Well Sweet Well

Firefighters were called to a 177-year-old house in Guilford, Conn., where a resident had fallen through a wood floor and dropped down 30 feet into a well. The victim treaded water for 25 minutes while responders worked to hoist them out. Apparently, the well had been covered over by an addition made to the home during a 1981 renovation. “Some of these older, historical homes may have hazards that were not updated by current code,” the Guilford Police Department tweeted. The victim was taken to the hospital but had only minor injuries.

I Drink A Little Beer

Devin Roberts, of Bardwell, Kan., caught the attention of local media after he was arrested three times in one week. Carlisle County Sheriff’s deputies first heard of Roberts when he called the sheriff’s office to say he had taken a case he found next to a dumpster that turned out to contain items belonging to the city. When officers arrived, they determined the case had been removed from a city building. The following Saturday, Roberts was accused of fighting with a grocery store clerk and making lewd comments to female employees. Sheriff William Gilbert found Roberts at his home, passed out in a running vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. He had left his 3-year-old son at home with another inebriated person. Finally, a few days later, when deputies pulled over a car on suspicion of drunken driving found Roberts in the passenger seat, drunk and in possession of alcohol, which violated the terms of his earlier bonds. Roberts faces multiple charges related to all three encounters.

Beat That Car With A Shovel

A 37-year-old man driving along a Lincoln, Neb., street came upon Dominic Kinser, who was beating a car with a shovel. After the man pulled over and got out of his car, Kinser turned his anger on him, according to police, yelling at him and then grabbing a rifle and pointing it at him. Kinser, who police determined owned the car, was charged with making terroristic threats and possession of a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony.

Can’t Mask His Feelings

Amber Gilles made news in San Diego, Calif., when she posted a photo of Starbucks barista Lenin Gutierrez, complaining that he “refused to serve me ‘cause I’m not wearing a mask. Next time I will wait for cops and bring a medical exemption.” Matt Cowan of Irvine, Calif., started a GoFundMe page to collect tips for the barista who “faced … a Karen in the wild,” and soon raised more than $100,000, which Gilles now claims she should get half of. “I’ve been discriminated against,” Gilles said, noting that hiring a lawyer to help her get her half was too expensive. She has started her own GoFundMe page to raise money. Gutierrez said he plans to use the money to further his education and follow his dream of becoming a dancer.

Drugs And Alligators

Officers from the Somerset County, Maine, Sheriff’s Department and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency searched the apartment of Jessica Hutchins, looking for drugs, which they found, according to Sheriff Dale Lancaster. “We also got an alligator out of her home,” he said. The 2-foot-long gator was being kept in Rubbermaid tubs. Lancaster said having an alligator in Maine is illegal unless one has the proper permits. Officers seized $12,000 worth of drugs along with the alligator. Hutchins and several accomplices were charged with a number of drug-related crimes. 

I’m Taking This Fire Truck To The Bar

Dawson Cody Porter, of Eagle River, Alaska, was arrested outside the Fisherman’s Bar after he arrived there in a stolen fire truck with its emergency lights flashing. Bristol Bay Borough police said Porter broke into the King Salmon Fire Station around 9 pm. He started the truck and drove it through the station’s closed bay doors, making his way west on the Alaska Peninsula Highway about 15 miles to Naknek. Police Chief John Rhyshek said Porter caused $10,000 in damage and put the fire truck out of commission.

Late Bloomer Much?

Retired wheat farmer Peter Grundy, of Denilliquin, New South Wales, Australia, has long wanted to sell his apartment in Melbourne so he can move to a retirement home. But he has been foiled by his 49-year-old daughter, Katrina, who refuses to move out. Grundy has taken his daughter to court to evict her, but she won’t budge, and Grundy is running out of options. “I’m sure it’s taken the bit of youth I had left in me,” said Grundy, describing his daughter as “very clever in legal terms.” Katrina contends her parents gave her the apartment, but a judge has dismissed that claim. “She has an enormous capability to come up with things we never heard of,” Grundy said.

Angry Animal

At the Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California, five acres around Manzanita Lake were shut down after a man was attacked by an otter. Park Superintendent Jim Richardson said the man was swimming in the river and came too close to the otter’s offspring, known as kittens. “It is significant anytime an animal attacks a human,” Richardson said. He did not believe the man was seriously injured, and he said the otter would not be relocated. “It’s the protective momma (doing her job), and the attack came as a surprise.”

Latest Religious Message

Maintenance workers pruning trees in Itaquirai, Brazil, discovered a compelling image in a fresh cut from a willow tree. Some of them were convinced that Jesus Christ was depicted in the wood grain of the branch. Odimar Souza, who was overseeing the work, posted the image online and explained that just before the image was discovered, the chain on the worker’s chainsaw broke and had to be replaced. Then, he said, “we cut this same trunk in two pieces and that was when this perfection appeared.”

Sign Of The Times

Is a perfect storm to strike down the long-maligned penny brewing? Earlier this year, the U.S. Mint cut back on coin production to keep its workers safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, people stopped spending, especially with cash, and word of a coin shortage spread, prompting some stores, such as Kroger, to start rounding their prices to avoid making coin change. Last year, the mint made more than 7 billion pennies, almost half of its total coin production. Each one-cent coin costs two cents to produce, putting the loss at more than $72 million. Still, the mint has no plans to eliminate the coin. It’s been up and running at full capacity since mid-June, and 40 percent of the coins it has produced since then have been pennies.

Leave The Nazi Flag Alone

Alexander Feaster, 44, was arrested and charged in Hunter, Okla., in the shooting of a 26-year-old woman who had been attending a party across the street from Feaster’s property. Garfield County Sheriff Jody Helm said that, on a dare, the woman tried to steal one of two Nazi swastika flags displayed in Feaster’s front yard. But “on the way back, someone hollered ‘gun.’ She dropped the flag … and shots were fired.” Police executing a search warrant on the home found more than a dozen guns and ammunition. Feaster was charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon and shooting with intent to kill. The woman is expected to survive.

Preordained

Justin Couch of Spring Hill, Fla., who sports a tattoo of a machete under his left eye, was arrested by the Hernando (Florida) County Sheriff’s Office for attacking a man with a machete. The adult male victim told officers Crouch forced him out of the home where he’d been living and began arguing with him “for no reason.” As the man attempted to gather his belongings from the home, deputies said, Couch allegedly hit the victim with the flat side of the machete’s blade, “then swung the machete at the victim’s face,” striking his arm with the blade as the man tried to ward off the blow. “The victim is currently unable to use or move his left hand due to the severity of the injury he sustained,” investigators said. Couch was arrested for aggravated battery.