Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
The bulletproof bra, and other New Year's tales
Early edition
By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN
Published January 2, 2007
There was no full moon on New Year’s Eve. But even if there had been, it wouldn’t be enough to explain all this.
A bullet fell from the sky just before midnight Sunday and lodged in 46 year-old Debbie Bingham’s left bra strap. She was sitting on a picnic bench, watching fireworks in St. Petersburg, and didn’t know what happened until her son saw blood drip from her arm. (She wasn’t badly injured.)
Police called to investigate a burglary at Northeast Park Baptist Church early Sunday morning found a trail of pickles. They followed it across the street to a shopping center, where they found 39-year-old David Palmer. Officers arrested him on a burglary charge.
And Fred Holley apparently was so excited about 2007 that he dialed 911 fourteen times Sunday to wish “everyone at Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department Happy New Year.”
The dispatchers apparently didn’t share his enthusiasm — the 46 year-old St. Petersburg man was arrested and charged with 911 abuse.
There’s more.
The Sheriff’s Office still is searching for whoever slashed the tires of 30 vehicles and several inflatable snowmen in Seminole over the weekend.
The weekend saw its share of unusual accidents.
Marcos Vazquez-Martinez, 34, pulled out of a mobile home park in Hillsborough County a little too quickly on New Year’s Day, losing control of his 1999 Chevy and ramming into a utility pole. The pole fell on Guadalupe Gasper, 24, of Dover, who was walking along Highway 60 and minding his business, the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputies cited Vazquez-Martinez for driving too fast for road conditions; Gasper was taken to Tampa General Hospital and his condition was not available Tuesday.
Schools weren’t spared, though students were gone for the holidays.
Tony Short, a 32-year-old transient, was arrested on charges he smashed through a window at Gibbs High School and cracked open three vending machines with a screwdriver.
Police say Short also is suspected of burglarizing 10 vending machines at Northeast High School this Christmas.
Contributing: Abbie Vansickle.
Research: Angie Drobnic Holan
[Last modified January 2, 2007, 20:58:49]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
