The Indiana State Police are looking for your help to solve the theft of items from an unmarked  police vehicle over the weekend in Columbus, including a shotgun and cash.

Troopers report that the vehicle was in the parking lot of the Clarion Hotel on the west side of Columbus on Saturday, between 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., when it was broken into. Police say several items are missing including the Remington 12-gauge shotgun, a Dell laptop computer and an undisclosed amount of cash.

Police say that a witness saw blue minivan with a silver grill parked next to the police vehicle around the time of the theft.

If you have any information, you should contact state police Detective Andrew Mitchell, at 812-689-5000. You can remain anonymous.

The Indiana Attorney General’s office is offering ways to protect yourself and your loved ones, from scams.

Those include in-person scams like fake contractors or salesmen, online scams like lottery wins and phone scams such as fake threats from the Internal Revenue Service..

Amy Artis, outreach services specialist with the consumer division of the AG’s office, says there are ways to protect yourself.

“I often say, ‘It might be a scam, if…” Artis said. “It might be a scam if it seems too good, or too bad, to be true. Too good to be (true) is you have won $5.7 million dollars in a sweepstakes you have never entered, is too good to be true. Too bad to be true is that you owe a bunch of back taxes when you have always paid your taxes on time.

Artis said scammers often use high-pressure tactics on a tight deadline. She offered examples:

“‘You have to act right now. This deal is only good while we are in the phone. I am coming to the neighborhood and I have some extra supplies (or) I can cut your trees, but you have to decide right now,'” Artis said.

“So there is that pressure to make the decision immediately.”

And there is frequently a demand from scammers for money up front. For example, a caller saying you won the lottery but first you must pay taxes, or that a loved one has been injured and money must be sent before they can bet treated.

Artis spoke recently in Hope at the community health fair hosted by the Hope United Methodist Church.

The former Volunteers in Medicine clinic will be holding an open house today to show off their new space in Columbus Regional Hospital. Kelsey DeClue, spokeswoman for the hospital, explains the move.

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DeClue said one major change people will see is the addition of a new walkway or gallery that will connect the new clinic with the rest of the hospital along 17th Street. Previously, there was no direct way to navigate from inside the hospital to the old emergency room.

The clinic is set to open early next month. The open house will be from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. today at the hospital.

Greenwood police believe they stopped an attempt at domestic terrorism earlier this month.

The Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office says Christopher C. Byrne, 31, of Indianapolis, was pulled over in Greenwood Aug. 15, after officer Eric McElhaney spotted him driving suspiciously near Greenwood Park Mall. There had been several car break-ins there.

Our news-gathering partners at Network Indiana report that  Byrne refused to show the officer his ID, saying he was a “sovereign national”, said the police report. That’s when Byrne was ID’d as a habitual traffic violator and was arrested.

Officers searched his car and found bottles filled with bleach and ammonia, a rifle with a scope and 100 rounds of ammo in his car, Network Indiana reports. Bleach and ammonia are dangerous when put together, releasing a toxic gas.

Byrne had a history with officers, according to the prosecutor. He was convicted in 2015 of stealing guns and other police equipment from the Greenwood PD, including an AR-15 rifle that was stolen out of a police car. That car was set on fire outside the officer’s home.

Byrne was also facing trial Aug. 23, but pleaded guilty to carrying a handgun without a license and being a habitual traffic violator. He could get a six-year sentence on those charges.

Now prosecutors are looking into whether additional charges could be added for the latest incident.

An Indiana State Police chase ended yesterday morning after a motorcyclist crashed on Grandview Drive in Bartholomew County.

According to police reports, the chase started on Interstate 65 at about 1:30 a.m. near the Columbus exit, when a trooper saw a motorcycle driving at about 90 miles per hour, says Sgt. Stephen Wheeles, spokesman for the state police. The biker got off the interstate at Walesboro and fled on county roads before the crash.

The driver, 24-year-old Kevin A. Demott of Lansing, Mich. was taken to Columbus Regional Hospital for treatment before being arrested on preliminary charges of possession of a handgun by a serious violent felon, resisting law enforcement, operating while intoxicated, and reckless driving.

The Bartholomew County Council is back in budget talks Tuesday afternoon. County Commissioners are expected to take part in that meeting after council members asked them on Friday to take steps to help shore-up next year’s budget, including transferring money out of the CEDIT fund, which is used to take care of county roads. Commissioners met Monday morning to discuss the request. Larry Kleinhenz wasn’t pleased…

Commissioners noted that it takes one-million-dollars to pave 17 miles of county roads. Commissioner Carl Lienhoop stressed that the county needs to spend approximately $2.1 million each year to maintain the correct amount of roads to keep from falling behind and allowing the roads to fall into disrepair.

Kleinhenz says that the council has to do something to get its budget under control, noting the clear distinctions between the duties of the council and those of the commissioners…

President Rick Flohr says the Commissioners just recently gave up several hundred-thousand dollars…

The commissioners were also asked by the council to set aside more that 550-thousand dollars for radios and body cameras for the Sheriff’s Department. The council asked for the money to come out of the Telecommunication Fund, which is controlled by the commissioners. Kleinhenz says that public safety is paid for out of property taxes…

Tuesday’s meeting begins at 5 p.m. on the fourth floor of the county government building. You’re invited.

Camp Atterbury is planning to open a new health and resilience center on the base, for service members and veterans to recover from injuries and other trauma and to transition out of the service.

Maj. General Courtney Carr, adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard, explains the purpose of a resilience center.

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He said the resilience campus will include chaplains, substance abuse counseling, employment, retirement services, career retention and recruiting in a one-stop shop.

Camp Atterbury began working to get a wellness and resilience center when there were only about 20 across the service. Carr said there will be more than 35 when Atterbury’s opens, but it will the first at a reserve or National Guard facility.

Everything is on track to open the new center in October, Carr says. The base’s staff are working on the renovations now and two of five expected hires have already been made, Carr said.

A grand opening is set for Oct. 1st.

Two people were arrested Sunday after a police sting of an online sale of stolen goods in North Vernon.

North Vernon officers report that they were contacted Sunday afternoon about a case where a generator, worth about $2,000, had been stolen from a business. Soon after the theft, the same generator showed up for sale at an online sales site for $300.

Officer Matt Staples worked with an employee of the owners to arrange a meeting and arrested 30-year-old Cori Fortner of North Vernon and 35-year-old Nathaniel Clement of Columbus on preliminary charges of theft.

An Indiana State Police trooper was seriously injured in a crash Friday night on Interstate 65 near Crothersville.

Trooper Michael Thiron  was responding to a crash  at about 9 p.m. where a vehicle had struck the cable barrier in the median of the highway. As he switched lanes, with his emergency lights activated, Thiron’s police car was hit by a semi-trailer driven by 30-year-old Patrick Gregory of Indianapolis, according to reports from Sgt. Stephen Wheeles, ISP spokesman. The police car was spun about and pushed into the cable barrier.

Thiron was taken to Schneck Medical Center with possible head injuries and was released Friday night. Gregory was uninjured.

Traffic was slowed in the area for about two hours.

The crash remains under investigation.

Update: Both kayakers were found safe at about 8:15 a.m. Sunday.

Jennings County authorities are searching for two kayakers, missing on the Muscatatuck River since Saturday evening.

The sheriff’s department reports that it is searching for 25-year-old Levi M. Easler of Butlerville and 25-year-old Audrey M. Adams of North Vernon. Rescuers suspended the search at about 4:16 a.m. and were scheduled to begin searching again at 7 a.m.

According to police reports, four kayakers entered the Muscatatuck River near Butlerville at about 5 p.m. But two of them became separated near Vernon. The remaining two got out of the river near Vernon Cemetery and called for help at about 10:52 p.m.

An incident command post was set up at the Vernon Commons just after 1 a.m. and members of all Jennings County fire departments joined in the search. Teams searched east and west of Vernon for about three hours.

Also assisting in the search were Indiana DNR Conservation Officers, and Bartholomew County’s Swift Water Rescue Team who provided an air-boat.

Six teams went out to search the area of the Muscatatuck River east and west of Vernon for approximately three hours.

Anyone with any information is urged to call the Jennings County Dispatch Center at (812) 346-4911.