Watercooler Stories

Catapult hurls obsolete projectiles

HUGO, Minn., Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Four Minnesota friends fashioned a medieval catapult to fling a variety of objects -- such as wheelchairs and obsolete appliances -- into the sky, they said.

The men, all in their 30s, built a trebuchet -- a catapult originally designed in the Middle Ages to hurl objects at castle walls -- the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press reported Sunday.

The trebuchet was built by Kurt Modert, of Hugo; Roger Bacon, of White Bear Lake; Ryan Krueger, of Maple Grove; and David Proehl, of New Hope -- all municipalities in Minnesota -- the newspaper said.

They're catapulting items like defective bowling balls for now but they plan eventually to launch a clothes dryer, the newspaper said.

The friends began construction in spring 2008. The trebuchet is made of lumber, landscape timbers, aluminum plates and old garage door panels.

"It's stuff you can get at any Menard's. Kurt doesn't have much of a life, so he was working on the trebuchet all the time, said Bacon.

The full-scale catapult is constructed and permanently mounted on Modert's mother's 12-acre residential property, just a few yards from her house.

"It's too big to move," Modert said.

The friends are not certain how the project, which cost them $2,500, will affect the Modert's mother's property value.

"The tax assessor did come out earlier this year, and we're waiting to see what he says," Bacon said.

Only clothing in suspected suitcase bombs

OCOEE, Fla., Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Only clothing was inside two suspicious suitcases detonated as a precaution after being found in a mall in Ocoee, Fla., authorities say.

The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported the two abandoned suitcases were detonated Saturday by the Orange County sheriff's bomb squad after Ocoee police suspected they may have been filled with explosives.

Ocoee Police Lt. Ted Silberstein said by using a specialized robot, bomb squad members moved the suitcases from outside the mall's food-court entrance to a safe location where they were destroyed.

No one was hurt in the incident.

An ensuing examination of the suitcase remnants determined there was nothing dangerous inside, only clothes. Sheriff's officials said no owner identification was discovered in the remnants.

Couple marry, then run endurance race

CLERMONT, Fla., Oct. 26 (UPI) -- A 38-year-old woman say she married her fiance in Clermont, Fla., moments before they started their new life together by running a triathlon.

Danelle Weidman said during her relationship with Kent Fawcett, 43, the couple have taken part in 50 long-distance races, but none more important than Saturday's Great Floridian Triathlon, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported.

"We think it's a great way to start our life together," the flight attendant said. "Do what you love, love what you do and do it with who you love."

After saying "I do" to one another Saturday, Weidman and Fawcett tried to swim 2.4 miles, bicycle 112 miles and run a 26-mile marathon. Pain forced Fawcett to withdraw almost eight miles before the end of his run, but his wife completed the endurance race.

"You really find out who someone is after you spend seven hours together biking or running 50 miles," Weidman told the Sentinel. "We've seen the good, the bad, the ugly and sweaty reality of each other. I couldn't love him more."

980-pound man once lost 140 in prison

IPSWICH, England, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- A 980-pound British man believed to be the world's heaviest once lost 140 pounds during a yearlong prison sentence, his family says.

Paul Mason, 48, of Ipswich, England, who recently said he requires emergency surgery to reduce his weight, weighed 420 pounds when he was sent to jail in 1990 and lost 140 pounds during his year of incarceration, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Mason was in Norwich Prison for stealing cash from mail while working as a mail carrier.

"There were no fish-and-chip suppers or Chinese takeaways in prison," his sister, Louise, 43, told The Sun newspaper. "He got down to about 20 stone (280 pounds) -- it was unbelievable. But that's because he had no option but to eat healthily."