Week in Review

COOKIES TO QATAR: Lt. Col. Ted Anders, stationed in Qatar since January, is used to getting care packages from home containing everything from the sports page to vitamins. He'll soon get something tastier in the mail: Girl Scout cookies, compliments of Junior Girl Scout Troop 1105 and his Town 'N Country neighbors.

"We knew Donna's husband was shipping out," said neighbor Lynette Peel. "She has two small children, and we knew we had to watch out for her."

That simple declaration evolved into an effort that included some of the Anders' neighbors, a nearby Pak Mail store and about 45 boxes of Girl Scout cookies.

One neighbor suggested they send something special to Anders and his unit in Qatar. Another, much younger, said, why not send all those Girl Scout cookies left over from the recent cookie sale? Another said, let's see if we can get the Girl Scouts to donate the cookies. A nearby Pak Mail store kicked in the $60 in postage.

Included in the parcel to Anders was a letter from 10-year-old Maureen McAuliffe, the Girl Scout who came up with the idea of sending the cookies. "We wanted to send you some cookies to remind you of your homes in America," she wrote. "You are in our hearts and we pray for your safe return to America."

TRUCK HITS RESTAURANT: A dump truck laden with dirt blew a tire, flipped on its side and careened into a Chinese restaurant in a strip shopping center on Thursday.

"I was in my office, looked up and saw the undercarriage, this big black mass," said Harry Wilkins, owner of the Cellular Phone Company in the Ascot Center at 12807 W Hillsborough Ave. "We heard this loud explosion. Glass was flying all over."

It was much more harrowing for a lone customer in the Cyber Takee Outee, a fast-food Chinese restaurant next door. "She jumped over the counter to save her life," said John Chin, the restaurant's manager.

The truck plowed into the Cyber Takee Outee on its side, shoving a parked car in ahead. The restaurant's customer, whose name was not released, was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. Little was left of the restaurant, except its sign.

The truck's right front tire blew out, causing the driver, Mike Sams, to lose control, said Aileen Gomez, Florida Highway Patrol community service officer.

The truck crossed three lanes of traffic, struck a curb in front of the shopping center, flipped on its side, spilled its load of dirt onto the parking lot and pushed a parked car ahead of it into the restaurant. Six other cars were damaged, three demolished.

"I held on the best I could," said Sams, 48, of Hudson, a driver for Orsello Trucking & Excavating Co. of Oldsmar. "Thank God there wasn't anyone in those cars."

Sams, who had bumps and bruises, was pulled from the wreckage by 19-year-old Jarrod Mattheus, who works in an office in the strip center, and a passerby.

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