The Odd Truth, Dec. 27, 2002
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.
Robo Deer Outwits Stupid Poachers
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Tales of Rudolph of red-nose fame, Dasher, Prancer and Santa's other tiny reindeer dominate at Christmas time, but have you heard of the strangest deer of all?
He's Robo Deer. The mechanical decoy helps Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers nab poachers and deter the illegal shooting of Rudolph's real-life cousins at night and from vehicles.
The stories of his exploits have multiplied since 1995 when the agency began using the devices. Robo Deer follows in the hoof-prints of a couple of less realistic versions. The first was a cardboard cutout with some burlap on it.
"It was worth maybe $2," commission Lt. Stan Kirkland said. "It was amazing how many people shot at it."
Next was a deer replica similar to those archers can buy as practice targets, but it had no moving parts.
Then came Robo Deer, which can turn its head and twitch its tail. The stories quickly followed.
"We had an officer report there was someone in a truck watching the replica," Kirkland said. "He took a long gaze and then floorboarded his vehicle. He ran through these pines and oaks, ran over the decoy, and destroyed it."
The motorist had to buy the state a replacement.
Another driver just missed running over it.
"Then the guy all of the sudden slammed on the brakes, vaults out of the truck, takes out a big sheath knife, tackles it, and knocks it to the ground," Kirkland said. "The head rolls off."
The man got up mumbling about game officers and drove off. No arrest was made because there's nothing illegal about tackling a deer.
Another man saw the deer and stopped his truck, got out and crawled on his belly across a ditch filled with water to within 20 feet.
"You'd think by now he'd get the message when this thing doesn't run that it's not real," Kirkland said. "He reaches back into his pocket, whips out this little pistol you couldn't kill a snake with, and plinks away at the decoy."
As the arrests grew, so did the legend. Officers get calls from people claiming they spotted Robo Deer, much like Elvis, in places he's never been.
Burning Fireplace Logs A TV Hit
NEW YORK - The Yule Log — a TV broadcast of logs burning in Gracie Mansion's fireplace to a Christmas carol soundtrack — burned up the ratings this year.
The uninterrupted two-hour Christmas morning broadcast of the "Yule Log Christmas Special," a holiday tradition for fireplace-less New Yorkers, returned to the air in 2001 after a 12-year hiatus.
Wednesday's showing, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., boasted 284,012 viewing households, a 26 percent boost in viewership compared with last year, WPIX Channel 11 said. It smoked the 1 p.m. airing of the 1951 classic film version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," starring Alistair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, by 29,000 households.
The rather bizarre Christmas tradition also burned up the airwaves every year from 1966 to 1989.
During the Yule Log's absence, WPIX, the local affiliate of the WB, was bombarded with letters and calls from viewers asking for the broadcast to be brought back.
For its triumphant return, the Yule Log tape was digitally remastered, but the soundtrack, including "Joy to the World" and "Winter Wonderland," was left unchanged.
No News Is No News
SOUTH BEND, Ind. This just in -- five and a-half years late.
That's how long it took for a man in Dayton, Ohio, to get his edition of a South Bend Tribune with a special report on legalized gambling in northern Indiana.
After Bob Uhl retrieved the newspaper from his mailbox last week, he realized it was dated for June second, 1997. That's when the Tribune stopped publishing in the afternoons and had sent out the first issue of the morning edition.
Uhl grew up in South Bend and wanted to keep up with news back home.
As far as anyone at the Tribune knows, Uhl's newspaper has been in the hands of the postal service all this time.
TV Anchors Beware
DECATUR, Ill. - From now on, students and staff in one Illinois school district will have to do all their primping at home.
That's because Decatur's school system has new rules prohibiting the use of hair spray, cologne and spray deodorant at some public schools.
Health officials say an increase in allergic reactions to scented spray products prompted the new guidelines. They take effect when classes resume next month.
So far, officials say, reaction has been positive.