Watercooler Stories

iPhone app lets users send 'A Note to God'

FAIR OAKS, Calif., July 21 (UPI) -- A California teenager announced the creation of an iPhone application called "A Note to God," which allows users to send their prayers into cyberspace.

Allen Wright, 17, of Fair Oaks said the program was selected from 20,000 proposals to be marketed by Medl Mobile, a Los Angeles company developing iPhone applications to sell on its Web site, The Sacramento Bee reported Tuesday.

Wright, a junior at Del Campo High School, said the inspiration for the program came to him while he was feeling lonely.

"If you want to send a message, and you don't have anybody to talk to, you could send a little prayer," he said.

Medl Mobile co-founder Andrew Maltin said the company expects the application to be "extremely successful."

"It's so simple, it's brilliant," Maltin said.

The company said the prayers can be read by other users of the program, but the only feedback they will be able to give is clicking on a "thumbs-up" symbol.

Lost ring found after 33 years

STAPLEFORD, England, July 21 (UPI) -- A British woman who lost her wedding ring in her garden 33 years ago said she was shocked when a former neighbor called to say the ring had been found.

Anthea Capewell, 60, said her engagement and wedding rings flew off when she closed her garden gate in Stapleford, England, in 1976, and after a thorough search, only the engagement ring was recovered, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

Capewell said she and her husband, David, moved out of their home eight years after losing the ring, and she had long given up hope of ever seeing it again.

However, former neighbors Don and Carol Rigby called Capewell recently to say they had found the ring buried in some garden weeds on their side of a hedge shared by the two homes.

"I was absolutely gobsmacked and, of course, I was ecstatic," Capewell said. "I just couldn't believe it.

"It must have worked its way down into the soil after we missed it all those years ago. It came up like new with just a bit of soap water."

Capewell said the discovery has inspired her and David to renew their wedding vows next year.

'Barrel Monster' creator gets community service

RALEIGH, N.C., July 21 (UPI) -- The North Carolina man who illegally took construction barrels and turned them into the "Barrel Monster" sculpture was sentenced Tuesday to community service.

Joseph Carnevale, 21, a North Carolina State University student, was sentenced to 50 hours of community service for misdemeanor larceny and damage to property charges, The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer reported Tuesday.

Carnevale, who was charged after he took barrels from a construction site and turned them into the "Barrel Monster" sculpture, which was displayed for a few hours at the side of a road March 31.

The artist, who said he will likely spend his community service hours with Habitat for Humanity, said he would like to make more barrel monsters, but from now on he will buy his own barrels instead of taking them from road sites.

Police: Man stuck on gluing females' hair

PASADENA, Texas, July 21 (UPI) -- A man in Texas sprayed powerful glue into the hair of three females, including a 12-year-old girl, as they were shopping, authorities said.

The Pasadena girl, who asked not to be named, said she was in the greeting card aisle of a Walgreens Thursday when a man approached her, KHOU-TV, Houston, reported Tuesday.

"He walked right beside me and started looking at the cards," the girl said. "I felt very uncomfortable and I knew something was wrong."

She said she noticed her hair was sticking to the back of her shirt and reached back to feel the wad of glue in her ponytail.

"When I touched my hair, it was hot, it was, like, sizzling on my hair," she said.

Police said the man had targeted a woman at the same Walgreens a day earlier, and also had struck at the Kroger store across the street

"I've got to say it's unusual to the extent that in the course of my career, I have never heard of any assault quite like this particular incident," said Assistant Chief Bud Corbett of the Pasadena Police Department. "Each one of the victims reported that prior to the discovery that they had had glue deposited in their hair (and) that this individual was following them around the store."

If caught, the man could face assault charges, police said.