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Jeffrey “Roofman” Manchester, 33, was finally recaptured in January after six inspired months on the lam in Charlotte, North Carolina. Described by police as intelligent, athletic, and unfailingly polite, Manchester, who got his nickname from a cross-country series of ceiling-entry burglaries, escaped from a nearby prison and took up residence in a cubbyhole in a Toys “R” Us bike display. He later built a hidden passageway to a room he constructed under a stairwell at an abandoned Circuit City next door, which he decorated with posters, toys, a small basketball hoop, and a rocking chair and outfitted with a baby video monitor that allowed him to keep an eye on store employees. Manchester volunteered extensively at a local church, distributing apparently stolen toys to needy families, and won the hearts of pastor and congregation alike, but a parishioner who became his girlfriend eventually helped police capture him. Said one officer, “We can learn a lot from him.”
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In January city workers in Nairobi gave the Wakulima Market, Kenya’s largest fresh-food market, its first thorough cleaning in 30 years: they removed an estimated 800 tons of garbage and 70 tons of human waste and killed about 6,000 rats. Also in January Cleveland paralegal Austin Aitken filed a $2.5 million lawsuit against NBC, claiming that an episode of Fear Factor in which contestants ate dead rats caused him to vomit, become dizzy, and hit his head as he ran from the room in disgust.
