The Odd Truth

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.

Message In A Bottle

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida - It took more than 18 years for a child's message scrawled in a bottle and set adrift to find its way home. It arrived just in time to comfort the boy's parents — who are grieving the fifth anniversary of their son's death.

Roger Clay was just seven years old when he put the note with his name and address in a Pepsi bottle during a vacation. He sealed the bottle with tape and tossed it into the Gulf of Mexico. That was December 27th, 1984.

Roger died in a motorcycle accident five years ago, just after his 21st birthday. His mother, Lisa Ferguson, says ever since his death, this time of year is especially difficult.

A man by the name of Don Smith found the old bottle this week in Tampa Bay. While tracking Roger down, Smith learned about his death, and was determined to locate the boy's parents. He reached Lisa Ferguson near St. Petersburg.

Roger's father, also named Roger, says: "It's like he was trying to remind us he was still with us."

Massive Meat Heist Sliced

NORFOLK, Neb. - Maybe they were on that all-protein fad diet?

A former employee at the Tyson Foods meatpacking plant in Norfolk and an accomplice are accused of making off with more than $30,000 worth of steaks.

The thefts of more than 7,000 pounds of meat took place between January and March, State Patrol spokeswoman Terri Teuber said Thursday.

The investigation began several weeks ago and two men ages 41 and 45 were arrested at a mobile home in Stanton on Tuesday on suspicion of felony theft, she said.

One of the men was a former employee at the plant, Teuber said. The other man was not believed to have worked there, she said.

Tyson Foods spokesman Ed Nicholson declined to comment, saying he did not have all details of the case.

Rubber Ducks To Wash Up In New England

BOSTON - A floating flock of rubber ducks is expected to wash ashore in New England.

The ducks, their yellow coats now bleached white, are stamped with the brand "The First Years."

The toys tumbled into the ocean when a container ship en route from China to Seattle lost 20 containers in a storm in the Pacific Ocean in January, 1992.

From there, oceanographers say the 29,000 toys floated along the Alaska coast, reaching the Bering Strait by 1995 and Iceland five years later. By 2001 they had ridden currents to near where the Titanic sank.

Some kept going — others headed off to Europe. Ocean experts says hundreds could soon be popping up on New England beaches.

Teens Confess To Calif. Crop Circles

ROCKVILLE, Calif. - Throngs of UFO enthusiasts, new age followers and assorted believers in the paranormal have been flocking to the Sacramento Valley to take in the dozen or so crop circles that mysteriously appeared in a wheat field two weeks ago.

But it now appears the most simple explanation is at hand for why a sleepy farming community halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento has been turned into a tourist destination: four bored Fairfield teens confessed to The Vacaville Reporter.

"Man, we had to rest sometimes," one teen told the paper of the quartet's hours-long handiwork conducted during the wee hours of June 28. "My back got tired and I laid down in the field."

The paper said in an editor's note that the confession "rang true."

"Because three of the four are juveniles, and three of the four are already on probation for unrelated matters, we decided their request for anonymity was reasonable," the paper said.

The teens told the paper they were inspired by a documentary they had watched discussing the 400-year history of crop circles. Armed with a 30-foot rope, planks of wood and tape, the teens created a connected series of circles by pressing down on the wheat.

One teen stood in the center of the circle holding the rope. A second would hold on to the other end of the rope. They would then use the wood to flatten the wheat. The biggest circles measure 60-feet in diameter.

The teens' parents said they were aware of the boys' prank. One mother even bought the movie "Signs" to celebrate their feat.

The circles wiped out about $500 worth of wheat. But Larry Balestra, the field's owner, told the paper he had no intention of pressing charges. In fact, he told the paper he's preparing to sell $12 alien T-shirts.

Still, Balestra said he was little disappointed to hear the teens had claimed responsibility.

"It's sad," Balestra told the paper, "because this made so many people happy."

What Wedding?

PITTSBURGH - A judge has annulled a woman's two-month marriage after she said she didn't remember the ceremony.

When she said "I do," Alma Tremmel, 32, was hospitalized in critical condition, on a respirator, and taking powerful drugs for pneumonia and depression, her attorney said.

Tremmel was taking "six or seven different things at the time" — including morphine and Valium — and "any one of those things alone would have been enough to cloud her reasoning skills, let alone in combination," her attorney, James Huff, said Thursday.

Tremmel said she has a vague recollection of a hospital minister at her bedside. But Tremmel said she has since learned that she received last rites several times during her 13-day stay at Bon Secours-Holy Family Hospital in April.

Blair County Judge Hiram Carpenter III granted the annulment Wednesday. The ruling means that, under Pennsylvania law at least, Tremmel was never married to Edward Wert, 35.

Virginia Wert, the groom's mother, said she was present for the ceremony, as was Tremmel's mother, when Tremmel signed the license application in her intensive care room.

"It seemed to me like she knew. She had to point out (something) on the paper" application for the marriage license, Virginia Wert said.

Tremmel, a widowed mother of two, said she had known Wert for years because he had been a friend of her late husband, who died three years ago. Tremmel said she began dating Wert "out of loneliness" and the couple lived together for several months.

Tremmel said the couple had discussed marriage "a few times, but I was very, very leery about it."

Wert didn't hire an attorney and didn't contest the annulment, although he reaffirmed his love for her during court proceedings. Wert, who now lives with his parents, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.

Rat Advocate Cleared In Tampering Case

SANTA BARBARA, California - A federal magistrate has cleared a bus driver who prosecutors said tried to thwart government efforts to rid islands off the West Coast of the United States of black rats.

Rob Puddicombe, 52, was accused of scattering pellets containing vitamin K, an antidote for rat poison, on Anacapa Island, one of the Channel Islands.

U.S. Magistrate Willard McEwen Jr. said in a decision released Thursday that federal prosecutors failed to prove during last month's trial that Puddicombe illegally fed the animals and interfered with agency functions.

National Park Service officials have been spreading rat poison across the island to eradicate the nonnative black rats, which threaten several native species.

Puddicombe, who had faced up to a year in jail, praised the decision.

"I only wish the animals on Anacapa could have gotten the same fair trial I did," he said.

Woman Gulps Cockroach, Fork

JERUSALEM - It's the bizarre, nightmarish stuff of a child's nursery rhyme: An Israeli woman swallowed a cockroach and right after it, down went a fork she used to try to fish the critter out of her throat.

A winged cockroach jumped into the woman's mouth as she was cleaning her home in a village in northern Israel this week. And as the story goes, the 32-year-old woman tried to scoop the bug out with a fork but swallowed it as well.

"It's a bit of a strange story," said Dr. Nikola Adid, who operated on the woman on Tuesday to remove the fork from her stomach — the bug was already digested. "This is the first time I've ever encountered anything like this. None of my medical colleagues in this country have heard of anything similar either."

An X-ray showed the fork, lodged sideways in her stomach.

Adid, a surgeon at the Poria Hospital in Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, removed the fork with laparoscopic surgery, a minimally invasive procedure performed through a tiny incision a patient's abdomen.

The woman is recovering well, Adid said — better off than the old woman of the children's rhyme:

"There was an old woman who swallowed a fly. I don't know why she swallowed a fly. Perhaps she'll die."

Fire, Harry Potter Style

MADRID - She probably hasn't been to wizard school.

A news report out of Spain says a woman caused a fire in her Madrid apartment — apparently while she was trying to imitate Harry Potter, the boy wizard.

A Spanish newspaper, El Pais, reports the 21-year-old woman concocted a brew — heating up a mixture of olive oil, surgical alcohol and toothpaste. The fire destroyed part of her apartment.

Emergency workers describe the woman as mentally ill. They say she told them she had been imitating Harry Potter.

Annoying Cell Phone Rings Put To Good Use

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's largest mobile phone operator said Thursday that it will offer cell phone users a new noise service that it says will repel mosquitoes.

SK Telecom Co. said subscribers can pay $2.50 to download a sound wave that is inaudible to human ears but annoys mosquitoes within a range of one meter. Customers can then play the sound by hitting a few buttons on their mobile phones.

The company claimed that the service worked during tests.

The service, which begins Monday, has one drawback: it consumes as much battery power as normal cell phone rings.

SK Telecom has 17 million subscribers and controls a little over 50 percent of the domestic market.

Camper Wakes To Find His Head In Bear's Mouth

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - A teenager who awakened to find his head and neck clamped in the jaws of a black bear has been treated and released from a Utah hospital.

Nick Greeve screamed for help and woke other campers, who chased the bear away. Greeve suffered a few puncture wounds and lacerations.

The teen was with a group of campers and wilderness instructors on a four- to five-day floating trip down the Green River. The group was sleeping under the stars in a canyon about 120 miles southeast of Salt Lake City when the attack occurred.

Wildlife officials say the bear tried to drag the boy from his sleeping bag, but other campers scared the animal off.

Burglar Practically Catches Himself

TULSA, Okla. - A would-be burglar in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has forgetfulness to blame for his arrest.

Police say the suspect took clothing from a store Tuesday night and removed the sensor tags from them.

But as he was leaving the store, alarms that detect the sensors in the tags went off.

Police say he told store employees he forgot he put the 12 tags in his pants pocket.

Singapore Lifts Chewing Gum Ban

SINGAPORE - Good news for gum lovers.

The government of this island nation announced Thursday it will allow chewing gum, long-banned here, to be sold — although only from pharmacies.

The decision stems from a recently signed free trade agreement between the United States and Singapore, and follows lobbying from the U.S. Congress and American gum makers.

Squeaky-clean Singapore outlawed the import, manufacture and sale of chewing gum in 1992, complaining that spent wads were fouling the city-state's famously tidy pavements, buildings, buses and subway trains.

Gum became a sticking point in recent trade talks with Washington.

Philip Crane, chairman of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee and a congressman from Illinois — where gum giant Wrigley Co. is headquartered — pressed for Singapore to loosen the ban.

Singapore initially agreed to allow gum to be sold only with a doctor's prescription, but that didn't satisfy U.S. negotiators.

Pharmacies may sell dentist-recommended gum that aids "dental and oral hygiene" once the trade pact takes effect, expected to be by the end of the year, a government spokeswoman said.

Agents Seize 10,000 Endangered Turtles

HONG KONG - Hong Kong customs agents have seized more than 10,000 endangered turtles and tortoises en route from Malaysia and probably destined for dining tables in China.

The Malayan box turtles and true tortoises were found Wednesday in a China-bound container said to be holding watermelons, the Customs and Excise Department said. Only four tortoises were alive.

The animals, valued at $174,000, would likely have ended up in soup pots or possibly made into "turtle jelly," a gooey black substance eaten by many southern Chinese who believe it has detoxifying properties and can improve complexions.

Endangered species bound for China often pass through Hong Kong. People smuggling endangered species into Hong Kong can be jailed for two years and fined up to $640,000.

Trapped Hound Howls His Way To Freedom

BARNSTABLE, Mass. - For five full days, Cody the basset hound did something basset hounds are known for. He howled. Cody howled repeatedly, broadcasting his troubles at length. For a while it must have seemed that no one would listen. But at last, someone did listen, and poor Cody was rescued from a drainage pipe in the Hyannis woods of Barnstable, Massachusetts.

Seems Cody crawled into a 12-inch drainage pipe early Friday but couldn't get out. His owner put up a "missing dog" poster, but no one reported hearing the constant barking until today. Rescuers dug a trench 16 feet long and four feet deep to reach the dog, who is being treated at an animal hospital and has been reunited with his owner.

Cody is said to be resting comfortably, and perhaps, quietly.

Clash Of The Titans!

TBILISI, Georgia - Wrestlers Georgy Bibilauri and Dzhambulat Khotokhov had both hoped for victory, but they settled for ice cream instead.

The pair, two of the world's largest preschoolers, proved evenly matched Wednesday in an unusual contest in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

Khotokhov, a Russian weighing 123 pounds with a height of 3 feet 11 inches, is the world's largest 4-year-old, according to the match's organizers. Tbilisi native Bibilauri, who turned 5 on Wednesday is 4 feet tall and weighs 112 pounds.

After the boys tied on the mat, they went off to celebrate Bibilauri's birthday with ice cream and chocolate.

Georgian wrestling champion Levan Tediashvili, who refereed the match, said he admired the boys' sportsmanship.

"They are fantastic kids," he said. "These two giants give off such positive vibes. We Russians and Georgians should follow their example."

The match's organizer, Georgian journalist Tengiz Pachkoriya, said he came up with the idea after reading a newspaper article about Khotokhov.

"They became friends after spending the day together yesterday," he said. "I hope the friendship will last many years."

Man Awakens From 19-Year Coma

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ark. - An Arkansas family is enjoying their son's company again after he emerged from a 19-year coma.

Terry Wallis, now 39 years old, had been in the coma at the Stone County Nursing and Rehabilitation Center since a July 1984 car accident that left him a quadriplegic.

His mother, Angilee Wallis, calls her son's return to consciousness a miracle.

His father, Jerry Wallis, says Terry uttered his first word on June 12th, was able to talk a little June 13th and has improved ever since. He finds it ironic that his son went into the coma on a Friday the 13th and began to talk again on Friday the 13th — 19 years later.

Wallis says his son talks almost nonstop now, but it seems as though time stopped for him after the wreck. He says Terry is still living in 1984, even telling one person Ronald Reagan is the current president.

Lawyer Charged In Poisonous Snake-Mailing

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A lawyer and his son have been charged with making threats for allegedly mailing a live, poisonous snake to another man.

The federal indictment released Thursday charges Bob Sam Castleman and his son, Robert Jerrod Castleman, with mailing a threatening communication and mailing non-mailable matter with intent to injure or kill.

The package was opened by Kathy Staton, whose husband, Albert Coy Staton, was the target, the indictment said.

"It was on my lap when I opened it and the snake popped up and its head (was) within two inches of my face," she said.

The 3-foot snake did not bite anyone, and sheriff's deputies killed it.

The indictment did not explain what led to the alleged snake incident Sept. 29, and U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins declined to elaborate.

There was no answer Thursday at phone numbers listed for the Castlemans in their hometown of Pocahontas.

Kathy Staton said the younger Castleman had made previous threats.

Iraqi Puppies Rescued

LOS ANGELES - Four skinny puppies and their sad-eyed mother were delivered from Iraq to a woman who said she felt compelled to push for a rescue after spotting the dogs sitting forlornly in the desert behind a TV news reporter.

Marcy Christmas beamed as the 4-month-old puppies tumbled out of Air France cargo carriers into a warehouse hangar. They wrestled with one another and showed no signs of fatigue after surviving war, hunger and a 9,300-mile journey from the Jordan-Iraq border.

"I'm as amazed as you are that this happened," said Christmas, who spotted the dogs April 10 on a television news report. The woman, who lives with five adopted Chihuahuas in Camarillo in California, has been rescuing dogs for decades.

Christmas, 51, first tried to reach the TV news reporter in the area, then discovered an Amman, Jordan-based group called the Humane Center for Animal Welfare. She called the founders and asked if they could rescue the puppies.

In the Iraq village of Al Amanieh, the small convoy including a veterinarian and two U.S. military escorts spotted six puppies and the mother was so weak she could barely stand. One puppy was adopted by an Iraqi family and another by military personnel. Christmas agreed to pay the $1,000 cost of transporting the others to Southern California.

The dogs were flown Sunday from Amman to Paris, where they were walked, watered and checked by a veterinarian. They were flown from there to Los Angeles International Airport. Authorities checked their health certificates and they cleared customs Monday.

Axe-Wielding Swede Rampages Russian Embassy

STOCKHOLM - A Swedish man armed with an ax broke into the Russian Embassy in Stockholm and destroyed some furniture, an embassy spokesman said Wednesday. No one was injured.

"We have no idea how he got in," embassy spokesman Sergey Petrovich told The Associated Press. "He did not try to attack anybody."

After stealing a cell phone, the 37-year-old man made off in one of the embassy's cars and rammed the gates to get out of the compound. He was arrested Tuesday night, police spokeswoman Ingalill Fransson told the AP.

The suspect wasn't identified, in line with Swedish privacy rules, but police said he was a Swedish citizen with a criminal record.

"The man is suspected of gross unlawful intrusion, gross unlawful threat, damage and unauthorized taking of a vehicle," Fransson said.

The Darndest, Doggone Dog

BECKLEY, W.Va. - It was canine intuition when an injured black Labrador retriever did a doggone good job of getting medical attention.

The dog, apparently struck by a car on July 4, found his way to Beckley Appalachian Regional Hospital, hobbled through the sliding glass doors and waited for assistance in the hallway.

"It's the darndest thing," said Ted Weigel, marketing director at Beckley. "The dog limped in and laid down where people could see it. It seemed to know exactly where to go for help."

Hospital workers gave the dog water, called a veterinarian and offered to pay the bill.

"There's no way they were going to put an injured animal back on the street," Weigel said.

Dr. Roger Ward treated the animal, and the vet said the canine suffered road burns, scrapes and an infected wound on his leg.

The 7-year-old male dog has been a model patient, Ward said.

"He is incredibly calm and patient," Ward said. "He has a wonderful temperament. He's very gentle and he's been easy to treat."

Ward and hospital officials are searching for the dog's owner.

Singapore Gets Foot Loose

SINGAPORE - Singaporeans out on the town will soon be able to drink until dawn and dance on the bars under new laws set to shake up this famously straight-laced, tightly controlled country.

Regulations that allow bars to stay open for 24 hours and let patrons dance anywhere within nightspots — including on previously out-of-bounds bar-tops — will be passed by the end of the year, police said in a statement Wednesday.

Singapore is aggressively trying to shake off its dull image and re-market itself as a media and arts center. Officials are taking small, cautious steps to spice up the nightlife, such as allowing some explicit language in plays.

This Southeast Asian island republic of 4 million people currently censors movies and television shows it considers too racy. It has banned Cosmopolitan magazine and HBO's "Sex and the City."

Most bars and nightspots in Singapore now close at 3 a.m., and dancing is restricted to specific areas. Courts routinely fine pub managers for allowing bar-top dancing.

"With (the new laws), the licensee can decide where he allows his patrons to dance," the police statement said. "This means that he can decide to let his patrons dance on a bar-top if he wishes."

Only bars in nonresidential areas will only be allowed to stay open for 24 hours, the statement said.

Burglary Botched

STOCKHOLM - In the future, these Swedish burglars may want to have their glasses checked.

Police said three men tried to break into an electronics store selling TVs and stereos Tuesday by drilling a hole through the wall from a neighboring suite of offices.

The would-be burglars broke into a local newspaper's office housed in the same building early Tuesday morning in Vara, 200 miles southwest of the capital, Stockholm.

Police believed they bored a hole into the wall using a power drill, but ended up breaking through into an optician's office, police spokesman Johan Svensson told The Associated Press.

"They tried again on another wall, with the same result. And a third time," he said.

When they punched through a fourth wall, they finally broke through to the store, but alarms went off and they fled without grabbing anything, Svensson said.

Police are still searching for the men and no arrests have been made.

Life Without A License

COPENHAGEN - After 57 years of making his way across northern Europe's roads, a 74-year-old retired Danish trucker pulled over by police confessed to never getting his driver's license.

"We were pretty stunned," Thisted Police Sgt. Bo Hansen said Tuesday.

The driver, who wasn't identified in line with Danish privacy rules, was stopped Sunday by police in Thisted, 205 miles northwest of the capital, Copenhagen, because he was driving erratically.

Police said he failed an alcohol test and charged him with drunk driving. Then he told the police he didn't have his driver's license because he never got one.

A former truck driver, he told Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet that he started driving when he was 17 because he didn't want to wait to get his license. In Denmark, a person has to be 18 to get a driver's license.

He was employed as a truck driver for most of his life, hauling cargo between the Nordic countries and into Germany and was never stopped by police.

"Nothing happens when you drive properly," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

It was unclear how much the man would be fined for driving drunk, pending the results of a blood test. He faces a fine of at least 5,500 kroner ($869) for driving without a license.

Drunk Man Recruits Little Girl As Driver

MOSES LAKE, Wash. - A Washington state man is in hot water for allowing a designated driver to take the wheel of his car.

The Grant County sheriff's office says a 45-year old intoxicated passenger allowed a nine-year old girl to drive his car.

The child lost control of the vehicle and crashed through a campsite and struck the awning of an occupied tent where a family was staying.

Fortunately, police say the two people injured are expected to make a full recovery.

14-Foot Python On The Slither

GLOCESTER, R.I. - The police are looking for him, the town has been put on alert, but Slick remains on the lam.

The 14-foot-long yellow and orange Burmese python slipped out of his 300-gallon tank July 4.

Snake owner Jeffrey Fine called the police Friday morning to report that Slick had slithered away sometime after 11 the night before, when Fine checked on Slick before going to bed.

Fine said it was his fault that Slick got out. He hadn't tightened the clip on the right end of the 6-foot-long tank as much as he should have.

"I feel terrible that he's gone, and I want him back," Fine told The Providence Journal.

The snake worked his way out of the tank, onto the floor and up onto the computer table. Slick slid past the computer, knocked a picture frame down, nudged a clock out of the way and pushed up against the screen in the window that looks out on the lake.

The window is about 10 feet from the water. Slick moves very slowly on land, but if he has gone into the lake, he could move quickly there and there's no telling where he'd come out.

Slick is not venomous and doesn't have fangs, Fine said. The snake eats rats and rodents.

"He does not eat small children," Fine said. "He couldn't even eat a cat. He could eat a kitten, but not a cat."

Bratty Kids Save The Day

HARRISBURG, Pa. - A woman traveling through Pennsylvania might never again complain about her noisy grandchildren.

Their back-seat antics may have saved her life, police said.

Patsy Harvey, of Muncie, Ind., climbed into the back seat to quiet the children as her husband Selby drove through Harrisburg on Saturday. Minutes later, police said, a falling log crashed through the passenger-side windshield.

"Thank God for noisy kids," said George Drees, assistant chief of the Susquehanna Township Fire Department. "As a parent, I never thought I'd have the chance to say that."

A tractor-trailer had overturned on a highway ramp above the interstate, sending about a dozen logs raining down on the highway, Drees said. The logs weighed about 1,000 pounds each, authorities said. No other cars were hit.

Shoe House For Sale

HELLAM, Pa. - House hunters and footwear fanatics, take note: A three-bedroom, two bath house that happens to be shaped like a giant shoe is up for sale.

The Haines Shoe House, a York County landmark near Route 30 in Hellam Township, was put on the market three weeks ago.

Ruth and Charles Miller are asking $129,000 for their well-heeled house.

"If it wouldn't be for my age I wouldn't even think of putting it on the market," said Ruth Miller, 77. "I'd like to find a young couple to come and give it a try."

The Shoe House was built in 1948 by central Pennsylvania shoe magnate Mahlon Haines, who used it to promote his 40-plus stores by giving away honeymoon weekends at the house. The company folded shortly after his death in 1962.

A local dentist bought the Shoe House and turned it into an ice cream parlor. He died in the mid-1980s and the house fell into disrepair.

Haines' granddaughter bought it in 1987 and renovated it, and Ruth Miller bought it in 1995.

"She came home and said, 'I bought a shoe,"' Charles Miller recalled.

Wiener Wolfing Winner

NEW YORK - Frankly speaking, it wasn't even close.

For an unprecedented third straight year, rail-thin Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi out-gorged the competition Friday in the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest, downing 44 1/2 dogs and dominating adversaries three times his size.

Kobayashi, the Michael Jordan of wiener wolfing, twitched and twisted to finish his franks at the rate of one every 16 seconds in a 12-minute display of gastronomic supremacy at the annual Fourth of July extravaganza.

Once again, the American competitive eaters were left to fight for second place as a Japanese champion was crowned for the sixth time in the last seven years.

The 145-pound Kobayashi, of Nagano, Japan, employed his trademark "Solomon method" — snapping the dogs in half before swallowing them — to destroy both the other 19 contestants.

He once again raised the mustard-yellow championship belt above his head in victory, flashing thumbs-up to a crowd of more than 3,000 fans outside the original Nathan's in Coney Island. The contest was first held in 1916.

The 5-foot-7 Kobayashi, who sports a 30-inch waist, was disappointed that he failed to break his own record of 50½ dogs. Kobayashi banged the table holding the hot dogs, and put his hands to his head in dismay.

"I feel sad I didn't break the record," he said through an interpreter. "I came here to set the record."

Rapist Gets Life After Spitting On Officer

SAPULPA, Okla. - A convicted rapist has been sentenced to life in prison for spitting on a police officer.

Creek County Associate District Judge April Sellers White followed the recommendation of a jury for the maximum sentence against John C. Marquez under a law that makes it a felony to place bodily fluids on law enforcement officers.

White rejected a prosecution request for a 25-year prison term and a defense request for a four-year term.

Following sentencing Monday, Marquez's attorney, Jason Serner, promised an appeal to the state Court of Criminal Appeals.

Marquez, 35, was convicted of hurling body fluids on Sapulpa Officer Charles Gadd while Gadd was taking Marquez to jail following a domestic disturbance in which a woman's arm was broken.

The 1996 state law that makes it a felony to place bodily fluids on law enforcement officers was enacted amid concerns that deadly diseases, such as AIDS, could be transmitted this way.

Gadd told the jury that Marquez spit on him despite being warned and then bit him when Gadd was trying to prevent Marquez from spitting again.

Gadd and Marquez tested negative for any communicable diseases.

The jury took 15 minutes on May 1 to recommend the life sentence. Marquez's prior felony convictions, including rape and burglary, were taken into consideration in determining the sentence.