In Vero Beach, Fla., a husband and wife made a hot bet on the Dallas Cowboys versus Green Bay Packers football game. The loser would set their team’s jersey on fire. When the Packers won, the husband, 27, took his blue and silver Cowboys jersey outside and set fire to it. But, as he later told sheriff’s deputies, because he was drunk, he then tried to put the jersey back on. Family members pulled the burning jersey off the man and rushed him to the Indian River Medical Center. A witness told the Sebastian Daily “skin was hanging off his arm and back.” He suffered second- and third-degree burns to his hand, arm and back.
Finger Immobilization Therapy
The Daily World in Centralia, Wash., reported that Rachel A. Deckert, 27, tried to turn herself in at the Lewis County Jail on an outstanding DUI warrant, but was turned away because she brought along her partner, who was literally glued to Deckert by her pinky finger. When Deckert tried again the next day, still attached to her partner, police and firefighters were called. The two women were attached by a copper elbow pipe into which they had each inserted a pinky finger secured with “some kind of epoxy,” a firefighter said. They told authorities they had been that way about a week at the suggestion of a couples therapy counselor. “They haven’t been able to feel their fingers for three days,” said police detective Patty Finch. Efforts to separate the women were unsuccessful, and Deckert was released with advice to seek medical attention.
Breaking And Entering And Cooking
Nelly’s Taqueria in Hicksville, N.Y., suffered a break-in on Oct. 3. Surveillance video showed a man donning food-service gloves and putting on a pot of water to boil before hammering open the cash register. He put $100 in his pockets and left a dollar in the tip jar, then started “cooking up a storm,” owner Will Colon told Newsday. Cameras recorded as the thief cooked beans, sautéed shrimp and chicken, and helped himself to a cold soda before enjoying his meal standing up. “The way he handled that pan, man, the dude had some skills,” Colon said. Afterward, he carefully stored the leftovers in the refrigerator, cleaned his pans and wiped down all the surfaces he had used. Then he took off through the back window, the same way he had come in.
Let Me Just Grab A Liver Before I Head Home
Coroner’s pathologist Elmo A. Griggs, 75, was arrested in Morgan County, Ind., for drunken driving. But it was what was rolling around in the back of his pickup truck that really caught officers’ attention. Along with a half-empty vodka bottle, Griggs was transporting several labeled totes containing organic material. Marshal Bradley Shaw of the Brooklyn Police Dept. said early investigations showed the totes contained brain and liver samples. Griggs’ wife posted on Facebook that he “had a bad day and had a couple of drinks before driving home.” But court documents revealed he failed all field sobriety tests.
Oh, It’s Just A Train
An unnamed Colorado woman defied death when a train rolled over her near Whitewater, Colo., on Oct. 15. The woman was sleeping on the tracks and wearing earphones when one engine rolled completely over her before the train could stop. She was then removed from the tracks, but refused medical attention. Lands End Fire Protection District chief Brian Lurvey told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel he was not sure whether she had been cited by Union Pacific for sleeping on the tracks.
Turkeys Versus Police
Could turkeys be sensing the peril of the season? Police in Bridgewater, Mass., tweeted a warning to the town’s residents on Oct. 15 about aggressive wild turkeys. An accompanying video showed four turkeys chasing a Bridgewater police cruiser. Police were not as amused as their Twitter followers. “Aggressive turkeys are a problem in town,” the department tweeted. “State law doesn’t allow the police or (animal control) to remove them.”
Incoming Turkeys
The 72nd annual Yellville, Ark., Turkey Trot, which took place on Oct. 14, is famous for its Turkey Drop, in which live turkeys are dropped from a low-flying airplane and then chased by festivalgoers. This year, several turkeys were dropped during the afternoon despite animal-rights activists having filed a formal complaint with the sheriff’s office, saying the pilot “terrorized” the birds. But pharmacist and past pilot Dana Woods told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: “We treat the turkeys right. That may sound ironic, but we don’t abuse those turkeys. We coddle and pet those turkeys. We’re good to them.” Wild turkeys can fly. But in 2016, not all survived the fall. According to The Washington Post, over the past several years, local sponsors and the chamber of commerce have distanced themselves from the Turkey Drop, which is now more than five decades old. The Federal Aviation Administration is checking to see whether any laws or regulations are being broken. It said it has not intervened in past years because the turkeys are not considered to be projectiles.
Moral: Don’t Kiss Fish
Quick-thinking paramedics in Dorset, England, saved the life of a man whose fishing outing went south when a dover sole jumped down his throat and blocked his windpipe. Sam Quilliam, 28, had just caught the 5 1/2-inch-long fish. He started to give it a kiss when it wriggled free and lodged in his throat. “I ran round the pier like a headless chicken and then passed out,” Quilliam told The Guardian. When first responders arrived, Quilliam wasn’t breathing. But friends performed CPR. Paramedic Matt Harrison said, “It was clear that we needed to get the fish out or this patient was not going to survive. I was able to eventually dislodge the tip of the tail and very carefully, so as not to break the tail off, I tried to remove it — although the fish’s barbs and gills were getting stuck on the way back up.” Finally, the fish “came out in one piece,” Harrison said. Quilliam said his brush with death won’t put him off fishing. “Once I am back at work and fit, I will probably get back at it again.”
Funeral Home Haunted House
Residents of Rogersville, Mo., protested a high school fundraising plan to convert an abandoned funeral home into a haunted house, calling the idea distasteful and insensitive. The Preston-Marsh Funeral Home had been scheduled for demolition. But the owner gave permission to students from Logan-Rogersville High School to use it at the end of October to raise money for a safe graduation celebration for seniors. Students said they would use leftover equipment, such as gurneys, to enhance the spooky experience. But one Rogersville resident said doing so is “akin to opening a strip club in an old church.”
The Iowa Thing
In Iowa, a pair of women stopped at a traffic light in Altoona looked at the car next to them and saw a horse staring back from the back seat. “This is the most Iowa thing that has ever happened to me,” Hannah Waskel Tweeted, along with a video of the miniature horse. “We started laughing and the people driving the horse saw us and waved. They even rolled the window down for the horse.”
Questionable Judgment
Tucson, Ariz., firefighters were called to a mobile home park after a resident there tried to remove spider webs from beneath his trailer by using a propane torch. He ended up setting his home on fire. The unnamed man’s elderly mother, who lived there, suffered minor injuries while being carried out of the mobile home with the help of neighbors.
Nests On A Plane
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport made an unusual discovery in the luggage of a traveler arriving from Vietnam in October: 54 illegal bird nests. The nests, which are considered a delicacy in some countries, are built out of solidified bird saliva and are used to make soup and broth, reported UPI. However, they are banned from entering the United States because they may carry infectious diseases. The nests were destroyed.
The Work Of Getting A Lucky Break
Kenyans Gilbert Kipleting Chumba and David Kiprono Metto were among the favorites to win the Venice Marathon on Oct. 22. Instead, Eyob Ghebrehiwet Faniel, 25, a local running in only his second marathon, took the prize after the lead runners were led several hundred meters off-course by an errant guide motorcycle. Faniel is the first Italian to win the Venice Marathon in 22 years. “Today’s race shows that the work is paying off,” Faniel said following his victory.
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