Watercooler Stories

Man restores totem pole, avoids charges

SEATTLE, July 30 (UPI) -- A totem pole that disappeared from a Seattle park was retrieved and reinstalled at the expense of the alleged thief, authorities said.

Charles Edward Jenks, 70, of Seattle, last fall had a towing crew unbolt and crane-lift the 500-pound, 18-feet-long totem pole, then drive it away -- while police, unaware that no one had permission to take the 34-year-old pole, stopped traffic. The pole disappeared down the street, The Seattle Times reported.

The pole was returned Wednesday, the Times reported.

The crime could have been charged as a gross misdemeanor, carrying a penalty of as long as a year in jail and a maximum fine of $5,000, but Jenks, as a first offender, would likely not have gone to jail, said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County Prosecutor's Office.

Jenks agreed to pay more than $20,000 to reinstall the pole instead of facing charges, the Times said.

Jenks's money was split between the West Seattle Rotary Club, which in 1976 commissioned the pole, and the city Parks and Recreation Department, parks spokeswoman Dewey Potter said.

"I'm really excited to hear that it's back," said Robin Young, the South Dakota-born American Indian who spent a summer carving the pole with carvings of a thunderbird, orca, raven and beaver in the early 1970s.

The pole was brought back from Keizer, Ore. Mark Jamieson, a police spokesman, said it was discovered next to another totem pole, this one missing from the Fred Meyer store in Renton.

Woman ticketed while fixing flat

NEW YORK, July 30 (UPI) -- A New York woman said a traffic agent, disciplined for ticketing a city lawmaker who warned him about his driving, cited her while she was fixing a flat tire.

Tamara Fox, 34, said she pulled over on 41st Ave. to fix her flat tire while en route to visit a friend at Elmhurst Hospital Center July 14 and was ticketed by Agent Daniel Chu for parking at an expired meter before she could put in any quarters, the New York Daily News reported.

"I had the quarters for the meter in my hand," Fox said, but "I wanted to see about my tire."

Fox said Chu did not offer her any assistance or give her a verbal warning. She said a friend caught the incident on video.

"I said 'Are you kidding me? I'm trying to fix a flat tire,'" Fox said. "He said 'I didn't see you' and he continued to write a ticket."

Chu previously made headlines when he issued a $165 ticket to City Councilman Dan Halloran. Halloran berated Chu for driving through stop signs while talking on his cellphone and was issued the ticket when Chu caught him taking pictures of his vehicle parked illegally.

Fox said she plans to fight the $35 ticket in court.

In-store wedding a first for TJ Maxx

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich., July 30 (UPI) -- A Michigan couple's wedding in the shoe section of a TJ Maxx store was the clothing chain's first ever in-store ceremony, company officials said.

Drew Ellis, a reporter for the Mount Pleasant (Mich.) Morning Sun, married former reporter Lisa Satayut in the shoe section Saturday while customers shopped in other areas of the store, the Morning Sun reported.

The store widened the size 8 shoe aisle, the bride's chosen location for the wedding, and provided white chairs with red bows and a vine-covered arch for the occasion.

Sonya Cosentini, a spokeswoman for TJ Maxx's Boston corporate offices, said officials were delighted by Satayut's e-mail asking for the unconventional wedding facility.

"This is very exciting," she said. "We never had a wedding in a TJ Maxx store before."

'Flying Pasties' for full-body scans

LAS VEGAS, July 30 (UPI) -- A Web site based in Las Vegas is selling stick-on "Flying Pasties" to shy airline travelers fearful of full-body scanners.

Flyingpasties.com said the products come in a "male bottom" and a three-piece female set designed to conceal the private parts of the wearers from full-body scanners at airports, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

However, Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Sari Koshetz said anything the scanners identify as "an anomaly" results in additional screening, including possible full-body pat downs.

The male pasties start at $9.99 and the female sets start at $16.99.