Watercooler Stories

Big pig seeks loving home

CHARLESTON, S.C., Aug. 26 (UPI) -- An animal organization in South Carolina says it is needs a home for a 500-pound stray pig found wandering in the town of Adams Run.

The Charleston Animal Society said it is seeking to either reunite the adolescent male pig with its owner or find a new abode for the hefty animal, The (Charleston) Post and Courier reported Tuesday.

Kay Hyman, director of outreach and communications for the group, said the pig was spotted wandering around for about a week before it was caught.

Woman humiliated by airport bra incident

OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 26 (UPI) -- A woman said she was humiliated at an Oakland, Calif., airport when confronted by Transportation Safety Administration officers about her underwire bra.

Nancy Kates said she was en route to visit her mother in Boston when her bra set off the metal detector at Oakland International Airport, attracting the attention of TSA officers, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday.

Kates said she was subjected to an intrusive search by a female officer.

"The woman touched my breast. I said, 'You can't do that,'" Kates said. "She said, 'We have to pat you down.' I said, 'You can't treat me as a criminal for wearing a bra.' "

She said the TSA agents allowed her to walk through the metal detector a second time after removing her bra and the device was not triggered. However, she said a search of her carry-on luggage caused her to miss her flight.

Kates said she was considering possible legal action against the airport.

"It's actually a little funny in a way, but a sad, sad commentary on the state of our country," Kates said. "This is bigger than just me. There are 150 million women in America, and this could happen to any of them."

Beer name's drug ties raise controversy

GUADALAJARA, Mexico, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- A Mexican business owner's association has objected to the marketing of a beer named after a legendary outlaw known as the "patron saint" of drug traffickers.

The Los Mochis Area Business Owners' Association blasted the Minerva Brewery in Guadalajara, Mexico, for naming Malverde Beer after Jesus Malverde, a legendary figure from the late 1800s and early 1900s who is said to have robbed from the rich and given to the poor during the reign of Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz, The Arizona Republic reported Tuesday.

Historians are split on the subject of whether Malverde was in fact a real person, but shrines have been built to the figure in the Mexican state of Sinaloa and in recent years he has become a revered figure among drug smugglers, some of whom are known to carry pictures of Malverde while on runs.

"When a product exalts something illegal, that's wrong," said Paul Velazquez, president of the Los Mochis Area Business Owners' Association.

Wal-Mart of Mexico has refused to carry the beer due to the connection between its name and the drug trade.

However, Minerva Brewery, which donates 1 percent of its profits from the beer to a chapel dedicated to Malverde in the city of Culiacan, said the product is not meant to glorify the drug trade.

"We're just trying to honor a Mexican legend, that's all," said Jesus Briseno, general manager of the brewery.

$10 DVD had $1,400 hidden in case

BELLEVILLE, Mich., Aug. 26 (UPI) -- A Belleville, Mich., woman said she accidentally sold a DVD at a garage sale that contained at least $1,200 hidden in its case.

Tracy Holmes said she sold her husband's "Sin City" DVD for $10 at her garage sale because she thought he wasn't likely to watch it again anytime soon, The Ann Arbor (Mich.) News reported Tuesday.

However, her husband, Fred, asked her about the DVD about a week later and revealed to her that he had hidden at least $1,200 in the case for a Christmas trip to Disney World with his wife and their three young children.

"He thought apparently (the DVD case) was a great spot to hide it from me, and it was," Holmes said to the newspaper. "I didn't think to look there."

Holmes said she is holding out hope that the buyer, who she described as a 6-foot-tall man in his 50s or 60s, will discover the money and return it to the family.

"My kids are pretty upset about the whole thing, and I feel just heartsick," she told the News. "It's always been a dream of mine to go to Disney World at Christmas."