From Cincinnati.com, via Don S. comes a tale that is, well, awesome. Let’s go (bold is ours):

An 89-year-old woman arrested for not giving neighborhood children their football back after it landed repeatedly in her yard said today she’ll return the ball.

But not right away.

“That’s my only way of getting through to these children,” Edna Jester said. “I’ll give it back to them later, but not right now.”

Jester was arrested and charged with petty theft after she took the ball and refused to give it back, Blue Ash police said. Word of her arrest has touched off national news interest in the case.

Officers were called about 6:30 p.m. Thursday to her home in the 4900 block of Myrtle Avenue by one of the children’s fathers, Blue Ash Police Capt. James Schaffer said.

The football apparently was thrown into Jester’s yard, and it wasn’t the first time, he said. The issue has been an ongoing dispute in the neighborhood, he said.

When police asked Jester to return the ball to the children, she refused. They warned her twice she would be charged if she did not cooperate, Schaffer said. They tried to give her a citation, but she refused to sign for it, he said.

Left with no other choice, he said, officers placed her in the back of a cruiser, took her to the police station and booked her, he said. Schaffer said Jester told police to handcuff her but they refused.

Jester was cited to appear in Blue Ash Mayor’s Court Nov. 12 and released from custody.

Commenting on her arrest, Jester said, “It was a terrible ordeal. Terrible.”

The football, valued at $15, is being held for evidence, Schaffer said.

Blue Ash police are expected to cross outside their jurisdiction in another football related case to investigate allegations that the Vikings committed “crimes against special teams.”

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