UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News
Published: Dec. 11, 2007 at 5:03 PM
Man trapped in club washroom four days
ABERDEEN, Scotland, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A 55-year-old retired Scottish bachelor spent four days trapped in a cold men's washroom at an Aberdeen lawn bowling club because no one knew he was missing.
David Leggat was trapped last week at the Kittybrewster and Woodside Bowling Club when he entered the washroom and the outer door handle fell off, which jammed the inner handle, the Daily Telegraph said.
He credited survival training he took years ago for using hot water to keep his feet warm in the unheated washroom during the cold nights, the report said. He said he only had eight hours of daylight per day at the back of the club, which is all but deserted during the winter.
He had no mobile phone, and the windows were too small to break and climb through, he said.
Finally, a cleaning woman heard him shouting, and club secretary Bob Ewing freed him, which Ewing said was sheer luck.
"Nobody had been looking for David," he said. "A wife may have wondered where he was, but he's not married."
As for Leggat, he was philosophical.
"The only thing I regret is not getting trapped behind the bar," he said.
McDonald's penalizes parking abusers
LONDON, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Drivers who hang out too long in parking lots at some McDonald's restaurants in Britain can expect stiff fines.
The time limit applies at about 40 McDonald's that were allegedly being "abused," The Daily Mail reports.
A spokeswoman for the chain said that customers are warned about the 45-minute time limit when they order and can ask for more time. She said that one of the biggest problems was at Gatwick Airport south of London.
"In some car parks, and in particular we are looking at Gatwick, we were finding the car park was being abused, in particular by taxi drivers and chauffeurs," the spokeswoman said. "Some people would also leave their cars there while they went on holiday."
For those who get tickets, one of the most annoying features is that they are not given the chance to leave. Jamie Thomson, a businessman from Sussex, said he only found out he had been ticketed when he got a letter demanding payment of 125 pounds ($250) several weeks after he ate a leisurely lunch in a McDonald's parking lot. He and his family are no longer McDonald's customers.
Impact zone confirms big turkeys do fly
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A northwestern Michigan man has learned large wild turkeys can fly after one crashed through a third-story window of his house at high speed.
Chuck Ritter, 83, was in his Traverse City, Mich., home Saturday when he heard loud bang, breaking glass and a lot of scuffling sounds, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported.
He said when he opened the third-floor bedroom door, he said it resembled a war scene, with the 25-pound bird thrashing around amid knocked-over furniture, blood spatters and feathers, broken glass and a very bent window frame.
He shut the door and called county Animal Control officials, who said they didn't deal with wild animals. Soon after, his housing complex's maintenance worker showed up to help, the report said.
After trying to prod the bird back to the window with poles, Ritter grabbed it by its neck and threw it out the window, he said.
The fall killed the bird, which Ritter told the Record-Eagle he would donate to a charity for food.
Looking up at the height of the window, he marveled at the bird's ability.
"Turkeys -- you don't see them jetting across the sky," he said.
Curds replace cannabis in Tennessee cave
HARTSVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A cave northeast of Nashville customized to be an underground marijuana farm has been sold at auction to a cheese-making company from Wisconsin.
For several years, the 90-foot deep cave in Hartsville had been used as a clandestine pot farm by a now-jailed entrepreneur who reportedly spent $750,000 to customize it, The Tennessean reported.
The courts ordered the property auctioned along with seven surrounding acres of land, with the proceeds going to fund undercover work by the 15th Judicial District Drug Task Force, the report said.
Saturday, after a half-hour bidding war in one of the cavernous rooms, a representative of Roth Kase USA Ltd., which manufactures European-style cheeses, won out with a bid of $285,000, the report said.
The company's bidder, Chuck Olson, was tight-lipped about the company's plan for the cave apart from saying the company's activities would be legal "in a tasty way."
ABERDEEN, Scotland, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A 55-year-old retired Scottish bachelor spent four days trapped in a cold men's washroom at an Aberdeen lawn bowling club because no one knew he was missing.
David Leggat was trapped last week at the Kittybrewster and Woodside Bowling Club when he entered the washroom and the outer door handle fell off, which jammed the inner handle, the Daily Telegraph said.
He credited survival training he took years ago for using hot water to keep his feet warm in the unheated washroom during the cold nights, the report said. He said he only had eight hours of daylight per day at the back of the club, which is all but deserted during the winter.
He had no mobile phone, and the windows were too small to break and climb through, he said.
Finally, a cleaning woman heard him shouting, and club secretary Bob Ewing freed him, which Ewing said was sheer luck.
"Nobody had been looking for David," he said. "A wife may have wondered where he was, but he's not married."
As for Leggat, he was philosophical.
"The only thing I regret is not getting trapped behind the bar," he said.
McDonald's penalizes parking abusers
LONDON, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Drivers who hang out too long in parking lots at some McDonald's restaurants in Britain can expect stiff fines.
The time limit applies at about 40 McDonald's that were allegedly being "abused," The Daily Mail reports.
A spokeswoman for the chain said that customers are warned about the 45-minute time limit when they order and can ask for more time. She said that one of the biggest problems was at Gatwick Airport south of London.
"In some car parks, and in particular we are looking at Gatwick, we were finding the car park was being abused, in particular by taxi drivers and chauffeurs," the spokeswoman said. "Some people would also leave their cars there while they went on holiday."
For those who get tickets, one of the most annoying features is that they are not given the chance to leave. Jamie Thomson, a businessman from Sussex, said he only found out he had been ticketed when he got a letter demanding payment of 125 pounds ($250) several weeks after he ate a leisurely lunch in a McDonald's parking lot. He and his family are no longer McDonald's customers.
Impact zone confirms big turkeys do fly
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A northwestern Michigan man has learned large wild turkeys can fly after one crashed through a third-story window of his house at high speed.
Chuck Ritter, 83, was in his Traverse City, Mich., home Saturday when he heard loud bang, breaking glass and a lot of scuffling sounds, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported.
He said when he opened the third-floor bedroom door, he said it resembled a war scene, with the 25-pound bird thrashing around amid knocked-over furniture, blood spatters and feathers, broken glass and a very bent window frame.
He shut the door and called county Animal Control officials, who said they didn't deal with wild animals. Soon after, his housing complex's maintenance worker showed up to help, the report said.
After trying to prod the bird back to the window with poles, Ritter grabbed it by its neck and threw it out the window, he said.
The fall killed the bird, which Ritter told the Record-Eagle he would donate to a charity for food.
Looking up at the height of the window, he marveled at the bird's ability.
"Turkeys -- you don't see them jetting across the sky," he said.
Curds replace cannabis in Tennessee cave
HARTSVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A cave northeast of Nashville customized to be an underground marijuana farm has been sold at auction to a cheese-making company from Wisconsin.
For several years, the 90-foot deep cave in Hartsville had been used as a clandestine pot farm by a now-jailed entrepreneur who reportedly spent $750,000 to customize it, The Tennessean reported.
The courts ordered the property auctioned along with seven surrounding acres of land, with the proceeds going to fund undercover work by the 15th Judicial District Drug Task Force, the report said.
Saturday, after a half-hour bidding war in one of the cavernous rooms, a representative of Roth Kase USA Ltd., which manufactures European-style cheeses, won out with a bid of $285,000, the report said.
The company's bidder, Chuck Olson, was tight-lipped about the company's plan for the cave apart from saying the company's activities would be legal "in a tasty way."
© 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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McDonald's penalizes parking abusers
An Iranian woman enters to a carnival ride while pictures of American Spider-Man (L) and Shrek (R) are seen in Mellat park in Qazvin province, 91 Miles (165 Km) west of Tehran, Iran on May 21, 2008. A Iranian judiciary official warned against the "destructive" social-cultural consequences of Barbie dolls and other Western toys. Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi said in an official letter to Vice President Parviz Davoudi that the doll and other Western toys are a "danger" that needs to be stopped, USA Today reported. (UPI Photo/Mohammad Kheirkhah)
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