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Letter to the editor

Global bizarre

By Times Wires
Published February 20, 2008

Cookie caper

Funny money scores couple a thin mint

The worst thing that happened to the Girl Scouts of Westminster, Colo., last week was that they were able to make change for a $100 bill when someone bought cookies. Turns out, it was fake. "It felt and looked wrong and it was a quarter of an inch shorter than a $1 bill," said Jil Hennessey-Seabolt, the cookie director for Junior Girl Scouts Troop 2121. The couple explained that the bill went through the laundry. But they lied. So not only did the dastardly duo make off with boxes of seasonal sweetness, but they got $93.50 in change. In the end, it was okay for the Scouts, though. Someone who heard the story gave them $100. Aww.

Shots fired

With DVD in pocket, he's bulletproof

"I was saved by a DVD," Barry McRoy says. He isn't talking about some religious revival program he watched. McCroy, the fire and rescue director of Colleton County, S.C., was walking into a Waffle House when two men came in struggling over a gun. The gun went off, hitting McRoy in the stomach. But McRoy was wearing his jacket, and in the pocket was a DVD of a TV show about fire extinguishers someone gave him. That's what the bullet hit. One of the guys with the gun was arrested, but McRoy suffered only a bruise. "How lucky can you get?"

Poor monitoring

Shoe mishap leads to hallway pileup

An accident at a high school in Falkirk, Scotland, resulted in 25 students being injured. The accident occurred when a student lost her shoe in the hallway, and stopped to pick it up. Apparently, traffic was moving so fast in the hallway that students kept crashing into each other, and began piling up. One student compared the scene to a scene in The Wizard of Oz when the witch is trapped beneath the house. The injuries were minor, but the afflicted were sent home for the day, reports the Scotsman. How will they make sure nothing like this happens again? "It is very bizarre, and you can't ever legislate for the bizarre," said Judith Gillespie of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council.

Aggravated stupid

Random bragging leads to arrest

If you plan to make a phone call to proclaim, "I have killed them all," you should make sure that you a dial the phone number correctly, and b) that the person answering the phone will definitely know that you are talking about a video game triumph. Thomas Ballard of Dehli, La., made just such a call shortly after midnight on Monday, but forgot to make sure he was dialing the right number. So the person answering the phone was very concerned and called the police. Since she had caller ID, the police knew just where to go. According to the News Star of Monroe, La., they went to Ballard's place, listened to his story, determined there were no corpses and that he had killed all the video bad guys. They were just about to leave when they learned he was wanted in Baton Rouge on a five-year-old cocaine charge. He was arrested.

Compiled from Times wire services and other sources by staff writer Jim Webster, who can be reached at jwebster@sptimes.com.

[Last modified February 19, 2008, 23:46:27]