The week in odd news: Bible drugs; Canal jump; Putin’s pup
FRIDAY THE 13TH: FLIGHT 666 MAKES IT SAFELY TO HEL
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Helsinki airport says Flight 666 has arrived safety in HEL — the airport code for the Finnish capital — for the last time.
The Finnair flight took off from Copenhagen, Denmark, in the 13th hour of Friday the 13th, headed for Helsinki Vantaa airport.
Finavia, which operates Finland’s 21 airports, says the flight landed eight minutes ahead of schedule at 3:47 p.m. local.
The flight started 11 years ago and has fallen on Friday the 13th 21 times with no reported ill effects.
Still, Finnair has decided to retire the flight number. As the carrier is switching around some flight numbers later this month, Flight AY666 will become AY954.
THE HIGH WAY TO HEAVEN? MAN WHO HID DRUGS IN BIBLE GETS JAIL
NORWALK, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut man who was caught hiding heroin in a Bible while on parole will spend another six months in jail.
The Hour reports 41-year-old Christopher Hayes, of Norwalk, was sentenced Thursday in Norwalk after pleading guilty to possession of narcotics and possession of narcotics with intent to sell.
Hayes had previously been sentenced to three years in jail followed by three years of special parole in 2013 for multiple convictions including larceny.
Prosecutors say police found cocaine and heroin in Hayes’ possession when they responded to reports of a disturbance in a Norwalk parking lot in July. Prosecutors say more heroin fell out of a Bible that Hayes owned when police shook out the pages of the book.
DRUGS IN PRAYER CARD WITH JESUS’ IMAGE MAILED TO INMATE
CONCORD, Mass. (AP) — Prison officials in Massachusetts say someone tried to send drugs to an inmate by mailing a laminated prayer card that contained wafer-thin strips of a prescription narcotic.
The Boston Globe reports that the state Department of Corrections discovered orange strips of Suboxone sandwiched inside the card, which featured an illustration of Jesus Christ and offered a prayer of comfort.
The card containing more than a dozen strips of the drug was mailed to an inmate housed at the state’s medium-security prison in Concord.
Authorities say the discovery was made Tuesday as guards were sifting through a prisoner’s mail.
Corrections spokesman Chris Fallon says Suboxone is in demand and inmates are “always coming up with creative ways” to obtain it.
POLICE: MAN STRIPPED NAKED IN MASSAGE CHAIR, PUNCHED GUARD
LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — Police say a New Jersey man got a little too comfortable in a massage chair at a mall.
Police in Lawrence Township said that 51-year-old Joseph Michalski took his clothes off in a massage chair at the Quaker Bridge Mall on Tuesday.
Authorities say when a mall security guard asked the Hamilton resident to put his clothes back on, Michalski punched him in the face. Police said the guard then wrestled the man to the ground before police arrived.
Michalski was charged with lewdness and simple assault. The guard was not seriously hurt.
A phone number for Michalski could not be located.
GERMAN MAN IN HOT WATER FOR RUNNING TAPS NON-STOP FOR A YEAR
BERLIN (AP) — A man in the northern German city of Salzgitter is in hot water after police allege that he left his bath and sink faucets running for at least a year, causing “massive damage” to his apartment building.
Salzgitter police said the 31-year-old, who also had his toilet running non-stop, is thought to have used 7 million liters (1.85 million gallons) of water over the past year.
Police told the dpa news agency Friday they had been called by the building’s management after the man had allegedly plugged the drains recently and the water started leaking through the building. He reportedly fought with police when they arrived Thursday and had to be subdued with pepper spray.
DRIVER TELLS TROOPERS THAT CAR CHASE WAS ON HIS BUCKET LIST
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa State Patrol says a man pulled over in Des Moines after a car pursuit told state troopers that he wanted to be chased because it was on his bucket list.
Des Moines television station KCCI reports that the man refused to halt a little before 7:30 a.m. Thursday when a trooper tried to stop him over a violation on Interstate 80. The 10- to 15-minute chase ended soon after he left the interstate. He was taken into custody.
That’s when the 46-year-old Des Moines resident shared his bucket list story with troopers. Court records don’t yet show that he’s been charged.
State Patrol Sgt. Scott Bright told The Associated Press that he’d never heard such an excuse in his 28 years of policing.
POCKET PINCH: MAN ARRESTED AFTER RANDOM 911 CALLS BY CELLPHONE
SEBRING, Ohio (AP) — Police in Ohio say they’ve arrested a man after receiving random 911 calls for months from his apparently malfunctioning cellphone.
The Review in Alliance reports Sebring police arrested 33-year-old Nathan Hawkins Oct. 5 on a felony charge of disrupting public service. Hawkins’ attorney didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment Thursday.
Dispatchers in the northeast Ohio village say they received at least 20 emergency calls from Hawkins’ cellphone from January through August.
Police say they told Hawkins that he could have found ways to prevent the calls from continuing. Police say Hawkins told them that he sometimes sleeps with the phone in his pocket and it just calls 911.
Police indicate Hawkins was warned previously that he would be arrested if they continued receiving 911 calls for no reason.
SKINNY DIPPERS DISRUPT MASSACHUSETTS WEDDING RECEPTION
SALISBURY, Mass. (AP) — A pair of skinny-dippers gave a wedding reception at a scenic Massachusetts restaurant more of a view than expected.
Zachary Tomko tells WHDH-TV he didn’t realize there was a restaurant nearby when he and Holly O’Neil jumped naked into the water at Salisbury Beach on Saturday.
Salisbury Police Chief Thomas Fowler tells The Boston Globe his department received several calls about the nude swimmers from both beachgoers and members of the wedding party.
Fowler says police charged 29-year-old Tomko and 20-year-old O’Neil, of Londonderry, New Hampshire, with disorderly conduct.
Bride Leah Allen says the swimmers made for a “really interesting wedding day,” and she applauded them for braving the cold water.
INSTEAD OF DRIVING A FEW BLOCKS, MAN TRIES TO JUMP CAR ACROSS CANAL
LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a man tried to jump his car over a canal in a Florida neighborhood, but didn’t make it.
WFTX reports that the car had be towed from the Lehigh Acres canal on Tuesday after it failed to clear the 20 feet (6 meters) between both sides.
Before attempting the jump, witnesses were quoted as telling the television station, the man drove to the edge of the canal and got out of the car to observe the distance.
Lee County deputies say the man wasn’t injured, but the Toyota Corolla was totaled.
Investigators say they weren’t sure why the man attempted the jump, noting he could have driven a few blocks to get to the other side.
No charges were reported, and the man wasn’t identified.
BREAKING MAD: ‘BREAKING BAD’ HOUSE GETS FENCE TO BLOCK FANS
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The real Albuquerque house made famous by the methamphetamine-making character Walter White in the AMC-TV hit series “Breaking Bad” is getting a fence.
The owners are installing a 6-foot (2 meter) wrought iron fence on the front of the house used in the series, starring Bryan Cranston. The move comes after the owners have complained of countless fans wanting snapshots and selfies of the house.
Joanne Quintana tells KOB-TV that she loses count of the number of weekly visitors to the house that her mother owns. She said the tourists have caused disruptions that have made them fearful to leave the property unattended.
Some tourists have even told them “to close our garage” and “get out of the picture,” Quintana said.
Construction on the fence in underway, and Quintana says people have already tried to climb around the construction to snap a photo.
On Friday, a worker was seen placing poles and two women in chairs outside of the house’s open garage yelled at visitors trying to take photos. One woman shouted expletives at an Associated Press reporter snapping images of the house and demanded the reporter stay away from property.
“Breaking Bad” follows Walter White, played by Cranston, producing and selling methamphetamine with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, played by Aaron Paul.
The show ended in 2013, but tourism companies in Albuquerque still embrace the drug-addled series and give “Breaking Bad” tours showcasing spots made popular in the show.
The Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau created a website of the show’s most popular places around town to help tourists navigate. The Walter White house is not listed. however. Still, a number of fan sites give the address and photos of the house are posted on Instagram almost every day.
A prequel to the show, “Better Call Saul,” is filming its fourth season and recently shot scenes near the Albuquerque bureau of The Associated Press.
HALF-SMOKED WINSTON CHURCHILL CIGAR SELLS FOR $12,000
BOSTON (AP) — A cigar half-smoked by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during a 1947 trip to Paris has sold for just over $12,000 during an online auction.
Boston-based RR Auction says the 4-inch (10-centimeter) cigar was bought Wednesday evening by a collector from Palm Beach, Florida. The buyer’s name wasn’t released.
The auction company says Churchill smoked the cigar on May 11, 1947, at Le Bourget Airport. Included in the auction was a photo signed by the prime minister that shows him with the cigar in his hand at the airport.
RR Auction says a British airman, Cpl. William Alan Turner, kept the cigar after his crew flew Churchill and his wife to and from Paris.
The label on the La Corona cigar from Havana, Cuba, includes Churchill’s name.
GREAT PUMPKINS! GROWER WINS TRIFECTA OF GIANT FOOD TITLES
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Rhode Island grower is first in the world to achieve a trifecta in the hobby of growing gargantuan foods: world records for heaviest pumpkin, longest long gourd and now, heaviest squash.
After previously breaking two records, Joe Jutras got his third during the weekend when smashed the giant squash record with one that weighed more than a ton. His green squash tipped the scales at 2,118 pounds (960 kilograms) during a weigh-in at Frerichs Farm in Warren.
His other titles came in 2006, when broke the record for longest gourd, with a 126.5-inch (3.21-meter) gourd, and in 2007, when he broke the record for largest pumpkin, with a fruit that weighed in at 1,689 pounds (766 kilograms). Both previous records have since been surpassed, but Jutras is the only grower so far to break world records in the three most competitive categories.
“It feels great,” Jutras said Monday. “It’s really been a goal of mine to try to achieve this.”
Jutras has been working on the trifecta for a decade, since his pumpkin win. He was close to the goal a few years ago, but then a squash on track to break the record split. Now 62, Jutras recently retired from his work as a high-end cabinet maker to devote more time to his hobby.
Jutras noted that others had won multiple world records for fruits and vegetables before, but in categories such as carrots that are not as competitive.
He credits a new soil cultivation technique and a seed from last year’s world record breaker for this year’s win.
Ron Wallace, a multi-time pumpkin record breaker, called Jutras’ feat “unbelievable.” He said Jutras’ accomplishment showed the best of the hobby. “It’s about people competing and pushing the boundaries,” he said.
Jutras said his fruit is headed to New York City, where it will be on display this month at the New York Botanical Garden.
In February, he’ll receive a coveted “green jacket” honor for his squash record during at the annual convention in Oregon of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, considered the NFL of giant fruit and vegetable growing.
Asked what he plans to do next after achieving the trifecta, he said he’s been thinking about the bushel gourd.
“I think the record now is about 279 pounds,” Jutras said. “That might be something I might want to get into a bit.”
HEAVIEST IS BEST: PUMPKIN SETS RECORD AT CALIFORNIA CONTEST
HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (AP) — The winner of the 44th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off had the heaviest pumpkin recorded in the history of the San Francisco Bay Area competition.
The Orange County Register reports (http://bit.ly/2yd5T5Q ) that a forklift hoisted the giant pumpkin onto a scale and a crowd watched as it was weighed Monday in downtown Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco. It registered 2,363 pounds (1,070 kilograms) to make it the seventh win for grower Joel Holland.
The giant pumpkin earned the Sumner, Washington, man prize money of $7 per pound.
Cindy Tobeck won the competition last year with a pumpkin weighing 1,910 pounds. Tobeck rode on top of her entry this year as it was brought to the scale, but its 2,002 pounds fell short of Holland’s entry.
POLICE: MAN CALLS IN BOMB THREAT TO AVOID PAYING BAR TAB
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pittsburgh man has been arrested after police say he called in a false bomb threat to try and get out of paying his restaurant bill.
WPXI-TV reports (http://bit.ly/2ycHWuU ) 40-year-old Barry Clapperton faces charges that include threats to use weapons of mass destruction, public drunkenness and false identification to police.
A witness says Clapperton tried to leave multiple times without paying for his meal at Primanti Brothers. Police were called to the scene, and another person paid for Clapperton’s bill.
Police say they were about to let the man leave when bomb threat was called in to a nearby restaurant. Authorities say they used a stun gun to subdue Clapperton after he ran from the restaurant.
Police say Clapperton acknowledged he called in the false threat to create a distraction.
DUAL DUEL? SCHOOL LOCKED DOWN AFTER STUDENTS FIGHT, THEN PARENTS BRAWL
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say a New York high school had to be placed on lockdown after a fight broke out among students and another brawl erupted when their parents arrived.
Police tell the Poughkeepsie Journal that at least 10 officers were sent to Poughkeepsie High School just before noon Tuesday after a fight broke out among students.
Police say the students’ parents later arrived and got into a fight as well.
School district officials say an external threat required administrators to put the high school under a shelter-in-place warning until the threat was contained.
Police Sgt. George Camacho says he doesn’t have details of the two fights or information on whether charges were filed.
IMPATIENT MOM GETS JAIL TIME FOR PULLING GUN ON SON’S BARBER
CLEVELAND (AP) — A woman accused of pulling a gun on a Cleveland barber because he was taking too long to cut her 7-year-old son’s hair has been sentenced to six months behind bars.
Thirty-one-year-old Andrea Smith was sentenced Tuesday. She previously pleaded guilty to menacing, child endangering and carrying a concealed weapon.
Smith apologized at sentencing and acknowledged she briefly pulled a handgun from her purse at a barber school in April and that she had no license to carry the weapon. But she denied waving it or threatening the barber as police alleged.
No one was hurt. Police say Smith put away the gun after another employee helped to calm her. The barber finished the haircut, and then Smith left with her children.
TV NEWS REPORT LEADS MAN TO OLD SHIRT, $24 MILLION JACKPOT
NEW YORK (AP) — A New Jersey man says a television news report led him to check lottery tickets he had stuffed in an old shirt, and one was a $24 million winner.
Jimmie Smith, of East Orange, claimed a $24.1 million New York lottery jackpot on May 23, two days before the prize would have expired.
The New York Lottery released his name Wednesday after a review was completed.
The retired security guard told lottery officials he’s been buying lottery tickets in New York and New Jersey since the 1960s but doesn’t rush to see whether he’s won. He said he’d check them when he had the time.
Smith says he bought the ticket from a grocery and tobacco shop in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood.
He chose to receive the payout over 26 years.
DEER RUNS THROUGH MICHIGAN MEDICAL OFFICE
SPRING LAKE, Mich. (AP) — Authorities say a deer crashed through a window of a western Michigan medical office, ran through it and out another window.
The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department says the deer was last seen running across a street Thursday afternoon after leaving Lakeshore Family Care in Spring Lake, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Grand Rapids.
Medical assistant Marcia Jones tells the Grand Haven Tribune she was preparing to give a 61-year-old woman a flu shot when the deer came crashing through a window. Jones says she left the examining room and the buck followed her out.
Office manager Connie McKellips said the buck paused momentarily, then ran through a small waiting area and out a front window.
Jones said they found its nine-point antlers outside the window.
Nobody was hurt.
DOG DAYS? IN ITALY, COUNT THEM LIKE FAMILY SICK DAYS
ROME (AP) — An Italian librarian who says her English setter is her family has won the right from her employer to use family sick leave to care for her ailing pet instead of having to use vacation days.
Italian animal advocacy group LAV says it helped persuade public La Sapienza University to let her use two days’ family sick leave to care for 12-year-old Cucciola. LAV president Gianluca Felicetti says in a statement anyone who obtains a veterinarian’s certificate should enjoy the same benefit, citing Cucciola’s case as precedent.
The woman said Cucciola is recovering well from surgery for a breast tumor and a larynx problem. The woman, who is single and has no family help for Cucciola, declined to be identified. She adopted Cucciola, found abandoned in a Rome park.
NEW JERSEY HOME STALKED BY ‘THE WATCHER’ UP FOR SALE AGAIN
WESTFIELD, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey house whose current owners were scared off the property by a creepy letter writer known as “The Watcher” is up for sale again.
Derek and Maria Broaddus bought the Westfield home in 2014, but they didn’t move in after receiving the first of four letters from the anonymous stalker. The family tells NJ.com (http://bit.ly/2kG79Jq ) that the letter writer requested information about their children.
The house, which went up for sale on Monday, was previously listed in March 2016.
The Broadduses say they can’t live in the house because of the letters, which they say came from someone with a “mentally disturbed fixation” on the home. They say they received the last letter earlier this year.
Westfield police have previously said there’s no suspect in the case.
TURTLE THAT SWALLOWED FISHING LINE RELEASED IN OCEAN
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A sea turtle that swallowed more than 4 feet (1 meter) of fishing line has been released in the Atlantic Ocean off South Carolina’s coast after undergoing surgery.
The South Carolina Aquarium said in a news release Monday that Peach was returned to the ocean at Folly Beach on Monday after recovering from the surgery to remove the fishing line.
Peach is a 55-pound female Kemp’s ridley turtle and had the surgery after being found last summer in Charleston Harbor.
The Department of Natural Resources found Peach with fishing line around her head, neck and left front flipper, in addition to running down her mouth into her intestines.
She’s been tagged with a satellite transmitter that will allow scientists to study how Kemp’s ridley turtles move during the winter months.
RUSSIA’S DOG-LOVING LEADER GETS ANOTHER PUPPY AS GIFT
MOSCOW (AP) — Another summit, another dog.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday added a puppy to the litter of canine companions he’s received as gifts. This one is a Central Asian Shepherd bestowed by the president of the ex-Soviet nation of Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov presented Putin with the puppy as a birthday gift. Putin, an avid dog lover, turned 65 over the weekend.
Putin cuddled Verny, which is Russian for “loyal,” and kissed the pup on the head during a meeting in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Putin previously received a Bulgarian shepherd named Buffy from Bulgaria’s premier in 2010 and an Akita named Yume from a Japanese official in 2012.
Konnie, a black Labrador of Putin’s who was famous for terrifying German Chancellor Angela Merkel, died a few years ago. Putin received Konnie as a gift from a Russian official in 1999.
The Russian leader also has been given horses and even a tiger.
