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News From Silicon Valley's Neighborhoods Car Trouble Campbell--Witnesses of an incident on Aug. 27 at Home Depot told police they thought a man was intentionally trying to run his wife over with a car, but the whole thing turned out to be just a bizarre accident. When the 55-year-old driver couldn't stop backing up and hitting parked cars, his wife exited the car to inspect the damage. But when he backed up again, the man hit his wife, pinning her against a parked car. The woman sustained a broken leg and was taken to a hospital for treatment. Her husband was taken in for questioning, but police needed an interpreter since the couple didn't speak English. Police discovered that the Mercury Tracer had a slight reverse problem. Dirty Druggist Los Gatos--A Los Gatos man, arrested in March, has pled guilty to attempted rape and will be sentenced to five years in a state prison. Results from DNA tests led Roger Thomas, 37, to reverse his statements that he did not have sex with the 25-year-old victim he met at Mountain Charley's bar. Investigators originally suspected that Thomas had used a "date rape" drug such as gammahydroxybutyrate--known as GHB, "liquid ecstasy," or "liquid X"--on the victim. Lab tests, however, failed to turn up evidence of the odorless, colorless and powderless chemical, which is extremely difficult to trace. Fire Fire Saratoga--Effective Aug. 30, the Saratoga and Santa Clara County fire districts dropped their borders and now share a dispatcher, who sends the closest emergency vehicle from either district to incidents throughout the Saratoga area--regardless of where the emergency occurs. The key to implementing the "boundary drop"--as it's officially known--was switching the Saratoga Fire District into the county's main communications network. [ San Jose | Metroactive Central | Archives ]