without a driver’s license, the information will be entered manually.

Final payment for all items is due the day of the sale. Payment for the items must be made in cash, cashier’s check, or certified check. Personal or company checks will be accepted if accompanied by satisfactory identification. Sales tax will be collected. Dealers must provide tax-exemption numbers to be exempted from the tax. All items must be removed from Iowa DOT property within five business days of the sale.

Lynch Auction Co. of Boone will conduct the auction. Coffee, sandwiches, and cold drinks will be available for purchase at the auction site. A listing of auction items is also available on the Iowa DOT’s website at www.iowadot.gov/auction/auctlist.htm.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Officers with the Marshalltown Police department responded Tuesday night to a residence following a reported shooting. According to KCCI-TV in Des Moines, when Officers arrived, they discovered 25-year old George Sims, Jr., unresponsive in the common area of the apartment building. Police said Sims was stabilized and transported by ambulance to a hospital.

While interviewing witnesses, detectives learned evidence from the shooting could be found at a separate residence in Marshalltown.  A search warrant was requested and granted. The warrant was served by the Marshalltown SWAT Team. While serving the search warrant, officers arrested 44-year-old Robert Fite Jr. on an outstanding warrant for a parole violation. Police said Fite was also charged with accessory after the fact for his role in the shooting investigation.

At 10:50 p.m., officers located the suspect in the shooting inside a vehicle. Police said a traffic stop was conducted on North 13^thStreet in Marshalltown and the suspect, 38-year-old Joseph Wade Bown, was taken into custody without incident. Bown is charged with attempted murder, intimidation with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon. Police said the investigation is still ongoing.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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VINTON, Iowa (AP) — A woman has been accused of stealing nearly $296,000 from an eastern Iowa vehicle dealership where she’d worked for several years. Benton County court records show 56-year-old Kelly Banghart, of Vinton, pleaded not guilty to a theft charge earlier this month. Authorities say Ervin Motor Co. officials contacted Vinton police last month after finding suspicious transactions. A court document says she told an investigator that between May 2015 and August this year she used the company’s checking account to make unauthorized payments on her personal credit cards.