Bear Shuts Down Traffic

A Southern California freeway was briefly shut down while state wildlife officials tried to remove a bear that wandered into the roads. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Kerry Carter says the adult black bear was spotted just after midnight yesterday on surface streets near the Foothill Freeway in Duarte. The animal later walked onto the freeway, which was closed for about a half hour. Fish and Game Department workers were eventually able to corner the bear in a flood control channel, where they tranquilized it with a dart gun. The bear, estimated at 250 pounds, was taken to a remote forest area and release.

Happy Birthday Times Three

Three generations of Coon Rapids, Minnesota, women all share the same birthday. Little Roxie Koep was born on June 1st. She shares the birthday with her 29-year-old mother Rachel Koep and 56-year-old maternal grandmother Paula Ballanger. According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the chance of a mother having the same birthday as one of her parents and her newborn is 1 in 133,225. The chance of them all having the same gender is even more remote. Koep and her daughter not only share the same birthday, but they were also both born at the North Memorial hospital. Ballanger was born in 1954 at what used to be Maternity Hospital, about a mile south of North Memorial.

Mail Trap

A woman making a stop to pick up her mail from a post office in Willis, Michigan, ended up trapped inside for four hours because of a door malfunction. The post office was closed Thursday evening when the woman stopped by but the post office box area was open. After she went inside to get her mail, she couldn’t get out. Another woman saw her and called 911. A Postal Service spokeswoman said something in the mechanical mechanism on the door prevented it from opening. She said the woman was “understanding” about the “unfortunate fluke.”

Nude ‘Jesus’ Causes Accident

Police said a naked man yelling that he was “Jesus” was the catalyst for a five-vehicle accident on Interstate 95 North in Darien, Connecticut, that injured three people and slowed traffic for nearly six hours. Officers responded to reports Saturday that a nude male was causing a disturbance on I-95. The man got into a car and sped off when police arrived. That’s when the real problems began. A driver stopped to look at the scene unfolding, forcing a tractor trailer driver to slam on his brakes. The truck jackknifed, hitting several cars before flipping over and coming to rest against a tree. It took rescue workers three hours to free the big-rig driver. Officials said the injuries sustained in the crash were “relatively minor.” The naked man’s name was not released. It was not immediately known if he was charged.

Lawnmower Repo Gone Wrong

A Twin Falls, Idaho, man who tried to repossess a riding lawnmower from a couple last Wednesday faces felony charges of attempted grand theft and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Police said Erik R. Jonsson cooked up a plan to have two men he hired tell the woman using the mower that they had hit her pickup. When the woman went into the house to tell her husband, Jonsson hopped on the lawnmower and started driving away. Jonsson told police he stopped when he noticed that the mower had the wrong serial number. He said he feared for his life after he was confronted by the woman’s husband, so he pulled his gun. Jonsson said he is the owner of an auto sales business and had repossessed cars in the past. He expected trouble at the residence and brought the extra men with him, but said they didn’t do their job right.

 

Warning Issued Not To Eat Lithium Batteries

We’ve all heard about those wacky and stupid warning labels on products - for the dumber consumer and to protect the companies from hotdogs who get the bright idea to try to iron their pants while they’re wearing them, among other things. Now a warning has been issued on batteries that it is not a good idea to eat to eat lithium batteries. The New York Times related a story of Aidan Truett, a one-year-old Ohio tot who came down with a strange illness that doctors assumed was pneumonia after he spent nine days vomiting. After a chest X-ray, doctors found not an infection but one of the tiny “button-sized” lithium batteries inside him. As a troubling as this story is, what’s surprising is how rare death from battery ingestion appear to be: fewer than 10 documented fatalities in the last six years. But that could be changing. About 3,500 cases of people ingesting button cell-size batteries now occur every year, but the consequences of those cases are worsening as batteries get more powerful while remaining the same size. That has prompted batteries makers to put warnings on the tiny batteries that read: “Do not swallow lithium batteries.” The move comes as people continue to be sue-happy, looking for an easy cash payout from companies.

Google Lawsuit Backlash Hits Wrong Person

A California woman who shares a name with the woman suing Google for giving bad directions says she’s receiving angry messages meant for the other woman. Lauren Rosenberg of Santa Monica said phone messages and e-mails began streaming in this week from strangers angry about the Lauren Rosenberg, of Los Angeles County, who is suing the search engine giant. The other Rosenberg said Google was “careless, reckless and negligent” when it gave her walking directions in Park City, Utah, that led her to a state highway where she was hit by a car. She is also suing the driver of the car. “They all tell me I’m stupid and how dare I sue Google… take some responsibility for your own actions,” Lauren Rosenberg of Santa Monica said of the phone and e-mail messages.

Shopping Buck

Workers at a Fresh Market store in Middletown, Kentucky, said a deer crashed through a plate glass window and was later dragged from the store by police who zapped him up with stun guns. Assistant manager Bob Scheitzach said the deer leapt through the window shortly after 4:10 p.m. Tuesday and ran through the store before collapsing near the rear of the building. “It went all through the store and bled all over the place,” Scheitzach said. Officers arrived about 10 minutes later and used a Taser to stun the animal. The officers dragged the deer out of the store by its back legs. It left the area on its own a short time later. Scheitzach said employees spent hours cleaning up the mess.

One-Lunged Robber

A Washington State man accused of robbing a jewelry store was run down by bystanders when he ran out of breath – because he only has one lung. Steven Kyle entered an Edmonds, Washington, jewelry store saying he was looking for engagement rings, then reached into the waistband of his trousers and told a saleswoman he was armed with a handgun. Kyle allegedly took more than a dozen rings worth $75,000 and ran from the store. Bystanders who saw him running away were able to catch up with him once he ran out of breath. Kyle, who told police he only has one lung, is being held on first-degree robbery charges.

Naked Man Charged With Drunken Driving

Police in Iowa City, Iowa, said a naked man charged with drunken driving had a blood alcohol content more than twice the legal limit for driving. Officers arrived at a Deli-Mart store at 2:41 a.m. Tuesday on a call about a drunken driver. Witnesses told them the driver was completely nude and hit a street sign while driving. Investigators said the vehicle was found empty with damage to the driver’s side front fender and rear tire. The driver, Kevin Scherschel, 20, was found nearby outside his neighbor’s apartment. Police said Scherschel, who was still nude, failed field sobriety tests and registered a blood-alcohol content of .189 percent, more than twice the legal limit of .08 percent.

Teen Admits Defecating In Classmate’s Soda

A 17-year-old high school student from Haddon Township, New Jersey, admitted in court last Thursday that he defecated in a classmate’s soda during an auto-shop class as a prank. Prosecutors dropped an aggravated assault charge in exchange for the boy’s guilty plea to a charge of tampering with a food product. Authorities said the victim sipped the soda, then spit it out as his classmates laughed on March 29th. A judge ordered the boy to serve probation, serve 200 hours of community service, write an apology to the victim, and to write a 1,000-word report on why it’s unhealthy to ingest fecal matter.

Double Punched 911

Police in Iowa City said a man who called to report that he’d been punched while at the Iowa City pedestrian mall was punched again by a second person while he was on the phone with 911. Police said the man told 911 dispatchers early Tuesday morning that he had just been assaulted and he was following the person who did it. While on the phone with officers, a friend of the original assailant punched him and knocked him to the ground. The victim was treated at a hospital for minor head injuries.

Car Groundhog

An Ohio woman was shocked to find out the thumping under her car’s hood was coming from a stowaway groundhog. Rebecca Martin said she heard the noise last Tuesday while running errands with family members in Athens, Ohio. When they pulled over in a Walmart parking lot and lifted the hood, Martin said one of the largest groundhogs she’s ever seen appeared. It then disappeared into the engine and Martin called 911. Athens County Dog Warden Jeff Koons responded and got him out of the engine after only five minutes, but it took him another 30 minutes to catch him. The groundhog was released in a rural area.

Sheriff’s Office Replaces Inmate’s Locks

A sheriff’s office in Washington State has paid more than $400 to replace an inmate’s locks and keys after a deputy left the keys on the back of his cruiser and took off without grabbing them. Authorities in Grant County say Michael Eugene Power was arrested for violating a protection order. Before transporting Power, a deputy placed his keys and wallet on top of the closed trunk of his patrol car. But when the deputy was ordered to respond to another call, he took off without grabbing the keys and wallet and they fell off. The wallet was returned to Power, but the keys have not been found. The sheriff’s office replaced the keys and locks for Power’s home and vehicle.

Creeps Steal Wheelchair Ramp

Police in northeast Ohio are looking for some lowlifes who stole a wheelchair ramp from a woman’s home. Cordelia Simpson says she discovered last Thursday morning that someone had stolen the 10-foot wooden ramp leading from the porch to the sidewalk at her rental home in Elyria. Simpson suffers from bone deterioration and weakness in her legs. She can walk short distances but uses an electric wheelchair for longer journeys. John Wright of American Ramp Services replaced the stolen ramp with a $4,000 steel one on Saturday. He says he couldn’t stand the thought of Simpson being confined to her house over Memorial Day weekend.

Zombies Walk For Charity

Zombies were out in full force over the holiday weekend in Boston and Columbus, having fun and raising funds for charity. The Zombie March Boston – in which participants dressed up as zombies and paraded from South Station to Copley Square – was “just for fun,” organizer Scott Trano said. “It gives kids something to do,” he noted. Boston police said they didn’t get any complaints about the zombie walk. In Columbus, organizers said they hoped the event would raise more than $1,500 for food banks.

Silly String Assault

A Kansas man was working with power tools in his garage when a stranger suddenly appeared and sprayed him with Silly String. The 31-year-old Wichita man told authorities he was working in the garage last Thursday when the stranger rushed in, sprayed him, and then ran away. No injuries were reported.

Coke/Mentos-Powered Rocket Car

A pair of Maine performers said their latest video project stars a rocket car powered by Coke Zero and Mentos. Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, of Buckfield, built the vehicle from a modified girl’s bicycle and a utility trailer holding a propulsion unit, which involves 108 two-liter bottles of Coke Zero and 648 Mentos mints. The video will be available beginning today at www.eepybird.com. The performers said they are being careful not to reveal too much about the video, which was directed by “The Fast & the Furious” director Rob Cohen.

Drunk Drives To Police Station

Police in New York State said a man who found a stray dog and needed directions to the animal shelter allegedly drove drunk to the police station. Monroe police said Oleksandr Nayda, 38, drove to their headquarters around 10 a.m. Saturday to ask for directions to an animal shelter. Officers said Nayda smelled of alcohol and registered a 0.17 blood-alcohol level, more than twice the legal limit for driving. He told police he stopped drinking about four hours earlier, around 6 a.m. Investigators said Nayda was also wanted on a DUI charge from 2006. Nayda was jailed in lieu of $1,000 cash bail. An animal control officer took the dog to the animal shelter.

Restaurant Regulars Picking Up Checks

Workers and patrons at a New York restaurant say a mysterious couple has been picking up the tab for other customers. Employees at Spigolo said the couple, who refuse to identify themselves, come by for dinner and then pick up the checks of other customers randomly. “There’s no rhyme or reason to whom they pick,” bartender Paula Lukas said. “The tabs will vary. They also take care of the tip, but most people leave a tip too.” Manager Abby Merz said, “I have no idea how they choose people.”