Watercooler Stories

Elderly man rescues mother, son

NORTH BERWICK, Scotland, July 31 (UPI) -- A woman and her 7-year-old son close to drowning at a Scottish beach were rescued by an elderly man who happened by and swam out into the surf to save them.

The Scotsman reported Monday the boy was dragged under by a large wave while swimming at North Berwick and his mother also found herself struggling in the strong tide when she tried to retrieve him. But the unnamed passer-by, identified only as an "elderly gentleman" from Broxbum, saved the day by swimming out and pulling them to safety before official rescue squads arrived.

"Due to the efforts of the rescue teams and the bravery of the member of the public who recovered them, both woman and child were rescued from the water and are currently being treated in hospital," said Bob Abercrombie of the Forth Coast Guard.

The mother and child, who are from Dunblane, were flown by helicopter to a hospital. The boy was treated for shock and was released, while the woman was hospitalized overnight for water ingestion, the newspaper said.

Czech woman on trial for her work in 1949

PRAGUE, Czech Republic, July 30 (UPI) -- An 80-year-old Czech woman was accused of being a prosecutor at the death-penalty trial of an anti-communist activist in 1950, Prague Radio said.

Former prosecutor Ludmila Brozova-Polednova has been charged with the "judicial murder" of Milada Horakova, an anti-communist politician who was executed by the Czech communist regime in 1950, the radio said.

If convicted Brozova-Polednova could face up to 15 years in jail for complicity to murder.

Horakova was arrested in 1949 when communists took over the power. She was charged with high treason and espionage and sentenced to death in a show trial, the radio said. She was the only woman executed in the former Czechoslovakia on political grounds.

New York sells off foreign coins

NEW YORK, July 30 (UPI) -- New York officials want to sell 500 pounds of foreign coins shoved into city parking meters this year.

Officials with the city's Department of Transportation plan to determine the best offer for the haul Tuesday, the New York Daily News reported Monday.

"We have pretty much every denomination from every continent," said Anthony Alfano, the city's deputy chief of meter collections. "The most common (are) the Greek drachmas."

"We are not expecting a windfall, but it's a way of recouping revenue for the city," Alfano said.

Officials said the city loses an estimated $8,500 annually because of foreign coins passed off as U.S. currency in parking meters. The out-of-country coins are usually sold for about $2 to $4 a pound. The city decided to start selling the coins about a decade ago when it was ruled impractical to exchange them for U.S. money.

"In the scheme of things the money and volume of coins is pretty insignificant," Alfano said.

Mysterious creature sparks speculation

EXETER, England, July 30 (UPI) -- A mysterious beast photographed in England's Dartmoor National Park has local people rumbling about a demon that haunts local folklore.

Folklore has it that a pack of ghostly canines known as Whist Hounds or Hounds of Hell stalk the area and some say that is the identity of the creature photographed near Hound Tor in the park area. Others maintain the creature is some variety of cat or bear, The Daily Mail reported Monday.

"It was walking along a path about 200 yards away from me," Martin Whitley, the falconer who snapped the photos of the animal, told The Daily Mail.

"It was black and gray and comparable in size to a miniature pony. It had very thick shoulders, a long, thick tail with a blunt end and small round ears.

"Its movements appeared feline, then bear-like sprang to mind. There was a party climbing on the tor opposite making a racket but it ignored them completely."

Mark Fraser, founder of the national research network Big Cats in Britain, agreed that the identity of the animal is perplexing.

"It looks like a wolverine or a bear in some shots and a big wild dog in others. It is a very strange animal," he said to the newspaper.