The Odd Truth, June 28, 2004

The Odd Truth is a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world compiled by CBSNews.com's Brian Bernbaum.

Naked In Cleveland

CLEVELAND - There was more shivering than rocking in Cleveland - as over 2,700 naked people posed behind the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. The temperature hovered around 50 Saturday morning, while artist Spencer Tunick attempted to break a nude record. He photographed the sea of naked bodies from atop a 40-foot high industrial scissor lift. Tunick says the massed nudes surpassed the previous record of 2,500 set in Montreal. Tunick has made a career of taking pictures of large groups of naked people. His Cleveland photos will go display in early August at the city's Museum of Contemporary Art.

Soiled Underwear Scare

ERIE, Pa. - A man who soiled his underwear and tried to dispose of the evidence by tossing it over the fence of the city's largest reservoir has been fined $5,000.

The city bomb squad and hazardous materials crew responded after an Erie Water Works employee spotted a black bag near the 33-million gallon Sigsbee Reservoir last month.

The reservoir was shut down for several hours while the bomb squad X-rayed the bag and hazardous materials crews waited to test it.

Police tracked down Troy Musil, 18, of Erie. He told police he'd been ill and soiled his underwear. He changed at a friend's house, then climbed over two barbed-wire-topped fences to ditch the skivvies.

Musil pleaded guilty last week to defiant trespass. The judge gave Musil a 90-day suspended jail sentence and ordered him to pay $500 a month for 10 months to the emergency agencies that responded.

If he doesn't pay, the judge said Musil will be jailed. A telephone number for Musil couldn't be found.

'Cut Me Some Slack, I'm An Organ Donor!'

CLEVELAND - An edgy new advertising campaign to promote organ donation hints that police officers should cut speeders who are organ donors some slack.

"Hey policeman," a Cleveland billboard calls out, an arrow pointing to a donor insignia on a young man's license, "give this guy a break."

The advertisements by LifeBanc, the Cleveland-based organ procurement agency for 20 counties in northeast Ohio, are meant to attract attention, a spokeswoman said.

"We wanted to get people thinking," said the agency's Monica Heath, noting that 1,300 people in northeast Ohio are waiting for organs.

Councilman Matthew Zone wasn't laughing. "I think it sends the wrong message to the average Joe citizen," said Zone.

"Just because you participate in a unique program as precious as donating an organ doesn't mean (you) should be given preferential treatment," he said.

Lt. Wayne Drummond, a Cleveland police spokesman, said he had no problem with the billboard, but people shouldn't get the wrong idea.

While patrol officers have discretion in ticket writing, "in my experience, it's not typical to give someone a break because they're an organ donor," he said.

Kill Or Be Killed?

CANBERRA, Australia - An Australian diver who says he speared a gray nurse shark in self-defense faces charges for killing an endangered species.

"I thought it was either the shark or me," the unidentified man told The Daily Telegraph in a story published Monday. "I was convinced it was trying to eat me."

A New South Wales state fisheries officer found the spear fisherman on a beach north of Sydney with a dead 22-pound gray nurse shark on June 9. Gray nurse sharks - also known as sand tigers - are considered dangerous to humans, although the speared animal was identified as an immature one.

The man could become the first person charged with killing a gray nurse under state law, since the shark became a protected species in 1984. He faces fines of up to $152,000 and two years in prison if convicted of killing the shark.

"The charges are still being considered," a fisheries spokeswoman told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The man said the small shark repeatedly charged him and snapped after he speared a squid.

"I was so scared, I didn't have time to try and work out what species it was ... I was too busy trying to defend myself."

Fisheries Director General Steve Dunn described the killing as "serious."

"Gray nurse sharks are endangered and are protected from all forms of fishing, so this is a serious offense," Dunn said in a statement.

"The loss in this case was particularly great because it was an immature female, of which there are already too few."

It is illegal under state law to catch, buy, sell or possess a gray nurse shark.

Man Carried Away By Huge Kite

BEIJING - A man in south China broke both his legs and an arm when he fell to the ground after a fast-rising kite pulled him 16 feet into the air, the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday.

The man, identified only by his surname, Zhong, was a spectator Tuesday at a kite-flying festival on the island province of Hainan, Xinhua said.

He joined a group of people flying a 108-square foot hexagonal kite, it said.

As the kite was lifted by strong winds, the others holding it let go, but Zhong was dragged into the air before he let loose and fell.

Couple Names Their Son ESPN

PAMPA, Texas - A Texas couple who named their son ESPN after the cable sports network will soon get a visit from the toddler's namesake.

An ESPN film crew is coming to the Panhandle town of Pampa next month to interview the family of 2-year-old ESPN Malachi McCall for a feature on children around the country with the unique name.

ESPN (pronounced Espen) McCall is one of at least three youngsters in the United States known to be named for the sports network. A couple in Corpus Christi named their son Espn Curiel in 2000, the same year Espen Blondeel was born in Michigan.

"We don't have viewers. We have fans," ESPN spokesman Dave Nagle said Saturday. "And I guess there's no better testament than when someone names their child after your product. It just shows the bond we have with people."

Nagle said the feature will air Sept. 6 as part of a two-hour special celebrating the network's 25th anniversary.

Rebecca and Michael McCall said their son's name started as a joke after they heard on the radio about another couple naming their son "ESPEN."

"He looked at me and said, 'That's a cool name,"' Rebecca McCall said in Saturday's editions of the Amarillo Globe-News.

Rebecca McCall said she resisted her husband's idea at first, but the idea grew on her.

"I didn't like it until he was born," she said, adding that by then, she couldn't think of calling her son anything else.

Would-Be Bank Robber Confesses To Paper

GADSDEN, Ala. - Apparently, setting the record straight was more important to a Southside man than staying out of jail.

Mark Allen Patterson, 44, was arrested Thursday after being identified as the man who visited The Gadsden Times to confess to an attempted bank robbery, police said.

When detectives later asked Patterson why he visited the newspaper, he said he wanted to correct a detail from a story the newspaper published Sunday about the robbery: The truck he drove when he tried to rob the bank was burgundy - not green, as the paper reported police as saying.

The reporter who wrote the story said Patterson didn't mention the incorrect color during his visit to the newspaper Tuesday, though he did admit the crime.

"He said that he was the one that did it," said Times staff writer David Clemons. "I asked him why, and he said he needed money."

Patterson refused to give his name without confidentiality, but Clemons said he could not promise that, so the man left. But the newspaper's cooperation with authorities led to Patterson's arrest Thursday at his work place, police said.

Police Capt. Jeff Wright said Patterson was charged with robbery, rather than attempted robbery, because he demanded money.