Return to Sender? Stolen Elvis bust is back in bar
WEST PEORIA, ILL. (AP) » The King of Rock n’ Roll is back in the building.
An Elvis Presley bust that was swiped from a central Illinois bar has been returned after the story of its theft attracted international attention.
Employees at Jimmy’s Bar found the missing bust Thursday night sitting on a porch outside the West Peoria saloon, the Peoria Journal Star reported. The theft had been discovered Sunday morning.
“He’s back!” pub owner Jimmy Spears said early Friday, attributing the bust’s return to the widespread attention its theft had attracted. On Wednesday, the bar’s Facebook page had made an appeal for its return: “No questions asked.”
Spears said he was considering ways to improve security for the bust, but for now it’s back in its familiar position overlooking the saloon and greeting customers from atop the center of its long bar.
Spears, the bar’s owner for 39 years, said his niece bought the bust about 15 years ago at a garage sale for $20, and it soon became the business’ bar-top mascot.
Rapper Fetty Wap arrested on federal drug charges
NEW YORK (AP) » The rapper Fetty Wap was charged on Friday with participating in a conspiracy to smuggle large amounts of heroin, fentanyl and other drugs into the New York City region.
The rapper, whose real name is Willie Maxwell, was arrested Thursday at Citi Field, where the threeday Rolling Loud hip-hop music festival is taking place. An indictment unsealed on Friday named Maxwell and five other defendants, including a New Jersey corrections officer.
“The fact that we arrested a chart-topping rap artist and a corrections officer as part of the conspiracy illustrates just how vile the drug trade has become,” Michael J. Driscoll, a top official with the FBI’s New York office, said in a statement.
The indictment charges Maxwell and his co-defendants with conspiracy to possess and distribute more than 220 pounds of heroin, fentanyl and crack cocaine between June 2019 and June 2020. The scheme involved using the Postal Service and cars with hidden compartments to move the narcotics from the West Coast to Long Island, where they were stored for distribution to dealers in Long Island and New Jersey, authorities said.
Maxwell, 30, rose to prominence after his debut single “Trap Queen” reached No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in May 2015.
He has had other brushes with the law, including a 2019 arrest in Las Vegas for allegedly assaulting three employees at a hotel-casino.
In June 2021, Maxwell’s 4-year-old daughter, Lauren, died.