The Odd Truth, March 12, 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.
Monkeys Make A Run For It
COVINGTON, Louisiana — Two dozen monkeys escaped from a research center and holed up in a forest, where animal-control workers used bananas and oranges to try to lure them out.
The monkeys are classified as disease-free and posed no health risk to humans, but workers trying to capture the animals wore protective gowns and gloves as a standard precaution, said Fran Simon, a spokeswoman for the Tulane Regional Primate Center.
By Wednesday, eight of the 24 rhesus macaques remained on the loose.
"When they get hungry enough, they'll come back," Simon said.
The Tulane Regional Primate Research Center, established in 1964, is the largest of eight federally funded primate research centers, with 500 acres of land, eight buildings and about 5,000 monkeys. Its main study area is infectious diseases caused by viruses, bacteria and parasites.
It was not clear how the monkeys escaped from a fenced area outside the research facility Tuesday, said James Hartman, a spokesman for the St. Tammany Parish sheriff.
In the past, animal-rights activists have freed or attempted to free monkeys, but there were no signs that vandalism played any role in Tuesday's escape, Hartman said.
'Choking Man' Commits Himself
PUNTA GORDA, Florida - A Florida man dubbed the "Choking Man" has checked himself into a mental health facility for treatment.
Police say he's been making the rounds of southwestern Florida for at least two years, drawing women to his rescue by staging fake choking incidents.
A woman last week went to the hospital with an anxiety attack after an encounter with the Choking Man.
A Charlotte County sheriff's detective says it's the most bizarre case he's ever had, but the man hasn't committed any crime.
The sheriff's office hasn't released the man's name, but said he is 36 years old, married, and lives in Arcadia, Florida.
Felonious Frat Boy
BRYAN, Texas - Brennan Bice has to say he's sorry in a big way. The former Texas A&M student used a hidden camcorder to make a home video of a sexual encounter with his girlfriend. He later showed the X-rated video to his frat brothers. He was kicked out of school and has pleaded guilty to a felony charge. Now, a judge has sentenced Bice to 30 days in jail. Bice also must apologize to his ex-girlfriend in a half-page ad in the campus newspaper. The ad costs more than $600 and will run next Monday. In it, Bice urges Aggies not to participate in what he calls "this type of immoral and illegal conduct."
Criminal Has Second Thoughts, Returns Car
OSLO, Norway — A car thief in Norway who apparently had second thoughts about his crime returned a stolen vehicle to a police garage.
"The simple explanation is that the man wanted to give back the car he had stolen," police inspector Jan Ruderaas told The Associated Press Wednesday.
The would-be thief, who wasn't identified in line with Norwegian privacy laws, filled up his stolen car with gasoline from a service station in Trondheim, 310 miles north of the capital, Oslo, but drove off without paying Tuesday night.
Police saw him and tailed him through traffic, but were surprised to see him drive into their garage.
"We encourage all other criminals to follow his example," Ruderaas said. "But they don't have to fill up the tank first, especially if they're not paying."
He said police haven't decided if the 37-year-old man will be charged.
Thugs Attack Jail With Bazooka, Explosives
PARIS — Armed with automatic weapons, explosives and a fake bazooka, gunmen opened fire on guardposts and blew holes in walls at a prison in a Paris suburb Wednesday, freeing a reputed gangster suspected of murder and robbery.
The spectacular escape of Antonio Ferrara, 30, was the second high-profile jailbreak in France in less than a week, and forced the government to consider tougher prison security.
"We are faced with a new type of escape that we haven't experienced until now which are military-type operations ... with the use of weapons of war," Justice Minister Dominique Perben told Europe-1 radio.
One group fired at guardposts while another group of bomb experts set off explosives that blew open a metal gate around the prison and made holes in interior walls, springing Ferrara. It was his second jailbreak.
The escape in Fresnes, a suburb east of Paris, came just five days after Joseph Menconi, a suspected murderer, escaped from a prison in Corsica. It was also his second escape.
Menconi was also helped from the outside: two or three accomplices who used a fake bazooka to threaten guards into leading them into the prison, where Menconi had already escaped from his cell.
Lion Feeding Leaves Zoo Visitors Queasy
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — A group of architects were left a little queasy after watching lions dine on whole horse heads during a guided evening tour of Auckland Zoo.
Lions are fed the horse heads because they have the right balance of bone and meat, said zoo spokesman Glen Holland, who insisted that feeding times and menus would not be changed to shield the public from such sights.
"It is on television. It happens naturally and if you go on safari that is what you see except it is a whole animal. This is just a head," Holland said Wednesday. "Should we be shielding people from reality?"
The group of architects, at the zoo for a corporate function, did not complain, but according to one zoo employee, were a "bit sheepish" about the feeding.
Eating a head also gives lions a "challenge instead of throwing them a slab of steak," Holland said.
Hospital To Build 'Kiss-n-Ride' Lane
OSLO, Norway — Passionate kisses may be good for the body and soul, but not for commuters stuck behind couples kissing each other goodbye, for a long time.
So many nurses and doctors spent so long kissing their loved ones goodbye before getting out of their cars in front of St. Olav's Hospital in Trondheim that city officials decided to build a separate "kiss-n-ride" lane to ease traffic congestion.
"I have to say that I have had some help from some creative ladies in the office to come up with this," Terje Fiksdal, the project manager for the new lane, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
He said that many people were lingering for one last kiss for minutes, causing traffic to back up in front of the city hospital.
The four-lane road in front of the hospital is a major artery for traffic in and out of Trondheim, 310 miles north of the capital, Oslo.
The new lane is expected to be built this spring and will go in front of the hospital. The cost was unavailable.
"I might use the lane sometimes, but I won't use it for making out," said Marit Onstad Roed, a hospital nurse.
Incredible Breakthrough In Cheesemaking
MADISON, Wisconsin — A University of Wisconsin-Madison professor says he's found a way to take the bitterness out of cheddar — a discovery that could save cheesemakers some serious bread.
Food science professor Jim Steele said an enzyme reduces the bitter taste that afflicts low-grade cheddar cheese.
"It has the potential to give consistency to the quality of cheese that we produce, and save us a whole lot of money," said John Umhoefer, executive director of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association.
Cheesemakers start by mixing a medley of bacteria called a starter culture with warm milk. They sometimes add a second batch of bacteria, called an adjunct culture. To make cheddar, they mix in an organism called Lactobacillus helveticus, which smooths out the cheese's taste and reduces bitterness.
The researchers sequenced the 2,400 genes in Lactobacillus in 2001, and Steele's team identified the desired gene within six months. Cheesemakers can now add that gene to starter cultures.
Paul McShane, sales manager for the small Brookfield cheese company Roth Kase, thinks Steele's enzyme would take the mystique out of cheese production.
"Cheesemaking is an art, and you lose something — a quality — when you try to take shortcuts," he said.
But Bill Schlinsog, chief judge at this week's 2003 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest in Milwaukee, hailed the discovery as a weapon against bitter cheese.
"It's undesirable," he said. "And if it can be avoided, then that's great."