The Odd Truth, Aug. 30, 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.

Penis Removed By Mistake

WICHITA FALLS, Texas - A man who accused two doctors of removing his penis without his consent has reached a settlement with the doctors and the hospital.

Attorneys for 67-year-old mechanic Hurshell Ralls contended the doctors removed his penis without consent after a mistaken cancer diagnosis.

Attorneys for Doctors John Dryden and Farid Khoury say the doctors were reluctant to settle the suit because they contend that proper medical procedures were followed.

A Wichita County jury was told of the settlement during the second day of testimony in the trial of the Wichita Falls mechanic's lawsuit. Most details about the settlement were not released.

As part of the settlement, the claim against the Clinics of North Texas were dropped.

Parrot Prankster

TUCSON, Ariz. - A parrot's parody of a damsel in distress caused quite a commotion.

Tucson police and firefighters broke down a door after being called to a house and hearing a woman's screams coming from inside.

But police soon realized that the sounds weren't coming from a woman in woe.

"The parrot's screams sounded identical to those of a distressed adult female," Officer Andrew Davies said in his report.

The ruckus was the work of Oscar, a 2-year-old yellow-naped Amazon parrot.

Police found him intermittently making laughing and screaming sounds as he sat inside his large white cage.

The mix-up began on Saturday when a 911-hang up call was made from the house.

Police arrived to find the house locked with bars on the windows.

Hearing what they thought was a woman's voice, police called the fire department. Crews used a pry bar and a battering ram to get through a door.

Police asked a neighbor to call Dana Pannell, the homeowner. The neighbor said he was home at the time but didn't make the emergency call.

But Oscar - named after the Sesame Street character because of his sometimes foul moods - does have his talents, she said.

"He sings in Spanish," she said.

Husband Dies After Testicle-Squeezing

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - A woman in Cambodia has given herself up to authorities after accidentally killing her husband in a scuffle in which she squeezed his testicles until he fainted, a newspaper reported Friday.

Saut Chin, 46, was fed up with physical abuse from her husband when she grabbed his testicles until he passed out in the incident Tuesday, the Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper reported.

Fearing that her husband, Ouch Yan, 52, might regain consciousness and start beating her again, Saut Chin tied his neck with a scarf to a bed, the newspaper said.

The exact cause of Ouch Yan's death was not known.

The incident occurred in a village near Sihanoukville, a port city 115 miles southwest of Phnom Penh, news reports said.

Saut Chin and her husband Ouch Yan, 52, were arguing when the husband then kicked his wife in the crotch, the reports said.

"Hurt badly and fed up, she grabbed her husband's testicles and squeezed them with full strength until he fell unconscious on the spot," Rasmei Kampuchea said, citing police reports of the woman's confession.

After discovering that her husband was dead, Saut Chin reported herself to local authorities and asked to be jailed. She said she had not intended to kill her husband "but only to teach him a lesson," according to the newspaper.

Holiday Inn Offers Amnesty To Towel Thieves

ATLANTA - Holiday Inn wants to know what has become of the 500,000 towels a year that guests swipe from its 2,638 hotels.

But the hotel chain isn't looking to put towel takers through the spin cycle. It just wants them to spin some yarns for a national promotion.

Holiday Inn gave guests amnesty Thursday in exchange for their stories about how they've used the towels they've taken over the years.

For every story shared, Holiday Inn will donate $1 to a charity it founded in 1986 that helps children with life-threatening illnesses.

"This really is lighthearted," said Mark Snyder, senior vice president for brand management at Holiday Inn. "It's just a way for people to come on, tell us their story and relieve any lingering guilt they might have about having a Holiday Inn towel in their linen closet."

The hotel chain asked guests to provide their stories on Holiday Inn's Web site. Submissions will be accepted through the end of September. Guests whose stories are one of the best 25 chosen will receive a limited edition souvenir Holiday Inn towel.

Hundreds of stories had already rolled into the Web site by Thursday afternoon.

One man said he took a towel from a Holiday Inn hotel in Monterey, Mexico, as a memento of his honeymoon night. He said he later lost the woman, but he's still got the towel.

Snyder said the lost towels cost the hotel chain about $3 each. But, he said, Holiday Inn doesn't mind that guests take them. Snyder said most guests feel the towels are part of the cost of their stay.

Sure, Blame It On The Cows

TICONDEROGA, N.Y. - There's pot aplenty. But authorities in upstate New York are blaming it on the cows. It seems Elsie and her bovine buddies are spreading the pot seeds on one farm about 80 miles north of Albany. Police Chief Jeffrey Cook says it's been a problem for years, ever since he was a kid. Authorities pull up the pot plants at the request of the farmer, who worries that young people might try to get at the weed. Some years there are only a handful of plants. But this year the cows must have been busy, or hungry. Police have yanked up more than 950 plants. Cook says the illegal weed will be destroyed once they get a court order.

Longest Cigar Record Shattered!

HAVANA - A veteran Cuban cigar maker broke his second world record for rolling the longest stogie in the world.

Jose Castelar Cairo's recognition by the Guinness Book of World Records was announced Thursday. It took Castelar five days to manufacture his record-shattering 45-foot cigar - a feat that far surpassed his first milestone: a 9-foot cigar he and his buddies rolled in 1999 as a way to attract passing tourists.

"We never thought the cigars we were making would be for Guinness," said Castelar, who has been weaving together Cuban tobacco leaves for 43 years.

But he and his colleagues were inspired by the reception their first novel cigar received and decided to go for a record in 2000. They made it - with a whopping 35-foot cigar that earned Castelar his first Guinness citation.

He made his latest and greatest cigar last November, and proudly displayed both Guinness certificates on Thursday. Guinness officials in London could not be reached immediately for comment.

Castelar is a cigar maker for La Triada, a shop located in a historic colonial fort that once protected Havana from enemy invasions and pirate attacks.

New Bush On The Block

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A Baghdad mother and father, to show their thanks to U.S. President George W. Bush for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, have named their son after the American leader.

Had the couple had twin boys, they say, the would have named them George Bush and Tony Blair.

The new George Bush - probably the only one in Baghdad - was born six weeks ago to Nadia Jergis Mohammed, 34, and her husband Abdul Kader Faris, 41.

"I tell you all Iraqis hated Saddam's regime. It was only George Bush who liberated us, without him it wouldn't have happened. If he hadn't done it the sons of Saddam would have ruled us for years. He saved us from Saddam and that's why we named our son after him," Mohammed told Associated Press Television News.

George Bush screamed in his crib.

Baby Bush, born July 11, carries the full name George Bush Abdul Kader Faris Abed El-Hussein. He weighed nearly eight pounds at birth.

Two older brothers are named - more traditionally - Omar and Ali.

A Real Dead Beat

STILLWATER - A St. Paul man who missed a court hearing appeared to have a good excuse - he was dead.

But authorities soon realized his obituary was a fake, and Robert Michael Mathison was arrested.

Mathison was supposed to appear in court in Stillwater on charges from a June case in which he faked a heart attack upon arrest.

A short obituary in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on July 15th said Mathison died on July 12th. It also said he was "Loved by everyone."

The same day, someone claiming to be Mathison's attorney faxed a letter to the court saying Mathison had died. It included a copy of the obituary. But instead of dismissing the felony fourth-degree assault charge, a judge added the fax to the court file.

State trooper Glen Knippenberg arrested Mathison in June. He says he never believed Mathison's obituary.

Ce La Vie! A Historic Tree Dies In Paris

PARIS - Legend has it that Queen Marie Antoinette relaxed in the shade of its branches. Now a centuries-old oak at the chateau of Versailles has withered and died, yet another victim of France's worst-ever heat wave.

The 100-foot tree succumbed after temperatures topped 104 degrees Fahrenheit earlier this month. The heat fanned forest fires, burned crops and is believed to have killed thousands of people across France.

At Versailles outside Paris, chief gardener Alain Baraton watched the historic oak fade for days. This week, he realized it had died.

"It had no more leaves, no more buds," Baraton said on Wednesday.

Until 1999, the oak was protected from the sun by the shade of taller trees. Then violent storms killed 12,000 trees in Versailles' 2000-acre grounds - including those that shaded the oak.

From then on, the oak "was directly exposed to the sun," Baraton said. "The few branches that it still had were burned in August."

The tree was planted in 1681 under the orders of great French landscape designer Andre Le Notre, famous for his orderly, geometric gardens.

The tree was already about 100 years old when King Louis XVI embarked on a dramatic renovation of the grounds in 1776, cutting down most of the trees.

But the oak was left standing, and legend has it that Marie Antoinette, Louis' nature-loving wife, enjoyed the oak's shade, Baraton said.

Unless the tree becomes unstable and dangerous, gardeners don't plan to cut it down.

"Even though it's dead, it's still very beautiful," Baraton said.

Santa Claus, 59, Dead Of Heart Failure ... Just Kidding

MUNDELEIN, Illinois - You can relax, kids. Santa Claus is alive and well, and getting ready for next Christmas.

But another man who legally changed his name to Santa Claus has died.

Robert Rion officially changed his name after decades of playing Santa.

And since he was six-feet tall and weighed 300 pounds - with a long white beard - the name fit.

A coroner in northern Illinois says Claus died of an apparent heart attack. He was 59.

He made Christmas appearances around the area where he lived - and he operated a hotline year-round, so kids could talk to Santa.

Paintin' The Town Red

MADRID, Spain - Tens of thousands of people got pasted in eastern Spain on Wednesday in one of the country's most popular summer festivals - the annual tomato-throwing festival.

Participants pelted each other with overripe tomatoes, turning the streets of this eastern Spanish town into red, juicy pools in an annual festival known as "La Tomatina."

It is said to be the world's largest tomato battle. Last year, the crowd numbered around 38,000 - more than four times the population of Bunol, a town close to the coast.

Within minutes, the streets, the revelers and nearby buildings were splashed with red.

National radio reported that nearby residents protected their facades with plastic sheets. Others dumped buckets of water onto the participants from balconies overlooking the fight, RNE said.

The tomato fight in Bunol has become one of Spain's most popular summer festivals, often drawing people from as far as Japan and Australia.

The festival, held the last Wednesday of every August, started in the 1940s when children started throwing their lunch at each other one day in a downtown square, at a time when the region's tomato exports were starting to pick up.

They met again the following year, this time pelting passers-by as well and giving birth to the tradition.

Foot Licker Gets 18 Months

UXBRIDGE, Mass. - A man accused of licking a woman's feet in a Bellingham grocery store was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to assault just before his trial was to begin.

Raymond Dublin, 36, formerly of Providence, R.I., pleaded guilty Tuesday at Uxbridge District Court to charges of assault and battery and lewd and lascivious behavior.

His attorney asked for a sentence of two years of counseling, but Judge Paul Losapio said counseling wasn't sufficient for Dublin, a two-time convicted sex offender who just completed a one-year sentence on similar foot-licking charges at a Woonsocket, R.I., supermarket.

"I don't know what type of counseling someone could undergo for this kind of behavior," he said.

Dublin was charged with sneaking up behind a woman at the Bellingham Save-A-Lot supermarket and licking her feet and toes in June 2002.

Prosecutor Paul Bolton said Dublin had three separate encounters with the woman, whom he described as "extremely annoyed."

"This individual, this gentleman, has a significant sexual problem," Bolton said of Dublin.

Orangutan Needs A Hug, And Gets It

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Sometimes even an orangutan needs a hug.

Seneca Park Zoo volunteer Paul Lewis was cleaning out a monkey habitat when he heard something move behind him Tuesday. He turned his head and saw Lowell, a 300-pound orangutan who had escaped from an adjoining cage.

Lewis, 56, an animal lover who took the part-time job three months ago because he always wanted to work at a zoo, says he wasn't afraid.

Lewis tried to slip out through a gate but the orangutan followed him and stopped him from closing it. Then Lowell wrapped his arms around Lewis' legs and held on calmly - for nearly five minutes.

"He wasn't holding me that tight," Lewis said. "I knew I couldn't run away from him - I mean, I wasn't going to outrun him in a cage - so I just kind of stood there and waited to see what he would do next. He kind of controlled the situation."

When the orangutan eventually loosened his grip, he took Lewis by the hand and led him back toward his enclosure. At one point, the animal even picked up Lewis and put him down. Moments later, he pushed him out of the cage.

By then, a veterinarian arrived with a tranquilizer gun. The orangutan was knocked out for up to four hours, and the zoo staff took advantage of the down time to clip his nails.

Mom Guilty In Bawdy Bachelorette Stripper Assault

WHEELING, Ill. - Call it a case of mom gone wild.

A 52-year-old woman has pleaded guilty to assaulting a male stripper after she refused to pay him for what she says was a paltry performance at her daughter's bachelorette party.

Jacqueline A. McMahon was sentenced to 30 days of court supervision and ordered to pay $2,500 restitution to the stripper in a plea deal reached Monday. Prosecutors also agreed to drop battery charges against McMahon's daughter, Carrie L. McMahon, 22, and a bridesmaid.

"What was most important to (the victim) was the restitution," said Assistant State's Attorney Elizabeth Vonau.

The 28-year-old man suffered head injuries, bruises and scratches when he was punched, kicked and hit over the head with a bottle after his performance July 13, 2002, at a Holiday Inn hotel in Crystal Lake.

Police say the partygoers became angered when the stripper showed up late and turned out to be a stand-in for the dancer requested by the hosts. Tensions swelled when the man allegedly cut his show short and without doting enough on the bride.

The scuffle broke out when the stripper tried to collect his fee and McMahon refused to pay, police said.

Animal Radicals Release 10,000 Minks From Fur Farm

SULTAN, Wash. - An animal-rights group has claimed responsibility for releasing about 10,000 mink from a fur farm near Seattle.

The animals - prized for their silky coats - escaped early Monday and all but about 1,000 had been captured later in the day, said farm owner Brad Roesler.

Activists claiming to be part of the Animal Liberation Front, a radical animal rights group, took credit for the release in an e-mail sent to Seattle newspapers.

Sultan Police Chief Fred Walser said authorities had not been contacted by ALF or any group claiming responsibility for the attack.

Walser said it appeared the intruder cut through a fence and opened the mink coops, which are similar to chicken coops.

The cat-sized animals ran "out the back fence and down a ravine and every direction you can think of," he said.

Carny Goes Nuts, Exposes Himself, Falls From Train

MONROE, Wash. - A 24-year-old man who led Snohomish County sheriff's deputies on a bizarre chase through the Evergreen State Fair was seriously hurt when he tried to jump aboard a moving train.

The man, a fair employee, was seen on the midway Tuesday afternoon smoking "an unknown narcotic" from a glass pipe, sheriff's spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen said. He was fired on the spot.

The man attempted to steal money from another carnival worker, then went to a women's restroom, where he exposed himself, Jorgensen said.

When deputies arrived, the man put on his pants, took off his shirt, and fled through a window in one of the restroom's stalls.

He groped women as he ran, then scaled a chain-link fence to U.S. 2, where he attempted to steal a car from a woman.

When that failed, he ran across the highway to a train and tried to jump aboard, even though it was traveling about 45 miles per hour, Jorgensen said.

He was knocked back by the train, and was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with multiple fractures. He was reported in serious condition Tuesday night.

When he's released, Jorgensen said, he'll likely be charged with indecent liberties and attempted robbery.

Roller Coaster Riding Record Smashed!

BERLIN - American Richard Rodriguez set a world record for roller coaster riding Tuesday, surpassing his own mark of 147 hours after six days of careening rides in a German amusement park, organizers said.

The 43-year-old followed rules prescribed for an entry in the Guinness Book of Records, which requires eight-hour periods of riding with no more than 15-minute breaks, the Holiday Park in the southwest German town of Hassloch said in a statement.

Rodriguez, who teaches English at Loyola University in Chicago, used two roller coasters at the amusement park in his record chase. For the purpose, one car on each ride was equipped with a small toilet and with seat padding so he could sleep while riding.

Rodriguez first set a record of 147 hours at Holiday Park on July 16, then set out to surpass that mark last Wednesday, organizers said. He plans to stop later this week after reaching 195 hours.

A long-time enthusiast, Rodriguez has been setting roller-coaster endurance records in the United States, England, Canada and Germany since the late 1970s.

Burglar Busted Robbing To Raise Bail

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - Getting busted once wasn't bad enough for David Alan Hoffmann. He tried ripping-off a movie theater for his bail. Now he faces up to six years in prison. Hoffmann has pleaded guilty to burglary and drug charges in Marin County, California. Following his arrest in the drug case, Hoffmann said he needed $50,000 to pay his bail bondsman's fee. Police found him hiding on a catwalk in a movie theater, after he triggered a burglar alarm. Hoffmann will be sentenced next month.

Don't Try This At Home

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - The thought of it may bug some people, but New Jersey's newest game has people spitting crickets.
A few dozen people puckered up for a cricket-spitting contest at Rutgers University last week as part of 56th annual educational clinic of the New Jersey Pest Management Association.

Tom Turpin, an entomology professor from Purdue University in Indiana, says he and his colleagues were looking for additions to their annual "Bug Bowl." A mention of watermelon-seed spitting evolved into a discussion of which bugs would be good for spitting.

Turpin suggested the brown house cricket because it is similar in size to a watermelon pit and holds its shape through freezing and thawing.

"Because it's frozen, it makes it easier," said Heather McNenny of Wildwood-based Paul's Pest Control, who took part in the contest. "They're not all squirmy."

Cricket spitting has helped the Bug Bowl's annual attendance grow to 35,000. Turpin hosts contests across the Midwest and has worked as a consultant to the television show "Fear Factor."

The rules are simple: Competitors stand in a red circle, place thawed crickets inside their mouths and, within 20 seconds, spit them as far as possible without stepping outside the circle.

The official Guinness world record is 30 feet, 1.2 inches. The unofficial record from the Purdue Bug Bowl is 37 feet, 9.75 inches.

The first New Jersey title went to Chris O'Donovan of Cooper Pest Control in Lawrenceville, who spit his cricket 28 feet, 5.75 inches. He won a smiling metal cricket with a clicker hidden beneath.

Finger Bitten Off At Wedding

CORUNNA, Mich. - A wedding guest bit off part of a man's finger during a reception at a banquet hall, police said.

Michael VanStrate, 31, was arraigned Monday on two counts of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, one count of aggravated assault and one count of simple assault following the weekend incident.

The Owosso man also smeared cake on a 9-year-old boy and knocked out a 49-year-old woman, Corunna Police Sgt. Kevin Clark told The Flint Journal.

VanStrate, an invited guest of the Owosso-area couple, "was causing altercations and arguments with other guests" at the Friday night reception, Clark said. "He was asked to leave a couple times, and he'd leave and come back in."

After witnesses said VanStrate, who is 6-foot-2 and weighs 260 pounds, smeared cake on the boy's face, Clark said "the father came to the son's rescue, struggling with the suspect, and he apparently had his finger bit off at that time."

The bridegroom, 21, then intervened, Clark said. Police said VanStrate later elbowed the 49-year-old woman in the head during the scuffle, knocking her out temporarily.

State troopers and officers from Corunna, a community about 25 miles west of Flint, eventually subdued VanStrate early Saturday.

The guest whose right index finger was bitten off between the first and second joints was taken to Hurley Medical Center in Flint, where doctors were unable to reattach the digit. The bridegroom was treated and released at Memorial Healthcare Center in Owosso.

VanStrate remained in custody after Shiawassee County District Judge Ward Clarkson set bond at $25,000.

Oops, Mom's Ashes End Up In Thrift Store

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Rocky Oldaker bought a wood box for $2 at a thrift store because it looked interesting.

When he opened it, what he found inside was priceless to Linda Bigford: her mother's ashes.

"I don't think that is what someone's life should boil down to ... $2 at a thrift store," said Oldaker, who bought the box along with a stuffed animal and a picture frame.

When he unscrewed the box bottom at home, Oldaker discovered a plastic bag of ashes and a note identifying them as those of June Peltier of Marion, Mich.

Peltier, 77, died of natural causes Nov. 15, 1999, said Bigford.

"I'm just so embarrassed," said Bigford, 56. "I can't believe my sister would let this happen."

Bigford said her sister, Melody Parker, was responsible for the ashes but the sisters haven't spoken since Parker moved to central Ohio in November. A home telephone listing could not be found for Parker.

"I know my sister wouldn't knowingly get rid of it," Bigford said. "She had to mistake it for something else."

Employees at the Village Discount Outlet said they don't know how the box arrived there. A manager, who declined to give his name, said employees wouldn't normally open a box that was screwed shut.

City Council Says 'P-U' To Stinky Workers

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - No B.O. on the J.O.B. That's the new policy for city workers in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The City Council has adopted a regulation that workers may not have "an odor generally offensive to others." It seems one city employee has what's described as a problem with personal hygiene, despite repeated counseling. The new rules don't spell out exactly what constitutes offensive body odor. But Councilman Toby Gilley says, "We'll know it when we smell it."

War Criminal's Corpse Disappears

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone - Police searched Monday for the body of rebel leader and indicted war criminal Foday Sankoh after someone removed the corpse from its grave.

Sankoh, whose rebel forces were notorious for hacking off the limbs, lips and ears of civilians, died of pneumonia and other ailments on July 29 while in U.N. custody at a Freetown hospital.

Sankoh had been undergoing trial at a U.N. war-crimes court until his deteriorating health and mental state made it impossible for him to continue court appearances.

A Libyan-trained guerrilla, Sankoh led Sierra Leone rebels in a brutal Liberian-backed campaign to win control of this West African nation's government and diamond fields.

The fighting killed at least 75,000 people by U.N. count, and left thousands more maimed by the rebels' trademark atrocities.

Sankoh's body had been released to his widow after an Aug. 2 autopsy.

Relatives buried it in the northern village of Masang, 160 miles from Freetown.

Police visiting the site in recent days, after hearing reports the grave had been desecrated, found the corpse gone and the grave site itself covered, so as to hide any sign the body had been there.

Bobbies Called To Greece To Control Wiley Brits

ATHENS - Greek authorities overwhelmed by drunken and unruly tourists on Rhodes learned Friday they will get help from a British police expert in controlling excess drinking.

Police Superintendent Andy Rhodes, who specializes in dealing with drunken behavior, is planning a trip to the island next week for talks with police at the Faliraki resort, the focus of mounting complaints about lewd and violent behavior. Among the incidents was a bar fight earlier this month that left a British teenager dead.

Rhodes told Channel 4 News Thursday that he may try to bring some of the "tried and tested methods" that British police forces have used for years in Britain.

"The binge drinking culture we have in most towns in Britain after dark, unfortunately - it is a British phenomenon," he said.

The increase in the number of young Britons visiting Faliraki has been attributed to the popular ITV1 program "Club Reps," which follows the sexual and drinking exploits of British workers and tourists at the resort, British media reports have suggested.

Faliraki, a former serene seaside strip has become one of Europe's top beach-and-booze locales preferred by young Britons. This summer behavior at the Rhodes resort and a few other tourist hotspots has drawn outrage from Greeks: beatings, sexual assaults, Greek flag burning, drug use and even an outdoor oral sex contest on the island of Corfu.

It's A Small World After All

DURANGO, Colo. - A woman's scheme to avoid prison by faking her own death in a truck accident came undone when a childhood friend, now a sheriff's deputy, spotted her by chance far from home.

Misty Quackenbush, 27, of Cortez, was supposed to have been sentenced July 11 to four years in prison on her guilty plea to distribution of methamphetamines.

Instead, she allegedly placed personal identification in an abandoned pickup near a reservoir, doused the truck with blood of unknown origin and fled, officials said.

About four weeks later, former Montezuma County Deputy Brandon Brown, now a Texas lawman, spotted Quackenbush in Shamrock, Texas, some 600 miles from Cortez. Brown had read about her supposed death.

"I'm still kind of shocked. Her comment to me was 'I must have been meant to get caught, because, what are the odds?" Brown said.

Quackenbush was sentenced Friday in Durango to five years in prison - the original four plus one for jumping bail.

Woman Arrested For Naked Yoga

SALEM, Mass. - Police in Massachusetts have busted a woman for a bout of yoga in the buff.

Salem police arrested the 22-year-old over the weekend after getting complaints that a naked woman was sunbathing and doing yoga in Minto-Brown Island Park.

A police official says the woman was charged with public indecency and taken to the Marion County jail.

Police got a complaint Saturday afternoon from a witness who reported seeing a naked woman near a pedestrian path. Before an officer could get to the park, another witness told the woman that he was offended and asked her to put her clothes on. The woman was clothed when police arrived.

The initial witness told police that she was upset because her two small children saw the naked woman.

The officer says police took her to jail because it was the second time Saturday that they had made contact with her.

ELF Suspected In Hummer Arson

WEST COVINA, Calif. - Hummer enthusiasts aren't pleased with the recent string of vandalism and arson at Southern California dealerships.

About 25 members of a local Hummer fan club joined city officials at a rally near a dealership where dozens of the SUV's were damaged last week.

Dealers say they're beefing up security for fear of a repeat of Friday's attack. A warehouse and about 20 Hummers were gutted by fire, and dozens more were spray-painted with phrases like "Polluter."

The suspects are believed to be connected with the Earth Liberation Front, an underground group linked to other similar incidents. The letters "ELF" were tagged on SUV's at several dealerships.

FBI officials say they're searching for two young men seen on a surveillance video.