The Odd Truth, Nov. 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.

BUTTE, Mont. - The wary, dreadlocked mutt that survived more than 17 years alone in a toxic pit and served as unofficial mascot of the Berkeley Pit miners has died.

Affectionately known as The Auditor, the dog died peacefully Wednesday in the dog house the miners had built for him.

"Things around here have been pretty sad, really," said Steve Walsh, vice president of Montana Resources, which owns the property. "It was a shock, with all the attention he'd been getting."

Nobody knows where the dog came from or why he lived in the barren waste dumps, leach pads and mine roads above the rim of the huge former copper mine. The mile-wide, bowl-shaped pit holds some 30 billion gallons of water so contaminated by heavy metals that nearly 350 snow geese died when they landed on it in 1995.

The Auditor was first spotted in 1986 and soon became the unofficial mascot of the miners, who loved him for his sheer toughness. They built him a shanty of a house, made him a bed of rags and left food for him. The Auditor ate his last meal of Alpo on Wednesday morning and was found that afternoon in his bed.

Miners said they called him The Auditor because he always showed up when least expected - except at dinner.

His thick, filthy coat, matted almost to the point of armor, hid any clue to the dog's breed and showed only his snout. Some years back, one of the miners was able to shear the dog's bangs - one of his only known instances of human contact.

Matt Vincent and Holly Peterson started a fund-raising drive last summer to erect a life-size bronze sculpture of The Auditor, who captured hearts around the world last January after a story Vincent wrote for The Montana Standard was relayed by The Associated Press. Letters, e-mail, cash and adoption offers poured in.

The Auditor was cremated. His ashes will be buried at the Granite Mountain Memorial that overlooks Butte.

Who Says Pot Never Killed Anyone?

FORT WORTH, Texas - A man changing a flat tire choked to death on a bag of marijuana he had stuffed down his throat in an apparent attempt to hide it from police who stopped to help him, authorities said.

Nickolas Sandoval, 24, died Wednesday.

Officers were unaware at first Sandoval had drugs when they spotted him on the highway in Corinth, about 45 miles northeast of Fort Worth, said Corinth police Cpl. Frank Lott.

"Officers went from 'Oh, hey, here is someone with a flat tire' to 'Hey, this guy is choking,"' Lott told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Sandoval, of Ponder, was pronounced dead at a hospital. Cause of death: "asphyxiation due to aspiration of plastic bag," according to a spokeswoman for the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office.

Sandoval was convicted at least three times of marijuana possession, and pleaded guilty two years ago to a drunken-driving charge.

Giant Python Swallows Woman

RANGAMATI, Bangladesh - Police in Bangladesh say villagers beat a huge python to death after the snake half-swallowed and killed a woman.

An official says a 38-year-old-woman was collecting wood in a southeastern forest when the python attacked her. The nearly ten-foot snake wrapped itself around the woman, crushing her. She had been swallowed up to the waist, head first.

A mob of villagers killed the snake with iron rods and sticks before retrieving the woman's body.

Judge Sympathizes With Erection Sufferer

FREEHOLD, N.J. - A man who had to endure a three-day erection after penile surgery was awarded $3 million by a jury two years ago, but an appeals court ordered a Monmouth County judge to lower the award.

So Superior Court Judge Alexander Lehrer did - by one penny.

Now the appellate panel has taken the case away from Lehrer, and directed a different judge to further reduce the award to Joseph Tomaino of Neptune. He sued the Male Sexual Dysfunction Institute in Chicago and a doctor after he had to undergo surgery to end a three-day erection he suffered following their treatments in 1992.

The appeals court had ordered Lehrer, who presided over the trial, to cut the $3 million, saying the size of the award "shocked the court's conscience" because Tomaino, though unable to perform sexually, could still work and enjoy sports and social activities.

But Lehrer said he thought Tomaino should have gotten even more than $3 million.

In a decision written this week, the appeals panel reversed the judgment and sent the case back with orders for another judge to reduce the award, citing Lehrer's "demonstrated unwillingness to comply with our instructions."

Dennis Drazin, the lawyer representing Tomaino, said he plans to ask the state Supreme Court to hear the case.

"You have a young man who is deformed for the rest of his life," he told The Star-Ledger of Newark. He said Lehrer was in the best position to evaluate whether the jury award was appropriate, since he saw the witnesses and heard the evidence.

A Fit Of Jealous Rage, A Bottle Of Bleach, And Viola!

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. - Police arrested a man who allegedly poured bleach on a sleeping couple after breaking into their home.

Joseph Lee Menzel, 32, was charged with burglary of an occupied home and two counts of battery for the attack on Sean and Christine Austin.

According to a sheriff's report, Menzel pried open a rear window of the home and emptied a bottle of bleach on Austins while they were lying in bed on July 5. Both suffered burns, but no permanent damage.

"How can you forget something like that?" Christine Austin, 31, said Thursday. "We woke up when the bleach was being poured on us. Yeah, it was a pretty horrible experience."

Menzel was arrested Wednesday after Sean Austin, 32, told police he was having an affair with Menzel's wife. Deputies also found Menzel's fingerprints on a window.

"The accused definitely had motive," Charlotte County Sheriff's Office Cpl. Robert Stambaugh wrote in his report, because "the victim had an affair with his wife."

Menzel was released from the county jail on $75,000 bail. It could not be determined whether he had an attorney.

Woman Wins Car After Spending 52 Days In It

HELSINKI, Finland - Finns, who compete at throwing cell phones, slapping mosquitoes, wife carrying and sitting in saunas, now have a new test of endurance - sitting in a car.

Katri Manni, 23, drove off in a brand new Suzuki on Friday after sitting in it for 52 days and 15 hours.

Four finalists, from 21 competitors who started in six cities and towns across Finland, began their final session in a shopping mall in the capital, Helsinki, on Nov. 10.

Every two hours, the car sitters were allowed a 10-minute break outside the vehicle, besides a 30-minute daily session for morning ablutions.

Manni said it would take her some time to get used to living outside the car.

"My first walking session in 1 1/2 months was strange," she said. "It felt positively illegal."

Passenger Convicted Of Drunken Driving

OSLO, Norway - A 19-year-old Norwegian has been convicted of drunken driving, even though he was a passenger, had a sober designated driver and didn't even have the keys to start a car that was turned off.

"I think it's unreasonable," said Oysten Haakanes, whose case made national news on Friday. "It makes you lose faith in the courts and police."

Haakanes and a friend were on their way home from a party in April when they stopped at a gas station to buy some food near the town of Tinn, about 80 miles west of Oslo.

"I went into the gas station to buy a hot dog, and then went back to the car to eat it," the heavy equipment operator said. He reached over from the passenger seat to change a CD in the car stereo and must have hit the manual gear stick, he said.

The car went into neutral and started to roll, moving about three yards before Haakanes pulled on the hand brake.

Unfortunately for him, a police officer was watching and detained him for drunken driving. A blood test later showed he was nearly four times above the legal limit of 0.05 parts per million of alcohol.

"I wasn't even close to driving. I had a driver, so why would I drive drunk," he told The Associated Press. "If I had been driving drunk, then fine, but I wasn't."

In its ruling this week, the Tinn and Heddal District Court found that Haakanes had not intended to drive the car and that the risk of any damage or injury was slight from a car slowly rolling a short distance in a parking lot.

However, it said it accepted police testimony that Haakanes appeared to intentionally release the hand brake, making him the legal operator of the vehicle.

Haakanes said he filed an appeal on Friday.