Weird News

Man accidentally shoots himself at hospital cafe

LAFAYETTE, Colo. -- A man who reached into his pocket to pay for lunch at a hospital cafeteria in Lafayette accidentally shot himself with the gun in his pocket. Police and officials at Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center said it was an unfortunate accident. Officials said 59-year-old Steve Tapp of Thornton was treated at the hospital and released. No one else was hurt.

Officials said Tapp, who was visiting family at the hospital, shot himself in the right thigh Tuesday. Security guards responded and took the gun. Tapp faces possible misdemeanor charges of unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon, prohibited use of a weapon and reckless endangerment. The hospital forbids guns, although no sign was posted Tuesday stating the policy.
 
Ohio teen charged with fraud for huge candy order

MIDDLETOWN -- Police say an Ohio teenager tried to pull off a sweet deal, ordering more than $37,000 of candy online and charging it to his former high school. Police say 18-year-old Jad Holmes used a purchasing number from Middletown High School to order thousands of lollipops and candy bars from Michigan-based The Goodies Factory. It wasn't clear how he accessed the number.

The candy company became suspicious, contacted the school and was told by detectives to send an empty box.
Police say Holmes was arrested after the fake delivery to his home. Holmes faces two counts of felony telecommunications fraud. He was being held in Middletown City Jail on more than $30,000 bond. A message seeking comment from Holmes' attorney, Melinda Cook, was left Tuesday at her office.
 
Virginia man charged with killing hawk to help squirrel

VIENNA, VA -- For a Virginia doctor, squirrels are a man's best friend, too. Thomas Shepler, a hand surgeon, shot a hawk to death in his backyard when he said the bird was eyeing a young squirrel that he and his wife had helped raise.

Shepler, 65, said the hawk had previously killed an adult squirrel near his suburban Washington home in Vienna. When the doctor tried to chase away the bird over the weekend by yelling and throwing a crowbar at it, the hawk didn't leave the area. So Shepler got a shotgun and killed it.

A police officer heard the shot Saturday and Shepler was arrested. He was charged with discharging a firearm in public and cruelty to animals. Shepler says he cares about animals and is feeling a lot of anxiety and embarrassment over the shooting.
 
Officials rescue 118 cats from Minn. mobile home

ST. ANTHONY, Minn. -- Humane Society officials are evaluating 118 cats for possible adoption after they were rescued from a Minnesota mobile home. Officials say the smell was so bad they had to call in the fire department to ventilate the home, which will likely be condemned.

Armed with nets and wearing protective masks, a rescue crew worked for nearly two hours to gather up the cats yesterday. Police in St. Anthiny were called after someone complained about the smell. Animal control officers say they removed 72 cats from the couple's previous home in Coon Rapids in 2002. Humane Society investigator Keith Streff says the couple also had hundreds of dolls in the trailer, some of which were found in the refrigerator.

The couple was not cited, but was referred to social services. The cats appear to be in good shape.
 
POTTSBORO, Texas - North Texas authorities seized 22 dogs found crammed inside a station wagon with their owner. The owner locked the car doors and refused to come out when a constable tried to serve her a warrant for the seizure of the dogs early Monday, said SPCA spokeswoman Maura Davies. Two puppies and 20 dogs were taken to a shelter until a judge decides who gets custody, the SPCA said. A hearing on the custody of the animals is set for Feb. 16 in Denison.

The dogs were in the car along with a pot of water, blankets and waste. "The car was soaked with urine and covered in feces. The ammonia level in the vehicle was 23 parts per million even after the doors had been opened for several minutes. As a frame of reference, humans start experiencing health issues at 12 parts per million," Courtney Stevens, SPCA of Texas rescue and investigations supervisor, said in a news release.

The owner does not face charges, Grayson County constable Michael Putman said. She was not coherent and the SPCA said it has contacted Adult Protective Services about the woman.
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Pot activists rip Kellogg Co. for dropping Phelps

NEW YORK -- Snap, crackle ... pot?Advocates for legalizing marijuana are urging a boycott of Kellogg products for cutting ties with Olympic hero Michael Phelps after he was photographed with a pot pipe. The company had said it didn't fit the company's image. The leader of the Marijuana Policy Project, calls Kellogg's action "hypocritical and disgusting." Rob Kampia says he's never seen his membership so angry, with more than 2,300 of them signing an online petition.

He says the company had no problem signing up Phelps when he had a conviction for drunk driving which Kampia calls "an illegal act that could actually have killed someone." And the company is being ridiculed by comedians. On Saturday Night Live, Seth Myers said every one of the company's mascots is a "wild-eyed cartoon character with uncontrollable munchies" He said the products sound like "a wish a genie granted at a Phish concert."
 
Police: Ohio teacher cut class for prostitution

BELLEFONTAINE, OH -- Police say an Ohio fourth grade teacher charged with prostitution skipped class after using a school computer to arrange an afternoon tryst at a motel. Logan County Sheriff's officials say 35-year-old Amber Carter was arrested Tuesday in a motel parking lot in Bellefontaine in central Ohio.

Police say Carter is charged with misdemeanor prostitution and a felony count of unauthorized use of property, regarding the computer. Bellefontaine City Schools Superintendent Larry Anderson says school officials are shocked. He says Carter has worked for the district for 13 years and has never received a reprimand. She has been placed on administrative leave. A woman answering a phone listing for Amber Carter in Bellefontaine hung up on a call seeking comment Wednesday.
 
Error on test spotted by Kan. student 1 year later

WICHITA, Kan. -- A high school student's keen eye has caught a state test error that managed to slip past teachers, test coordinators and other students for almost a year. Geoffrey Stanford, 17, discovered during a Kansas writing test last week that an essay question concerning greenhouse gases incorrectly used the word "omission" for the word "emission," prompting the Wichita East High School junior to point out the error.

"I thought, `Surely they're not talking about leaving out carbon dioxide altogether.' It just didn't make sense," Stanford said. "It had to be a mistake." The state Department of Education has e-mailed a corrected version of the essay question to test coordinators around the state, but the incident already has caused a lot of red faces at the department, which used a committee of more than 30 state teachers to develop the test almost two years ago.

The questions had been tested in 50 high schools last spring. "You hate that sort of thing to happen, but it happens," said Karla Denny, an Education Department spokeswoman and former English teacher. "We're human." No one before Stanford had reported the error, Denny said. Stanford said he is careful with his written work and called himself a "stickler for grammar and vocabulary and the correct use of words." "It annoys me when I see mistakes," he said.

Stanford's discovery has caught national attention, even earning him an appearance Sunday on the Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" morning show. "It's been hilarious, because I just never thought it would get to this point," he said. "Some people are saying, `Good job,' and some are giving me a little grief about it."
 
Wash. burglary victim drives off in thieves' van

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- A man in Washington state made sure a pair of burglars didn't get away with his three flat-screen televisions - he moved their getaway car. Patrick Rosario was in the basement of his Bellevue home on Tuesday when he heard the burglars upstairs. The Seattle Times says the 32-year-old Rosario, who had been laid off from his job as a Washington Mutual manager, called 911 while he sneaked out of the house.

He saw a white van sitting in front of his house with the motor running and the keys in the ignition, and he got in and drove it to a friend's house. Police say the burglars left the televisions, a laptop computer and a jewelry box by the door and took off on foot.
The sheriff's office said no arrests had been made.
 
Casinos are warned about card-counting iPhone app

LAS VEGAS -- Nevada gambling regulators have warned casinos in the state about a card-counting program that works on Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPod Touch that illegally helps players beat the house in blackjack. Card counting itself is not illegal under Nevada gambling laws, but it is considered a felony to use devices to help count cards. The Nevada Gaming Control Board sent a memo to casinos last week warning them of the program.

In blackjack, certain card counting techniques help players determine when they are likely to win a hand and adjust their bets accordingly. Nevada learned of the program from gambling regulators in California, where officials at an Indian casino found customers using it and tipped state authorities.
 
New York driver hits pedestrian; drags body 17 miles

When police check underneath vehicles they're usually looking for bombs, not bodies, but a body is exactly what they found underneath a Chevy van in Brooklyn Wednesday. The driver of the van ran over a pedestrian in Queens and dragged the corpse 17 miles to Brooklyn. He apparently had no idea. The cross-borough carnage started around 6 a.m. in Corona. Police say an SUV hit a pedestrian who was trying to cross 108th Street near 51st Avenue.

The Chevy van, traveling behind the SUV, drove over the body, picking it up. "He did stop once during his trip, but he didn't see anything unusual," said New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. The van drove over highways, nearly 20 miles, until other drivers noticed what was hanging from the undercarriage. "People were signaling him to stop the vehicle," Kelly said. He finally pulled over at Brighton 10th Terrace and Coney Island Avenue.

"The front of the vehicle was smashed...how could you not know there was a body for 15 miles?" asked witness Frank Vlado
 
Even deactivated, grenade a bad show-and-tell idea

EULESS, Texas -- Officials cleared out a Dallas-area elementary school briefly Thursday morning after a second-grade student brought a deactivated hand grenade for show and tell. Euless police Lt. John Williams says the student walked into his classroom with the grenade at Oakwood Terrace Elementary School. The teacher took it, placed it on a desk and notified the principal.

The school was evacuated until police arrived and inspected the object. Williams says that although the grenade still had a pin, it had a hole at the bottom and was empty -- the sort of thing that might be used as a paperweight. No injuries were reported. Students returned to their classrooms after 15 minutes, and the unidentified student was getting a good talking to from police.
 
Stolen WWII tanks recovered in Poland

WARSAW, Poland -- Polish police say thieves stole four Soviet-era tanks that were being used for target practice at an army test range. Each weighs more than 20 tons and police suspect they were stolen for scrap metal. The T-34 and T-55 tanks were taken Tuesday night from the range at Jagodne in eastern Poland.

Police spokeswoman Anna Smarzak said Thursday that three of the World War II-era tanks were found at a private car park in Lublin. The other was found aboard a trailer en route to a steel mill. The tanks had been stripped of their engines long ago.
Smarzak says that two suspects from the nearby city of Lublin were being detained and questioned.
 
Police: Fla. dad let 8-year-old son drive van

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Police in southwest Florida arrested a man they say let his 8-year-old son drive a van. Police in Bradenton arrested 34-year-old Mark A. Belanger just before midnight Sunday on charges of child abuse and permitting an unlicensed driver to drive.

A police report says the boy hit two trees and nearly hit two people in a parking lot. Belanger told police he'd taken Xanax, used to treat anxiety and panic attacks, and was "feeling woozy and didn't want to drive." He said he thought letting his son drive would be a "bonding moment." The boy told police his father took "liquid medicine" to feel better, pointing to an empty whiskey bottle in the vehicle. Belanger remained in jail Wednesday on a $10,120 bond. Jail records did not show if he has an attorney.
 
Police kill chimp after attack

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Police in Stamford, Connecticut, shot and killed a 200-pound chimpanzee Monday after it seriously injured a woman visiting its owner. The 15-year-old chimp named Travis was a family pet and had appeared in TV commercials. Police don't know what caused the animal to attack.
 
Surveillance video helps convict transgender woman

MIDDLEFIELD,OHIO -- A woman who used to be a man has admitted to causing the heart attack that killed her elderly husband during an "exercise" session in a swimming pool. Chris Mason, who had a sex change operation in Montreal in 1993, pleaded guilty to reckless homicide in Geauga County and will be sentenced on March 20. She could get up to five years in prison.

Middlefield police on Monday released the surveillance tapes which show Mason, 40, dragging her 73-year-old husband James around an apartment swimming pool. The tapes show James being pushed and dunked under the water. "I think the video speaks volumes for the cruelty that you will see," said Middlefield Police Chief Joseph A. Stehlik. "It's a fairly sinister appearing video."

The video on the day James Mason died, June 2, 2008, lasts one hour and 40 minutes. Stehlik says he counted 43 times in which Chris Mason blocked the elderly man from climbing out of the pool. James Mason had an inordinate fear of water. "Mr. Mason was very afraid of water," Chief Stehlik said, "so afraid of water he'd seldom bathe. He did not exercise and had health problems." James Mason had a heart attack at the end of what Chris Mason called an exercise session. He died the next day and had predicted his own death the police chief said.

"I'm going to die in the pool today," is what James Mason told his mother-in-law Maryanne Vallandingham on June 2, according to police reports. Vallandingham made the admission to police during the course of the investigation. She also said she witnessed Mr. Mason being abused by her daughter Chris. Middlefield Police say Chris Mason subjected her husband to a similar "exercise" session in the pool one week prior to the fatal session. Chief Stehlik says "it almost seemed like a trial run."

In that May 26, 2008 session which lasted only 20 minutes, James Mason is again seen being dragged around the pool and held under the water by his wife. Stehlik says that session was cut short because other people were near the pool. When some youngsters came near the pool Mason reportedly yelled to them from the water, "Please help me, help me! Someone call 9-1-1." No call was made.

Authorities say Maryanne Vallandingham witnessed both sessions in the pool along with other incidents in which James Mason was abused. They say she had actually known Mason since 1963 and that from time to time they shared a home together.

Chris Mason was born John Vallandingham in 1967 and as a boy, was for a time part of the household that included the man who would eventually become his husband. John Vallandingham changed his name to Chris Newton-John after the sex-change in 1993. Later, as a woman, he went back to his birth state, Kentucky, to have his birth certificate to changed to show he was born a girl.

Police Chief Stehlik says Kentucky is the only state which will retroactively change sex on a birth certificate. He believes Newton-John, who took the name Mason after the 2006 marriage to James, had the birth certificate changed as part of plan to try to claim part of James Mason's assets or estate.

The legal birth certificate change allowed Newton-John to marry in Ohio. "This is how calculating this person was," Stehlik said.
Chris Mason admitted during the course of the investigation to having been convicted of stabbing her husband James in the leg when they lived in Cuyahoga County. Police say they were alerted to a number of other reports of abuse, including once when James Mason was thrown against his apartment wall, along with his recliner.

Stehlik says when reports of the noise were investigated, Chris Mason came to the door and said they had been watching an episode of "The Sopranos" and had the volume turned too high. In another incident police report the elderly Mr. Mason was found standing in a corner in his apartment with his nose against the wall. He said his wife ordered him to do so and that he was afraid of punishment.

Middlefield Police say the repeated allegations of abuse led them to strongly investigate James Mason's heart attack death as something other than natural causes. Their suspicions led to an analysis of the surveillance tape and other clues that Mason may have been killed. Chief Stehlik, a police officer for 25 years, says even seasoned policemen found this case "very, very disturbing." He says the circumstances make the case "one of the oddest ones I've seen. I was thinking about that even today," Stehlik said.

"There are some cases that are very unique but this one rises probably to the top." Criminal charges were considered against Maryanne Vallandingham who witnessed much of the abuse, but they were not pursued when she agreed to cooperate in the investigation that led to the conviction of her daughter.
 
Joe woe: Man loses $300K in Starbucks jewel heist

PARKER, Colo. -- How much is a cup of coffee at Starbucks? For a jewelry salesman from Kansas, it ended up costing about $300,000. Police say the man stopped for coffee Monday at a Starbucks in Parker, Colo., south of Denver. He was just returning to his car when he was held up. Three masked robbers took three "tubs" of jewelry and a briefcase containing the salesman's handgun.

Police didn't identify the 64-year-old salesman. Parker police spokeswoman Elise Penington says he was in town for a trade show. One of the robbers allegedly brandished a gun, but no one was injured in the robbery
 
Porn star considers 2010 Senate run

There's a political storm brewing in the Pelican State. Porn star Stormy Daniels has announced plans to run for the Louisiana Senate seat currently held by Republican David Vitters. Daniels, a Baton Rouge native, has launched a new website, DraftStormy.com. Senator Vitter's platform of family values was tarnished when he publicly admitted to being linked to a high priced prostitution service, but is Louisiana ready for this alternative?

"Everything is out in the open. I'm honest, I have no political agenda," Daniels said. "Let me be your voice. No problem with people using me like that." Stormy says she is against the stimulus plan and wants to help bring our troops home from Iraq. She also plans a listening tour across the state.
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Answer to budget cuts: Stop answering phones

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- One Colorado county clerk has an unusual response to staff cuts caused by budget shortfalls: Don't answer the phones. The El Paso County clerk and recorder's office stopped answering telephones in three offices last month. The change was ordered by county clerk Bob Balink, who was forced to lay off 19 staffers late last year.

Balink hasn't commented on the phone shutdown, but the unanswered calls have two other local officials demanding a change.
El Paso's county assessor and county treasurer say the phone boycott is a bad move. They point out that some people don't have Internet access and can't drive to the clerk's office to see a county employee in person. Voice messages on the clerk's phones would refer people to the assessor's and treasurer's phone lines.
 
NY police: Convicted drunken driver whose car has breath-testing device crashes rented vehicle

NEW YORK (AP) ? Police on Long Island say a convicted drunken driver whose car was equipped with anti-drunken driving technology has crashed a rented vehicle while intoxicated. Suffolk County police say Marvin Rice Jr. lost control of his rental car and hit a utility pole Sunday morning in Brentwood. Police say the 27-year-old driver agreed after a previous DWI conviction to have his car equipped with a device that tests for alcohol in a driver's breath before starting the car.

It was unclear when he rented another car that had no such device. Police say Rice is being treated for multiple injuries. He is expected to be arraigned on a DWI charge. A telephone number for Rice could not be found, and it was not immediately known whether he had a lawyer.
 
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