SFist Blotter

Remember that bad neighbor dude Bob Bertone in Visitacion Valley who terrorized his neighborhood with loud music, mysterious gunshots, explosions, and lots of junk in his yard? Well, his house caught on fire Wednesday when his water heater ignited a bucket of gasoline that was sitting too close by. The neighbors did a pretty good job of not looking too smirky as they were interviewed. Incidentally, Bertone ran for the Board of Supes in 2000 (for District 10) but lost, and this is the second fire at the location.

Ohmeed Popal, the man who ran over all those people in his SUV, tried to commit suicide in his jail cell yesterday. Deputies intervened, and he's being checked back into the hospital for a mental evaluation.

A newlywed couple has been found safe after getting lost hiking in the Santa Cruz mountains over Thanksgiving weekend. They had locked their cell phones and coats in their car before heading out, and we all know it's been pretty cold recently. They're reported to be fine, just tired and hungry. A search team of several dozen people and five dogs located them at the bottom of a ravine where lost hikers tend to end up, and it took four hours, ropes, a helicopter, and a stretcher to get them out.

Someone's stealing clothes out of the laundry room of a Stanford dorm. Two conclusions: Stanford students wear a lot of Express clothes, and also, the comments that follow the story are excellent. "Express is not 'expensive clothing,' or even nice clothing. I say they are better off for not having those clothes," and "[That student] probably doesn't realize that some little boy or girl from the far east made his 350 dollars worth of Nike apparrel [sic] for 10 cents an hour," are some, but by no means all, of the commentary that follows.