• No one on ballot for mayor, council in NC town
SPENCER MOUNTAIN, N.C. (AP) — Who’s on the ballot in a tiny North Carolina mill village? This year, no one.
The Charlotte Observer reports that no one has filed to run for mayor or any of the three town council seats in Spencer Mountain in Gaston County.
The incumbents say the filing deadline just sneaked up on them, but they have a solution: They’ll just show up at the polls and write in each other’s names.
Gaston County Elections Director Frances Pinion says it’s not unusual for no candidates to file in small communities like this one.
Write-ins usually solve the problem, but Pinion says Spencer Mountain’s charter keeps incumbents in office until new officials are elected, so the seats won’t be empty.
There are 29 registered voters in Spencer Mountain.
• Lost keys lead NJ police to burglary suspects
PATERSON, N.J. (AP) — Police in northern New Jersey nabbed three alleged burglars who fled an apartment with just $2 in change and left behind the keys to their getaway car.
Authorities say the gun-toting men entered an apartment in Paterson early Friday, expecting to find loads of money.
Realizing they targeted the wrong residence after they woke up a man who then fought with them, the men fled with just a 3-foot, beer bottle-shaped piggy bank containing the coins.
Police soon arrived. After finding the keys in a bedroom, they used the car alarm to locate a deserted vehicle in a nearby parking lot. Its registration led them to the alleged robbers, who were sitting in a taxi outside one suspect’s home.
The three men face robbery, burglary and weapons charges.
