The Odd Truth, Oct. 4, 2003

The Odd Truth is a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world compiled by CBSNews.com's Brian Bernbaum. A new collection of stories is published each weekday. On weekends, you can read a week's worth of The Odd Truth.

SULTAN, Wash. - An animal rights group's plan to free 10,000 minks from a farm turned deadly after many of the emancipated mustelids became cannibals while others went on a carnivorous feeding frenzy.

About 9,000 of the freed minks have been returned to Roesler Brothers Fur Farm since the Aug. 25 break-in, but keeping them alive has been a challenge.

Normally, only siblings are caged together, but workers cannot readily determine which of the recaptured minks are related, said Kate Roesler.

"The mink are fine when they're litter mates together, but when they're not they're quite vicious and they're cannibals," Roesler said. "They do eat each other, and that's what we're battling."

Days after the break-in, starving minks attacked a menagerie of exotic birds, a flock of chickens and even a Labrador retriever.

A few minks have been seen recently eating fish along local rivers and one turned up last week at a fruit stand on the edge of this town about 40 miles northeast of Seattle.

About 1,000 are still missing.

The Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility and the FBI is investigating. No arrests have been reported.

Fur Commission USA is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrests and convictions of those responsible.

Beeten To The Punch

MOORHEAD, Minn. - This hijacker couldn't beet the rap and ended up in a pickle.

Authorities say a man with a knife hijacked a sugar beet truck and threatened the driver. The truck then collided with another truck before the suspect was apprehended by other truckers.

"It's the first beet truck hijacking I've ever heard of," Clay County Sheriff Bill Bergquist said.

Mandy Fulsebakke, of Fargo, said she was driving a beet truck into a field at a beet piling station early Thursday when the hijacker approached.

"A man pulled in behind me," Fulsebakke said. "As I was getting out of my truck, he got out of his car, came up to me and started asking me some really bizarre questions.

"He showed me that he had a knife, ordered me back to my truck and told me to drive," Fulsebakke said.

The hijacker choked her and threatened to kill her, she said.

"He had the knife held against my head and neck," she said.

Fulsebakke said she was able to signal to another driver and jump out of the truck. The other driver called for help. Authorities say other truck drivers held the suspect until he was taken into custody.

"We were told that (the hijacker) got angry at something or somebody there, and when the manager was called, he had already left the beet plant," Bergquist said.

Set In Stone

LONDON - A peace activist attempted to pay a court fine with a check chiseled on a small tombstone Friday, as a protest at the number of civilians killed in the recent war in Iraq.

Court officials refused to accept the check.

Nick Buxton, a 31-year-old aid worker from London, was fined $200 for blocking the entrance to a military base in January.

His "check," complete with account number signature, was made from cast stone and weighed about five pounds. On the reverse side was written "RIP 25,000 dead in Iraq" - a "conservative estimate," Buxton said, of the number of civilians killed in the Iraq conflict.

The Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS), the British trade association of banks and building societies, said a check can be written on anything and be legally valid as long as all the proper details are included.

"The classic example was someone who wrote a check on the side of a live cow, while others have written checks on clothing, or on paving stones," said Stephanie Watson, a spokeswoman for APACS.

"However, the payee can always refuse a check, just as a shopkeeper can demand to be paid in cash," she said.

Probation Officer Nabbed In Sex Scam

NEW YORK - A probation officer was charged Wednesday with offering to give a favorable review of one of her teenage clients in exchange for sex with him, the city's department of investigation said.

Nicole Waite, 36, of Brooklyn, was charged with bribe receiving and official misconduct. She could face up to seven years in prison if convicted.

Investigators said Waite was assigned to conduct a pre-sentencing report with the 17-year-old boy in April 2003. The reports typically describe the person's family background, criminal history and statements and are used by judges when determining sentences or probation periods.

Waite told the teen to meet her three times in May. The first time she gave the teen wine and had sex with him, Hearn said. The second time she allegedly ordered him to go to her office at Manhattan's Criminal Court building with a condom. When he showed up without the condom, Waite performed oral sex on him, Hearn said.

The third meeting was at a hotel in Harlem, where Waite smoked marijuana and drank alcohol with the teenager and had sex with him, Hearn said.

She later told him over the telephone to lie to police about what had happened, according to the criminal complaint.

Waite hadn't been arraigned as of late Wednesday. There was no telephone listing for the lawyer the department of investigation said it believed was representing her.

That's How The Cookie Crumbles

LONDON - Why does a cookie crumble? Using a laser beam to closely monitor the fault lines of cookies emerging from an oven, a doctoral student appears to have figured out how bakers can stop disappointing their customers by shipping crumbled ones.

In fact, the discovery could result in the perfect cookie, or "biscuit," as it is called in Britain.

Customers who find crumbled cookies in their packages often blame mishandling by the manufacturer, the shipping company or workers who load supermarket shelves.

But that's not what Qasim Saleem, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering at Loughborough University in Leicestershire, and his colleagues discovered.

The discovery was published Thursday in Measurement Science and Technology, a journal of the Institute of Physics in London.

Saleem and his colleagues closely monitored the surface of cookies as they cooled to room temperature.

Using a laser beam, the students followed the tiny deformations that evolve as the cookie picks up moisture around the rim, which causes it to expand, while losing moisture at the center, which causes it to contract. The resulting strains can pull the cookie apart, or leave it more vulnerable to breakage before purchase.

"We now have a greater understanding of why biscuits develop cracks shortly after being baked," Saleem said.

He said the discovery should help cookie manufacturers adjust the humidity and temperature of their production lines to minimize cracking.

Lotto Victim Finds Justice

POMONA, Calif. - A jury recommended Tuesday that a former convenience store clerk should receive $8 million because her boss allegedly cheated her out of a winning lottery ticket worth millions, attorneys said.

Arwa Farraj was given about $3.98 million for the value of the ticket and $3.98 million for emotional distress in the verdict against the Circle K store chain and her former boss, Gurinder Ruby. The value of the ticket was based on the actual amount before taxes plus accruing interest, attorneys said.

Jurors deliberated for a day after the trial, which began Sept. 17 in Superior Court, and found the defendants liable for fraud and conversion.

"I am grateful to the jury for seeing the truth and for declaring me the rightful owner of the winning lottery ticket," said Farraj, a Jordanian who immigrated to the United States in 1992, in a statement issued by her attorneys. "As a newcomer to the United States, I really have faith in how the American justice system works."

Farraj claimed she bought a Quick Pick California SuperLotto ticket on Christmas Day in 1999 while working as a clerk at a La Verne store.

Ruby allegedly tricked her into believing the ticket was worth $88 instead of $8 million, then cashed it in and received about $2.56 million after taxes, Farraj's attorneys said. Circle K received a $40,000 commission for being the winning store, her lawyers said.

It's Raining Frogs In Conn.

BERLIN, Conn. - Hurricane Isabel brought unholy high winds and lashing rain to the East Coast. It also dumped something almost biblical on Connecticut.

Primo D'Agata was startled by what he thought was hail smacking on his porch Sept. 19 as the remnants of Isabel moved through the state. But when he went outside to investigate, D'Agata discovered tiny, gelatinous eggs with dark spots in the middle.

It had apparently been raining frogs.

Since no frogs in Connecticut lay eggs this late in the year, scientists and naturalists speculate they may have come up from North Carolina or another warm location on the winds of Isabel.

D'Agata brought a bowl of his mysterious find to a nearby nature center, after the town's animal control officer couldn't identify what had arrived in his yard.

Nicolas Diaz, a naturalist and teacher at New Britain Youth Museum at Hungerford Park, took a look at D'Agata's bowl and told him it looked like amphibian eggs.

D'Agata is keeping two small, water-filled glass jars of the eggs to see if any of them will hatch. He said a few seem to have sprouted what look like a tail.

"I'm going to let them sit and see what happens," D'Agata said Wednesday.

Truck Stolen, Back

CRESCENT CITY, Calif. - When Joe Francis' truck was stolen, he didn't get mad.

He just stole it back.

Francis was upset when the truck vanished from outside his work Monday - he didn't have insurance to replace it.

Francis was on his way to Brookings, Ore., to buy a new car Tuesday when he spotted the purloined truck headed the other way. He swung around and followed.

"It was pretty lucky on my part and pretty stupid on his part for driving the truck around here," Francis said.

He trailed the truck until the driver parked at a home and went inside.

Francis, armed with a can of pepper spray, slipped into the truck and drove it away.

"I knew the key gets stuck in the ignition, so I figured it would be in there. That's probably why it got stolen in the first place," Francis said.

Francis quickly called the California Highway Patrol, and officers showed up to arrest a Folsom State Prison parolee.

Doc Caught With Dead Woman's Breast Implants

LUBBOCK, Texas - A Texas medical examiner is in hot water - for keeping the breast implants of a dead woman. Doctor Jerry Spencer was questioned after a visitor to his Lubbock office complained he was displaying the implants. Texas Tech, where Spencer also teaches, operates the ME's office for the county. Authorities say they'll wait until the school completes its investigation before determining if a criminal probe is warranted. The DA's office says possible charges could include theft from a corpse.

Live Free-er Or Die?

CONCORD, New Hampshire - A group of Libertarians wants to give people in the "Live Free or Die" state even more freedom.

A group called the Free State Project announced that it's chosen New Hampshire for its new campaign. The group plans to get 20,000 Americans to migrate to New Hampshire - and start transforming it into a "free state" with fewer laws, smaller government and greater liberty.

Organizers say 5,000 members have already pledged to move. They hope to increase that number to 20,000 - and start to work on steps such as decreasing restrictions on gambling and medicinal marijuana and strengthening gun rights.

McKinstry said New Hampshire won because it "boasts the lowest state and local tax burden in the continental U.S., the leanest state government in the country, a citizen legislature, a healthy job market, and perhaps most important, local support for our movement."

Project members also like the New Hampshire Constitution, which is seen as protecting the right to revolution. It reads: "Whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government."

These potential new neighbors are worrying some New Hampshire residents. One Democratic political activist described the group as "anarchists."

New Hampshire beat out nine other finalists for the Free State Project. Wyoming was the runner-up, followed by Montana, Idaho, Alaska and Maine.

Oops! Murder Evidence Left In Cop's Sock Drawer

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida - An officer accused of wrongful arrest testified that he forgot he had an audiotape in his sock drawer that could have cleared two murder suspects.

Broward County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Thomas "Bill" Murray said Tuesday that the tape of informants implicating two other men was in his drawer for eight months before the state Department of Law Enforcement asked for it.

"I completely forgot about it," Murray said. "I didn't do it intentionally."

Stephen Rosati and Peter Roussonicolos spent 16 months in jail for the 1986 murder of Joseph Viscido Jr. before they were cleared in 1992.

They claim that Murray and two other officers forced witnesses to identify the wrong men and hid or ignored the evidence that cleared them.

Their lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Both men named on the tape were eventually charged. James Traina was convicted of killing Viscido, and Kerry Carbonell committed suicide before his trial on murder charges.

Merely A Flesh Wound

BURNABY, British Columbia - How do you define tough guy?

This true story from Burnaby may provide an answer.

On Tuesday, an 80-year-old World War II vet and former tradesman was doing some welding outside his home when he caused an oil tank to explode.

He suffered first and second degree burns to 40 per cent of his body, but didn't think his injuries were serious enough to call 911.

Instead, he went inside, took off his burned clothes and cut off his singed hair.

He then jumped in a cool bath and later put vitamin E cream on his burns.

Only then did he call an ambulance, although he didn't use the emergency line because he didn't believe the situation warranted it.

RCMP Constable Phil Reid says the "tough as nails" character - who's name wasn't released - then went outside and waited for the ambulance.

He's now in a hospital recovering.

Soldier On Home Leaves Wins $150 M

ATLANTA - Army Sgt. Stephen Moore has millions of reasons to fondly remember his home leave.

Moore, 30, visiting family members during his 30-day leave from South Korea, bought the winning Mega Millions ticket for Tuesday night's drawing at a convenience store in the south Georgia city of Fitzgerald.

His haul? A cool $150 million.

Moore, a chemical specialist, said he was out with his brother Tuesday night, and when he returned he found his wife, Danielle, waiting for him.

"She came out the door, and I thought I was in trouble," Moore said. "She said, 'Guess what, we won the lottery!"'

Moore said the family began calling other relatives to let them know of their good fortune.

"I told my mom to go ahead and quit work," Moore said.

He said he plans to build a new home for his wife and two daughters. Danielle Moore, also an army sergeant, said the two were married by a justice of the peace, and now she wants a dream wedding.

The Worst Wrong Number

MORRILTON, Ark. - Police officer Sonny Stover reached out and touched someone - with handcuffs. The lawman recently changed his mobile phone number. He says he got several calls on his new number from a stranger who wanted to buy a "quarter bag." The caller ended up buying a whole lot of trouble, too. Police set up a sting operation, using an undercover officer and arrested Victor Purifoy. He's been charged with misdemeanor possession of pot and has a court date next Monday.

'God' Snipped From City Hall

SPARKS, Nev. - Just exactly who is blessing America around here, anyway?

Patriotic signs showing an American flag and the words "God Bless America" have been displayed at City Hall since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But city attorney Chet Adams, concerned the reference to God could be construed as an endorsement of religion and attract lawsuits, ordered that the signs be altered.

Using scissors, a municipal employee edited the Almighty out of the signs, which now read, "Bless America."

"Who is blessing America? Well, I don't know who is blessing America, but I think a court would say the word 'bless' is OK," said Adams.

"I hope I didn't exacerbate the situation," he said. "Maybe it should just say 'America' on there."

Adams said recent controversies - including the removal of a monument bearing the 10 Commandments from a courthouse in Alabama - make displaying the word "God" inside City Hall inadvisable.

"My experience is that people will sue for any reason under the sun because they feel it's their God-given right to do so," Adams said.

Some city workers were taken aback by Adams' decision, including Jan Holman, the employee who did the snipping.

"I just think it's such a sad state of affairs that we can't express ourselves fully because it might offend someone," Holman said.

New Record Set For Eating M&Ms With Chopsticks

OAKLAND, Calif. - Three minutes after Jim Hager started eating M&Ms with a pair of chopsticks, he was headed for the Guinness Book of World Records.

The 47-year-old Oakland resident gobbled 115 M&Ms in 3 minutes Sunday, breaking a previous record of 112 Smarties consumed by Kathryn Ratcliffe of England in December 2002.

The new record won't become official until event organizers send documentation to the Guinness association, including a videotape, photographs and written declarations from witnesses, but it seems likely he'll have his place in the list.

For his efforts, he received 25 pounds of M&Ms courtesy of a local candy store that sponsored the event.

"His kids were very happy," said store owner Wendy Winter.

She said the association gave very specific guidelines: Contestants had to use wooden chopsticks, the M&Ms had to be of the standard variety and they had to be carried to the mouth - one at a time - in the chopsticks.

Police Impersonator Caught Calling For Backup

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - A 22-year-old man was charged with impersonating a sheriff's deputy after he pulled over a pickup truck and then called for assistance when the occupants fled.

It appeared that Jeremy Lepianka of Syracuse had been posing as an Onondaga County Sheriff's deputy for about two years and had stopped motorists - and lectured them - on other occasions, police said.

"He told investigators he had been working as a volunteer deputy for about two years. He said traffic violations were his main thing. Hopefully, it didn't go beyond that," Lt. Joe Cecile, a Syracuse police spokesman, said Monday.

Lepianka was arraigned Sunday on charges of impersonating a police officer, a felony, and two misdemeanors: criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a noxious substance, pepper spray. He was being held Monday on $5,000 bail or bond.

City and county authorities were investigating the case to determine how extensive Lepianka's masquerade was. Cecile said authorities had circulated a photograph of Lepianka and expected calls from motorists who had been pulled over by him.

"We've never seen anything to this extent. It's one thing to pretend ... but when you call for backup. He had to know he was going to get caught," Cecile said.

Lepianka was arrested Saturday night. He told police he stopped a pickup truck that had run several red lights. Several occupants fled and Lepianka used his cell phone to call 911. He identified himself as an off-duty sheriff's deputy who needed help, Cecile said. Lepianka said he had one suspect in custody.

When Syracuse police arrived, Lepianka told them he was Deputy J. Atkins, Cecile said. Lepianka used police jargon "but something just didn't seem quite right about him" to the investigating officers, he said.

Police learned the truth about Lepianka after checking with the sheriff's department. He was arrested at home.

Lepianka told police he always wanted to be a police officer and got the uniforms and police equipment from his previous job as a mall security guard. Cecile said police were trying to determine how Lepianka obtained an official city police patch for his uniform, as well as the pepper spray.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

SPANISH FORT, Ala. - A man saved his friend from drowning Monday, then was thrown in jail for public intoxication.

Kenneth Hood, 47, said he and his friends were sitting on the western bank of the Blakeley River when one of them accidentally backed a sport-utility vehicle into the water.

Hood waded into the water and pulled friend Obie Jordan from the vehicle, taking him to the river bank and calling police.

Jordan and the driver, who was not identified, were taken to the University of South Alabama Medical Center, police said. Jordan was listed in fair condition.

Hood refused to be called a hero.

"He's my friend," he said. "He'd have done it for me."

He certainly wasn't treated like one. Authorities arrested Hood and two others at the scene - Kathleen Margaret Smithart, 36, and 44-year old Ronald Eugene Briggs - for public intoxication.

"I guess it does seem a little harsh," said Spanish Fort Police Chief David Edgar. "But if he and his friends wouldn't have been drunk, his friend wouldn't have been in the water."

Edgar said police had no choice because the three could barely walk.

"If we left them sitting right there and they fell into the water again and drowned, we're responsible," Edgar said.

Rare Mickey Mouse Paintings Stolen

LAS VEGAS - There's nothing Mickey Mouse about these stolen paintings.

The director of the Lassen Galerie in Las Vegas say two paintings featuring the Disney mascot that were lifted from his Vegas strip establishment are together worth nearly $800,000.

Paul Olsen said his biggest fear is that the crook may not realize the true value of "Seaside Romance" and "Sorcerer of the Seas."

"They're not just Mickey Mouse paintings; they are masterpieces," said Olson.

In fact, Olson said he hopes the thief is an art collector who appreciates and admires the Christian Riese Lassen paintings.

"Somebody that knows art will never trash it," he said.

The 30-by-20-inch paintings with vivid, bright colors took Lassen about six months to create in 1994.

Las Vegas police said Monday they hope alerting the public will prevent the thief from selling the paintings on the black market.

"It's not something he can put on eBay or go down to the local art gallery and try to sell," Detective Jon Morris said.

Go Ahead, Cry

PITTSFORD, Vt. - Don't try telling trucker Stewart Devino there's no use crying over spilled milk.

Devino's tractor-trailer hauling 58,000 pounds of milk - or 7,250 gallons - went off the highway over the weekend, spilling its load on the road.

Vermont State Police said Devino, 57, was driving a 2000 Mack tractor-trailer truck south on Route 7 when he saw a vehicle stopped on the shoulder of the road ahead of him. Police said Devino hit his brakes and intentionally drove off the right side of the road into a field to avoid striking the rear of the other vehicle.

The tractor-trailer truck then rolled over onto its right side a few feet off the road. Much of the milk poured out of the tank, and flooded the field and a dirt driveway about 50 feet away.

Devino told police he hurt his knee, but refused treatment. He was wearing a seat belt.

Kids These Day!

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Selling tickets to a suicide is something most city councils don't have to outlaw.

But lawmakers in St. Petersburg, Florida have unanimously approved such a law. It's designed to scuttle plans by a rock band to feature an onstage suicide during a concert this weekend.

The hard-rock band Hell on Earth has attracted national publicity with its plan to have a terminally ill person commit suicide during a gig. The band says it wants to raise awareness of right-to-die issues.

The city council passed the emergency ban yesterday morning. The law makes it illegal to conduct a suicide for commercial or entertainment purposes - or to host, promote or sell tickets for such an event.

One council member says he thinks the band's plan is a publicity stunt - but he says he couldn't "sit idly by and let somebody lose their life."

The Tampa-based band is known for onstage stunts like chocolate syrup wrestling and grinding up live rats in a blender.

The band says Saturday's concert will take place at an undisclosed location, and will be broadcast live on the band's Web site.

Gorilla Flees Zoo, Injures Two

BOSTON - A gorilla broke out of a Boston zoo yesterday, injuring a two-year-old and a young woman as it escaped.

The five-foot, 300-pound gorilla was spotted about two hours later sitting at a bus stop near the zoo. It was sedated and recaptured.

The gorilla escaped from the Franklin Park Zoo minutes before closing time. It also had escaped from its section of the Tropical Forest exhibit in August, but did not leave the exhibit grounds.

Zoo officials installed electrified wires to keep the eleven-year-old primate from escaping again, but this time he managed to get off zoo grounds entirely.

A zoo spokesman says the gorilla won't be on exhibit until further notice.

Officials say the toddler and an 18-year-old woman who encountered the primate are expected to be okay.

China Reports Mass Japanese Tourist Orgy

BEIJING - China is calling on Japan's government to teach its people to obey Chinese laws amid an uproar over claims that hundreds of Japanese tourists took part in an orgy with prostitutes on a sensitive anniversary.

The Foreign Ministry and police in the southern city of Zhuhai said they were looking into the events of Sept. 16-18 - the anniversary of an attack by Japanese forces in 1931 that China regards as the start of its World War II occupation.

"This is an extremely odious criminal case," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said in a statement issued late Sunday. "Foreigners who visit China must obey the law. We hope the Japanese government will strengthen education of its citizens in this regard."

Chinese news reports said more than 400 Japanese male tourists - some as young as 16 - had sex with Chinese prostitutes over the two-day period at the Zhuhai International Conference Center Hotel in Zhuhai, a center for trade and tourism that borders Macau.

China's official reaction - even before confirmation of the reports - highlights simmering anger at Japan's wartime conduct. Many Chinese believe that Japan has never fully atoned for atrocities that included mass rapes by Japanese soldiers and the use of slave labor.

Angry Chinese left hundreds of postings on Web sites accusing the tourists of trying to humiliate China by timing the orgy on the date of the Japanese attack in 1931 on the northeastern city of Shenyang, then known as Mukden.

"This ugly drama is a brazen display by the Japanese toward the history of his invasion," said a posting signed with the name Guo Zhichun on the Web site of the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily.

Don't Bogart That Joint, Your Honor

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - A Michigan judge's career is going to pot. The state Supreme Court has suspended District Judge Thomas Gilbert, after he was spotted smoking a joint at a concert. During the investigation, Gilbert admitted he smokes marijuana about twice a year. He's been suspended for six months without pay. But he's not quitting his job. In a written apology, Gilbert blames his drug use on alcoholism. After he completes his suspension, Gilbert says he wants to finish his term on the bench.

Man Sues After Being Pinned In Port-O-Potty

NORFOLK, Va. - A sudden, irresistible urge. A portable toilet. A confrontation with an angry construction worker. Now, a federal lawsuit.

William Tremmel, 68, of Altoona, Pa., needed to go. Badly. So he dashed to the nearest portable toilet on the Virginia Beach boardwalk.

Problem was, it belonged to construction workers for Weeks Marine, a company hired by the city to replenish the beach. And those workers were fed up with outsiders using the company can.

They retaliated, Tremmel claims in a lawsuit filed last month, by driving a bulldozer or front-end loader to the toilet and blocking the doorway, pinning him "inside the rank tomb."

Tremmel is seeking $100,000 for the Aug. 19, 2001, incident.

Weeks doesn't deny its employee blocked Tremmel in the toilet but says the worker was within his rights.

Tremmel says he was locked inside for 25 minutes. He claims members of his family shouted at the worker, but the man left and returned with his foreman, who chastised Tremmel through the closed door and accused him of trespassing.

Tremmel says the "abduction and false imprisonment" caused him "humiliation, mortification, shame, vilification, injury to his feelings, mental suffering, insult and indignity." Tremmel and his wife were celebrating their anniversary.

The lawsuit also says Tremmel has emphysema, was recovering from prostate surgery and had undergone double-bypass heart surgery.

Weeks Marine denied that the workers chastised Tremmel or that he was locked in the toilet for almost half an hour. Weeks says in court papers that its workers believed blocking Tremmel's exit was "reasonable" because he was "wrongfully using the port-o-let."

No hearing date has been set.

The Corny Dog King Of Texas

DALLAS - Rich "The Locust" LeFevre is living up to his nickname.

Like the swarming bugs that eat everything in sight, the Nevada man ate virtually every corn dog in front of him Sunday, winning the first World Corny Dog Eating Championship at the State Fair of Texas.

He managed to wolf down a dozen corny dogs - as they call corn dogs in these parts - in just 10 minutes. That was the best in the field of 15 big eaters.

The International Federation of Competitive Eating says it's also the world's first corn-dog-eating record.

Along with a trophy, LeFevre wins a pair of roundtrip tickets on Southwest Airlines and $500.

LeFevre is best known for eating 1½ gallons of chili in 10 minutes.