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You are here:  Home / Odd News / UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

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UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Published: May 21, 2008 at 5:15 PM
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Temptation lands Florida woman in jail

LEESBURG, Fla., May 21 (UPI) -- A woman's unexpected windfall at a Florida Wal-Mart store landed her in jail on a grand theft charge, police said Wednesday.

Doris La-Hediny, 62, allegedly pocketed an envelope stuffed with $1,800 cash that was accidentally left at a checkout stand by the harried customer in front of her.

Leesburg police said the cashier asked La-Hediny if the envelope was hers and that store security video showed her checking the contents and then sticking it in her purse.

The Orlando Sentinel said the cash belonged to a 25-year-old fast-food worker who had received the cash as a loan from his mother to pay off overdue bills and buy groceries.

Philosophy professor Mason Cash of the University of Central Florida told the Sentinel that people react in odd ways when they find something of value.

"Some people may decide that it's right for them to keep something valuable they found by reasoning mistakenly that, 'Here's the universe smiling on me' or they may take the position that, 'This is the kind of good luck I've been praying for,'" Cash said. "Others might focus on what is right or how they might feel if they had lost it rather than found it."


Women take cemetery flowers for 'crafts'

CUDAHY, Wis., May 21 (UPI) -- The director of a Cudahy, Wis., cemetery says middle-aged woman are taking flowers from graves to use in craft projects.

Butch Miller, director of cemetery operations at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery, said several women have been seen wandering the cemetery and taking flowers that were placed on graves by loved ones, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported Wednesday.

"They help themselves to the flowers they think we're throwing away," Miller said. "I ask them, 'Why would you want these flowers from a grave?' They say, 'Oh, we use them to make crafts and decorations.'"

Miller said the women take care not to disturb mourners or others at a cemetery while they perform their work.

"They're just extremely polite," he said.


2-year-old has dad's Indy obsession

YORBA LINDA, Calif., May 21 (UPI) -- A California toddler named Harrison because of his father's Indiana Jones obsession was become the mascot of the Indiana Jones fan club.

Brandon McClintock of Yorba Linda actually wanted to name his son Indiana, but his wife put her foot down, the Orange County Register reported Wednesday.

"That'd be a little too extreme," Christine McClintock said.

Harrison already sports a fedora and carries a toy bullwhip like those that became Harrison Ford's trademarks in the action movie series. He likes to watch a scene from one of the movies at bedtime, followed by his parents singing the theme song.

The 2-year-old became part of Indy Fans, an international fan club, after he made a public appearance at Legoland.

His father picked up his Indiana Jones obsession when he was a child in the 1980s and his father took him to the movies.

The McClintocks plan to see the midnight showing of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" on Thursday. They have not yet decided whether to keep Harrison up so much past his bedtime.


Moose runs loose at Norwegian airport

KRISTIANSAND, Norway, May 21 (UPI) -- A panicky moose disrupted operations at an airport in the southern Norwegian port of Kristiansand.

Jon Endresen, in charge of emergency operations at the airport, said that employees formed a human chain to steer the animal away from the runway, Aftenposten reported Wednesday. He added that, luckily for the moose, no flights were scheduled to take off or land Tuesday afternoon at the time the moose appeared.

"We had to get the moose out of the runway area in one way or another," he said. "Luckily we didn't have to shoot it."

Kristiansand is one airport that has not been affected by a strike that has disrupted air traffic at many other Norwegian airports.

Rune Solnordal, a witness who managed to get some pictures of the moose, described it as looking "a bit panicky."

"I can understand that very well," he told the local newspaper, Fædrelandsvennen.


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