Morning Roundup: Roaches to riches edition

Good morning, Houston. Have a roach problem? How about turning it into a windfall? The Houston Museum of Natural Science is offering 25 cents per roach for the first 1,000 live, healthy American cockroaches people bring in. No kidding: a whole quarter for trapping and transporting a roach! The roaches will be used for a museum display on insect sanitary engineers — seems the critters, which are often associated with filth, are actually known for keeping themselves clean. So if you need a few extra quarters, knock yourself out. Houstonist, meanwhile, will continue our limited foray into the insect hospitality industry.

>> Bank robbers + desperation = trouble?: A pair of masked robbers has held up four banks in the Clear Lake area in the past six months, and now the FBI is worried that the pair could be getting more desperate. In their most recent heist, last week at a Friendswood bank, the robbers knocked an 80-year-old man over — and they've been pointing guns at customers in the banks, too. "The concern is that, if the activity continues, they may turn to violence," Shauna Dunlap of the FBI's Houston office said. "Their behavior is escalating. They're very confident in what they're doing, and the fact they knocked an elderly customer to the ground is alarming." Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers at 713.222.TIPS.

>> Bus afire: A Metro bus used to transport handicapped passengers was destroyed by fire early Tuesday in northeast Houston. According to reports, the bus driver noticed smoke coming from under the vehicle's hood around 12:45 a.m. on Beltway 8 near Mesa Drive; she got out and called for help, but by the time firefighters arrived, the bus was completely engulfed in flames. Metro police said the fire was caused by a mechanical problem on the bus, which was (luckily) not carrying any passengers at the time of the fire.

>> 'You'll never guess where I am': A suspected drunk driver running from the police took some time out to call a friend early yesterday morning. The chase began around 4:30 a.m. when a cop noticed a car that was driving erratically on Westheimer and ran a red light at Fondren; when the officer tried to pull the driver over, he took off. As he turned onto the northbound West Loop, he blew out a tire, so he pulled over into the Micro Center parking lot and jumped out of the car. The man then ran into some bushes, and while he was hiding there he called a woman on his cell phone — which, in retrospect, probably wasn't the best thing to do while hiding from the cops. The driver now faces a felony evading charge and a possible DWI charge.

>> Today's weather: Looks like we could have another dry, if cloudy, day today — look for a slight chance of rain with an afternoon high around 84 and an overnight low in the upper 60s. Expect a much better chance of rain tomorrow, though.

It's a well-known fact that roaches can't resist news, so check out these headlines and start visualizing that flood of quarters ...