The skinny
By TIMES WIRES
Published April 4, 2007
WHO'S DUI?
DEFINITELY UNDER INFLUENCE, BUT DID THEY DRIVE?
DUI charges against one of the following people stuck. Guess which one:
- John Peragallo, 64, registered a 0.12 blood-alcohol level while driving a four-ton Zamboni at an ice rink in Morristown, N.J. Witnesses said he was speeding and almost crashed into the boards.
- Melissa Byrum York, 40, of Henager, Ala., went for a midnight horseback ride and is accused of being under the influence of a controlled substance, riding the horse in traffic and using it to ram into a police car.
It was York. A New Jersey judge said Peragallo was in the clear because he wasn't on a street and had no passengers. However, according to police reports, York resisted arrest, endangered the horse and was carrying a small pharmacy.
FUN WITH COPS
That's not John Spernak. Driving under an identity crisis
John Spernak has been arrested on charges that he was driving at more than 90 mph and crashed into a police car in Stratford, Conn. When he got out of the car, cops dropped him with a stun gun for good measure. When Spernak was asked to explain his actions, he said he was Vice President Dick Cheney. No you're not, the police told him. Okay, you got me: I'm actually Charlie's Angels star Jaclyn Smith. Police saw that as even less likely. So next he tried to pass himself off as the husband of Paris Hilton's sister. Before he could claim to be a landshark, the cops got tired of the game. He is being held for "evaluation."
His dog wouldn't bite, so he did
Two police officers on patrol in Cova da Moura, a neighborhood outside Lisbon, Portugal, confronted the owner of a pit bull, according to Diario de Noticias. The man did not have the dog leashed and muzzled, as is required. But he wasn't about to take the stern talking-to and told the dog to attack the officers. The eminently sensible pooch took off instead, leaving the man to face the cops. So he bit one of the cops on the wrist and managed to break the finger of the other before they were able to get him leashed and muzzled. The dog remains at large.
SHHH, THIS IS EXCITING!
Get your thrills, but get them quietly
Screaming has been banned on an amusement park thrill ride in Sacramento, Calif. Seems the Scandia Family Fun Center is in a residential area, and got a lot of complaints from neighbors about the noise. There are signs, and there are warnings, and there are suggestions. "If you feel like you might make noise, cover your mouth because if we can hear a noise we're required to take you off the ride," Steve Baddley, Scandia's general manager, told CBS-13. The silliness is overcome by the irony when you learn that the name of the ride you are not allowed to scream on is the Screamer.