The Odd Truth, Dec. 14, 2004
The Odd Truth is a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world compiled by CBSNews.com's Brian Bernbaum.
Fun With Roaches!
SHANGHAI, China - How do you remove a stray cockroach jammed in the ear? Get the roach drunk.
A doctor in the southeastern Chinese port city of Xiamen plucked a half-inch roach from a 12-year-old boy's ear with tweezers four minutes after dousing it with alcohol, the official China Daily newspaper reported Tuesday.
The doctor at the city's Zhongshan Hospital, who wasn't further identified, sees up to two patients each month with similar insect problems, the paper said. The report didn't say how the roach got into the boy's ear.
"Victims of similar intrusions should seek medical help and not attempt to remove the cockroach themselves as there is a real risk of the eardrum being damaged," the report said.
Paco The Python
CLIFTON, N.J. - Paco the Python will soon be going home. The pet snake hitched a ride with a DVD player being sent from Missouri to New Jersey for repair. Sheila Himmerick's snake apparently slithered into the DVD box and found a comfy spot in the packing peanuts. She had no idea what happened to Paco, until she got a call from Samsung's New Jersey repair facility. The caller wanted to know if the snake was Himmerick's way of sending a message about customer dissatisfaction. It wasn't. Himmerick says she and her 17-year-old son are thrilled to be getting their pet snake back.
Fair And Impartial? Not So Much
NEW ORLEANS - The Louisiana Supreme Court has given a judge a six-month suspension for wearing blackface makeup, handcuffs and a jail jumpsuit to a Halloween party.
Judge Timothy Ellender will lose all of his pay during the suspension. That totals more than $50,000.
Ellender, who is white, says the costumes worn by him and his wife were meant as a joke. She dressed as a policewoman. And the party's host, Ellender's brother-in-law, was dressed as Buckwheat.
The justices agreed Ellender did not mean to insult blacks. Still, they ordered him to take a sociology course to get "a greater understanding of racial sensitivity."
A Businessman, Through And Through
HARRISON, Ark. - A man with plenty of time to spare as he awaited trial on drug charges sold Christmas cards he drew to raise enough extra money to help him post bond and get out of jail.
In October, authorities arrested Charlie Cook and his wife, Laurie, and charged them with making methamphetamine, drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and manufacturing the drug in the presence of children.
Laurie Cook's bond was set at $20,000, but she was released on a signature bond because she was five months' pregnant. Cook's bond was set at $30,000; with help from some of his Christmas card money, he was able to post bond Dec. 7.
After visiting with prison missionaries, Charlie Cook became inspired to draw winter scenes as Christmas cards. Clarence Yoder, a Mennonite who had visited Cook in jail, liked the cards so much that he took them to his bakery and sold them for $2 each.
Mrs. Cook also works at Yoder's bakery. "We're trying to stay away from the people and circumstances that have contributed to some of the bad choices we've made in the past," she said.
State social workers have placed the Cooks' children in the temporary custody of a local family and the couple may only visit them under court-approved supervision.
"All we've got by worldly standards are the clothes on our backs, but we don't blame anyone but ourselves," said Cook, who has a pretrial hearing Jan. 7.
Trouble In Paradise
CHICAGO - For three or four years, a homeless man achieved the impossible: He found a cheap place to live on pricey Lake Shore Drive.
Actually, Richard Dorsay lived under Lake Shore Drive, in a wooden shack built into the beams and girders of the drawbridge that crosses the Chicago River.
Dorsay was recently evicted after another man arrested in suburban Streamwood told police about the home under the bridge.
When authorities went inside, they found an elaborate setup that tapped into the bridge's electricity to power a television, microwave, space heater and PlayStation video game system. There, Dorsay could relax, turn on a Chicago Bears game, invite friends over and pop open some beers.
"I've never seen this," Tom Powers, a deputy commissioner for the Chicago Transportation Department, told the Chicago Sun-Times. "Usually, it's somebody trying to get warm at night."
The home had it quirks. Whenever Dorsay heard the bells that signal the arms of the bridge would soon rise to let boats through, he held on as the bridge slowly pitched him forward.
"The first time it was scary," he said. "After that, it was almost like riding a Ferris wheel."
Two other people also moved to the same area of the bridge, and a number of wooden huts with sleeping quarters were built. Dorsay used blankets to camouflage the huts to make them harder to spot from the water below.
Man Bites Dog, Really Hard
GAINESVILLE, Florida - A man has been charged with animal cruelty for allegedly biting his Jack Russell terrier as punishment, and police say he used a 200-pound bull mastiff in an attempt to keep back officers who arrived to arrest him.
The mother of Mount Lee Lacy's girlfriend called police because she was concerned about an argument between him and her daughter about Lacy's unusual discipline method for his dog Lady.
Officers kicked down the apartment door when they heard an argument and a barking dog. Lacy was holding the mastiff named Breaker on a taut leash 6 feet inside the door. The officers drew their guns but didn't fire.
Lacy, 21, was handcuffed and jailed Saturday on one count each of felony animal cruelty and resisting arrest without violence. He remained in the Alachua County Jail on $25,000 bail Tuesday. It could not be determined Tuesday whether he had hired an attorney.
"He said that biting the dog was good punishment and that's how you train them, that dogs bite so that's what they understand," Sgt. Keith Kameg said. "When an officer went to check on (Lady), she was cowering in the back of her crate as if the officer was going to hurt her."
Police reported Lady's left front paw was bloody from a bite. Jack Russell terriers normally weigh no more than 16 pounds.
"If you are inflicting injury or breaking skin, or the dog is responding to pain, you are not doing any good," said Pepe Peruyero, a former police officer who operates a dog training school in nearby High Springs.