• MOVIEGOER UPSET WITH SNACK PRICES LOSES LAWSUIT: DETROIT (AP) — There is no happy ending for a Detroit-area man who challenged the high price of movie snacks.

A Wayne County judge dismissed Jason Thompson’s lawsuit Friday, saying the Michigan Consumer Protection Act doesn’t apply. Thompson claimed a Livonia theater was illegally gouging customers after he paid $8 for a soda and chocolate-covered peanuts in December.

Bruce Sendek, a lawyer for American Multi-Cinema, says no one is forced to buy snacks at movies. He notes that the price of any product can vary greatly depending on where it’s sold.

The moviegoer’s lawyer, Kerry Morgan, tells the Detroit Free Press that he advised his client to stay home and get a subscription to Netflix.



• GOOD SAMARITAN HELPS OHIO MAN TWICE, 8 YEARS APART: CLEVELAND (AP) — An Ohio man is thankful for the intervention of a Good Samaritan — the same one who helped him once before, eight years ago.

Gerald Gronowski had a flat tire east of Cleveland recently when a man named Christopher Manacci stopped to help. During the encounter, Gronowski began talking about another stranger eight years before who had helped him pull out a hook that got stuck in his hand while he was fishing.

They then figured out that Manacci was that same man. He had been kayaking nearby.

Gronowski tells The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer that he feels it’s now his job to help someone else.

He also offered to take Manacci fishing, but Manacci says that considering the bad luck Gronowski has had fishing, they should go bowling instead.



• POLICE: DEL. MAN STEALS OWN TRUCK FROM REPAIR SHOP: NEW CASTLE, Del. (AP) — Police in Delaware have arrested a man they say stole his own truck out of a repair shop lot using a front-end loader.

Delaware police say they were called early Friday to the Stop-N-Go in New Castle after a 1999 Chevrolet Silverado pickup went missing. Surveillance tapes showed a front-end loader with fork lifts attached driving away with the vehicle.

The repair shop owner then called the vehicle’s owner, 30-year-old Donald Smith II of Bear. Police said Smith, whose vehicle was being held because he had defaulted on a payment he owed for repairs, called back to say he had taken the truck using a front-end loader.

Troopers spotted Smith operating the front end loader and gave chase. A 35-minute pursuit ended with Smith driving into a retention pond.