Watercooler Stories

911 caller showed deputies his pot

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Authorities in Florida said a man who called 911 with a bogus domestic dispute claim showed authorities his marijuana and told them to arrest him.

Pinellas County sheriff's deputies said Ronald Conkright, 62, first called 911 at 11:47 p.m. Thursday and told an operator, "I'm looking for a friend. It was one last joke," the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reported Monday.

Deputies went to Conkright's house, but there was no answer at the door.

Conkright called 911 again at 2:26 a.m. Friday, deputies said.

"I hurt my wife and she is in heaven," he was quoted as saying to the operator.

Deputies said they returned to the home and Conkright answered the door.

"When asked what his emergency was, and why he called 911, (Conkright) brought deputies into his home to look for his wife, and to show us an amount of marijuana, over 20 grams, which was on his kitchen table," the arrest affidavit states.

The man then revealed he wasn't married.

"You can arrest me now," he allegedly told the deputies.

He was charged with making a false 911 call, felony possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

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Mass. party full of twins, triplets

BROCKTON, Mass., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Organizers of a Massachusetts party said more than 400 twins, triplets, siblings and parents attended the holiday celebration.

Keeping Pace with Multiple Miracles, which organized Sunday's party at Shaw's Center in Brockton, said dozens of families with twins and triplets came out to pose for pictures with Santa and socialize with families faced with similar situations, the Boston Globe reported Monday.

"No one's going to say, 'Oh, my God. How do you do it?' It's like you're anonymous,'' Donna Baker, co-founder of Keeping Pace with Multiple Miracles and mother of 15-year-old triplets and a 19-year-old, said of the party's comforting atmosphere for parents of multiples.

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Police: Parents ditched kids to shop

COMMERCE, Ga., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Authorities in Georgia said two people were arrested for allegedly leaving their young children alone at a Wal-Mart so they could go shopping.

Police said Mario Navarro, 35, and Elias Esmeralda, 31, left their children, ages 9 and 9 months, in a shopping cart at the Commerce, Ga., Wal-Mart at 7 a.m. on Black Friday and left the retail outlet to do more shopping, WSB-TV, Atlanta, reported Monday.

Witnesses said Wal-Mart employees paged the parents for 45 minutes.

"You know how it is on Black Friday. Everybody has the shopping fever. My guess is they thought the kids would slow them down so they just got the kids out of the way so they could go shopping," Banks County Sheriff Charles Chapman said.

Chapman said the parents were charged with reckless conduct.

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Hong Kong man named top Santa

GALLIVARE, Sweden, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- A Hong Kong man was named the world's top Santa in a Swedish competition that included reindeer races, porridge eating and chimney climbing events.

Jim Cheng of Hong Kong bested eight competitors from diverse locations including South Africa and Australia at the 2009 Santa Games in Gallivare, Sweden, The Local reported Monday.

Elisabeth Landby, head organizer of the event, said the participating countries each had different criteria for choosing their representative Santa, but each of them had to endure rounds of chimney climbing, porridge eating, present wrapping and reindeer racing while maintaining jolly dispositions during Sunday's event.

Landby said "several hundred" people braved subzero temperatures to watch the games.