Another human being was recently shot by his dog — this time in in Kosciusko County, Ind. Allie Carter’s pooch had wandered over to Carter’s shotgun, which was lying on the ground. The dog stepped on it, firing one round into Carter’s left foot. (Bonus: Carter’s dog’s name is Trigger.) The next day, a Washington Post reporter, who was searching news archives, found 12 more dog-shoots-people stories reported since 2004 — all but two from the United States.
Science Fiction In Real Life
While Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero seeks funding to perform the first ever head transplant, Australian doctor Geoff Askin (the country’s “godfather of spinal surgery”) recently “reattached” the head of a 16-month-old boy who was badly injured in a traffic accident. The toddler’s head was described as internally “relocated.” It was reset onto the vertebra, using wire and rib tissue to graft it back in place. In Italy, the operation was widely regarded as a “miracle.”
Eyebrows Optional
U.S. and European entrepreneurs offer extreme games in which players volunteer for hours of kidnapping, pain and death threats. The under-the-radar McKamey Manor in Southern California (which is said to have a waiting list of 27,000) is notable for the starkness of its threats of brutality. Only Russ McKamey decides whether a player has had enough. The “product” is “100 percent fear,” he said. “We’re good at it,” he told London’s The Guardian in an October dispatch from San Diego. The Guardian reporter overheard one of McKamey’s colleagues promise, “I’m going to tear that girl apart” and “No one is leaving with eyebrows today.”
Police Report
— Hugo Castro, 28, who was wanted for questioning in San Jose, Calif., after his girlfriend was stabbed to death, presented himself at the county jail. The sheriff’s deputy listened, then suggested Castro go find a San Jose police officer. Castro did, and the deputy was subsequently reassigned.
— New Hampshire state police laid down spiked “stop sticks” in November to slow down Joshua Buzza, 37, near Greenland, N.H. Buzza was apprehended, but not before he managed to avoid the sticks while goading the drivers of three squad cars over them.
Fine Points Of The Law
— Daniel Darrington was spared a murder conviction even after he admitted he intentionally shot Rocky Matskassy at point-blank range to “relieve his suffering.” The Melbourne, Australia, jury decided that Matskassy, who was in pain from an earlier accidental shooting, was in fact already dead when Darrington shot him. However, under the law of the state of Victoria, Darrington’s action was still “attempted murder” because he believed that Matskassy was alive when he pulled the trigger.
Leading Economic Indicators
— Puerto Rico’s murder and manslaughter rate is four times higher than that of the 50 states, creating a “pool of organ donors in the 18-to-30 age range [that is] unmatched in the mainland,” according to an October Reuters report. Government officials hope a thriving transplant industry will bring Puerto Rico out of its economic doldrums by encouraging patients to spend money on hotels, transportation and food as they travel to the island in search of organs.
— At a ceremony in Kabul in November, prominent Afghan developer Khalilullah Frozi signed a $95 million contract to build an 8,800-unit township. He was toasted for his role in the country’s economic rebirth. But at nightfall, Frozi headed back to prison to resume his 15-year sentence for defrauding Kabul Bank of nearly $1 billion in depositors’ money. Because he remains one of Afghanistan’s elite, arrangements were made for him to work days but spend his nights in prison (in comfortable quarters). Said one Western official, “If you have stolen enough money, you can get away with it.”
First-World Spending
According to estimates released by the National Retail Federation in September, 157 million Americans planned to celebrate Halloween by spending a total of $6.9 billion, of which $2.5 billion would be for costumes. That latter total included $350 million for dressing up family pets.
Unclear On The Concept
A Liberty, Mo., sheriff’s deputy politely declined to identify the local man who allowed a “controlled” garbage burn to escalate. The man decided to try extinguishing the fire by driving back and forth over it in his van. But the tires caught fire. Of course, the van had a gas tank. It also carried a number of firearms and boxes of ammunition. The van was a total loss. The sheriff’s department said it doubted an insurance claim would be filed.
Wait, What?
Darren Paden, 52, confessed when he was arrested for a 10-year pattern of sexual abuse of a girl that began when she was 4. But, for some reason, many Dearborn, Mo., townspeople, turned on the girl victim. Paden, the volunteer fire chief in the 500-person town, is apparently a beloved neighbor who boasts of a lifetime of good deeds. The victim, now 18, is largely “ostracized” and called a liar, according to an October Kansas City Star report. Even some who accept that the crimes were committed fear excessive punishment of a “good man.” Still, in October, the judge sentenced Paden to 50 years in prison.
Stable Vampires
Members of the New Orleans Vampire Assoc. are convinced that consuming other people’s blood prevents illness and provides energy. They seek blood donors who will be willing to sit for regular or occasional slicings or pin pricks for friendship or money. Though some members have gone full-gothic in dress and lifestyle, an academic researcher studying the community has concluded that, in general, the vampires exhibit no signs of mental illness.
Cliches Come To Life
— In December, 2010, Alkis Gerd’son moved out of student housing at Canada’s University of Victoria, which had been his home since 1991 even though he had not taken a class in 13 years. Gerd’son claimed he had various stress disorders. Until 2010, he stymied efforts to evict him by filing claims before human rights tribunals.
— Ricardo West, a professional Michael Jackson impersonator (“Michael Lives! The Michael Jackson Tribute Concert”) was charged in August, 2010, in Allen Park, Mich., with 12 counts of child molestation.
Cultural Diversity
Before the terrorist attacks rocked Paris, French President Francois Hollande and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani had been trying for some time to arrange a formal dinner during Rouhani’s planned visit to the city. France’s RTL radio news reported that dinner was apparently a bigger issue than nuclear weaponry, as Rouhani demanded an alcohol-free meal, which was nixed by Hollande, who insisted that the French never dine without wine.
Latest Religious Messages
— Texas has the loosest regulations for the home-schooling of children. Still, one El Paso family will have a day before the Texas Supreme Court after one of its children was reported to be declining to study because he felt education was useless since he was waiting to be “raptured.”
— U.S. courts are often allowing customers to sign away state and federal rights by agreeing to contracts providing that private arbitration for disputes in lieu of access to courts. Some contracts that are now considered legal explicitly require only religious resolutions — and not secular, constitutional ones. A November New York Times investigation examined contracts ranging from Scientology’s requirement that fraud claims by members be resolved only by Scientologists to various consumer contracts governing everything from home repairs to real estate sales which can be disputed only in the dockets of Christian clerics.
Least Competent Criminals
— In October, Rezwan Hussain, 29, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for the illegal drugs enterprise he ran from his mother’s basement in Rochdale, England. He had apparently avoided detection until March, when the Greater Manchester police arrived to question his brother. Hussain said his brother wasn’t home, and the police left. A frightened Hussain ran upstairs and began tossing 500 pounds of drugs out the window in preparation for his getaway. Police had not yet driven away. The first bag of a nearly $5 million stash landed right beside a police car.
— Nicholas Allegretto, 23, was convicted of shoplifting in Cambridge, England, in absentia. (He is still at large.) The prosecutor knows Allegretto is his man because, shortly after the February theft, police released a surveillance photo of Allegretto leaving the store with the unpaid-for item. Allegretto went to a police station to complain that the public picture made him look guilty. In fact, he claimed, he intended to pay for the item, but had gotten distracted. Besides, he added, his body language often looks somewhat “dodgy.”
Lowering The Bar For Zero Tolerance
The 6-year-old son of Martha Miele was given an automatic three-day suspension at Our Lady of Lourdes in Cincinnati after he imitated the actions of his favorite Power Rangers characters by pretending to shoot a bow and arrow at another student. Principal Joe Crachiolo was adamant, insisting that he had “no tolerance for any real, pretend or imitated violence.” An exasperated Martha Miele confessed she was at a loss as to how a 6-year-old boy is supposed to block out the concept of a super-hero fighter.
Compelling Explanations
— San Francisco’s SFGate.com reported on a discussion in an upscale neighborhood about whether a person who committed petty, nonviolent theft should be referred to by the “offensive” term “criminal.”
— Reginald Gildersleeve, 55, waved a gun as he threatened a clerk and tried to rob a store in Chicago on Halloween night. A customer who was licensed to carry drew his gun and killed Gildersleeve. Closer inspection revealed Gildersleeve’s “weapon” to be a paintball gun. The deceased man’s stepson complained that “Some people don’t actually know how to use guns. They go to firing ranges, but it’s not the same … as a bullet going into flesh. … Someone’s got to answer for that.”
Cavalcade Of Fetishes
— Among the 100 arrests Seattle police made in an October drug sting were those of a man, 63, and woman, 58, who were accused only of retail theft of $150,000 worth of goods, including 400 pairs of jeans. Police said the couple seemed to have an “insatiable appetite for denim.”
— In early November, police in Bethel, Conn., arrested Nelson Montalvo, 50, who was accused of taking 30 items of underwear from one home. Montalvo’s motive is being investigated. Police say his modus operandi was to remove items, cut holes in them and return them to the home.
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