This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
When Bonnie Cougham stopped into Night Flight Comics on 400 South near the Salt Lake City Main Library on her way to the Utah Arts Festival on Sunday, she had no idea she was in for a surreal "Hotel California" experience where she could ''never leave.''
Cougham and a friend were admiring the store's "Simpsons Bust-Ups," small mystery boxes containing plastic characters from the television show "The Simpsons," when she flipped a box lid, breaking the tape that sealed the box. She says the tape clearly had been broken before, but manager Mimi Cruz told her she had damaged the product and had to pay the $6.99 price.
She refused, so Cruz locked the door and dialed 911. Another man stood in front of the door with arms folded so Cougham and her friend couldn't leave.
Salt Lake City police officer Todd Hyatt arrived nearly 50 minutes later and wrote a police report, but told Cruz she had to let Cougham go without paying.
Cruz says breaking the seal makes it so the store can't sell the product, because the whole idea is that it is a surprise. Each box contains different characters.
Cougham has filed a complaint with the Salt Lake City Prosecutors Office, which is screening it to determine whether the store manager should be charged with unlawful detention.
More honors: Ogden police officer Kenneth Hammond was named outstanding law enforcement officer of the year by International Footprinters during the association's annual convention in Seattle last week.
Hammond is the off-duty cop who in February left the restaurant where he was dining to hold off a man shooting randomly at Trolley Square until a Salt Lake City SWAT team took down the killer.
The Salt Lake City chapter, formally named Antelope Island Chapter No. 3, was named the Footprinters' most outstanding local chapter in the nation.
Utah humor: The pilot on Southwest Airlines Flight 1606, which carried a number of Utahns returning Monday from Sunday's Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco, was on a roll.
"Welcome to Salt Lake City, land of the all-night party - if you have a membership," he said. Also, "if it happens in Salt Lake City, it never really happened."
Pre-emptive strike: If you notice the sprinklers at the Salt Lake City-County Building running throughout the day for the next week, don't bother to complain. The city already outed itself.
A news release from Nikki Brown, the Public Services Department's communications manager, says that because of high temperatures and heavy foot traffic from recent festivals, the grounds need to be kept moist to revitalize the lawn.
Exposed once and for all: Lexie Pollock says a man approached her Monday in the drive-through lane at the McDonald's at 2100 South and 2300 East, claiming he was not familiar with the area, had no money and had to get to St. George.
When she told him she read about the same scam in my column that morning, he quickly left. prolly@sltrib.com