Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Four vie for Ultimate Couch Potato title NEW YORK, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- A New York research librarian won ESPN's Ultimate Couch Potato contest after watching 29 consecutive hours of sports while sitting in Times Square. Advertisement Stan Friedman packed it in 5 minutes after the runner-up, Nate Lopez, a Navy veteran from Queens, The New York Daily News reported. Friedman showed that competitive sitting isn't an age-based activity when at 46 he defeated a man 18 years younger. Lindsay Wagenblast, a 20-year-old Rutgers student from Edison, N.J., was the crowd favorite as the only woman in the contest. She gave up after 15 hours. "It stopped being fun," Wagenblast told the Daily News. The contest was held at the ESPN Zone. Contestants were allowed to stretch for 5 minutes every hour and to go to the bathroom once every eight hours. The winner stood to get $5,000 in prizes in addition to the title, including a TV. Advertisement Peter Beljakovic, who outlasted Wagenblast by 6 hours and 31 minutes, said he just got tired. Fla. cold spell knocks iguanas from trees MIAMI, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Floridians coping with unusually cold weather could console themselves with the thought that the frigid spell was even harder on iguanas. The lizards, exotic imports from South America that have settled in South Florida, are knocked out by temperatures in the 40s. Most of them make a quick recovery once they warm up. But the tree dwellers tend to fall to the ground when their grip loosens. At Bill Baggs State Park on Key Biscayne, many of the trees had shed an iguana or two. "We have found dozens on the bike path after a major cold snap," Robert Yero, the park manager, told the Miami Herald. "When they warm up in the sun, they come back to life." The iguanas arrived in Florida as pets, freed by owners as they grew. Yero said that they are threatening efforts to restore native plants in Florida, which often become iguana food. Police: Robber left ATM receipt behind MUNCIE, Ind., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Indiana police said a robbery suspect was arrested after he allegedly used the back of his own ATM receipt to write a note demanding money from a store clerk. Advertisement Authorities claimed Joshua Andrew Beadle, who was being held without bond Thursday in Delaware County, Ind., jail, left the holdup note, which had his bank account number on the back, at a Muncie, Ind., convenience store after he allegedly robbed it Saturday night, the Muncie Star-Press reported Friday. A probable cause affidavit said Beadle has been identified as a suspect in three other robberies committed Tuesday. Beadle's alleged accomplice, Colin Lee Shopher, was arrested Wednesday and charged with four counts of robbery and one count of possession of marijuana. Police told the Star-Press both suspects' involvement in the crimes is supported by evidence from security cameras. GPS leads driver onto railway tracks NEW YORK, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- A 32-year-old man had his rental car hit by a train when an on-board satellite navigation system directed him onto railroad tracks in New York City. Bo Bai from Sunnyvale, Calif., said the on-board global positioning satellite navigation system in his rental car "told" him to turn right as he traveled over a rail crossing and found himself facing an oncoming train, the White Plains (N.Y.) Journal News reported Friday. "He tried to stop the train by waving his arms, which apparently was not totally effective in slowing the train," a rail spokesman said. Advertisement Holiday and business travelers find themselves more and more confused as GPS devices become commonplace in rental vehicles, the Journal News said. One traveler through Utah said her GPS system nearly stranded her in the desert when it told her "You have arrived" nearly 13 miles away from her destination. She said if the problem continues with the independent minded GPS systems, "there may be the bleached bones of lost businessmen and woman" peppering the Utah landscape.
