The Odd Truth, April 11, 2005

Busted For Big Taco Bills; Let There Be Light, Eventually; Pandas Get Hot 'N Heavy; More

(CBS/AP)  The Odd Truth is a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world compiled by CBSNews.com's Joey Arak.

Award-Winning Idiot

STORY, Ind. - The competition was fierce and foolish, but a man who accidentally sawed through a live electrical wire and topped that by wrecking his truck only hours after buying it earned the honorary title “Village Idiot.”

Mark Carmichael's blunders won him the good-natured award that's been handed out for years in the tiny Brown County town of Story. The winner is whoever gets the most votes from regulars at the Story Inn's saloon.

Carmichael, the inn's maintenance man, won in part for an incident in which he cut through a live wire while using a circular saw to replace the inn's galvanized steel roof. But he also damaged his just-purchased 1998 Dodge truck -- the day after he got it.

His foolishness earned the 27-year-old a $100 bar tab.

Rick Hofstetter, who owns the inn about 40 miles south of Indianapolis, said the competition for this year's award was fierce.

For example, two Story Inn regulars were nominated for knocking themselves unconscious while opening their car doors. Another was nominated for burning down his front porch after not fully extinguishing a cigarette in a full ashtray.

Bartender Evan McMahon was nominated for opening an $80 bottle of Chalk Hill Chardonnay to make a $6.50 wine spritzer for a bar patron.

Not to be outdone, Story Inn housekeeper Kathy Newhall earned her nomination for using French truffle oil from the kitchen, which costs $50 for a 3-ounce bottle, to quiet a squeaky toilet seat.


Busted For Big Taco Bills

SALT LAKE CITY - A 21-year-old fast-food employee has been sentenced to probation and six months in jail for double-swiping the credit cards of customers who irritated him.

Travis Dominguez pleaded guilty to one count of credit card fraud, a third-degree felony. He was accused of doubled-swiping cards at the Taco Bell where he worked, putting in different amounts on the second swipe between $20 and $30.

Third District Judge Glenn Iwasaki ordered a psychological evaluation and $142.22 restitution, and barred Dominguez from employment involving financial transactions.

Dominguez faced five felony counts of unlawful use of a credit card and single misdemeanor counts of theft and obstruction of justice -- and allegedly called police pretending to be a Taco Bell executive claiming to have solved the case.


Let There Be Light, Eventually

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue has done Rube Goldberg proud.

Purdue University students won the contest named after Goldberg for the third straight time, designing a machine that goes through 125 steps just to turn on a flashlight.

The competition pays homage to the late cartoonist Rube Goldberg, whose drawings displayed whimsical machines with complex mechanisms that perform simple tasks.

The team of Purdue Society of Professional Engineers devised the complicated machine to take two batteries out of a flashlight, replace them and turn it on. The winning machine simulated a rocket launch and a meteor impact on Earth, which was portrayed by an orange ping-pong ball.

A team from Ferris State University placed second, and the University of Texas at Austin was third.


Pandas Get Hot 'N Heavy

SAN DIEGO - The birds do it. The bees do it. And now the giant pandas at the San Diego Zoo are doing it, too. Bai Yun and Gao Gao have been making panda whoopee in their favorite spot under some bushes. Zoo officials even gave the amorous pandas a little privacy. The zoo closed the panda exhibit to the public and the Internet panda cam was pointed in another direction. The zookeepers hope the mating will lead to a second cub for the pair. Pandas are notoriously reluctant to mate in captivity. Zoo officials in Atlanta and Washington have resorted to artificial insemination with their pandas after nature didn't take its course.


Dance Team Too Risqué

SAN JOSE, Calif. - San Jose State University officials have pulled the plug on dirty dancing. The school has suspended its dance team after a confrontation between a student dancer and an elderly alumnus. Seventy-four-year-old Ray Silva admits he “came unglued” after watching the dance team's performance at a basketball game last month. He says their routine to LL Cool J's “Move Somethin”' was vulgar and full of bumps and grinds. But the dancers say the school wanted sexier performances to help boost ticket sales. San Jose State officials say new dance team guidelines are being developed which will represent the university “at the highest possible standard.”


Ohio Cops Use Undercover Stripper

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Authorities in Ohio are defending their use of an undercover stripper. Police paid Michelle Szuhay, a criminal justice major at the University of Dayton, $100 a night to strip at the Total Xposure bar near Troy. Police even gave her new ID, using the identity of another young woman. Undercover state liquor control agents observed the club while Szuhay stripped, looking for liquor violations. Troy Police Captain Chuck Adams says Szuhay's stripping wasn't like the other dancers. He says she seemed ashamed of what she was doing. Szuhay has refused comment on her nights as a stripper for the law.


Pilots' Community

HOLLAND, Wis. - Paul Schneider's garage might seem on the big size. But it's just right for his private plane. Schneider lives in Wisconsin's Holland Air Park, a development that caters to private pilots. The runway passes right by the houses and the pilots get to park their planes like most homeowners park their cars. You might think it would be pretty noisy living in an airport. But Schneider says he and his neighbors don't even notice anymore. He says now that his plane is right outside, traveling 130 miles to play golf is just part of a day's fun.


Running Under The Influence

MADISON, Wis. - Talk about your runaway brides. About 50 people dressed up as brides, grooms and priests, and dashed through Madison, Wisconsin, Saturday. The first-ever Running of the Brides was organized by the Madison branch of the Hash House Harriers, an internationally known “drinking group with a running problem.” Liz Zelandais found that being a running bride isn't easy. She says trying to run while pulling the train of a bridal gown is unbelievable. But she says the Running of the Brides was a good excuse for a party without having to worry about pre-nups or a divorce.