The Odd Truth, Sept. 10, 2002
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.
Shell Shocked
KEY WEST, Fla. - A diver has discovered the treasure of a lifetime -- a 40.2-carat emerald embedded in a conch shell -- while diving at the site of a Spanish galleon wrecked in a Florida Keys hurricane 380 years ago.
The part-time wreck diver, who teaches elementary school in northern Florida but does not want his name revealed, discovered the giant raw emerald while washing a bucket of shells in a classroom laboratory.
"Out popped a 40.2-carat emerald," said Patrick Clyne, vice president at Key West-based wreck salvage company Mel Fisher Enterprises.
The diver works with Amelia Research & Recovery Co., a salvage company in Amelia Island, Florida, hired by Mel Fisher Enterprises to search the remains of the Santa Margarita.
The stone, measuring 1 inch by 1.5 inches with a dark green center surrounded by lighter shades of green quartz, is believed to be from Colombia's Muzo Mines.
There were no estimates of how much the emerald might be worth. But in 1985, a 77.7-carat emerald from the vessel Nuestra Senora de Atocha, a sister ship of the Santa Margarita, was appraised at $1.2 million.
The vessels were part of a 28-ship fleet that left Havana, Cuba, on Sept. 4, 1622, bound for Spain -- laden with emeralds and gold from Colombia, silver from Mexico and Peru and pearls from Venezuela.
Two days later, a hurricane overturned three of the vessels, scattering the ships' debris and their treasure of gold, silver, jewelry and artifacts in a swath stretching from the Marquesas Keys to the Dry Tortugas in the Florida Keys. (Reuters)
Robbers Take Themselves Hostage
BOSTON — Two armed suspects in a pizza parlor heist tried to pretend to be hostages as police closed in, but were outfoxed by restaurant employees.
Armed suspects Johnathan Ortega, 23, and Miguel Angel Correa, 27, allegedly broke into a Pizza Hut restaurant last week, tied up employees in the bathroom and waited for a time-delayed safe to open, police said.
The plan began to fall apart after the duo released one hostage, making him promise not to call authorities. Police arrived minutes later.
The suspects then tied themselves up and pleaded with the hostages to go along with the ruse. Restaurant manager Orlando Reyes, 20, wasn't about to play along.
"I said 'I'm going to go outside and tell police officers the bad guys left and you guys were tied up with us,"' Reyes told the Boston Herald.
The men were charged with kidnapping and attempted robbery. (AP)
Rodent Roadster Cornered By Police
LONDON - British detectives are investigating the mystery of a hamster found driving a toy racing car along a promenade at a northern seaside resort, newspapers said.
The hamster, nicknamed Speedy, was handed in by a member of the public who found him cruising through Cleveleys, near Blackpool in the modified toy, which he powered by a treadmill.
"It is a model hotrod racing car with large wheels at the back and small ones at the front," the Daily Express quoted Constable Quentin Allen as saying.
"In the center is a typical hamster wheel you can buy at any pet shop. ... As the hamster went round and round it powered the car along at high speed."
Officers removed Speedy from the car after he made several escape attempts from their front desk, and they took him to a nearby animal sanctuary. Detectives are appealing for the owner to come forward. (Reuters)
Bizarre Misprint Prompts Protest
LONDON - A British seaside landlady was targeted by a hate campaign after an advertisement for her flat mistakenly said she was seeking a "white person" as a tenant rather than a "quiet person," newspapers reported on Tuesday.
The woman, a disabled grandmother who used to be a nurse, insisted she was no racist and the advertisement was a misprint by a local newspaper in the coastal town of Brighton.
She was inundated by protest calls, while a local pressure group issued a statement demanding the police investigate her under the Race Discrimination Act, said Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper.
"Lots of people have rung up over the weekend swearing at me... I've tried to explain, but they don't listen," she was quoted as saying. "I'm now frightened to pick up the phone."
"I sponsor a nine-year-old girl in Zimbabwe called Becky," she added. "I would hardly do something like that if I was prejudiced." (Reuters)
The Antler Dance Of Abbots Bromley
LONDON - Grown men wearing reindeer antlers charged about in a quiet village this week in one of Britain's longest-standing rural traditions.
The Horn Dance has been performed in Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire since 1226, and attracts visitors from around the world, village officials say.
The Horn Dancers -- comprising six deer-men, a fool, hobby horse, bowman and a "Maid Marion" -- perform their ancient ritual to traditional music.
The dance starts in the morning when the participants pick up the antlers at the local church before showing off their skills at the village green.
They continue along a 10-mile route, taking in farms and pubs around the village.
The event is believed to have religious or ritualistic associations as a fertility dance or a celebration of hunting rights. (Reuters)
Badger Skunked By British Workers
LONDON - Local officials in Britain were reported to be furious after road workers apparently painted a white line on the side of a highway right over the furry body of a dead badger.
Britain's Sun newspaper on Tuesday splashed a photo of the badger across half a page, saying the picture was taken by a passerby who saw it on the side of the highway in Somerset, southwestern England.
The freshly-painted white line at the road's edge went right over the dead animal's back.
"This is totally unacceptable and we will be asking for an explanation," the paper quoted a local government spokesman as saying.
The lines were painted by an independent contractor, he said. (Reuters)