Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Missing boa turns up at laundromat NEW YORK, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- A worker at a New York City laundromat said she was shocked when what she thought was a toy 4-foot-long boa constrictor behind a stack of clothes began to move. Advertisement Erika Vega, 27, said she didn't think much of the snake behind the clothes she was preparing to wash until it revealed itself to be the real thing by slithering, the New York Post reported Wednesday. "It's alive! It's alive!" Vega recalled herself as screaming. Animal control officers reunited the 9-pound boa, Slinky, with its owner, Sury Leguisamon, 17, who lives in an apartment above the West 110th Street laundromat. Leguisamon said the snake had escaped from her apartment five months ago. "I missed her a lot," she said. Woman finds her stolen goods for sale ANNAPOLIS, Md., Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Police in Maryland said a woman accidentally solved her own burglary when she came across a garage sale offering her pilfered possessions. Advertisement Anne Arundel County police said the woman, who had been living with her daughter for several months due to a foreclosure on her home, found out Thursday the house had been burglarized. She went to the home Monday to make a list of the missing items, The Baltimore Sun reported Wednesday. On the way there, the two women spotted a yard sale at a neighbor's house hosted by a man wearing one of the victim's stolen T-shirts, police said. The women investigated further and discovered all of the items at the yard sale were from the victim's house and called police. The man admitted the items were not his, but claimed they were sold to him for $100 in a man driving in aqua-colored pickup truck. Police said they suspect the man stole the items from the woman's house, thinking it had been abandoned. Police said they found $25,000 worth of the victim's possessions on the man's property. David Anthony Perticone, 46, was arrested and charged with burglary and theft. He released from jail on $80,000 bail. 'Intelligent' bike self-inflates tires LONDON, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- A former British racing cyclist and gold medal winner says he has invented a theft-proof bike with tires that can't be punctured and a built in "intelligence." Advertisement Chris Boardman, 40, who won an individual pursuit gold medal at the 1992 Olympics, said the "intelligent" bicycle uses fingerprint recognition to ensure it works only for its owner and puncture-proof tires that use a self-inflating system, The Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday. Boardman described the finger print lock as "unbreakable." The inventor said building just one of the bikes currently costs $165,000, but that price would fall to about $3,300 if it were mass produced. Boardman said it could be up to 20 years before people become comfortable enough with the design for the bike to become commonplace. "People like different, but if it's too different it's risky," he said. Kids, gator fight over rope HARBORDALE, Fla., Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Florida police were called to break up a bizarre tug-of-war that broke out between several middle school children and a 10-foot alligator, witnesses said. Observers said the small group of children in Harbordale tied a raw chicken to the end of a large rope Tuesday to attract the attention of an alligator swimming in a canal. The plan worked too well when the gator devoured the chicken and got its snout stuck on the rope, which the children weren't willing to give up, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reported Wednesday. Advertisement Postal carrier Kim Kryza said she spotted the tug-of-war and dialed 911, fearing for the safety of the children, who she estimated to be between 12 and 13 years old. "They were pushing and pulling the gator back and forth on the rope," she said. "But the gator was huge, and these kids were kind of small. I was afraid one of them would get pulled in." Police arrived and cut the alligator loose from the rope. Officers said that while feeding gators is illegal in the city, no charges will be brought against the children.
