Weird News

[CodeCat]

LMAO!!!! Go kitty!

[Tum0spoo]

Faster pussycat, kill, kill

You've probably heard about the cat in New Jersey who chased a bear up a tree, twice. Pretty brave and courageous you might think, but what about the bear?

The poor furry thing was a cub, not yet mature, imagine the trauma this event will have on his fragile young psyche. Not only will he be on constant alert in that particular area for fear of homicidal psycho jungle cats but it is very probable that the whole experience has scarred his mind and developed an unnatural fear of cats within him. To have such a terrible memory etched in his brain by this bully of a cat, how unfortunate.

[Muninn]

He he, you realise I was just being silly right?

Err, I mean, bad kitty.

[Bocaj Claw]

Hooray for tabby homicidal psycho jungle cats!

[Foxhound]

Gold Hunter Digs 60-Foot-Deep Hole in Yard
By Associated Press

MONTCLAIR, Calif. - A homeowner digging for gold in his front yard said he got "carried away" and ended up with a 60-foot-deep hole, authorities said.

Henry Mora, 63, began digging 10 days ago after his gold detector reported a positive hit near his front patio. He told authorities he only intended to go down three or four feet.

"I figured, well, maybe there's something down there _ you would logically conclude, right? So I started digging," the semiretired musician said.

He started finding gold dust in the dirt and the detector kept hinting that he was getting closer, so he kept digging.

"It was still beeping, and that just gave me the idea to keep digging," he said.

Fire officials called to the scene Tuesday found two men that Mora hired were inside the hole, using a bucket and rope to remove dirt.

"We told him, 'You're done,'" said Montclair fire Capt. Rich Baldwin. "It's amazing no one got killed."

Authorities fenced off Enrique's property.

[Foxhound]

Japanese Bomb Squad Finds Suspicious Beer
By Associated Press

TOKYO - Police discovered a suspicious package at a police station in southern Japan Friday, prompting them to evacuate the surrounding area and dispatch a bomb disposal team _ which used its expertise to identify the parcel as a box filled with cans of beer.

The mysterious package was found at a station in Iizuka city in Fukuoka prefecture (state), prefectural police spokesman Yoichi Oyama said.

Police became alarmed around 1:50 p.m. when they noticed a suspicious box wrapped in newspaper that had been left inside a local police station. There was no indication that the package had been delivered in the mail, Oyama said.

Five families who live near station were evacuated, and roads in the area were also closed, Oyama said.

The bomb disposal team gingerly opened the box and found cans of beer inside, said Kazuo Hirashima, another police spokesman.

The box contained no explosives, he said, adding that the police immediately lifted the evacuation order and reopened the roads.

Before sending in the bomb squad, Oyama said there was a possibility that the parcel may be a gift for the police officers.

"That's probably what happened," Hirashima said.

[VisibilityMissing]

This is New Jersey . . . How is this news?

Jun 18, 9:03 PM EDT

Jersey City Mayor Arrested in Bar Incident

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Jersey City's mayor said he was arrested and roughed up by police over the weekend for intervening in an argument outside a beach bar.

Mayor Jerramiah Healy said he had just left Barry's Tavern in Bradley Beach - a bar owned by his sister - around 2 a.m. Saturday when he saw a couple arguing in a nearby parking lot. He said the man was jumping on the hood of his girlfriend's car.

After he calmly talked the man down, Barry said, police arrived and threw him on the ground and Maced him. When his wife tried to retrieve his glasses, police shoved her to the ground too, according to Healy.

"My lawyer has asked me not to speak, but I did absolutely nothing wrong," Healy told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Bradley Beach police did not return calls Sunday from The Associated Press.

A police spokesman told The Jersey Journal of Jersey City that Healy interfered in an investigation of the couple's argument and ignored warnings from officers that he would be arrested if he didn't leave.

Healy was charged with two disorderly persons offenses and resisting arrest.

He faces up to six months and jail and $2,000 in fines if convicted.

****************************************

New topping doesn't quite make the list at Baskin Robbins.

Jun 16, 9:13 PM EDT

Man Charged With Having Crack in Sundae

RICHMOND, Texas (AP) -- This banana split was topped with something more potent than just a cherry. A motorist was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance after he was caught with two rocks of crack cocaine he had stashed in his ice cream dessert.

Oscar Martinez, 41, of Richmond, had been pulled over by police officer David Bentley late Sunday after he failed to stop at a pedestrian crossing on the campus of Wharton County Junior College.

Bentley discovered that Martinez had a suspended driver's license and an outstanding traffic warrant.

Richmond police spokesman Sgt. Lowell Neinast said Martinez told Bentley that he wished he could finish the banana split he had in his car.

When Bentley saw the melting banana split on the front floorboard of Martinez's car, he noticed that it was topped with a square-shaped object that turned out to be crack cocaine.

"One of the crack rocks was sitting right on top of the bananas," Neinast told the Fort Bend Herald-Coaster. "Once he found the first crack rock, he figured there were more inside. He emptied it out and there it was."

Martinez was arrested and charged with driving with a suspended license, a traffic warrant and possession of a controlled substance in a drug-free zone, a third-degree felony. He was released from the Fort Bend County Jail after posting an $8,500 bond, Neinast said Friday.

"I've been doing this for 20 years and I could give you all kinds of stories, but this is really one of a kind," Neinast said. "But true."

[Foxhound]

Dog Craving Doughnuts Blamed for Fire
By Associated Press

RIDGEFIELD, Wash. - A dog with a craving for doughnuts was blamed for starting a house fire in this city north of Vancouver.

According to Clark County fire investigators, the homeowners had left a box of doughnuts on the stove on Sunday. The dog jumped up onto the stove to get to the doughnuts and accidentally flipped on a burner.

"The burner set the box on fire and the fire spread from the kitchen to the attic," Fire District 11 Capt. Ben Meacham told The Columbian.

Investigators said the fire caused about $75,000 worth of damage.

The dog, home alone when the fire started, escaped injury.

[Tom Flapwell]

I'm guessing the dog was not a dalmatian. Anyhoo...

Conservation: Legally Protected Bats in the Belfry
Families in Roanoke, Va., whose houses have become infested with bat families are not allowed to have them removed until July 31, in order to comply with state law, WSLS-TV reported. Wes Linz called a wildlife biologist after the bats were discovered in his attic, but was told "it's a nesting period with the babies. They cannot do anything," he said. Each bat babby is protected by state law until it is old enough to live independently.

Coincidentally, I heard someone in the next office today talking about bats having mysteriously invaded her home this week.

I hope the time with the bats is enough for these people to learn to like 'em. I gotta thank Virginia for being so kind to my kind, but they'd better not make the state change its mind.

[VisibilityMissing]

You mean, it's legal for a school cafeteria to serve this as lunch now?

Legislative debate is all Fluff

Associated Press
Published June 21, 2006

BOSTON -- It's creamy, it's sweet and it's become a staple of lunch boxes for generations of New England schoolchildren.

Now, the beloved Fluffernutter sandwich -- the combination of Marshmallow Fluff and peanut butter, preferably on white bread with a glass of milk handy -- finds itself at the center of a sticky political debate.

State Sen. Jarrett Barrios was outraged that his son Nathaniel, a 3rd grader, was given a Fluffernutter sandwich at the King Open School in Cambridge. He said he plans to file legislation that would ban schools from offering the local delicacy more than once a week as the main meal of the day.

The Democrat said that his amendment to a bill on junk food in schools may seem "a little silly" -- but that school nutrition is a serious issue.

His proposal seemed anything but silly to state Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstein, a Democrat whose district in Revere is near the company that has produced the marshmallow concoction for more than 80 years, Durkee-Mower Inc. The company didn't immediately return a call for comment Tuesday.

Reinstein has offered a proposal to designate the Fluffernutter the "official sandwich of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

"I'm going to fight to the death for Fluff," Reinstein said.

An aide to Barrios insisted the senator is not anti-Fluff and even plans to co-sponsor Reinstein's bill.

"He loves Fluff as much as the next legislator," aide Colin Durrant said.

Fluff has a long history in Massachusetts. The treat was popularized by H. Allen Durkee and Fred L. Mower, who cooked it up in their kitchen and sold it door to door.

[Foxhound]

ah, the fluffernutter. New England classic. oddly enough, I've never tried it, and I'm a diehard New Englander...

[VisibilityMissing]

Oooops . . .

Jun 23, 3:33 PM EDT

Sheriff's Deputy Mistakes Pistol for Taser

BREMERTON, Wash. (AP) -- A sheriff's deputy who was trying to get a man down from a tree shot and wounded him after mistakenly pulling a gun instead of a Taser, authorities say.

The deputy, a five-year veteran of the force whose name was not released, was placed on leave while Thursday's shooting is investigated.

Deputies carry both a Taser and a gun on their utility belts. The Taser, or stun gun, is similar in shape to the compact .40-caliber gun the deputy carried, sheriff's spokesman Scott Wilson said.

The victim was listed in satisfactory condition.

The man had been climbed a fig tree and stayed there for hours, talking to himself. Deputies were unsure whether he was intoxicated or psychotic, and they wanted to get him down before he hurt himself or others, Wilson said.

Deputies and rescue workers tried to coax him down for almost two hours, during which he became increasingly hostile, said David Blakeslee, an employee at an auto repair shop nearby.

Blakeslee said the man climbed down on his own after getting shot.

"He said, `Ow, that hurt. I'm coming down, I'm coming down,'" Blakeslee said.

[VisibilityMissing]

. . . Yes, but do they have control of their alligator problem?

Jun 25, 6:12 AM EDT

Police Capture Gator on Long Island Lawn

LINDENHURST, N.Y. (AP) -- Police in a Long Island village nabbed an unusual suspect today - with a long tail, powerful jaws, sharp teeth and a family rap sheet that stretches back millions of years.

The alligator was sitting on a Lindenhurst man's front lawn when he went out to get his paper this morning. At the sight of the homeowner, the gator ran to hide in the hedges.

Suffolk County police officers used a dog-catching noose to collar the animal.

The homeowner helped police, grabbing the 3-foot-long gator by its tail and pulling it out of the hedges. Its mouth was then duct-taped shut.

The alligator was taken to the BTJ's Jungle Pets & Aquarium in West Islip for safekeeping, but authorities later removed it Saturday afternoon.

BTJ owner Tom Niehoff said the gator was healthy and docile, and was probably somebody's pet.

Authorities don't know where it came from, but owning an alligator violates state law, said Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Gross also believed the alligator was probably a pet. He said its owner, if found, could be charged with allowing a wild animal to endanger the public, a misdemeanor.

"This is not the type of pet people should own," Gross said. "Stick to dogs and cats and birds. It's a very dangerous animal."

Gross said the Suffolk County SPCA was taking care of the reptile. On Monday, Gross said, the alligator would be transported to a herpetologist in Massachusetts.

[Foxhound]

Possibly Drunk Pelican Hits Windshield
By Associated Press

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. - The driver was sober. The bird that crashed through the windshield of his car might have been flying under the influence.

A California brown pelican probably was intoxicated by a naturally occurring toxin found in algae blooms when she hit the car on the Pacific Coast Highway in Orange County Thursday, wildlife officials said.

The driver was startled, but not hurt. The pelican needed surgery for a broken foot, and also had a gash on its pouch.

"She's hanging in there," said Lisa Birkle, assistant wildlife director at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach.

Though toxicology tests take several weeks, the odd bird behavior was likely the result of poisoning from domoic acid, which has been found in the ocean in the area, Birkle said.

Pelicans have excellent eyesight and are unlikely to fly into cars when sober, Birkle said.

The center has received 16 calls of strange bird behavior in the past week, and was holding three other birds found disoriented and wandering through yards and streets.

Domoic acid poisoning was the most likely cause of a 1961 invasion of thousands of frantic seabirds in Northern California that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Birds."

Those birds flew into buildings and pecked several humans.

[Tom Flapwell]

Acronyms: 'Students Can Reach Everyday Wellness'?
Health officials in Eastbourne Downs, England, are thinking of changing the name of an advice service for sexually active youngsters because of an unintended acronym in the current name, the Sun reported. The National Health Service authorities mounted a new effort to discuss sexual health with teenagers, calling the educational program the "Sexual Health Action Group" ? or SHAG. "It wasn't intended and has caused a few problems," said group member Lee Edgar.

Seriously, how do you not notice such a thing before making the name official?