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Snakes chilly but safe after N.Y. crash

NEW YORK, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Dozens of snakes had a close call in New York when the car they were being transported in was involved in a fiery traffic accident.

The reptiles were being transported in aquariums that had to be unloaded quickly and hustled to safety as New York firefighters rushed to the scene.

The driver of the car, Sean Casey, runs an animal rescue center in Brooklyn and was en route to an adoption event Saturday when he smacked into a retaining wall on FDR Drive. Casey wasn't hurt, but the impact sparked a fire in the engine compartment.

"I got out of the car and ran to the back," he told The New York Post. "I opened the tailgate and took six or seven fish tanks and put them on the wall."

None of the snakes got loose, but Casey said he had to wrap the aquariums in blankets to keep the cold-blooded critters snuggly warm.

Hotel staff tricked by drunken act

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A con man pretending to be an intoxicated guest tricked the staff at a New Zealand hotel into giving him a room key that he used to rob an entire family.

Evelyn Black said her family had been eating dinner one night in Auckland when an unidentified man falsely identified himself as a member of their family and was given the key to their room, The New Zealand Herald reported.

"He came to the desk clearly intoxicated -- although we think now that may have been part of his con game -- he said, 'I'm Black. Can I have my room key?" Black said.

Black said that without asking for identification, hotel staff gave the man a key to the family's room, and the mistake resulted in the family losing all its valuables, including a computer and even their passports.

The Canadian family was able to get new travel documents and return home, but Black told the Herald she was upset with the hotel staff's performance.

"It just seems like there was so many lapses," she said.

Chicken bones led to arrest in burglary

GLADSTONE, Mo., Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Police in Clay County, Mo., have arrested a man on burglary charges based on chicken bones found at the scene of the crime.

Clay County Prosecutor Daniel White said John Wyatt Weaver was arrested based on DNA evidence taken from the chicken bones, which police suspect were left at the scene of the crime by the hungry burglar, The Kansas City Star reported Sunday.

Police suspect that while allegedly burglarizing an apartment last November, Weaver took time to eat some chicken but failed to clean up after himself.

While investigating the scene, police found the chicken bones strewn about the home and ordered DNA tests of the remains.

White said the tests helped identify Weaver from a national DNA database, and investigators got a laugh out of the whole thing.

"The facts of this are more amusing than anything I can say," he said.

The Star said Weaver has already been the target of 33 felony arrests in the past and has tallied 16 felony convictions on a variety of charges.

ATM theft not easy for Missouri thieves

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A group of thieves in Kansas City, Mo., are likely back at the drawing board after failing miserably in their attempt to steal a cash machine.

While the unidentified thieves apparently were able to load the automated teller machine in a car trailer being pulled by a pickup truck, transporting the bulky item was another matter, The Kansas City Star said.

Police responding to a tripped alarm found the ATM abandoned on Interstate 670 Saturday, and about 50 yards away there was a pickup truck turned onto its side.

Investigators said that while speeding away from the scene of the crime, the thieves likely lost control of their vehicle on the wet pavement and crashed.

While all the thieves left the crash scene, the Star said all the money inside the cash machine was safe and sound.