Watercooler Stories

Rocket, not lightning, killed Chinese man

HOHHOT, China, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- A Chinese man believed to have been killed by lightning was actually done in by a small weather rocket found when it detonated during cremation, police say.

Authorities said people who were in the Inner Mongolia province house with Wang Diange -- who was overseeing a wake at the time of his death -- discovered his body amidst rubble after a large explosion that destroyed half of the home's roof, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.

The residents concluded that the home had been struck by lightning from a thunderstorm and police concurred with the assessment, releasing Wang's body for a funeral and cremation, the British newspaper said.

However, a few days after Wang's death, a weather rocket lodged in his body exploded while the corpse was being loaded into the cremation chamber, destroying the body and the doors of the cremation oven.

Authorities said a small piece of metal found in the oven after the blast led investigators to a local weather bureau, which had been firing rockets into the atmosphere in an attempt to protect tobacco crops from large hailstones.

Weather bureau internal investigators said one of the shells must have failed to detonate, crashed into the home where the wake was taking place and lodged in Wang's body, where authorities said it was concealed by the extensive injuries.

The weather bureau said it is paying Wang's family about $12,000 in damages.

Man's 11 lottery tickets all winners

HAMPTON, Va., Dec. 16 (UPI) -- A Virginia man who bought 11 identical lottery tickets for the same drawing has won $1.1 million from a game with a top prize of $100,000, gaming officials say.

Virginia Lottery spokesman John Hagerty said the big winner, whose name had not yet been released, bought 11 tickets all bearing the numbers 10-13-18-23-30 for Saturday's Cash 5 drawing, the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press reported Tuesday.

Since each individual ticket earned the winner the maximum $100,000 prize, his final payout will be $1.1 million, officials said.

"He apparently likes to play those numbers because they have significance to his family's birthdays," Hagerty said. "You see this sometimes, where someone buys several tickets for the same game with the same numbers just because they like those numbers and they have a hunch or a feeling. This time, it paid off big time for this guy."

Texting surpasses 6,000 monthly limit

WELLINGTON , New Zealand, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- A 16-year-old New Zealand girl who is allowed a substantial 6,000 text messages per month says she often goes over her limit and has to bum phones from friends.

Wellington High School student Hannah Brooke said her text plan, which costs $17 monthly, is not enough to satisfy her 260 texts-per-day habit, The Dominion Post reported Tuesday.

"I have three phones and I run out of texts all the time. It's just like all day," she said.

Brooke said her texting, which she pays for out of her own pocket, is mostly just to keep up to date on daily goings-on.

"Just everyday things -- `What are you up to? Where are you? What's up?' Just normal stuff," she said. "If you have nothing to do, you usually text more. I guess I just text for the sake of it."

Parking scam victims get tickets

MILWAUKEE, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- A trio of scam artists charged unsuspecting drivers attending a concert in Milwaukee $10 to park in a county-owned lot, officials said.

City police then handed out more than $4,000 in tickets because the concert-goers were parked illegally, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Officials have agreed to void the tickets.

Drivers said that the fake parking attendants had dressed for the part. They were wearing vests and aprons with pockets for money and directed cars into rows using yellow wands.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Public Works said that the city had been asked to keep close watch on the lot to prevent illegal parking.

Jim Kirk, who attended the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert Sunday evening at the Bradley Center, said that he spotted two police cars a block away when he parked. He wonders why they did not catch the fake parking lot operators, the report said.

Officials say that the scammers may have double-dipped, collecting parking fees for the orchestra's afternoon concert as well as the evening one.