A REALLY BIG CHRISTMAS

Fourteen tons of Christmas trees dumped in Austrian garden

Published - Nov 24 2012 

VIENNA (AP) — An early seasonal delivery went badly wrong in Austria when a truck was involved in a crash and dumped 14 tons of Christmas trees in a resident's garden.
Police in Vorarlberg state, at Austria's western tip, say the accident happened Friday night as a truck with a trailer loaded with trees drove through the town of Hohenems.
The trailer hit a wall, tipped over and landed in the garden of a house. A police statement Saturday said that the fire service dispatched 30 people to recover the hundreds of fir trees.
A passenger in the truck was injured and taken to a local hospital.

Cutting Start-up Costs

Cops: Conn. real estate agent stole for sale signs from former employer

Published - Nov 23 2012 08:10AM CST

Associated Press

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut real estate agent has been charged with stealing a competitor's for sale signs from the front lawns of area homes.
Police say 54-year-old Robert Toth, of Shelton, was charged Wednesday with third-degree larceny and first-degree criminal trespass. Toth owns American Home Realty in Trumbull.
Police say U.S. Asset Realty owner Jihad Shaheer complained in September that his signs had been stolen from more than a half-dozen sites in Bridgeport and from the front of two homes in Stratford.
Police tell the Connecticut Post (http://bit.ly/TT1Dsp ) that they later determined that Toth had been taking the signs. Toth had worked for Shaheer before opening his own real estate company.
Toth declined to comment.

Texas Sized Wreck

Nov 23, 2012,  Beaumont, TX.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/article/2-killed-dozens-injured-in-massive-Texas-pileup-4059874.php#ixzz2D4KmhJNRTwo people died and more than 80 people were hurt Thursday when at least 140 vehicles collided in Southeast Texas in a pileup that left trucks twisted on top of each other and authorities rushing to pull survivors from the wreckage.

On a foggy, misty Thanksgiving morning on Interstate 10 in South Texas some 140 vehicles were involved in a huge, chain reaction pile up that left two persons dead and 80 injured.  The backup and delays caused 1,000s of travelers to miss Thanksgiving altogether or to join in exchanging tasty treats  with their temporary neighbors on the road.

Undeterred, some families could be seen walking along the Interstate shoulder in an effort to get to a Walmart in time for Black Friday shopping.  Walmart permitted patrons to camp overnight in their parking lot and sold their entire stock of camp stoves, Coleman lanterns, flashlights, and other gear within two hours of opening.

The collision occurred in extremely foggy conditions at about 8:45 a.m. Thanksgiving Day on Interstate 10 southwest of Beaumont, a Gulf Coast city about 80 miles east of Houston.
A man and a woman were killed in a Chevy Suburban SUV crushed by a tractor trailer, the Texas Department of Public Safety told KFDM-TV.
DPS trooper Stephanie Davis late Thursday identified the dead as Debra Leggio, 60, and Vincent Leggio, 64.
Jefferson County sheriff's Deputy Rod Carroll said in a news release that 80 to 90 people were transported to hospitals with 10 to 12 of those in serious to critical condition. He said 140 to 150 vehicles were involved in the pileup.
According to DPS, a crash on the eastbound side of the highway led to other accidents in a dangerous chain reaction. There were multiple crashes on the other side of the highway as well.
Carroll told The Associated Press the fog was so thick that deputies didn't immediately realize they were dealing with multiple accidents.
"It is catastrophic," Carroll said. "I've got cars on top of cars."
I-10's eastbound lanes were re-opened Thursday evening after more than eight hours.
Davis told KFDM that two people in an SUV died after the crash.
Carroll said uninjured drivers tried to help as authorities sorted through the wreckage.
"It's just people helping people," Carroll said. "The foremost thing in this holiday season is how other travelers were helping us when we were overwhelmed, sitting and holding, putting pressure on people that were injured."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/article/2-killed-dozens-injured-in-massive-Texas-pileup-4059874.php#ixzz2D4KmhJNR people died and more than 80 people were hurt Thursday when at least 140 vehicles collided in Southeast Texas in a pileup that left trucks twisted on top of each other and authorities rushing to pull survivors from the wreckage.
The collision occurred in extremely foggy conditions at about 8:45 a.m. Thanksgiving Day on Interstate 10 southwest of Beaumont, a Gulf Coast city about 80 miles east of Houston.
A man and a woman were killed in a Chevy Suburban SUV crushed by a tractor trailer, the Texas Department of Public Safety told KFDM-TV.
DPS trooper Stephanie Davis late Thursday identified the dead as Debra Leggio, 60, and Vincent Leggio, 64.
Jefferson County sheriff's Deputy Rod Carroll said in a news release that 80 to 90 people were transported to hospitals with 10 to 12 of those in serious to critical condition. He said 140 to 150 vehicles were involved in the pileup.
According to DPS, a crash on the eastbound side of the highway led to other accidents in a dangerous chain reaction. There were multiple crashes on the other side of the highway as well.
Carroll told The Associated Press the fog was so thick that deputies didn't immediately realize they were dealing with multiple accidents.
"It is catastrophic," Carroll said. "I've got cars on top of cars."
I-10's eastbound lanes were re-opened Thursday evening after more than eight hours.
Davis told KFDM that two people in an SUV died after the crash.
Carroll said uninjured drivers tried to help as authorities sorted through the wreckage.
"It's just people helping people," Carroll said. "The foremost thing in this holiday season is how other travelers were helping us when we were overwhelmed, sitting and holding, putting pressure on people that were injured."


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/article/2-killed-dozens-injured-in-massive-Texas-pileup-4059874.php#ixzz2D4KmhJNR

NO COMMENT

NO COMMENT.   OTHERS WISHING TO MAKE COMMENTS FEEL FREE TO DO SO.

30 Years of Sacred Pigeon Poop

2 tons of pigeon droppings discovered in Swedish church tower/toilet

Nov 22 2012 

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A hatch on a Swedish church tower inadvertently left open for some three decades resulted in 2 tons of pigeon droppings amassing in the tower.
The church's property manager says the layer of droppings was 30 centimeters (12 inches) deep when it was discovered during a May inspection of the Heliga Trefaldighets Kyrka in Gavle, 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of Stockholm.
Lennart Helzenius said on Thursday that church staff had been shocked by the sheer number of bags of excrement cleaners were removing from the tower. He says the droppings filled 80 bags in the first round of cleaning, and then just as many in the second round.

Helzenius says the hatch had probably been left open since the 1980s.

Cadaver Companion

Russian woman hangs on to dead husband's body - for three years

Nov 20 2012 

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities say a woman with five children kept her husband's body in their apartment for almost three years after his death.
Prosecutors in the central Yaroslavl region said the unidentified woman, described as a devout Pentecostal Christian with a psychiatric record, was so distraught when her husband died of natural causes in 2009 that she believed he "was bound to resurrect."
An investigation was opened after the body was found in a dumpster in a plastic bag in July.
The prosecutors' office said Monday that the woman kept the cadaver in a bed in a room of her apartment and asked her children to talk to it and feed it.

There was no evidence of necrofilia though it was difficult to disguise the odor for 3 years.
The office says two children decided to dispose of the body when the family moved to another apartment.

Role Reversal - Man Equals Beast

Idaho man suspected of monkey killing to be moved

Published - Nov 20 2012 02:56PM EST

JOHN MILLER, Associated Press

(The Associated Press)

This booking photo provided by Boise Police Department shows Michael J. Watkins on Monday, Nov. 19, 2012. Police in Idaho say Watkins, 22, is facing felony burglary and grand theft charges after the death of a monkey at the Boise zoo. The patas monkey was found dead of blunt force trauma to the head and neck early Saturday morning, shortly after a zoo security guard frightened away two male intruders. (AP Photo/Boise Police Department)

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A 22-year-old man suspected of killing a monkey at the Boise zoo is scheduled to be moved to a jail in Idaho's capital.

The Ada County Sheriff's department said Tuesday that Michael J. Watkins would be moved from the Washington County jail in Weiser where he's been held since Monday afternoon to the Ada County jail in Boise.

Watkins faces an arraignment hearing Wednesday in 4th District Court.

The patas monkey died early Saturday of blunt force trauma.

Authorities say they'll charge Watkins with a pair of felonies: burglary, for allegedly breaking into Zoo Boise, and grand theft, for taking and killing the monkey.

There apparently was no motive for killing the monkey, just the blind rage of Watkins.

Police don't plan to charge a second man who was with Watkins, but apparently never entered the zoo.

A citizen's tip led to Watkins' arrest.