The Odd Truth, March 9. 2005

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

Ass Arrested

BOGOTA, Colombia - The suspect was a little long in the face after being arrested, but is braying for an early release.

Police said Tuesday they detained the suspect, a donkey named Pacho, after a motorcycle crashed into it on a road in a northeastern city, with the motorcyclist suffering serious injuries.

"When there are road accidents and serious injuries, the vehicles involved are always impounded," said Diana Rojas, spokeswoman for the Arauca city police department. "We had to impound both the donkey and the motorcycle and put them at the disposal of investigators so they can decide what to do with them and whether to release them."

Pacho's owner, Nelson Gonzalez, said no one should pin the blame on the donkey for Sunday's crash.

"Neither the donkey nor I were responsible because I was in front and the motorcyclist saw me" before crashing, Gonzalez said.

Crooks Do A Little Cleanup

FOSTORIA, Ohio - Thieves broke into an agency that serves the poor and made off with a safe. The only catch -- the safe was empty.

"It is really quite comical," said Susan Simpkins, director of the Fostoria Bureau of Concern. "It was very heavy, and they did us a favor by taking it."

She said the agency had wanted to throw out the safe but it was too big to move.

The thieves entered the agency through a back door after it closed for the day on Feb. 28 and took the safe, which was in the office.

They did manage to grab a small amount of money from the office's petty cash supply, police said.

Coach Gets His Licks In

HALSEY, Ore. - An Oregon state panel plans to investigate a high school football coach who acknowledges licking a bloody cut on a player's knee.

The Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission decided to look at the case after a parent complained such behavior threatened student safety and health.

The student whose knee was licked told police the coach, Scott Reed, had given team members a pep talk about a coach licking and healing injured players' wounds so they could get back in a game.

A police report says team members urged Reed to do the same for a bleeding scab on the student's knee. It says Reed did so after asking permission. A witness said Reed seemed to be "joking around" and that the licked athlete was not offended.

Shaq A House?

NEW YORK - He may rank among the NBA's greatest players, but basketball star Shaquille O'Neal is technically obese.

That's according to the body-mass index. The Associated Press applied the widely used criterion to the published heights and weights of NBA players and found nearly half qualify as overweight.

The BMI doesn't directly measure fat. It comes from a formula that considers only weight and height. And at 7'1" and 325 pounds, O'Neal has the NBA's highest BMI at 31.6. Thirty and above is the "obese" range.

Last week, a study of NFL players concluded more than half of them are obese, and nearly all are overweight. The NFL rejected the findings.

Health Tips From McDonald's

NEW YORK - Next thing you know, McDonald's will have a jog-through window.

The world's best-known burger chain is pushing good health in a new advertising campaign that emphasizes the importance of balanced, active lifestyles.

Coincidentally, it was only about a month ago that an appeals court revived parts of a lawsuit blaming McDonald's for making people fat. The suit accused the nation's largest fast-food chain misled consumers about the healthiness of its products.

The theme of the new ad campaign is "It's what I eat and what I do -- I'm lovin' it." The aim is to highlight the importance of eating balanced meals and staying active.

The advertising will feature Olympic athletes and mothers of Olympic hopefuls telling personal stories of how to achieve active lives.

Airborne On Alligator Alley

WESTON, Fla. - A Florida waitress could have been excused if she decided to take the day off Monday.

She was driving along Alligator Alley -- the highway connecting Fort Lauderdale and the Gulf coast -- when her car went airborne, clipped another car and splashed down in a canal.

The man whose car she bumped says "It was like the Dukes of Hazzard."

The woman got her purse because it had her immigration papers. She then climbed out of the sinking car and made it to the far bank of the canal. One witness says he saw two alligators in the water.

Some fisherman got her back to the highway. She was checked out by paramedics and taken home.

Instead of taking the day off, she got a ride to the restaurant where she works -- and she arrived on time.

Maybe He Ran Out Of Novocaine

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A former dentist could face criminal charges for allegedly squirting his semen into the mouths of his female patients. Dr. John Hall has already lost his North Carolina dental license. His lawyer says Hall could be charged by a grand jury as early next week. Hall denies the charges. But police say a search of Hall's dental office turned up syringes that contained his DNA. Prosecutors say they plan to seek multiple misdemeanor counts of assault against Hall. A former patient says she wishes the charges could be more severe. But she adds what Hall is accused of doing is "so sleazy and disgusting it doesn't fit under any type of law."

Yearbook Photo's A Long Shot

CONCORD, N.H. - You know how high school seniors like to personalize their yearbook photos? Some kids include a pet or musical instrument in their pictures. But Blake Douglass wants his picture taken with is favorite shotgun. The picture was banned from the Londonderry, New Hampshire, High School yearbook. Now, Blake is making a federal case out of it. A trial began yesterday in Concord. School officials say the decision on portraits was made by the student editors, not the administrators. Blake is an avid trapshooter and wanted an open, unloaded shotgun over his shoulder in his yearbook photo.

Dad's A Stiff

TOKYO - A Japanese man and his two sisters were worried something might be wrong with dad. And they were right. The old man had been dead for nearly a decade. Police questioned the three elderly siblings yesterday, after the decomposing body of their father was found lying on a futon bed in the family's home. Police say the man's children thought he was still alive, but became worried lately and consulted a relative. Police say judging by the condition of the remains, the father could have died as long as ten years ago.

Two-Day Delay On Lottery Win

INDIANAPOLIS - It's a good thing Barbara Lennen didn't loose her wallet. She was carrying around a winning Powerball ticket for two days and didn't know it. The Indiana woman checked the numbers at the urging of her father-in-law and realized she had won a jackpot worth nearly $20 million dollars. She says she did a triple take after checking the six numbers one at a time. She told her husband, "Don't get up. Our lives are changing. We just hit the Powerball." Lennen says she wants a new mini van and a home in the country for her, her husband and their four kids.

Bush's Opening Act A Boy Wonder

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Nine-year-old Noah McCullough is a long way from collecting Social Security. But the Texas school kid is already an expert on President Bush's plans to overhaul the government's old age pension program. Noah was the warm-up act for the president's visit to Alabama yesterday. Noah is on spring break from his school in Katy, Texas. The whiz kid has an encyclopedic knowledge of presidential history and would like to sit in the Oval Office someday. Noah says he's going to run for president in 2032, when he reaches the minimum age of 35. He's worried that if Congress doesn't overhaul Social Security, the program will be bankrupt when he becomes president.