Tuesday, January 31, 2012

SUV Plows Into Connecticut Home, Landing Atop Sleeping Man


31 Jan 2012
New Haven, Conn.

Not the actual SUV

An SUV being chased by police plowed into a home in New Haven early today, landing on top of a man sleeping in his bed. Police and firefighters worked to free the man pinned by the SUV. There were no reports released by the police on the condition of the man or the SUV. The house was severely damaged with a large hole in the side.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Dead Grandmother In Storage Unit For Sixteen Years - Evicted For Non Payment Of Rent

Jan. 30, 2012
Florida (where else?)

A woman's body found in a Clearwater, Fla., storage unit may have been stored there 16 years ago, WTSP in Tampa reports.

When Ann Bunch died in 1995, the family had her body prepared for burial at a funeral home in Alabama but then ran out of money, according to News Channel 8 in Tampa.

Bunch's daughter, Bobbie Barnett Hancock, decided to place the body in a special container in a unit at U-Stor Self Storage in Clearwater. As Hancock was dying of cancer last year, she told her daughter, Rebecca Ann Fancher, what she had done. Fancher is Bunch's granddaughter.

"She started telling me what she'd done about a month before she died in August," Fancher, 54, of Clearwater told News Channel 8.

After the manager of the storage facility warned that the contents of the storage unit would be auctioned off for non-payment of rent, Fancher admitted to him that the unit contained a body, News Channel 8 reports.



Sunday, January 29, 2012

Bus Driving Dog in Australia


DARWIN, Australia, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- A dog allegedly was spotted driving a mobile home down the street in Darwin, Australia, after learning how to drive by observing his owner, observers claim.

Woodley, a 2-year-old German Koolie, allegedly took the mobile home for a spin while his owner, Richard McCormack was in a store, The Sun reported.

"I came out and saw the bus going down the road. I couldn't believe it," McCormack said.
Woodley in action, via NTNews

This isn't the first time Woodley has tried to take the wheel, his owner explained.

"He sits next to me when I'm driving and in the driver's seat when I'm not. The handbrake is on the dashboard and he's seen me release it many times. He was just copying me. He's tried it on before," said McCormack.

The vehicle was eventually brought to a stop when bystander Phil Newton, 30, jumped in an open window and put the handbrake back on after seeing that a dog was navigating the mobile home.

"This was weird, even for the Northern Territory," he said.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2011/11/20/Dog-caught-driving-in-Australia/UPI-66641321829811/#ixzz1kuQCtLFP

Saturday, January 28, 2012

New York Killer Promises Not To Kill Again If Released On Parole


January 28, 2011

New York

Charlie Dingle, who in 1983 was convicted of murdering a man in a topless bar and ordering a woman to cut the man's head off, was denied parole after a hearing last week.

Dingle, who maintains his innocence, has continued his violent behavior whilst in prison, the latest altercation taking place only the week prior to his latest parole hearing.

In a teleconference with the board, Dingle promised never to cut anyone's head off again if released on parole. His arguments were not persuasive, however.

English Girl Chickens Out





Jan. 28, 2011

It's the meal deal nobody should want.

A teenage girl in Birmingham, U.K., who has eaten nothing but chicken nuggets for 15 years, is being warned her favourite food is killing her, according to the Daily Mail.

Stacey Irvine, 17, told the newspaper she was hooked on nuggets when her mom brought them home from McDonald's when she was two. Since then, Irvine has never eaten fruit or vegetables, and loves to split 20 nuggets with her boyfriend as a pastime.

But it's not all fun in McDonald's Playland. Irvine has breathing problems, anemia and was recently rushed to the hospital after she collapsed with swollen veins in her tongue. Despite all this, she can't resist temptation.

"I am starting to realise this is really bad for me," she told The Sun.

Single-item food diets like this one can occur when people are addicted to their food habits, want to lose weight, or even test out a theory. As an experiment in 2010, Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, ate nothing but Twinkies for 10 week and lost 27 pounds and almost five points from his body mass index (BMI).

"What I did, it wasn't healthy behaviour and it did lead to health after [with weight and BMI loss]," he told the Huffington Post Canada. "That's the other layer that is complex. There's a difference between healthy eating and healthy outcomes."

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Oh, Just Piss On It Then - Another Floridian


PALM COAST, Fla.

---- Deputies say a disgruntled north Florida customer urinated in a drive-through bank tube after a teller told him he couldn't buy a money order.

The urine spilled into the lap of the unlucky customer who pulled in behind him Thursday morning.

The St. Augustine Record reports the man mumbled something about bad customer service before driving away.

Flagler County Sheriff's deputies say the next customer alerted bank officials after the liquid spilled on her. The customer and bank officials told deputies the liquid smelled like urine.

Investigators are searching for the man. He could be charged with causing a nuisance injurious to health, which is a second-degree misdemeanor.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/2011/11/03/20111103florida-urine-in-bank-tube.html#ixzz1jaTNoCmY

Hey, What Happened To My Boat?


Mediteranian Cruise ship runs aground, 4200 evacuated

A sailing boat passes in front of the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia leaning on its side after running aground off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. The Costa Concordia cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany, sending water pouring in through a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in the hull and forcing the evacuation of some 4,200 people from the listing vessel early Saturday, the Italian coast guard said. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

One would think that after centuries the Mediterranean Sea would be fully charted. Drunk captain and First Mate, perhaps?

Friday, January 13, 2012

Bone Chilling Ride On California Freeway


Bones on board: Driver busted in HOV lane with fake skeleton

John de Leon on January 5, 2012

Bonehead: Skeleton used by driver in HOV lane.

A driver learned the hard way that having a plastic skeleton ride shotgun won’t earn you the right to use the HOV lanes.

Just after 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 20, a trooper stopped the driver of a silver Mazda for driving at 82 mph and making several unsafe lane changes on northbound Interstate 5 near 272nd Street, the State Patrol said. The trooper noticed that a “passenger” in the car was actually a plastic skeleton in a hooded sweatshirt.

At least the skeleton was belted in.

The driver was ticketed for speeding, unsafe lane changes and an HOV violation.

Neat Way To Go - No Mess, Nothing To Bury

Man sucked head-first into wood chipper

January 12, 2012

A Northern California man died Thursday after getting sucked into a giant wood chipper, authorities said.

The man was helping remove tree branches and debris from a house in a rural area outside Nevada City, about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento, when he apparently got sucked in while feeding something into the chipper.

The man was a professional landscaping crew member who was sucked head-first into the machine after he became ensnared in some rope.

"It was a huge chipper capable of processing full-size trees," Sgt. Hap Penaluna told the paper. "It's just a tragic accident." He was like a toothpick.

The man's name has not been released

Brainy Idea Foiled In Egypt


420 pounds of cow brains seized at Cairo airport

Jan 13 2012
BEN HUBBARD, Associated Press

Not actual cow brains - a facsimile

CAIRO (AP) — Officials at Cairo's international airport confiscated 420 pounds (190 kilograms) of frozen cow brains Friday from three Sudanese travelers who planned to sell them to Egyptian restaurants, authorities said.

An airport official said it was the fourth time this week that customs officers there had foiled an attempt to smuggle cow brains into the country, reflecting the growth of a moneymaking scheme made possible by some realities of international supply and demand: Cow brains are cheap in Sudan, and Egyptians like to eat them.

A pound of raw cow brains bought in Sudan for less than a dollar can be resold in Egypt for six times as much, airport officials said. That means Friday's haul could have earned the men more than $1,500.

Restaurants specializing in liver and brains are popular in Egypt. Both items are deep fried and often eaten in pita bread with spicy red sauce.

Airport officials discovered the brains Friday while inspecting large freezer boxes brought in by three travelers on a flight from Sudan's capital, Khartoum. After inspecting the boxes, the officials confiscated the brains since they couldn't ensure they had been preserved in a sanitary manner.

The brains will be burned, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity under airport rules.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Bungee Cord Snaps Sending Aussie Lass On A Terrifying Adventure

Tourist survives 365-foot plunge when bungee cord snaps

Laura Bly, USA TODAY




Any adventurous vacationer who's considering taking a leap of faith on a bungee jump might want to consider the gut-wrenching experience (see video above) of 22-year-old Erin Langworthy, an Australian tourist who fell from the Victoria Falls Bridge over Africa's Zambezi River to the crocodile-infested, rapids-strewn waters below on Dec. 31. Langworthy told Nine Network television that she blacked out briefly after the bungee cord broke and she hit the river on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The stretch of the Zambezi below Victoria Falls is so intimidating that its one-day rafting trips are touted as the world's most challenging.

"You get sucked under and then you pop up so it's very disorienting -- I didn't know which was up or down," said Langworthy, who was still attached to a trailing cord by the ankles. She said the broken cord repeatedly snagged, so she "had to swim down and yank the bungee cord out of whatever it was caught on to make it to the surface."

"Luckily we had been rafting, so I remembered some of the safety tips," she told ABC's Good Morning America on Monday.

After reaching the Zimbabwe bank of the river, Langworthy was evacuated to a hospital in South Africa with cuts, bruises, and a broken collar bone.

Officials say more than 150,000 adrenaline addicts have safely taken the $120-per-person plunge at Victoria Falls since bungee jumps started there 17 years ago. (I considered it during my own Victoria Falls trip, but opted for rafting after reading several cautionary tales about wrenched knees and detached retinas.)

The most miraculous part of this incident, however, was the statement of the company that operates the bungee cord suicide leap that insisted it stands behind the safety of its bungee cords. Talk about disconnect.

As for Langworthy? She told Good Morning America she'd consider a repeat performance - but not anytime soon.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Corpse Sued By Woman Injured in Teen's Death


Dead Teen Sued for Losing Control of Flying Body Parts

Posted by Lindsay Mannering
December 30, 2011


You think you've heard it all until I tell you that an appeals court in Illinois recently ruled that a woman is allowed to sue a dead teen's estate for injuries caused by his flying body parts. The 18-year-old boy was running across the Amtrak tracks to catch another train but didn't make it -- he was hit by an oncoming train going 70 mph and his body was torn apart by the force and flung onto a nearby passengers' waiting platform. The woman, 58, was struck by a sizable chunk of the boy's body and was knocked to the ground, breaking her leg and wrist. The court ruled that the boy's death was "reasonably foreseeable" and that his estate can be held responsible for his negligence.

I'm sorry, but who goes around suing a dead teen whose body was ripped to shreds in one of the most gruesome ways imaginable?

I can't say that my first or even fiftieth instinct after being pummeled to the ground by half of a bloody torso would be to raise my fist in the air and declare that whoever had the nerve to let their body explode and land on me will most certainly pay in court. Even if my leg was shattered, I still can't imagine going after the dead teen's estate.

The family of the deceased has suffered enough -- their son was blasted by a train. It doesn't get much worse than that. And to think that they have to endure a woman nitpicking her way into their bank accounts is disgusting. It's not like this kid had millions -- what is she hoping to gain from this lawsuit?

It won't make her leg any better. I can't imagine it'd help her heal in any way, shape, or form. I don't think a normal person would feel good about suing for injuries caused by a dead teen's flying body parts. Yeah, he did something incredibly stupid, but I think he paid the price. He's dead. His body was blown to bits. No need to drive the point home with what seems like a frivolous, greedy, and hurtful lawsuit.

If you were in the injured woman's shoes, would you sue, too?

Blog readers's opinions are solicited for an informal poll. Tell us what you think.

Penis Cutting Epidemic Unexplained


Arraignment Delayed for Penis Cutting Wife

Catherine Kieu Becker, 48 (Garden Grove P.D.)


January 9, 2012

SANTA ANA, Calif. - The arraignment of Catherine Kieu, a 48-year-old woman accused of cutting off her husband's penis and putting it in the garbage disposal was delayed Monday.

Catherine Kieu, of Garden Grove, was indicted last Thursday on one felony count of torture and one felony count of aggravated mayhem. She also faces a sentencing enhancement for personal use of a knife.

If convicted, Kieu could get life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Her case has been continued until Feb. 2.

Prosecutors say Kieu spiked her 60-year-old husband's tofu dinner with drugs on July 11 of last year.

Kieu then allegedly tied him to his bed with nylon ropes and cut off his penis with a 10-inch kitchen knife.

She then stuck the member in the garbage disposal and turned the disposal on, mutilating the organ, according to prosecutors.

Kieu was the one who called 911, and authorities say she told responding officers that her husband "deserved it."

Her husband was treated and released from UC Irvine Medical Center, where doctors were unable to re-attach his penis, their being nothing but shreds of meat to retrieve from the disposal.

Police say they believe Kieu was upset at her husband for filing for divorce after 16 months of marriage.

But this doesn't account for the rash of penectomies by the partners of men. It's getting dangerous to go to sleep of get drunk.

Over the past 10-15 years there has been spurt in the number of penectomies performed on husbands and lovers by irate women. This usually involves the male having used his penis to have intercourse with another woman. Increasingly women are cutting off the penises of their sexual partners when angered over trivial matters such as the arrangements for house guests.

Psychologists suggest the outbreak may be due to the male penis serving as a symbol of control over women, or older suggestions of penis envy. Whatever the reasons, it is extremely hazardous to men's principal sexual organ.

Kieu and her husband were married on Dec. 29, 2009, and Kieu's husband, who has not been identified, filed for divorce in May 2011.

They continued living together in a condominium complex in Garden Grove.

For reasons known only to Kieu and her lawyer, she has pleaded not guilty to the charges against her after making a confession when she called 911.

She remains jailed on $1 million bail.

Bizarre Name Leads To Pot Bust, Arrest



January 9, 2012

A Wisconsin man with the bizarre name of Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-bop-bop was expected to be charged today with possessing a small amount of marijuana and a knife.

Maybe today is a slow news day. Maybe everyone's had it up to HERE with election news. Maybe everyone's grumpy because of those New Year's diet resolutions. Who knows. But many people apparently needed a laugh today. How else to explain why this story skyrocketed around the blogosphere Monday for no good reason other than ... the dude's got a pretty funny name.

But this story gets even better. Reuters reports that Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-bop-bop -- pause for pronunciation and chuckle -- used to be named Jeffrey Drew Wilschke. He had his name legally changed last November.

Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-bop-bop's arrest made headlines in Oregon, Texas, Florida, Vancouver... We could go on, but you get the idea.

Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-bop-bop, 30, was already on probation for a weapons violation when he was arrested Thursday at a Madison-area park following complaints from neighbors, according to Reuters. The drugs and knife were allegedly discovered after his arrest.

No reason was given why the former Mr. Wilschke changed his name other than because he might have grown weary of everyone misspelling Wilschke.

Friday, January 6, 2012

One More Good Reason To Avoid Florida Like The Plague


Palm Beach, Fla.
Jan 6, 2012

Invasion of the giant pythons

Giant Burmese pythons have stablished themselves across thousands of square miles of Florida's Everglades, where outdoor workers now routinely find them. The state had held out hope that bays, inlets and open seas would form a natural barrier, keeping the non-native snakes, often discarded pets, from spreading to the Florida Keys and beyond. But that might not be the case.

Research published this week finds that even newly-hatched pythons can survive in seawater for up to a month.

"The fact that this study has ruled out one of the most hoped-for forms of physical barriers, saltwater, as preventing the spread of invasive pythons in Florida puts even more onus on human action to prevent the spread of these damaging reptiles," U.S. Geological Survey Director Marcia McNutt said in a release. "This study demonstrates the distinct possibility that pythons could spread to new suitable habitats one estuary at a time."

Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey tested the ability of 24 hatchling Burmese pythons that they had caught in the Everglades to survive given different types of water to drink. Some got fresh water, some brackish water (such as the slightly salty water found in mangrove swamps) and some full-strength seawater.

The hatchlings given brackish water survived an average five months but two lived more than 200 days. The hatchlings given only seawater survived on average one month, but one lived for 200 days, until the researchers ended the experiment. The paper is in the January edition of the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology.

The research shows that open ocean, bays or shorelines aren't necessarily the protection against further python migration that state officials had hoped they would be.

The paper is the first rigorous scientific research to document what's been known anecdotally for some time: Burmese pythons don't mind taking a dip in the ocean. "A few weeks ago, one was seen swimming across Florida Bay," says Gordon Rodda, a research zoologist and expert on the snakes with the U.S. Geological Survey in Fort Collins, Colo.

While it's unlikely the snakes would swim "straight across the Gulf" to make it to Texas and Louisiana, Rodda could easily imagine them hopscotching up the coastline or between the islands in the lower Florida Keys.

"They might bypass a wildlife management area just by swimming around it. You can't just stick a big fence out into the Gulf of Mexico," he says.

Research has shown that snakes often prefer to swim rather than crawl because it uses less energy. One group of pythons that had been radio tagged in the Everglades stayed put for months until the water levels rose enough that they could swim and then they took off, Rodda says. "Swimming is a very efficient way to get around, and they will use it."

Burmese pythons are considered one of the largest snakes in the world and can grow up to 20 feet and 250 pounds.

They are native to Southeast Asia but were introduced to Florida via the trade in exotic pets. It's believed that some either escaped or were released, and formed breeding colonies beginning in the 1990s.

No one knows how many Burmese pythons there are in Florida. "That's the million-dollar question everyone wants answered," says Kristen Hart, lead author on the paper and a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Davie, Fla. Some back-of-the-envelope calculations have come up with "tens of thousands," she says. There have been reductions in animals such as muskrats and marsh rabbits, and that might be because of the pythons, she says. "They eat everything from birds to mammals to alligators. If you were to design the perfect predator, it might be the python," Hart says.

The snakes kill their prey by asphyxiating them by constricting their ability to breathe while holding them in place with their teeth. Dead prey is swallowed whole. Last October, workers in the Everglades killed a 16-foot python that had just eaten a 76-pound deer.

The pythons are not considered a threat to humans, but have been known to eat dogs, cats and deer. Officials are especially concerned about endangered species, of which there are 31 in Florida whose size and behavior patterns make them vulnerable to the pythons

The pythons are known to have reached Key Largo, where there is evidence they're eating the endangered Key Largo wood rat, says Ken Warren of the South Florida office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They've also been known to eat rare round-tailed muskrats.

While there have been sightings of pythons all the way down to Key West at the tip of the Keys, there's no evidence of established breeding populations in the Keys. "Obviously that's what we're trying to prevent," Warren says.

How the pythons got that far south isn't known, he says. "Whether they managed to get down there by swimming or crawling across a bridge or hitching a ride, we don't know," Warren says

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Teen Age Girl Gets Naked For Music Teacher


Cops: Teenager tricked to strip

TACOMA, Wash. —

Not the actual teenager

Authorities in Washington say a former Tacoma Community College music instructor tricked a teenage voice student to take off her clothes off while singing in hopes she would reach lower octaves.

The Tacoma News Tribune reports 37-year-old Kevin Gausepohl is charged with seven counts of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes and one count of obstructing a law enforcement officer.

Investigators say he told a Gig Harbor High School student he was conducting a study on how sexual arousal affects vocal ranges. The girl was 17 at the time. She was attending the school as part of the Running Start program that allows high schoolers to take college courses.

It was not made clear in the police report whether or not the girl was sexually aroused and whether or not the research was successful.

Things are different in college.

Gausepohl resigned his position with the community college.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Take That, You Scoundrels - A Cowbone's Wrath



Wednesday, 28 Dec 2011

A Hawaii man was charged with four counts of assault after allegedly attacking a group of men with what is believed to be a cow's thighbone, police on the Big Island said Wednesday.

Officers responded to a report of a brawl outside a Kailua-Kona bar on Christmas Eve and arrived to find four men with injuries from an attack. Bar patrons were holding Gregory Haas, 45, who witnesses told police attacked the men with the bone.

"He did indicate that he did actually find it in pastureland here in the Kona area," Lt. Gerald Wike said Wednesday. The weapon was recovered at the scene and taken as evidence. Police are sure it's a bone from a large animal and are trying to determine with certainty that it's from a cow.

"It's unusual someone using that as a weapon," he said. "This is the first that I have experienced an assault taking place with what appears to be an animal bone."

The attack in the Gold Coast Center parking lot was "unprovoked," Wike said, adding that Haas appeared to be intoxicated.

One of the victims, 40, was hit in the head and airlifted to a Honolulu hospital in critical condition. He has since been discharged and returned to the Big Island, Wike said. Another man, 25, was treated at Kona Community Hospital for cuts to his head and released. Two others, 65 and 49, received injuries that did not require medical attention.

He was charged with one count of first-degree assault and three counts of second-degree assault.

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Thursday, according to the Hawaii County prosecuting attorney's office. Haas could not be reached Wednesday at Hawaii Community Correctional Center, where he is being held in lieu of $55,000 bail.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

And You Can Keep The Change


Cops: Man tried to use $1M bill at NC Walmart

Dec 31 2011

Associated Press

LEXINGTON, N.C. (AP) — Do you have change for a million-dollar bill?

Police say a North Carolina man insisted his million-dollar note was real when he was buying $476 worth of items at a Walmart.

Investigators told the Winston-Salem Journal (http://bit.ly/u7ZrEN ) that 53-year-old Michael Fuller tried to buy a vacuum cleaner, a microwave oven and other items. Store employees called police after his insistence that the bill was legit, and Fuller was arrested.

The tip-off was that Fuller was wearing a pink mask and was carrying a pistol when he attempted to pass the phony million dollar bill. KMart stores do not keep a million dollars at each store to make change so there was no way the many could have gotten the correct change. He also wasn't offered an opportunity to open a KMart credit card account.

The largest bill in circulation is $100. The government stopped making bills of up to $10,000 in 1969. This move was made as a convenience to small shop owners and street peddlers who seldom could make change for, say, a $10,000 bill to purchase an Eskimo Pie.

Fuller was charged with attempting to obtain property by false pretense and uttering a forged instrument. He is in jail on a $17,500 bond, and it isn't clear if he has an attorney. He is scheduled to be in court Tuesday.