The Odd Truth, Jan. 15, 2004

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.

PIEDMONT, S.D. - A week after a co-worker at a construction site accidentally drove a 3-and-a-half-inch nail into Jed Bryant's skull with a nail gun, the 21-year-old Bryant is waiting for headaches to go away but does not appear to have suffered any serious damage.

The nail penetrated Bryant's skull but missed his brain stem by just a fraction of an inch.

Along with headaches, Bryant has some nausea and night sweats, and sometimes sleeps fitfully. He also is being monitored by doctors and takes a continuous dose of antibiotics to prevent infection.

"Infection is the main concern," Bryant said Wednesday from his mother's home in Piedmont where he is recovering. "I'm not quite clear yet. I'm crossing my fingers."

Bryant was part of a crew building a large pole barn Friday morning in Wall when the accident happened. Shortly after 9 a.m., he had leaned down to work on a door frame, then lifted his head just as a co-worker with a nail gun turned and bumped into his head. The gun discharged, driving the nail into Bryant's skull.

"I reached up and felt the nail in my head, and the guy started screaming," Bryant said. "I was like, OK, this is bad."

"I was scared, but I tried to keep it together."

Bryant never lost consciousness and "hustled to the truck" so co-workers could drive to the Wall Clinic. "When we pulled up to the place, I was out of the truck before anybody," he said. "I rushed into the place."

He was taken by helicopter to Rapid City Regional Hospital where he had surgery to remove the nail.

You Will Dye! Er, Die!

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - A suspect was linked to a series of bank robberies by his own bad spelling, police said.

Robert C. Whitney's consistently confused the words "dye" and "die" in robbery notes given to bank tellers, police said.

A note used in a Gainesville robbery read "If a die pack blows, so do you," said police Sgt. Keith Kameg. The same wording had been used on notes in two Volusia County robberies, he said.

"If anything says education is important to your future, this case says that," Kameg said. "As simple as spelling one word wrong was instrumental in solving three bank robberies."

Whitney, 39, was arrested in Leon County last week, and was also wanted in Hillsborough County. Gainesville police issued a warrant on Tuesday.

Beating Her Softly

MADRID, Spain - A Muslim cleric who wrote a book advising men how to beat their wives without leaving marks was sentenced to a year and three months in prison Wednesday, his lawyer said.

The cleric will not have to actually go to prison, as under Spanish law people with no previous convictions have their first sentences suspended if they are under two years.

A jury in the northeastern city of Barcelona found Mohamed Kamal Mustafa, imam at the mosque in the southern town of Fuengirola, guilty of inciting violence against women, lawyer Jose Luis Bravo told reporters. Bravo said he would appeal Wednesday's sentence.

Kamal also was fined $2,735.

In his book "Women in Islam," published three years ago, Mustafa wrote that verbal warnings followed by a period of sexual inactivity can be used to discipline a disobedient wife.

"The blows should be concentrated on the hands and feet using a rod that is thin and light so that it does not leave scars or bruises on the body," Kamal wrote, according to the private news agency Europa Press.

In his defense, Mustafa argued that he was interpreting passages of the Quran and that he opposed violence against women, Europa Press reported.

The book enraged about 90 women's groups who in July 2000 filed a lawsuit in a Barcelona court to have the book withdrawn. They invoked a Spanish law that protects women from discrimination in the home and workplace.

As a result of the court action, Mustafa's book was removed from Islamic cultural centers in Spain.

Bravo described the sentence as "unfair and a result of the media pressure over the case."

Bank Robber Asks For It

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. - A man was arrested for robbing a bank after he returned to take down the note demanding money he had left taped to a drive-through window.

Eugene D. Golden, 36, of Briarwood was charged with nonaggravated robbery.

Police say a man wearing a hooded sweat shirt and a ball cap walked up to the drive-through at Community Bank about 5:50 p.m. Wednesday and taped a note to the window indicating an explosive device would be detonated if tellers did not give him cash.

Bank employees handed over $21,066, said Parkersburg Police Chief Robert Newell. The man then fled in a green vehicle with a cardboard sign reading "lost tag" over the license plate and duct tape over the make of the vehicle.

The man drove to Emerson Bowling Lanes nearby, changed clothes in his car, then walked back to the bank to retrieve the note. He stuffed it in his pocket.

A police officer saw him take the note down and told him to stop. The man ran back to his car and was captured as he was getting in. Police found a brown bag full of money in Golden's car, along with clothing matching the description of what the robber was wearing.

Golden was being held Thursday in the North Central Regional Jail on a $50,000 bond.

You Think You're A Clean Freak?

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A firefighter was charged with torching his mother's mobile home, saying he was upset over her sloppy housekeeping.

William A. Feimster was charged with arson Tuesday after voluntarily going to the sheriff's department.

Feimster's mother wasn't home during the Nov. 20 fire, which destroyed the mobile home.

"He said it was very sloppy and he didn't like it," Berkeley County sheriff's Sgt. Russell Shackelford said.

Feimster, 25, told police he went there to get some videos to watch at work. Upset over the mess, he lit a roadside flare and put it in a kitchen garbage can, Shackelford said.

He then drove back to a private ambulance company where he worked. When the call was dispatched, he went out to help fight the blaze, police said.

Feimster, who also worked at South Berkeley Volunteer Fire Department, has been charged with embezzlement in an unrelated case. He faces a maximum of 20 years on the arson charge.

He was held Wednesday on $60,000 bail.

Breeding A Calmer, Tastier Cow

ALBANY, Georgia - A livestock specialist at the University of Georgia has developed a scoring system that allows owners to assess the temperaments of cattle so they can breed calmer calves.

Studies conducted in Australia, Colorado and elsewhere have shown that serene cattle gain weight faster and provide more tender meat than cranky cattle.

Also, calves with poor dispositions can cause costly damage to equipment, fences and harm handlers, said Jerry Baker, a researcher at the university's Coastal Plain Experiment Station.

Baker's system uses electric eyes and an electronic clock to measure the time it takes for each animal to travel six feet after it leaves a chute - restraining devices that hold animals by the neck while they are weighed or examined by a veterinarian. The slower the exit, the calmer the cattle.

"We'll have calves that meander on out, maybe in three seconds," he said. "Other calves are highly excited. They want to get away from the handler and the restraining device. You're looking at a fraction of a second to cross six feet."

Baker believes his "exit velocity" test is more precise than other methods in measuring the cattle temperament. A system developed in Colorado, for example, requires handlers to assign a value from 1 to 5 based on behaviors ranging from completely calm to combative.

When meat from the cattle used in the Georgia tests was checked, the tenderest cuts came from cattle with calm dispositions, he said.