Nebraska boy, 6, takes wheel as dad passes out

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. – Police say a 6-year-old boy grabbed the wheel of their pickup after his dad passed out from low blood sugar and kept them from crashing until a North Platte police officer could bring the truck to a halt.

Tustin Mains was in the back seat with his 3-year-old brother when he noticed that his dad, Phillip Mains, slumped down on Sunday evening while they were driving home from a restaurant.

"I remember getting up to about the mall — that was about 6:45," Phillip Mains told The North Platte Telegraph. "The next thing I remember was waking up to the officer and paramedics, and it was 8:15."

Tustin hopped up from the back seat to his father's lap so he could steer and see out the windshield.

His dad's foot had slipped off the accelerator, but even at idle the Chevrolet Avalanche was going an estimated 10-15 mph.

Other drivers noticed the boy driving the truck. Some maneuvered their vehicles in front or behind the pickup and turned on their emergency blinkers.

Tustin remained at the wheel for several blocks, even turning around when he got into a neighborhood he didn't recognize.

He was then spotted by North Platte officer Roger Freeze.

Freeze maneuvered his car near enough that he could stop, get out and run up to the pickup. The driver's side window was down, so Freeze reached in, grabbed the gearshift and rammed it into park.

North Platte Police Chief Martin Gutschenritter praised his officer and young Tustin.

"I will be issuing him a departmental citation for his quick, professional action on this case. That is also a very special young man. He was able to take quick action when his dad was incapacitated, and we are very proud of him, too," Gutschenritter said.

Tustin's dad was grateful to Freeze as well.

"To chase down a moving vehicle and get it stopped the way he did took a lot of nerve, and if it weren't for him, things could have turned out much worse."

For a kindergartner, Tustin did a pretty good job of driving. The pickup sustained only a minor scrape when it brushed a piece of a bridge as Tustin turned to head back into town.

When he saw his dad "fall asleep," Tustin said, he got scared, then got another fright when officer Freeze appeared at the driver's window.

But when Freeze brought the pickup to an abrupt halt?

"I was just happy," Tustin said.

Source

Blown-away Chihuahua reunited with owners

WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Michigan — Tinker Bell has been reunited with her owners after a 70-mph (113-kph) gust of wind picked up the six-pound (2.7-kilogram) Chihuahua and tossed her out of sight.

Dorothy and Lavern Utley credit a pet psychic for guiding them on Monday to a wooded area nearly a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where 8-month-old Tinker Bell had been last seen. The brown long-haired dog was dirty and hungry but otherwise OK.

The Utleys, of Rochester, had set up an outdoor display Saturday at a flea market in Waterford Township, 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. Tinker Bell was standing on their platform trailer when she was swept away.

Dorothy Utley told The Detroit News that her cherished pet "just went wild" upon seeing her.

Source

Foul-smelling man linked to money laundering

EUGENE, Ore. – Authorities said a man accused of money laundering was tripped up because he could have used a little cleansing himself.

Court records show that during his trips to a Eugene bank a man drew attention to himself because of a foul odor, possibly linked to fertilizer. A teller vomited. Customers complained. Authorities investigated.

After an Internal Revenue Service investigation into a drug operation involving high-potency marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms, a federal grand jury indicted the man.

He does not face drug charges, but he is accused of laundering cash in dozens of transactions totaling nearly $500,000 in 2007 and 2008.

Court records show he pleaded guilty in 1999 to manufacturing and delivering a controlled substance.
Source

Sneezing fit causes driver to crash into Ore. home

SALEM, Ore. – Add sneezing while driving to the list of potential safety hazards. Authorities said a sneezing fit caused 25-year-old Ramon Stephen Ayala to lose control of his vehicle Saturday and hit a home.

Marion County Sheriff's Office Cmdr. Kevin Schultz said Ayala sneezed as he headed toward an intersection around 1 a.m.

When he stopped sneezing, he had run a stop sign and tried to hit the brakes. But it was too late. Ayala's 2001 Volkswagen Jetta crashed into a corner of a house.

Schultz said a shower wall and bathtub were damaged, but no injuries were reported and Ayala was not cited.
Source

Church in 'great sex' sermons may get booted

MELBOURNE, Fla. – A church giving sermons about sex may have to find a new home. Brevard Public School District's risk-management department has threatened to boot New Hope Church out of Sherwood Elementary because of a worship series titled "Great Sex for You."

Church leaders mailed 25,000 fliers, asking residents "Is Your Sex Life A Bore?" The three-week program kicked off inside the school auditorium. Pastor Bruce Cadle had said the Christian church has been "shamefully silent" on the taboo topic.

Mark Langdorf, the director of risk management, says the mailers generated complaints, were not appropriate for elementary school children and shouldn't be used to advertise the sermon in the school.

Langdorf says the church's lease contract is under review.
Source

Swiss heartland voters ban nude hiking in Alps

APPENZELL, Switzerland – Voters in the heart of the Swiss Alps on Sunday passed legislation banning naked hiking after dozens of mostly German nudists started rambling through their picturesque region.

By a show of hands citizens of the tiny canton (state) of Appenzell Inner Rhodes voted overwhelmingly at their traditional open-air annual assembly to impose a 200 Swiss franc ($176) fine on violators.

Only a scattering of people on Sunday opposed the ban on the back-to-nature activity that took off last autumn when naked hikers — primarily Germans — started showing up in eastern Switzerland.

The cantonal government recommended the ban after citizens objected to encountering walkers wearing nothing but hiking boots and socks.

"The reactions of the population have shown that such appearances over a large area are perceived as thoroughly disturbing and irritating," the government said in a statement.

A similar legal move is expected in neighboring Appenzell Outer Rhodes with legislation being prepared against "this shameless behavior."

German Web sites promoting the activity describe it as "a special experience of nature, free and healthy" and said nude walking in the Alps has roots in antiquity.

The verdant Appenzell region has been regarded as a favorite, with trails the nudists regarded as off the beaten path.

The German sites also promote walks in France and in regions of Germany, where public nudity has roots going back to the 18th century through a movement that has come to be called "Free Body Culture." Nudism in more conservative areas of Switzerland is less common.

A similar legal move is expected in neighboring Appenzell Outer Rhodes. The nationalist Swiss People's Party has advised the cantonal parliament it is preparing legislation against "this shameless behavior."
Source

Chinese cyclist's subway quest leads to autobahn

BERLIN – German police say a Chinese cyclist's search for a Munich subway station ended with him pedaling for kilometers (miles) down the autobahn – oblivious to his mistake.

A patrol stopped the 26-year-old student on the A99 highway Saturday evening. He said he was at the end of an 80-kilometer (50-mile) ride from Augsburg.

A traffic police statement Sunday says he told officers he wanted to finish his journey by subway — so he followed blue signs with a "U," which mark subway stations in Germany.

Unfortunately, similar blue signs also mark diversions – "Umleitungen" in German – and they led him to the autobahn. Police say he was unaware of his mistake.

The man was fined €10 ($13) for illegal highway use and sent on his way with a map.
Source

One-eyed, 3-legged gator found on Florida beach

SEACREST BEACH, Fla. – It sounds more like something out of a freak show: a one-eyed, 3-legged alligator. The gator was captured Thursday morning in Seacrest Beach by Walton County officials. The animal was less than five feet long and had somehow found its way to the beach.

A family visiting from Chicago called it the perfect day at the beach. They learned how to tell apart an alligator from a crocodile.

The rare gator was taken to a safe location and returned without harm to the wild.
Source

Shark dumped on Aussie newspaper's doorstep

SYDNEY – Journalists have a lot to be nervous about lately: layoffs, furloughs, newspaper closures. But reporters at an Australian paper may have received the scariest threat of the day when a live shark was left on their doorstep.

Police said the two-foot creature was spotted early Wednesday by a man who was leaving a McDonald's restaurant next door to the offices of The Standard in the small Victoria state town of Warrnambool.

When police arrived, the animal — believed to be a relatively harmless Port Jackson shark — was still breathing, Warrnambool police Sgt. Tom Revell said Thursday.

So officers borrowed a bucket of water from McDonald's, placed the shark inside it and drove to a nearby pier, where they released the creature back into the ocean.

But why would someone dump a shark outside the newspaper?

"We've got no idea why," Revell said.

Nor does the newspaper's chief of staff, Glen Bernoth, who learned of the bizarre incident in a middle-of-the-night phone call from a friend who'd heard about it on his police scanner.

"Naturally, I assumed it was like some sort of prank or something, but I'd been asleep for a couple hours," Bernoth said with a laugh Thursday.

There are a couple of theories on the motive: Some readers were angered by a photograph the newspaper recently ran on its front page featuring a man who caught a large reef shark. Those upset by the photo didn't believe the creature should have been caught.

Another possibility, Bernoth says, is that the offering is somehow related to the local football club — named the Sharks.

"But that's just a stab in the dark," he said. "At the moment, we're sitting tight desperately hoping something will be revealed."
Source

Woman's underwire bra deflects bullet in Detroit

DETROIT – The metal underwire in a Detroit woman's bra was credited with deflecting a bullet fired at her during a break-in at a neighbor's home.

Detroit police Officer Leon Rahmaan said the 57-year-old woman apparently looked out her window Tuesday when one of three men fired the shot.

He said the slug smashed through her window pane before hitting the bra's underwire. It did not penetrate her skin.

Police said she may have gone to the window after a burglar alarm at the house next door sounded. Her neighbor was not at home at the time.

The suspects drove away after the shooting.

Source

Record try reaps 217K texts, $26K phone bill

PHILADELPHIA – Their thumbs sure must be sore. Two central Pennsylvania friends spent most of March in a text-messaging record attempt, exchanging a thumbs-flying total of 217,000. For one of the two, that meant an inches-thick itemized bill for $26,000.

Nick Andes, 29, and Doug Klinger, 30, were relying on their unlimited text messaging plans to get them through the escapade, so Andes didn't expect such a big bill.

"It came in a box that cost $27.55 to send to me," he said Tuesday. He said he "panicked" and called T-Mobile, which told The Associated Press it had credited his account and was investigating the charges.

The two Lancaster-area residents have been practically nonstop texters for about a decade since they attended Berks Technical Institute together.

That led Andes to search for the largest monthly text message total he could find posted online: 182,000 sent in 2005 by Deepak Sharma in India.

Andes and Klinger were able to set up their phones to send multiple messages. During a February test run they found they could send 6,000 or 7,000 messages on some days, prompting the March messaging marathon.

"Most were either short phrases or one word, 'LOL' or 'Hello,' things like that, with tons and tons of repeats," said Andes, reached by phone.

Andes sent more than 140,000 messages, and Klinger sent more than 70,000 to end the month with a total of just over 217,000, he said.

A spokesman for Guinness World Records didn't immediately return messages asking whether it would be certified as a record.

April came as a relief to Andes' wife, Julie, who had found his phone tied up with texting when she tried to call him on lunch breaks.

"She was tired of it the first few days into it," Andes said.
Source