UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Police played Wii during search

LAKELAND, Fla., Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Authorities in Florida said members of a Polk County drug task force were videotaped playing a bowling video game on the Nintendo Wii during a search.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said disciplinary action is likely against eight of the 17 law enforcement officers involved in executing the March search warrant at the Lakeland, Fla., area home of convicted drug dealer Michael Difalco, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported Wednesday.

Judd said the officers were videotaped playing the video game by a wireless security camera in Difalco's home.

"I'm not pleased with their conduct," Judd said. "There's no reason for that. It's inexcusable."

The sheriff said steps are being taken to ensure there are no similar incidents in the future.

Students strip to protest rising costs

DAVIS, Calif., Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Students at the University of California's Davis campus shed their clothing for a "naked rally" in protest of a proposed 30 percent tuition increase.

The students, who said Tuesday's au natural demonstration was only the first of a number of planned protests, took off their clothes and held signs bearing messages such as "The Naked Truth: UC Thinks I'm A Ca$h Machine," "Don't Strip the Student Body," and "I'll put my pants on when (UC President Mark) Yudof resigns," KCRA-TV, Sacramento, Calif., reported Wednesday.

Participants said walkouts and strikes of students, staff and faculty at all University of California campuses have been planned for Thursday to protest the proposed 30 percent fee increase across the system.

Three parachute onto Mt. Everest drop zone

GORAK SHEP, Nepal, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Three adventurers say they have successfully completed an extremely high-altitude skydive, jumping from 20,000 feet onto a spot near Mount Everest in Nepal.

Leo Dickinson, Ralph Mitchell and Ramesh Chandra Tripathi jumped Wednesday from an airplane onto a sandy plateau near the Sherpa village of Gorak Shep, which at an altitude of 16,945 feet, became the world's highest drop zone, The (London) Daily Telegraph reported.

"It was not just Everest. I could see the whole panorama of fantastic mountains and it was just amazing," Dickinson, 62, told the newspaper. "You have got the mountains rushing past you. I just didn't want it to end. I had a freefall for four seconds and in the next three minutes I was already landing."

Dickinson is a British documentary filmmaker who in 1991 became the first person to fly over Mount Everest in a hot air balloon.

"I have never heard anyone landing at that height so far," he told the Telegraph. "I will claim for world's highest parachute jump landing with Guinness World Records."

Man cited for naked gardening

FORT WORTH, Texas, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Police in Texas said a 71-year-old man seen gardening nude in his back yard was cited for disorderly conduct.

A police report said a Fort Worth deputy city marshal on bike patrol spotted the man working in his yard Sunday while wearing nothing but his shoes, the Fort Worth Star-Tribune reported Wednesday.

The report said the man dropped his weed trimmer when he noticed the deputy and ran inside his house. The deputy asked the man to come back outside, and he re-emerged wearing a pair of shorts.

The deputy issued the man a citation for the Class C misdemeanor after checking the man's record to ensure he was not registered as a sex offender.