The Odd Truth, March 17, 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.
Man Falls Asleep In Dryer
LAKE CARMEL, N.Y. - In Putnam County, a woman screaming about a leg in a dryer had Kent Police thinking they had a murder case. Sergeant Ronald Yeager went to the 24-hour Self Service Laundromat in Lake Carmel at 6:30 yesterday morning and saw the leg hanging out of the large commercial dryer — just where the woman said it was.
However, Sergeant Yeager opened the door and looked inside the dryer. He found 41-year-old Kevin Johnston of Lake Carmel.
Police say Johnston told them he was walking home from a nearby tavern and decided to seek temporary shelter from the cold. He climbed into the dryer and fell asleep.
He was allowed to go home.
Thou Shalt Not Steal
OSLO, Norway — Pastor Stig Laegdene knows the Ten Commandments, including No. 8: "Thou shalt not steal."
Car thieves in his neighborhood, however, seemed to have skipped it.
Laegdene, a Lutheran pastor who preaches to small-time criminals and others on the streets of Tromsoe, 1,100 miles north of the capital, Oslo, had his car stolen twice last week.
"I know hundreds of criminals, but I don't know if it was 'my criminals' who stole my car this time," Laegdene told The Associated Press Sunday.
Since he started preaching in Tromsoe, his 1986 Saab 900 has been stolen seven times. It's typically returned — or someone tells him where to pick it up — the next day after word gets out about its owner.
"When they find it was my car, I get it back," he said, usually in the same condition.
The last time it was stolen, March 12, his car was returned to him with nearly everything in it, including his robe. Missing was a bottle of wine and a sheaf of his sermons.
"I hope they read them," he said of the thieves. "They were pretty good."
Bomb-Sniffing Fraud
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The federal government Friday arrested a businessman who had provided it with purported bomb-sniffing dogs that were allegedly unable to detect even 50 pounds of dynamite.
Russell Lee Ebersole, 43, was in custody Friday awaiting arraignment next week on fraud and other charges.
Ebersole is accused of lying about the qualifications of his dogs and their handlers and faking certifications. He did business with several federal agencies, including the State Department and the Federal Reserve.
Ebersole, owner of Detector Dogs Against Drugs and Explosives near Winchester, Va., was paid $700,000 for work for the agencies in 2001 and 2002.
Thursday's indictment alleges Ebersole's dogs failed five independent tests. In one, dogs and handlers were unable to detect 50 pounds of dynamite and 15 pounds of plastic explosives hidden in vehicles.
Ebersole's lawyer, Spencer Ault, said his client is innocent.
Ebersole was indicted on 26 counts, each of which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.
Donald Duck Beats Saddam In Finn Elections
HELSINKI, Finland - Saddam Hussein's time might be running out, but he can take small comfort that at least one Finn thought he should serve in the Nordic country's parliament.
The ballot for the Iraqi president was among 24,400 rejected votes, representing nearly 1 percent of the total votes cast in Sunday's national elections for the 200-seat parliament.
Some 70 percent of Finland's eligible 4.2 million voters cast their ballots in the election.
Other unusual vote winners included Osama bin Laden, who got a pair of votes; Cuban leader Fidel Castro with one vote; and the classic French character Obelix. But cartoon character Donald Duck got the most oddball votes.
"Donald got about a dozen votes. He always wins," said Heikki Liljeroos, second secretary of the Helsinki electorate committee.
All ballots are handcounted.
If a ballot is scribbled, empty, illegible or has an invalid number on it, it is automatically rejected.
In the last election in 1999, 28,800 ballots were rejected, representing 1.1 percent of all votes cast.
Hook, Line And Sinker
MESA, Ariz. - Police in the Phoenix area have arrested at least six people since they began using special bait cars to lure in would-be car thieves.
Phoenix is expected to unveil its bait cars in several weeks. Tempe is using several vehicles as lures, but no one has taken the bait yet.
Police park the cars in areas that have the highest number of thefts, usually shopping centers or apartment complexes.
Police rig the vehicles with a camera, a microphone and sensors that set off an alarm at a police dispatch center.
If a thief opens the door, starts it or even tows it, the sensors alert dispatchers. They call in the closest patrol officers as they monitor a computer screen that maps the vehicle's location and speed every eight seconds with the help of a global positioning system device in the car.
When police get close enough, officers tell dispatchers to activate a remote switch that kills the engine. Police rush in as the car coasts to a stop. The suspects usually can't escape because most bait cars also lock the passengers inside.
Each police department has its own bait vehicles, donated by insurance companies.
Labor Not Very Laborious
BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio - Motherhood really snuck up on Linda Erwin-Hutchins.
The Ohio woman started feeling abdominal pains Thursday and seven hours later, she gave birth to a baby girl.
Erwin-Hutchins didn't even know she was pregnant.
She said she was never sick, never gained weight and never got tired.
The 41-year-old said she and her husband were not trying to have children, but they are both delighted. The couple has been married for ten years and this is their first child.
Erwin-Hutchins says when her husband found out he was a dad, his eyes were as big as saucers.
Little Caitlin Meryl Hutchins is said to be doing fine. She weighed in at five pounds, one ounce.
Poor Man Leaves Millions To Church
PRIOR LAKE, Minn. — Bill Seefeldt's friends thought he was just scraping by, living in a cluttered cabin, clutching coupons and wearing threadbare clothes.
But when Seefeldt died last year at 89, he left $4.6 million to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
"He never let on that he had that kind of money," said Jean Thompson, a friend and music director at Prior Lake's Church of St. Michael, where the retired military chaplain celebrated Mass every Monday until he was 87. "Father Bill was so tight. He was a cranky old thing, but lovable."
Seefeldt was a chaplain for 30 years — first for the Army during World War II, then for the Minnesota National Guard and the Minneapolis Veterans Medical Center.
But for the past 20 years, St. Michael's was his spiritual home and family. Once a week he would arrive at the parish office with stale doughnuts or his signature banana bread for the staff, bragging about the deal he got on bananas.
Seefeldt parlayed a family inheritance of $100,000 and pensions from the Army, civil service and his Social Security into a fortune with the investment advice of Roy Stueve, a friend of 50 years.
"Father Bill had the Midas touch," Stueve said. "He gave me some money to invest in the market. I said I could lose it all. He said not to worry, the good Lord would provide."
Road Closed Due To Amphibian Mating
DELAWARE WATER GAP, Pa. — It's mating season, and the National Park Service believes that spotted salamanders, wood frogs and other amphibians should be able to let nature take its course — without being run over.
That's why they're closing five miles of a road that passes through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.
The park service said it will periodically close River Road when it rains at night so the creatures can safely crawl, hop and slither their way across the road to wetlands to mate.
"There can be significant mortality caused by traffic; salamanders are pretty slow," said Robin Jung, Northeast coordinator of the U.S. Geological Survey's Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative.
Jung cited a 1990 report that said if traffic density exceeds 26 cars an hour, between 50 and 100 percent of migrating amphibians may be killed when crossing.
Since amphibians are most active at night, River Road will be closed between 4 p.m. and 5 a.m. The closures, which could last through mid-April, are contingent on the weather.