Jockstrip: The world as we know it.

Recycling workers find $3,200 at station

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Workers at a California recycling station said they discovered $3,200 cash among the cans, bottles and cardboard being sorted at the plant.

Employees at the SMaRT recycling plant in Sunnyvale said the cash began flying around the room Tuesday while recyclables collected from Mountain View, Calif., were being sorted, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reported.

The employees collected the money in a plastic bucket and turned it over to the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, which said the cash will go toward the city's general fund if it is not claimed within 90 days.

Potato gift gains woman national attention

NEW YORK, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- A woman who gave a heart-shaped potato to President Barack Obama during a TV show taping in New York said the gift gained her national attention.

Mary Apple of Independence, Mo., said the gift she gave Obama -- her lucky heart-shaped potato -- during a Monday taping of "Late Show with David Letterman" led to appearances this week on "Inside Edition" and CBS' "The Early Show," as well as a flood of messages on her cell phone and Facebook inbox, the Kansas City (Mo.) Star reported.

Apple said the Obama incident marked her potato's second appearance on Letterman. She said she brought the spud to a taping two years ago and the host made guest Jamie Foxx swear on the potato that he would not mislead the public about the quality of his movies.

Apple said her biggest fear for the potato is that Obama "might just toss it."

"I'm a little sad. It's like when one of your children grows up and sprouts wings," she said.

Firefighters rescue penis from metal ring

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Firefighters in California said they were called to a hospital for an unusual rescue -- removing a metal ring from a man's penis.

The Costa Mesa Fire Department said its Urban Search and Rescue squad was called Tuesday to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach to saw through a steel, ring-shaped dumbbell weight fastener that had been stuck on a man's penis for two or three days, the Newport Beach Daily Pilot reported.

Costa Mesa Battalion Chief Scott Broussard said the firefighters told him about the man the following morning.

"They said his comment was, 'This will make me the chief of my tribe,'" Broussard said.

The firefighters said the man told them he was attempting to increase the size of his penis and initially refused to have the ring removed, despite the fact it had blackened and swelled severely from the lack of blood flow.

"He was kind of a wingnut," Broussard said.

The man agreed to have the ring removed after doctors told him the flesh of his penis was close to dying off. Firefighters in full surgical gear spent two hours sawing through the ring. They said the operation was successful and the man was not injured.

Egged house costs four people their jobs

CARROLLTON, Texas, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- A police officer and three dispatchers in Carrollton, Texas, were fired after a local home belonging to a controversial figure was egged, police say.

Carrollton Police Chief David N. James said Officer Jennifer Cackler, 28, and dispatchers Laura Anderson, Laken Schifelbeign and Ashley Cackler were fired after the home of Steven Benzer was hit by as many as nine eggs May 9, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported.

Benzer was a controversial figure in the Carrollton community, having been involved in 110 incidents reported to police since 2006. One incident involving Benzer and a neighbor, Dianna Swadley, occurred days before Benzer's home was egged.

Cackler, 28, encountered Benzer, who allegedly was near a home he had been warned to stay away from, and Benzer responded by mentioning the recent death of Cackler's father.

"Are you trying to get me mad?" Cackler was quoted as saying during the May meeting.

The Star-Telegram said an internal investigation into the egging incident days later resulted in Class C misdemeanor citations against Cackler and two of the dispatchers.