Johnny has been looking for a time to slot this story in

It's from last week but still and all, historical stories are always good anytime. Singer sewing machines, every family had one, right? Johnny's mom sure did, so did his grandma. He remembers learning to work it and do some light sewing because Johnny knew in 7th and 8th grade one quarter was Shop class, one was Home Ec and two were gym. Johnny was a right fine jock so gym was never an issue. Shop class was. Johnny is not now nor has he ever been mechanically inclined. He avoided shop class at all costs. In 7th grade he purchased finished extra projects from Bill Bettis and Tom Reyes to even pass. He liked Home Ec and was more than willing to suffer the barbs and arrows of middle school boys harassing Johnny for choosing a "girls class." Johnny's love of cooking comes from those days. He already had a leg up on many because his mom had a Singer sewing machine.

Seriously Johnny, where is this going...

The Singer Sewing Machine Company was located in Elizabeth for it's entire 109 year run and in 1870's it employed the most employees at one company in the world at the time. C'mon, before you click take a guess, how many people did the Singer Co. employ in the 1870's?
A) 800
B) 2500
C) 4000
D) 6000

The article is filled with great nuggets of info from a long gone era Johnny thinks you'll find interesting.

Alex, I'll take remedial kidnapping for $200

The answer is: These three remedial Jersey City kidnappers were caught standing around waiting for their victim to come out of the house when police arrived.

Alex, who are Johncarlos Drouet, Joseph L. Caruso and the victim's girlfriend, Nancy Carrion?

That's right, you control the board go again...

Kidnapping, it's no joke really but the kidnappers in this story are soooooo very very dim we had to point them out. Let's set the stage. The victim was babysitting Carrion's 4 year old son Saturday around 9pm. Carrion entered her place around 9 with the other two remedials. Drouet allegedly sucker punched the victim and he dropped. After he dropped he was set upon by the three who punched and kicked him while he was prone. Carrion was so incensed by some supposed DVD's the babysitter had of hers she was planning on using a hammer on the victim until she was stopped by one of the other kidnappers. That's right, this is where the kidnapping part comes in.

After they had stripped the victim and stolen his phone and money he was told to get into Caruso's pickup. The three men then drove to the victim's apartment in Elizabeth. They let him go inside his apartment with SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS NOT TO CALL THE POLICE OR THEY WOULD BE ANGRY. So the victim went inside and promptly called 911 and Droulet and Caruso were waiting right outside wrapped up almost in a big Christmas bow for Elizabeth police.

How stupid of a kidnapper are you if you let the victim head inside their home alone while you wait outside? A remedial one is our best guess.

Carrion, Droulet and Caruso have all been charged with aggravated assault, robbery and kidnapping charges while Droulet and Caruso apparently also had drugs on them when pinched outside the victim's home.

Late night open thread--UPDATED

Anybody catch the SyFy series Ghost Hunters tonight? They were out in Elizabeth at the Union County courthouse. They were there to look for the ghost of Hannah Caldwell and in what could only be called the holy grail of ghost hunting (something Johnny does himself from time to time), they did indeed catch a full bodied apparition in the records room. If you wanna see it tonight the episode will repeat at 11 pm on SyFy, channel 226 on digital cable.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

UPDATE
Here's the video of the apparition