The Odd Truth, July 21, 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.
Tongue Transplanted
VIENNA, Austria - Doctors in Vienna have carried out the first successful tongue transplant on a human being, the hospital where the surgery took place said Monday.
An unidentified 42-year-old man suffering from a malignant tumor affecting his tongue and jaw underwent a 14-hour operation at Vienna's General Hospital on Saturday in which doctors removed the tumor and attached the new tongue, hospital spokeswoman Karin Fehringer said.
The patient is in good condition, Fehringer said.
No further details were immediately available, but the hospital said a medical team would provide more information Tuesday.
Crows Lead To Abandoned Baby
DHAKA, Bangladesh - Two scavenging crows drew the attention of passers-by and led them to an abandoned newborn girl left in a trash can in a northwestern Bangladesh city, a Dhaka newspaper reported Monday.
The baby, wrapped in a bloodstained plastic bag, was found on Sunday in Rajshahi city, 145 miles northwest of the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, Inqilab daily reported.
Curious onlookers stopped to watch the two cawing birds trying to seize the bag and attacking each other. They discovered the baby after it started crying, the report said.
The paper said the child was sent to a hospital, where she was reportedly doing well.
Dead Men Driving
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Two morgue workers were arrested for borrowing corpses in a scam to get priority gasoline allocated to funeral homes, police said Saturday, as Zimbabwe faces acute fuel and food shortages.
The two allegedly faked burial orders on unclaimed corpses. They took the corpses to gas stations to get fuel that they later sold on the black market, police said. Funeral homes are given preference at the few gas stations selling fuel if their vehicle is carrying a coffin with burial documents.
Police spokeswoman Cecilia Churu said the two workers were arrested Thursday after security guards at the hospital in the dormitory town of Chitungwiza, 15 miles south of Harare, noticed a coffin being returned to the morgue.
The workers were expected to be charged under health and burial laws.
Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980 with shortages of hard currency, imports such as gas and medicines and food.
On the black market, fuel and corn meal staple fetch five times the official price. The official exchange rate is 824 Zimbabwe dollars to the U.S. dollar, but the American dollar buys up to Z$2,700 on the black market.
Fuel shortages have crippled industry and transportation. The prisons department said earlier this month it was unable to deliver prisoners to court for bail hearings and many were retained in custody until diesel supplies were received.
All Bark and No Bite
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Henry Ritter had no plans of biting a suspect he was chasing, but he saw nothing wrong with barking.
Ritter and Richard Gough, both deputies with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department, stopped a car July 12 because of a broken taillight. The driver, 21-year-old John Nicholas Hood, jumped from the car and ran into the woods, according to the arrest report.
The officers' calls to Hood went unanswered so Gough said they were sending a dog after him. Ritter started barking.
"He stood up and said, 'I'm here. Call off the dog,"' Ritter said.
Hood, of Decatur, appeared in court this week and was charged with driving under the influence, driving on a revoked license, evading arrest and a taillight violation. Judge Bob Moon bound his case over to the grand jury.
"I suppose as long as the officers have had their shots and don't bite, I'll allow them to continue that technique," Moon said.
Ritter said it wasn't the first time he and Gough have barked at a suspect.
"We've played that card, and it's worked," he said.
Crook Sentenced To Read 'Mockingbird'
WEST CHESTER, Pa. - A judge handed down a novel sentence to a defendant with a lengthy rap sheet: He ordered him to read "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Judge Juan Sanchez gave William Fowlkes, 46, of West Chester, his own copy of Harper Lee's classic novel and instructed him to read it and write an essay about how his "disgusting" behavior relates to the book.
"I have read the book many times because I think it is a powerful book," Sanchez said. "It captures the life of a lawyer who (gains) the respect of other people in turbulent times."
Fowlkes has been arrested numerous times, on charges including criminal trespassing, harassment and aggravated assault, over the last two decades. He was arrested most recently in March when West Chester police responded to a report of a disturbance.
Police said Fowlkes spit on an officer and kicked the windows inside the patrol car, shattering the glass and bending the metal holding the windows.
Sanchez also sentenced Fowlkes to four to 12 months in prison and ordered him to pay $350 in restitution in fines earlier this month.
He said he hoped the defendant would pay particular attention to the scene in which Atticus Finch, the novel's noble protagonist, reacts stoically when another character spits at him.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel centers on the wrongful conviction of a black man, defended by Finch, for raping a white woman.
'Feeding Frenzy' On The Devil's Highway
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The main stretch of asphalt that cuts across northwestern New Mexico's desolate mesas is living out its final days as the Devil's Highway, but drivers wouldn't necessarily know it.
Not a single sign remains labeling it as the infamous U.S. 666.
"Since the reports that we were changing the name, we virtually had everything stolen. It was a feeding frenzy," said S.U. Mahesh, spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Transportation.
The two-lane highway runs 194 miles from Gallup north through southwestern Colorado and then west to Monticello, Utah. Colorado and Utah transportation officials also reported a rash of sign thefts since the American Association of State Highway and Transportation changed the number from U.S. 666 to U.S. 491 in June.
Officials of all three states applied for the number change because of what some saw as the old number's satanic connotation.
In the Bible, the Book of Revelation says 666 is the "number of the beast," usually interpreted as Satan or the Antichrist.
Missing signs have been a problem since the highway was built decades ago, but Colorado transportation spokeswoman Nancy Shanks said more of the black-and-white signs started disappearing after the news of the number change.
"We don't have a single 666 sign left," she said.
One seller on the Internet auction site eBay purported to have a number of the U.S. 666 signs.
"This is not a cheap mock up or knock off. It is the real deal guaranteed without the hassles of chancing a federal offense for stealing government property," the listing said. The seller did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Mahesh said the state Office of Inspector General plans to contact eBay about the signs.
No Bites For Elvis' Tooth
MIAMI - Return to sender: one Elvis Presley tooth.
After 10 days on the eBay auction block, no one posted the minimum $100,000 bid for a purported Elvis tooth, lock of hair and gold record.
So the South Florida owners say they plan to sell the collection in pieces, with the items likely to be offered again on Internet auction site eBay sometime this weekend.
That came as a relief to die-hard fan Joni Mabe. She already owns an Elvis wart, and "maybe an Elvis toenail."
"I'd love to have the tooth," said the Georgia artist, who calls herself "Joni Mabe the Elvis Babe." "Then the wart would have a friend and we could put the King back together in pieces," she said.
Mabe, who also calls herself the "Queen of the King," recounted how she came across the toenail: "In '83 I toured Graceland and I was just feeling the carpet and walls to get the vibe of where he had walked.
"I got down on my hands and knees in the jungle room and found the toenail clipping," said the sculptor, whose pieces often feature Elvis memorabilia.
Bidding for the tooth — purportedly pulled by a dentist — started July 5 and ended Friday night about an hour before midnight.
Bids shot up to $2 million, but eBay reset the auction July 8, believing the bids were fraudulent, said Anthony DeFontes, curator and spokesman for the collection. He said he has since been screening potential buyers.
The owners of a Fort Lauderdale hair salon pulled the tooth from their collection of celebrity memorabilia after displaying it for about a decade.
Dog Tag Returned 30 Years Later
BEDFORD, Ind. - A Vietnam veteran who lost his military dog tag when he was injured by an exploding grenade in 1971 recently got a surprise — his dog tag had been found.
A German woman who bought Phil Tatom's dog tag from a vendor during a visit to Vietnam in 2000 tracked him down a few weeks ago and mailed them to the Bedford man's home.
"Now I've got something besides the shrapnel in my backside. I've got something I can hold in my hand. I guess you could say this provides closure in a very special way," Tatom said.
In 1971, Tatom was serving in the Chu Lai region of Vietnam when a fellow soldier dropped a live grenade and it rolled to a few feet from where Tatom stood.
The blast sent hot shrapnel ripping through his backside. His buddies put him in a Jeep and raced to a hospital, where doctors gave him medication that knocked him out.
"When I woke up everything was gone," he said. "All my equipment had vanished, even my dog tag."
After more than three decades, Vietnam was merely a distant memory — until a few weeks ago, when Tatom got a call from Holly Steese, the woman who had found his dog tag.
Steese wondered for three years about who the tags she bought belonged to — whether they were alive or dead.
"I got hold of Mr. Tatom's brother and he assured me he would be happy to hear the news," Steese said. "It ended wonderfully.