Watercooler Stories

N.Y. police official loses animal trophies

NEW YORK, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A top official with the New York Police Department has been told by his boss to remove all animal hunting trophies from his office.

Until ordered by the current police commissioner to remove them, NYPD Transportation Chief Michael Scagnelli -- an avid hunter -- had filled much of his office with taxidermy trophies. Now all those stuffed deer and birds have a new home, The New York Daily News said.

One source said the presence of the animal trophies had gotten out of hand and had even expanded beyond Scagnelli's personal office.

"Going to his office was like going to the Museum of Natural History. And it wasn't just his private office, it was in the outer office, too, where everyone else had their desks. There was a gigantic bird on someone's desk," the source said.

The Daily News said the only animal to survive the remodeling was a singing deer head that one source said brings levity to the office area.

"This can be a grim job," the source said. "What's wrong with a little humor?"

Ex-partners' numbers kept 'just in case'

LONDON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A recent survey by a British company determined nearly two-thirds of respondents kept the phone numbers of ex-partners "just in case."

The Orange survey of 1,487 people found that some of those polled said they keep ex-lovers' phone numbers on their cell phones handy, The Sun reported.

Some said they keep the numbers of former romantic partners so they can compile a "little black book" to share with friends, while others said they keep outdated text messages and videos.

Business consultant and communication expert Theo Theobald offered a bit of advice to cell phone pack rats.

"Don't let sentiment drive your phone detox decisions," he said. "Lapsed partners in your mobile phone book represent the past, not the future. Apply the rule of hard evidence. Are these people likely to feature again in your life? If not, ditch them."

Three Maryland dogs rolling in it

HAGERSTOWN, Md., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Three Maryland dogs have reason to wag their tails after inheriting a house and nearly $400,000 from their owner's estate.

"They don't know they have more money than most people," live-in caretaker Roy Grady said of Buckshot, Katie and Obu-Jet, who reside in their late owner's home in Hagerstown.

Ken Kemper died of cancer last year, leaving $400,000 in investments and a home worth about $400,000 to his dogs, the Hagerstown Herald-Mail reported.

Katie and Obu-Jet, both lab mixes, and Buckshot, a beagle, were strays when Kemper adopted them. Grady said he does his best to spoil them, including treating them to a spaghetti dinner with meatballs and garlic bread each Friday night.

Kemper worked for the Voice of America, a broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government, and was known for returning home with stray dogs from his travels around the world, Grady said.

The remainder of Kemper's estate will be given to an animal charity when the three dogs, each about 10 years old, die, the Herald-Mail said.

Family jailed over baggy pants incident

WELLINGTON, Fla., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Twenty deputies, two canine units and a police helicopter were summoned to a mall in Florida to arrest a family in a case that began with baggy jeans.

Frantz Leger, 20, of Wellington and six members of his family, including his mother and father, were arrested at The Mall in Wellington Green, The Palm Beach Post reported.

Leger, a business major at Florida State University, was banned from the mall last summer for wearing his pants too low and his return Thursday prompted an arrest for trespassing, the Post said.

The situation erupted into chaos when Leger's relatives tried to prevent his arrest and mall security called for help, said Lt. Jay Hart of the county sheriff's office.

"The mall doesn't put up with that tomfoolery bullcrap," Hart said. "His pants were down below his butt. No one goes to the mall and wants to see the crack of someone's butt."

The Leger family claimed sheriff's deputies verbally and physically abused them and said they planned to hire a lawyer. Hart denied that deputies abused family members.