Charla Nash, Sandra Herold and Travis the Chimp

Charla Nash,55, is in critical but stable condition after seven hours of surgery by four teams of surgeons. Charla was the victim of a savage, brutal and unprovoked attack by Travis the chimpanzee, owned by her longtime friend Sandra Herold. According to Dr. Kevin Miller:

Nash's vital signs are improving but that she received extensive injuries to her face and hands. Miller said she is making good, but small, progress after being treated by hand specialists and plastic surgeons, as well as specialists in ophthalmology, orthopedics and trauma.

Charla was attacked by the 14-year-old, 200 pound Travis the chimpanzee, who for no apparent reason, went berserk and jumped Charla as soon as she got out of her car. Her friend, the chimp's owner, Sandra Herold was having trouble controlling Travis and had called Charla to come over and help her.

Upon seeing Travis attack Charla, Sandra frantically called 911, got a knife and rushed to help her friend while still on the phone. She stabbed the chimp several times with the knife and even used a shovel to strike him. Here is the 911 called made by Sandra Herold: Travis can also be heard in the background attacking Charla as the operator stays on the line and Sandra hysterically tries to explain what is going on. She screams:  "The chimp killed my friend", "He ripped her face off", "She's dead, she's dead", "please hurry", "I think I'm going to faint". Read all about it here.

Travis was eventually shot multiple times as he attempted to attack one of the police officer. When it was all over Travis' body was removed from the home and taken to two separate locations: The head was taken to the state lab for a rabies test and the body was taken to the University of Connecticut for an animal autopsy. Stamford police Capt. Richard Conklin said this is standard procedure.

Sandra Herold gave an interview in which she said she thought of the 200-pound chimp as her son. Her house was full of toys that Travis used to play with. She had pictures of him everywhere and even said that he would sleep with her. In the interview she describes the events leading up to Travis being killed by the police and talks about how she felt having to stab him.

Chimp Attacks Woman - Shot by Police

Travis the 200-pound, 14-year-old chimpanzee is dead. He was shot by the police after going berserk and mauling a woman and attacking others, including his owner. It brought a sad and violent end to the famous chimp who starred in TV commercials for Old Navy and Coca-Cola. He even appeared once on the "Maury Povich Show" and took part in a television pilot.

Sandra Herold,70, and her husband Jerome (now deceased) got Travis when he was only three days old. They treated him like their own child. At the time of his death the 14-year-old chimp was toilet trained, dressed himself, took his own bath, ate at the table and drank wine from a stemmed glass. He brushed his teeth using a Water Pik, logged onto the computer to look at pictures, and watched television using the remote control. He even had his own room.

It all began around 3:30 p.m. when Sandra Herold called her friend, Charla Nash, 55, to come and help her with Travis. He had been misbehaving. He had taken the keys to the car and was trying to open car doors, which he apparently did to indicate he wanted to go for a ride. Before Charla arrived Herold was able to coax Travis back into the house.

Travis had had a bout with Lyme disease - which can cause panic attacks, paranoia, personality changes and mood swings in people. Herold gave Travis some tea laced with Xanax, a prescription drug used to treat panic and anxiety disorders, to calm him. However when Charla Nash drove up to the house Travis ran out and began to attack her.

"It was a very serious attack. She suffered a tremendous loss of blood, terrible facial injuries, body injuries and hand injuries," Stamford police Capt. Richard Conklin said.

When Herold saw what was happening, she called 911, grabbed a butcher knife and ran outside to help her friend. Herold had to stab her beloved, longtime pet numerous times in an effort to save her friend who was being brutally mauled by the chimpanzee. Travis ran away and started roaming on Herold's property as police arrived. Officers set up security so medics could reach the critically injured woman lying on the ground.

"The EMS personnel were reluctant to go in (to treat the injured woman) because there was an enraged chimpanzee on the loose," Conklin said.

As Charla Nash was being treated, the chimpanzee returned and went after several of the officers, who retreated into their cars. Travis tried to open the passenger door of a cruiser, smashing the side-view mirror. When he couldn't get it open, the chimp went around to the driver's-side door and opened it. The officer in the cruiser had no choice but to shoot the chimp. Travis, who was shot multiple times in the upper torso, then fled. Officers followed the trail of his blood down the driveway, into the open door of the home, through the house and to his living quarters, a room filled with ropes and a "zoo-like cage". The chimp was already dead when the officers arrived.

"He's been raised almost like a child by this family," Conklin said. "He rides in a car every day, he opens doors, he's a very unique animal in that aspect. We have no indication of what provoked this behavior at all."

The injured woman, Charla Nash, was hospitalized in "very serious" condition at Stamford Hospital. The injuries are "life-changing, if not life-threatening," Mayor Dannel Malloy said. The chimp brutally attacked her face and hands in particular.

Travis's owner, Sandra Herold, 70, is also hospitalized. She may have had a mild heart attack, reported those at the scene but Stamford Hospital is not releasing any information about her condition. Two police officers also suffered injuries.

Homeowner Thwarts Burglars

Patrick Rosario, 32, a recently laid-off employee of Washington Mutual, was alone at home doing some work in the basement. He heard noises coming from upstairs and went to check it out. That was when Rosario realized he was being robbed. He called 911. Then he discovered that the thieves' van was outside, left running, with the keys in the ignition. Well Rosario did the first thing that came to his mind - He stole the van!! He drove it a few blocks away and waited for the police. According to him: "The good guys win for once."

It all began on Tuesday afternoon when the former technology-program manager happened to be in the basement of his three-story home, building a fiberglass part for his stylized car. His wife, Jamie, was at work; his 2-year-old son, Thomas, at day care.

At around 1:35 p.m., Rosario heard what he thought was a knock at the front door. Then — a loud noise. For a second, he thought it might be the Thursday housekeepers, but then he realized it was only Tuesday. He walked up the stairs, peered through a one-inch opening under the door into the main living area, and saw a pair of unfamiliar jeans. Then, a sound he did recognize — the serpentine slap of electric cords against hardwood, as one of his three flat-screen TVs was being hoisted away.

Fortunately the thieves did not hear Rosario. Rosario hurried back downstairs, grabbing a hammer along the way for protection while dialing 911. He ran out the back door towards the front of the house and hid behind a garbage can. The 911 dispatcher was still with him on the phone when Rosario noticed the white Ford Windstar van parked in front of his house. The exhaust fumes were sputtering out of the idling vehicle. Rosario approached the unattended van and:

Against the 911 dispatcher's advice, Rosario announced he was going to take it. What jury in the world was going to convict him, he thought?

He drove up a steep hill away from the house, figuring whoever was ransacking his home wouldn't be able to keep up on foot. He stopped a few blocks away in front of a friend's house and waited for the police.

Meanwhile, back at his home, a passing driver visiting an across-the-street neighbor saw the burglars exit the house. According to the detectives' report, "the males looked back ... and appeared startled." The two fled the house toward busy Southeast Newport Way, leaving a pile of flat-screen TVs by the door, along with Rosario's laptop, game consoles and his wife's jewelry box.

"I kept a pretty cool head," Rosario said. "You never know how you're going to react until you're in that situation."

"I wish I could have seen the look on their faces," Rosario said.

The suspects are still at large. Both are described as approximately 20 years old, about 6 feet tall and 180 pounds. Even as detectives took Rosario's report, the story apparently was making the rounds. Rosario said he received more than a few high-fives from other responding officers.

"Two pulled up, and they looked over at me and go, 'You stole their car — way to go, dude. That's awesome.' Another told me that I just made her month."

King County Sheriff's Department spokesman John Urquhart wouldn't say whether Rosario's actions were advisable. "We expect responsible adults to make their own decisions," he said. "Clearly, this worked in this case, but in another case it might not have."

Patrick Rosario also realizes that he was lucky and things could have turned out much differently. A day earlier and he'd have been napping with his young son. "I would have been trapped in my bedroom," he said.

"I got lucky," Rosario said. "In retrospect, it was pretty stupid."

Naked Man Captured by Police

Bruce D'Amore, 24, wasn't about to reveal his real name to the Tuxedo police. He had a very good reason. He was wanted in at least 6 jurisdictions in New Jersey and had 15 prior arrests, mostly on burglary charges. So, after giving them two other false names, he settled on calling himself Christopher M. DiMarco, 24, of Newark, N.J. The police were not buying it but it took them two days to find out their captive's real name.

In any case D'Amore wasn't going anywhere. He had been captured naked after leading the police in a foot chase through the woods, trying to avoid being arrested for the 32 decks of heroin they had found in his possession.

"He's a career criminal at 24," said Tuxedo police Sgt. Patrick Welsh. "We believe we did thwart a burglary."

D'Amore's troubles with the Tuxedo police began about 9 p.m. when Sgt. Patrick Welsh noticed a suspicious vehicle off Route 17. He stopped to investigate and found a man sleeping in the passenger's seat. Under questioning the man claimed to be lost and didn't know where the driver of the vehicle went. He didn't even know the driver's name. Welsh, using his flashlight to scan the woods, discovered someone trying to hide behind a tree.

By this time another officer, Sgt. John Norton, had arrived. Norton attempted to apprehend the man behind the tree and while trying to handcuff him, the suspect elbowed Norton in the face and started to run.

Welsh grabbed at him, and the man's jacket and sweatshirt came off. Welsh caught and tackled the man, and their momentum carried the pair over the guardrail on Stevens Lane, down an embankment.

As he got up to run away again, the man's sweatpants came off.

"Now we're chasing a naked man through the woods," Welsh said.

Norton caught up to the man, tackled him into a tree and subdued him with pepper spray. They found 32 decks of heroin in the jacket that had come off during the struggle. D'Amore was arrested on assault and drug charges.

Police spent the next two days trying to confirm the identity of D'Amore, who tried unsuccessfully to hang himself in the police department's lockup. He was sent without bail to Orange County Jail. The passenger, David K. Griffin II, of Hackensack, N.J., was charged with trespassing, a violation. Sgt. John Norton was treated for a cut to the face and a strained back.

Police are still not sure exactly how the men ended up on Stevens Lane, but think they might have gotten lost on a trip to or from Port Jervis.

Dead Man Dragged for 20 Miles

Guido Salvador Carabajo-Jara was an Ecuadorian immigrant living in New York City. He had just celebrated his 26th birthday on Tuesday Feb. 10, 2009. He lived with his cousin Felix Jara and his sister Rosa Carabajo.  He had a wife and a 4-year-old daughter back in Ecuador whom he loved very much and would regularly send money to support them. According to another relative, Ignacio Quintero, he was a hard worker whose mission was to provide for his child and save enough money to build a home in Ecuador. Little did anyone know that Wednesday Feb. 11, 2009 would be his last day on earth.

Carabajo-Jara was supposed to meet Felix Jara at 8 a.m. Wednesday to go to work laying tile in Brooklyn. When he didn’t show, his family spent the day looking for him. That very morning about 6:15 a.m. there was a horrible, gruesome accident at the corner of 50th Ave. and 108th Street in the Corona section of Queens in NYC.

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Guido Salvador Carabajo-Jara was crossing the street against the traffic light when he was hit by a black Ford Expedition driven by Gustavo Acosta who, after realizing that he had hit someone, called 911. When the police arrived there was no victim to be found and the SUV had suffered no damage.

At the time of the accident Lituma Sanchez was traveling about two cars behind Acosta, in his 1998 Chevrolet van. Sanchez said he noticed some cars ahead swerving and he thought they were trying to avoid a pothole. He did not see the initial accident. Without knowing it, Sanchez ran over the body, which was facing head up. Under the van is a steel plate known as the skid plate, used to protect the transmission and undercarriage. It was this skid plate that the man's chest got hooked on, dragging him along underneath the van.

Sanchez was travelling to his job in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn where he works as a delivery man. It is a journey of about 20 miles taking the Grand Central Parkway, the Van Wyck Expressway and the Belt Parkway; it takes around an hour to drive. For the entire journey the dead man's body was dragged underneath the van. Sanchez at one point thought there was something wrong with his van and he stopped to check the oil. He never thought of looking under the van which has a low ridge around the wheels for stepping inside, making it difficult to see underneath anyway.

It wasn't until Sanchez was waved down by a pedestrian, who noticed something under the van, that he actually looked to see what it might be. That's when he discovered the body and called 911. When the police arrived they had to jack up the van to get the body out. There was no ID on the body and the only items found were a business card, a Western Union receipt and a broken iPhone.

"You can't imagine the shock I felt" on seeing the corpse, Lituma Sanchez told reporters. "I'm just so nervous and very sad."

The body, although intact, had taken a lot of punishment after being dragged for almost 20 miles. The back of the head was worn through to the scalp, his heels were shorn off and, along with his clothes, several layers of skin on his legs and buttocks were worn off.

Police retraced the van’s route and recovered a blue jacket believed to have belonged to the victim. Grisly surveillance video showed the body disappearing, swept underneath the van moments after being hit by the SUV.

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"The van comes and rides right over the body and as it goes by there's no body there," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. "The body was basically fish-hooked by the plate."

It wasn't until around 11 p.m. that night that the police were able to locate the man's family. The next day, Thursday, his sister, Rosa Carabajo, and his cousin Felix Jara went to the hospital morgue to identify the body of Guido Salvador Carabajo-Jara.

"He was an excellent person, very easygoing, very happy," Jara said in Spanish. "I was in shock. We don't know how this could have happened. I didn't believe it until I saw his saw his face."

"Everyone is crying, especially in my country," Jara said. "Everyone is going crazy."

An autopsy found that Carabajo-Jara died from multiple blunt-impact injuries, medical examiner spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said Thursday. It hadn't been determined whether he died before the van started dragging him.

"The family is destroyed," Quintero said in Spanish. "They are in a lot of pain."

Police said the gruesome episode was accidental and they have no plans to charge the drivers at this time. Both men have clean driving records.