LAKE STATION, Ind., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A dog named Hero lived up to its name this week after it saved two of its owners from a fire at their Indiana home.

The Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune reported that Hero awakened Melissa Boyd and her 4-year-old son, Noah, Tuesday as fire filled their Lake Station home. They were able to escape the fire with the dog in tow.

"We named him Hero, and now he's a hero. It really is incredible. The dog saved our lives," Boyd told the newspaper.

The fire, which destroyed most of the house's contents, may have claimed the family's lives as the home had no smoke detectors, the Post-Tribune reported.

The mother-son duo adopted the dog six months earlier at the Porter County Humane Society. Boyd said their choice of names couldn't have more appropriate.

"For him to be named Hero, be a Dalmatian -- a fire dog -- and for him to save Noah, it's a miracle," she told the paper.

Suspected underwear thief arrested

LINCOLN, Neb., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Police in Lincoln, Neb., have accused a local man of vandalizing panties in the laundry room of an apartment complex.

Officer Katherine Finnell said complex resident James Edwards, 25, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of theft by unlawful taking, disturbing the peace and three counts of criminal mischief, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.

Finnell said five women complained of returning to the laundry room to find their undergarments had been tampered with.

One woman said she found the crotches of her panties had been cut out and another said she found her underwear with pornographic pictures. Another woman said undergarments had been left hanging on her doorknob and others complained that their underwear was wet and seemed to have been urinated on.

Edwards was arrested after police canvassing residents were given a description of a man that one woman said she saw urinating in the laundry room.

Professor accidentally donates $5,140

LAFAYETTE, La., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Retired University of Louisiana math Professor Margaret Lasalle of Lafayette, La., accidentally donated a purse containing $5,140 to Goodwill.

Lasalle and the other residents of her assisted living community recently made a group donation to Goodwill, with Lasalle's donation containing a purse which she had stashed $5,140 in travelers checks, KLFY-TV in Louisiana reported.

She said she hid the signed checks in her purse in case of an emergency but forgot that they were in there when she gave it away.

The Goodwill employee who found the money stashed inside the purse, Frank Gutsmiedl, said warning flags go up when he finds something unusual like this, KLFY said. Goodwill officials were able to return the checks to Lasalle because they had her signature on them.

Lasalle told the television station she is glad that there are people who are honest and straightforward.

Latex covering allowed in Ala. strip clubs

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- The Alabama attorney general's office has settled a lawsuit allowing exotic dancers to use flesh-colored liquid latex in lieu of opaque clothing.

The settlement allows dancers to use latex coverings that make them appear to be topless, and allows nightclubs to remain on the right side of a 2005 law that requires opaque coverings on the tops and bottoms of dancers, the Birmingham (Ala.) News reported.

Keith Miller, the state's chief deputy attorney general, said the state decided to settle the suit, which was brought by Charlie's Club in Birmingham, after U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler signaled that the suit would result in his declaring the anti-nude dancing law unconstitutional.

"Then we would have had no regulation of dancing," Miller said. "Theoretically there could be totally nude dancing in every juke joint in the state.

"We had a choice between no regulation and some regulation," he said. "What comes next is for the Legislature to decide."