Ankeny laundromat burglary

The Ankeny Police Department is looking to the public for help in identifying two suspects involved in a burglary of an Ankeny laundromat overnight.

On 11/27/13 at approximately 5:54 a.m. Ankeny officers responded to The Laundry Place located at 308 S. Ankeny Blvd. after a customer reported seeing damaged security cameras and an open door into the office. Upon arrival to the scene officers found all the security cameras had been forcefully removed from the ceiling and damage to the door into an office area. Officers found the office area to have been ransacked. An undisclosed amount of money was stolen from the office and approximately $3,000.00 worth of damage was done to the interior of the business.

The security cameras were able to record two suspects in the business before they were disabled. The cameras show a Caucasian male suspect in his mid to late 20's wearing a brown colored coat with a hood and denim jeans and another Caucasian male with no description enter the business at approximately 1:15 a.m. Once inside the business the suspects immediately started to disable the security cameras. After the cameras were disabled the suspects entered the office where the money was stolen.

Anyone with information on the identities of the suspects or the suspect shown in the photos is asked to call Det. Nate Lampe at 515.289.5267 or Polk County Crime Stoppers at 515.223.1400.

Veterans hospital employed sex offender

A Des Moines veterans hospital apparently employed a registered sex offender for three years.

The Des Moines Register reports 46-year-old Stanley McGinty of Knoxville has two convictions for lascivious acts with a child as far back as 2007.

McGinty applied for a job three years ago at the hospital in Des Moines that VA Central Iowa Health Care System operates. He mentioned his convictions on his job application, along with his two decades of National Guard service.

The hospital hired McGinty as a housekeeping aide. It fired him in September when administrators learned that sex offenders could not work at care facilities for dependent adults.

Proposal at Festival of Trees

The Festival of Trees Christmas tree lights display was a beautiful background for a marriage proposal the night before Thanksgiving. Joshua Mogle knew his fiancé Barbie Morris's favorite time of year is Christmas, and so he took Barbie to a tree with a Barbie decoration theme where he had hung an ornament that said---Barbie, will you marry me? When she read it and turned around, he was on one knee. She said yes.

Iowa Banks Farm-Friendly

In a report by the American Bankers Association, it turns out that Iowa banks make up 15% of the 100 banks that give the most loans to farmers. United Bank of Iowa is number 15 on the list and it gave more than a million loans and 75% of those were to farmers.

Chuck's Feeds the Needy

The level of need in Des Moines was illustrated by the speed at which Chuck's restaurant, which has been cooking up free meals for their needy neighbors for nearly 30 years, had to cut off meal requests when they reached their limit of 3 thousand and 69. Chuck's continued its turkey tradition despite the death of the owner of the restaurant who passed away from cancer earlier this month.

Retailers Battle Amazon

The stores have been filled in Des Moines from last night through today, but retailers are fighting to keep shoppers from using their stores to try on or scope out gifts and then go home and order them on Amazon.com. Amazon is competing head to head with brick and mortar stores even before Cyber Monday by giving shoppers the option of picking up items at physical locations or adding Sunday delivery.

Accused Iowa Killer Too Sick for Extradition?

This week former University of Iowa Researcher John Bloomfield was officially charged with killing his wife in 1997, after investigators plugged away at the case for 16 years. But now his lawyer says Bloomfield's health is poor and he has suffered serious illnesses. It is not known how his health might affect extradition to Iowa from Minnesota, where he was arrested.