Weird Iowa: Captain Save a Ho Arrested, Purse-Snatching Romeo, and 500 Pot Plants Means Prison

This guy gets credit for moxie after he reportedly snatched a woman's purse at a West Des Moines mall, but “felt something strong,” according to his post on Craigslist, a free online classified ad site. He thought she did, too, so he jumped online to ask for a date. She can have her purse back, he continued, but not the $34 that was in it.

Ames area residents had a chance to lay their eyes on what may be some of the last Edsels in the country when the International Edsel Club held its annual national car show in town. Ford made the Edsel for three model years: 1958, 1959 and 1960 before scrapping the line when they wouldn't sell.

This week's weird bits from police files starts with a Johnston man arrested with more than 500 pot plants in his house. Timothy Michael Lantz, who lived at 7323 Longboat Drive in Johnston when federal authorities arrested him in September 2012, was recently sentenced to spend just over a year in prison for running a marijuana-growing operation.

In Urbandale, authorities plan to file charges against a woman who crashed her SUV into a duplex in the 6900 block of Urbandale Avenue. The woman had been helped out of the vehicle by neighbors, and was taken to the hospital with head and chest injuries. Authorities said the woman drove across three yards, knocking over small trees, before crashing into the house.