'Butt-dial' call foils suspected Arkansas murder plot

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) - A would-be Arkansas murder plot came undone when one of the suspected co-conspirators sat on his phone and "butt-dialed" the targeted victim, who heard details of the planned hit and alerted police, police said on Wednesday. James Macom, 33, last week overheard his former employer Larry Barnett, 68, telling a suspected hit man to make the killing look like an accident, the Jonesboro Police Department said. Macom contacted police and filed a report at a station. He returned with police to his home, where an intruder had apparently broken in and started a gas leak, police said. Barnett apparently was looking up Macom's contact information on his phone to give to the hit man and accidentally dialed the number from his pocket, police said. Barnett was arrested last week for conspiracy to commit murder, police said. His lawyer was not immediately available for comment. Jonesboro, where the incident occurred, is 120 miles northeast of Little Rock. (Reporting by Suzi Parker; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Eric Walsh)