Watercooler Stories

5-year-old drives truck through yards

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Police in Tennessee said a 5-year-old boy drove his father's truck through the back yards of at least two neighbors.

The Clarksville police report on the incident said a 41-year-old woman returned home at about 6:50 p.m. Sunday and discovered the truck had glanced off a 4-foot brick retaining wall, damaging 11 bricks, and flattened her propane grill, Gannett Tennessee reported.

Police said the boy also drove through a second back yard, leaving deep tire tracks in the ground.

The report said the child, who had driven the truck previously, was not injured.

Salon garnering complaints before opening

MANSFIELD, Mass., Oct. 7 (UPI) -- The owner of a soon-to-open Massachusetts salon catering to male clients and featuring women in boxing gear said people got the "wrong idea" from the Internet.

Tom Friday, chief executive officer of the Knockouts salon chain, based in Texas, said complaints about the new Mansfield location, which is set to open Nov. 2 next to a family restaurant, likely came from misunderstandings about the business, the Boston Herald reported.

Friday said he believes people searching for information on the chain on the Internet may have missed the actual Web site, knockouts.net, and instead stumbled on knockouts.com, an unrelated Web site featuring a sexually suggestive picture of a woman in a bikini.

"I think people may have seen that and got the wrong idea about us," Friday said.

Mansfield Board of Selectmen Chairman Ann Baldwin said she has received "20 to 30 complaints" from residents concerned about the business.

Alyssa Higgins, 21, who works at a Knockouts location in Framingham, Mass., said there is nothing sexual about the services provided by the salon.

"It's very tasteful," she said. "It's about sports -- it's not about the sex appeal. There's a fine line between sexy and too much. I've never had a client make me feel uncomfortable."

Funeral director charged with corpse abuse

HOUSTON, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Houston police said they obtained photos of a funeral director touching the feet of a female corpse with his penis.

Investigators said the photos, which date back five years, depict James Howard Patton, 38, who was removed from his position with Earthman Funeral Home when the allegations surfaced, touching the cadaver with his penis, the Houston Chronicle reported.

It was not clear whether there were multiple corpses and incidents involved.

Police said they obtained the photos, which were taken in 2004, on Patton's computer while executing an April 2 search warrant issued as part of an investigation into allegations of Internet harassment lodged against Patton by an ex-girlfriend.

A spokeswoman for Service Corporation International, Earthman's parent company, said the photos were taken before Patton worked for the company and he was removed from his position when bosses were made aware of the allegations.

Patton was charged with abuse of a corpse, a class A misdemeanor, and released on $1,500 bond.

Police: Fence argument led to shooting

RANDOLPH, Mass., Oct. 7 (UPI) -- An argument between neighbors in Massachusetts about a fence between their properties ended with one man shooting the other with a handgun, authorities said.

Investigators said Christopher Leonard, 38, was in his Randolph yard Friday evening when neighbor John Rota stopped by with his dog to discuss the fence between their properties, the GateHouse News Service reported.

Rota told police the fence has been a point of contention between the neighbors since Leonard installed it.

"Leonard continued to argue about the fence and came closer to Rota. Rota said that when Leonard came close to him he told him, 'If you want to fight me, go ahead and hit me,'" a police report said.

The report said Leonard struck Rota on the side of the head and he responded by throwing a beer can at Leonard. Leonard then pulled a gun from his waistband and shot Rota in the abdomen, police said.

Rota was treated at a local hospital.

Leonard was arrested and charged with armed assault with intent to murder, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building and improper storage of a firearm. Police said they found numerous guns in Leonard's home and the man had permits to own the weapons.

He was released on $20,000 bail.