BURLINGTON, Vt.

City-owned utility will pay $1.5 million for billing errors

Officials with the Burlington Electric Department say the utility owes the city about $1.5 million after discovering two major billing problems.

Neale Lunderville, interim general manager, and Mayor Miro Weinberger outlined the errors Friday.

The Burlington Free Press reported that the billing errors took place over at least a decade and also affected the University of Vermont and the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center.

The city-owned utility said residential and small commercial customers were not affected.

An analyst has found that BED double-billed the city for some street lights. The utility will pay the city $1.46 million from operating fund reserves.

BARNSTABLE, Mass.

Two men charged when plot to scare stranger is thwarted

Two Cape Cod men planning a prank on a stranger by springing from a box in a scary mask were thwarted by an alert off-duty police officer and are now facing charges.

Barnstable police said the officer spotted the men stealing through his yard just before 6 p.m. Thursday on the way to a neighbor’s house. One man, dressed in black, was wearing a “freaky clown mask” with blood and scars. The other was carrying the box.

The masked man hid in the box while the other man hid in the bushes with a video camera.

The Cape Cod Times reported that the officer intervened. The men told him they were going to scare a stranger and post the video on YouTube.

They were charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing.

BROCKTON, Mass.

Suspect in police chase crashes, uses girl as shield

Police say a Brockton man led police on a car chase through four towns with his 3-year-old daughter in the vehicle, crashed his car, used the little girl as a shield, then dropped her and tried to run away.

Kenton Wright Jr. was held on $15,000 bail after pleading not guilty Thursday to charges including reckless endangerment of a child, failure to stop for a police officer and drug possession.

The chase started at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday when the 30-year-old Wright allegedly fled a traffic stop in Holbrook. The chase went through Weymouth and Abington before the car crashed into a utility pole in Brockton.

QUINCY, Mass.

‘Transformers’ car owner gets charge dismissed

A Massachusetts man charged with impersonating a police officer for driving a Maserati that resembled a police cruiser is off the hook.

The Patriot Ledger reported that a clerk magistrate in Quincy District Court on Thursday dismissed the charge, saying 23-year-old Zhang Zhijun of Braintree hadn’t taken any actions such as pulling over other drivers or pretending to be an officer.

Zhijun was cited Aug. 9 when police pulled him over. He wasn’t arrested.

He had decorated his luxury Italian car to look like the character Barricade from the “Transformers” movies. It was painted black and white with a police-style shield on the doors, and police-related decals. The shield was accompanied by the phrase “Decepticons punish and enslave,” from the movie. The car did not have flashing blue lights.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.

Offshore wind farm gets final OK from Army Corps

A wind farm planned off Block Island has been given the final OK by the federal government.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the lead federal permitting agency for the project. Deepwater Wind said Friday the agency approved the Block Island Wind Farm and the project is now fully permitted. Nine state and federal agencies reviewed it.

— From news service reports