The Odd Truth, Dec. 5, 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.
Fantasy Accident Comes True
DAVENPORT, Iowa — Ice-cold beer was flowing in a Davenport neighborhood, but it was on a city street and heading for the city's storm sewers, police said.
A beer delivery truck driver was ticketed after his trailer smacked into a low-clearance bridge Tuesday.
The accident ripped off the top of the Budweiser truck's trailer, collapsing the trailer and spilling beer onto the street.
The driver, from Dubuque, was ticketed for disobeying a traffic sign that warns of the 11-foot bridge, police said.
It's the ninth time a truck has struck the bridge since Jan. 2001, authorities said.
Crews spent most of the day cleaning up the accident that left beer trickling toward a storm sewer and frozen on the city street, police said.
Husband Gets The Message
SINGAPORE - A used-car salesman's wife, who suspected her husband of having an affair, smashed 18 cars with a hammer during a five-minute rampage at their Singapore dealership, police said Thursday.
A 34-year-old woman, identified only as Mrs. Tu, bashed in the windscreens of Mercedes, BMWs and Volvos on Tuesday, and also destroyed a computer and telephone, media reported. The damage was estimated at $56,500, Channel NewsAsia reported.
The car dealership is owned by Robin Tu, 37, and his wife, the Straits Times newspaper reported.
Tu believed her husband was cheating on her, but hadn't confronted him. "I hit first, then ask later," she told the newspaper.
"At first I thought it was just a mistake," Tu said. "But a few days ago, he didn't come home till dawn. When he did it again on Tuesday morning — I snapped."
Police were investigating to determine whether any criminal offense had been committed, spokesman Ang Poon Seng said.
Mrs. Tu said she will file for a divorce and that she felt better after venting her anger. "I slept much better than I had in days," she said. "It is my shop, my cars — I can do what I like to them."
Vandalism normally draws strict punishments in Singapore. American teenager Michael Fay was flogged for spray-painting cars in 1994.
Slippery Shower Ruled Constitutional Afterall
SALT LAKE CITY - Slippery when wet -- but not illegal. A federal appeals court has some bad news for a former Salt Lake County jail inmate. The court ruled a slippery jailhouse shower floor didn't amount to cruel and unusual punishment. One time inmate Stephen Flandro contended his constitutional rights were violated when he slipped on a shower floor. But the appellate panel ruled the shower case was all wet. The judges noted slippery showers are a hazard of everyday life -- in or out of jail.
Peeping Toms Pay, And Pay, And Pay
CHICAGO - Dozens of college athletes -- who were secretly videotaped in the buff -- have been awarded $11 million each.
A federal judge in Chicago has ordered eight companies and three people to pay a total of more than $500 million to the 46 athletes.
They had sued over the footage that was sold over the Internet -- advertised as featuring "hot younger dudes."
The videotapes were made in locker rooms, rest rooms and showers during athletic competitions on several campuses.
After the defendants failed to show up in court for the past couple of years, the judge gave the students a default judgment.
A lawyer for some of the students says the ruling sends "a signal to the sexual predators."
Under the judgment, each athlete gets one million dollars in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages.
Drunken, Sword-Wielding Kuwaiti Storms Embassy
KUWAIT CITY — A drunken man wielding a sword was arrested after striding up to the gates of the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, the embassy said Wednesday.
Embassy spokesman John Moran said the man, "an inebriated Kuwaiti," waved a ceremonial sword at guards while mumbling some words on Tuesday morning.
The guards subdued him and turned him over to the police, Moran said. Moran did not have the man's name or any other information about him.
Some 12,000 American military personnel are now in Kuwait under a defense agreement signed after the 1991 Gulf War that liberated Kuwait from a seven-month Iraqi occupation.
Who Says Jocks Are Stupid?
TUCSON, Ariz. — A University of Arizona football player was arrested on drug trafficking charges after he was stopped in Illinois with 87 pounds of marijuana, authorities said.
Junior tight end Justin Levasseur was arrested around 9:15 a.m. Tuesday after an Illinois State Police trooper pulled over for speeding the truck that Levasseur was driving, said Sgt. Thomas J. Burek.
The trooper found 87 pounds of marijuana in the truck, Burek said.
Levasseur, a 22-year-old from Antioch, Calif., was arrested on drug possession and trafficking charges.
Levasseur led all Arizona tight ends with 11 catches for 143 yards. He caught two touchdown passes in Arizona's 52-41 win over California, this season's only Pac-10 win for the beleaguered Wildcats.
Coach John Mackovic said he was aware of the arrest and had spoken with Levasseur's parents. No decision has been made yet on his team status, the coach said in a statement.
Doc Sued For Cashing Check During Surgery
BOSTON — A patient who was left on the operating table with an open incision in his back while his doctor went to the bank sued the surgeon Wednesday.
Charles Algeri, 45, claims in the lawsuit that a nerve in his right leg was injured because Dr. David Arndt left for 35 minutes in the middle of the back operation. Algeri is seeking unspecified damages.
Mount Auburn Hospital suspended Arndt's privileges in July after he left during the surgery so he could deposit a check. The state later suspended Arndt's medical license.
A state Public Health Department report rejected Algeri's contention that X-rays showed that new bone grafts had failed. The report did not address whether Arndt's actions affected the success of the operation.
Arndt, 41, a 1992 graduate of Harvard Medical School, is appealing his license suspension. He has said he regrets his actions and went to the bank because he was in "a financial crisis" and had to pay overdue bills.