Author: CNN Newsource

By WDJT News Staff

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    MILWAUKEE (WDJT) — Milwaukee police are investigating a second instance of a possible unauthorized use of the Flock license plate tracking system, the department’s chief of staff acknowledged during a Fire and Police Commission meeting.

The chief of staff said a pending investigation is underway but declined to provide further details.

The disclosure came as commissioners asked whether any findings had been made about officers using the system outside of active cases. The review follows a separate case in which former Milwaukee police officer Josue Ayala was accused of improperly using Flock to search for an ex-girlfriend.

Milwaukee police defended the technology during the Thursday, May 7 meeting. MPD Chief of Staff Heather Hough said about the trackers, “Used correctly, they are a valuable tool, and this department will not back away from that position because we really believe in it.”

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Carson Zorn

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    CAPE CORAL, Florida (WBBH) — A Cape Coral man was arrested on May 14 after being accused of stealing jewelry from a house he was hired to clean.

According to the Cape Coral Police Department arrest report, the theft was first reported on March 30. Officers responded to the victim’s home, where she told them she employed a house cleaner, identified as Donald Claybaugh, 59.

The victim said that she keeps several pieces of jewelry in a jewelry box on her nightstand, and discovered that multiple pieces of jewelry were missing, specifically two gold diamond rings valued at $500, the report said.

The victim told officers she believed Claybaugh may have taken her jewelry when he last cleaned her house on March 12.

On April 6, the victim went to the CCPD headquarters and told officers she had located her stolen jewelry at a pawn shop, the report said. She then told officers that Claybaugh admitted over the phone to her that he had stolen her jewelry.

Officers visited Larry’s Estate Jewelry and Pawn Shop on Cape Coral Parkway East and seized seven pawn slips on April 9. The pawn slips detailed transactions spanning from August 2025 to March 2026, with the value of items ranging from $40 to $500, the report said. Officers determined six of the seven slips to be related to the theft.

On May 12, a forensics investigator positively identified Claybaugh’s fingerprints on the seized pawn slips, the report said.

On May 14, officers responded to Claybaugh’s residence, where they first spoke to Claybaugh’s roommate, CCPD said. The roommate told officers Claybaugh had said he “[expletive] up” and had taken jewelry from a customer’s house.

Officers then interviewed Claybaugh, who confessed to stealing and pawning the jewelry, the report said.

Claybaugh was arrested and faces charges of grand theft and dealing in stolen property.

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By Derek James

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    Minnesota (WCCO) — At a hangar in St. Paul, Minnesota, engineers at Momentum Aeronautics are building Heatwave, a new generation scooping float system designed to make one of firefighting aviation’s most dangerous jobs safer.

“Every pilot who’s flown airplanes always has a story of how they got somewhere they didn’t want to be and they just barely got out of it. And they never want to put themselves there again,” said Dan Garrett, president of Momentum Aeronautics.

The floats are mounted on Air Tractor firefighting aircraft.

“(The) scoop opens, creating a place for the water to come in. As the water comes in, it goes through a tube, comes out this and goes straight into the tank,” explained Garrett.

Aaron Vince is chief pilot at Coastal Air Strike, which flies the aircraft on wildfire missions under contract with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. He says the redesigned scoop system gives pilots smoother handling on the water.

“It scoops a lot faster, but the safety factor with the way the scoop is designed versus the other scoop system is just a lot more manageable,” said Vince.

Each run can pull in up to 800 gallons of water in seconds at speeds of 90 miles per hour.

“As the aircraft lands, it’s as light as it’s going to be. Then it takes on an extra 6,000 pounds of water and then it has to accelerate and get back off the water,” said Garrett.

For Garrett, seeing the Minnesota-made system now fighting real fires is the payoff.

“Having an opportunity to see something that you dreamed up on a whiteboard, you drew up on a computer screen, actually come to life and be used in the real world is pretty, pretty valuable,” said Garrett.

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By Ashley Grams

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    Minnesota (WCCO) — Several municipalities in the Twin Cities metro area are considering a program that would make drones first responders, essentially sending a camera in the sky to 911 calls ahead of police and firefighters.

The Edina Police Department just concluded a two-week trial period and the Bloomington Police Department started testing drones soon after.

“[The drones] can go out there and be there before we have to put actual humans on the ground,” said Damon Bitney, Bloomington’s assistant police chief.

Bitney sees this technology as a way to keep first responders safer, while improving response times and tracking down suspects.

“If we don’t have to send cars, that means that’s less cars that are going lights and sirens to calls,” Bitney said. “It also means that if someone’s trying to hide or do something, or there’s a significant incident, that we can have, hopefully, have eyes on to see where those people might be.”

While the drones are in the air responding, police officers are monitoring the camera feed and location from the station. It allows them to send out real-time information and, Bitney hopes, to deploy resources more effectively.

Sgt. Jason Behr from the Edina Police Department said speed is also a metric his officers are taking a closer look at.

“When you call 911, you wanted them there five minutes ago, not 10 minutes from now,” Behr said. “If you can get somebody there faster and provide that overwatch and that insight to the officers, it just helps with public safety.”

Behr said over two weeks, the drones responded to a few dozen calls, including assault, theft and a medical emergency.

The drone program is already in place at the Minnetonka Police Department. Since August, police there have logged over 600 flights. A spokesperson for the city said drones were first to the scene 68% of the time and police cleared 18% of calls without sending officers. The program costs about $260,000 a year to operate.

The City of Minneapolis is also considering piloting a similar drone program. During a council committee meeting last week, several council members raised issues with privacy and unnecessary surveillance.

Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw is backing the pilot program and, during the meeting, praised the way drones could cut down on response times in her district.

“We looked at the Drones as First Responders (DFR) program previously and set it aside due to cost and staffing considerations but given the success we’re seeing in other communities and the rapid advancement of the technology, we believe it’s time to take another serious look,” said Brian Feintech, a spokesperson for the city’s Office of Community Safety.

Minnesota law does lay out when law enforcement is authorized to use drones, specifically when there’s danger to the public, disaster response, and searches for missing people, among others. Drone flights must be documented.

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By Adam Harrington, Charlie De Mar

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — A Chicago man is facing multiple charges for several bizarre and disturbing allegations, accused of posing as an art student and asking women to pose topless for a school project, and sexually abusing some of those women.

Gabriel Wilkins, 41, is charged with criminal sexual abuse and public indecency. He is also charged with flashing on the CTA Brown Line. He was ordered detained until trial in Cook County Criminal Court at his first court appearance last week.

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said they are investigating six similar cases of Wilkins posing as an art student in order to sexually abuse unsuspecting women.

Prosecutors said TikTok videos accusing Wilkins of trying to scam women into posing topless and groping them convinced several women to come forward and report that they, too, had been abused.

On July 5, 2025, two women, ages 21 and 28, were out drinking on North Halsted Street when Wilkins came up to them outside and introduced himself as “David,” according to prosecutors Wilkins did not know the women, prosecutors said.

Wilkins told the young women he was an art student who needed help with a photography project, prosecutors said. He asked if he could take pictures of the 28-year-old woman’s breasts, and the woman agreed, prosecutors said.

Wilkins moved the two women away from the street under the guise of giving the 28-year-old woman privacy, prosecutors said. He went on to take several pictures of the woman’s breasts, claiming he was not capturing her face, prosecutors said.

Wilkins then asked the younger woman to use her phone to take photos of him together with the 28-year-old woman, prosecutors said. The 28-year-old woman backed away as Wilkins approached prosecutors said, and then he exposed himself and sexually abused her.

The woman’s friend grabbed her and the two of them ran to the nearby CTA Red Line to escape and texted a friend about the assault, prosecutors said.

The victim in the case did not report the incident until Jan. 17, 2026, six months later, after finding out through a TikTok video about more women who had been similarly victimized, prosecutors said. The woman contacted other victims, and found photos of Wilkins in online threads, prosecutors said.

The woman learned Wilkins’ name from a neighbor in his building whom Wilkins with whom similarly tried to make contact, prosecutors said.

Wilkins is also charged in an additional case for which a community alert was recently issued. Prosecutors said on April 13, he was on a Chicago Transit Authority Brown Line train seated across from a woman, who saw him take out his phone and begin recording her on video while performing a lewd act.

He got off the train at the Fullerton stop, and the woman reported the incident to police the same day, prosecutors said.

Both victims identified Wilkins in a photo array, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said there are six other active investigations and similar incidents, though Wilkins has not been charged in any of them yet. They accusations also involve sexual abuse and photographing women’s naked breasts, and occurred between August 2025 and January 2026. In one reported incident, a woman accused Wilkins of hitting her and refusing to stop during a previously consensual sexual encounter, prosecutors said.

Most of the women reported the incidents in January of this year, though one other reported the incident the same day, prosecutors said. It was not immediately clear if and when more charges would be filed.

Another woman, who has asked to remain anonymous, told CBS News Chicago that, during Pride Month last June, Wilkins approached her and convinced her to pose for him on North Halsted Street.

“He told us that he was working on a project for the Art Institute,” she said. “Had I had not been, you know, having a fun night drinking, I don’t think I would have been, you know, so up for the task.”

She did not file a police report, and Wilkins has not been charged in connection with her allegations, but she said she also learned of other victims from social media.

“When I came across the social media posts, I was like, ‘Okay, wow, this has been going on for a while. This guy’s just been getting away with it,'” she said.

Prosecutors said Wilkins has no prior arrests, but the six open investigations could lead to additional charges.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.