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April 26, 2003
Local woman hears of fiance´s safety from NBC reporter in Iraq
By CARL LAUNDRIE | News-Journal Staff Writer
FLAGLER BEACH — When Angela Ricke got off work Tuesday night she had a message on her cell phone from Iraq.
Ricke, 18, of Flagler Beach is engaged to Sgt. John Maltby of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, pieces of which are in Baghdad. Ricke said she hadn't heard from Maltby, a Crescent City resident, in more than a month.
The call made her very happy.
"The last time I heard from him was a letter about a month and a half ago," Ricke said, "and then I got this phone call."
The call was from a person identifying himself as NBC reporter Stephen Handelman, who said he was covering a story about looters in downtown Baghdad. A spokeswoman for NBC News in Washington D.C. confirmed that Handelman is on assignment in Iraq.
Ricke said Handelman told her that Maltby rolled up in a tank to disperse a crowd and spotted the reporter. Maltby asked the reporter to call Ricke to tell her he was all right.
"He told me he was there with John and he was okay," Ricke said.
Linda Ricke, Angela's mother, said the couple met last year at the Fourth of July celebration in Flagler Beach and have plans to wed in April 2004.