Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Gravestone prank hits after 3 decades HYDE PARK, Utah, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- A Utah woman working to remodel her home said a gravestone she discovered hidden in a basement wall was placed as a practical joke in the 1970s. Advertisement Miriam Gunn of Hyde Park said she discovered the white gravestone, which bears the name Earl Stephen Balls and marks the year as 1900, behind wall of a shower in the basement bathroom of the house, which dates back to the 1960s, The (Logan, Utah) Herald Journal, reported. Gunn's husband, Rob, contacted the previous owner of the house, who revealed his then-15-year-old son had placed the broken gravestone in the wall as a practical joke while remodeling in the 1970s. "I got the idea when we were framing it that someone would open up the wall a hundred years from then and find it. Turned out it wasn't a hundred years later," said the prankster, who asked not to be named. Advertisement The man said he found the gravestone in his back yard and does not know how it came to be there. Earl Balls is buried at the nearby Hyde Park Cemetery and his grave bears a newer stone. Alligator allegedly spotted in Maryland PUMPHREY, Fla., Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Wildlife officials in Maryland said they were investigating reports of an alligator sighting in the Patapsco River at Patapsco Valley State Park. Eric Hammack Jr., 16, of Pumphrey reported seeing the 2- to 3-foot alligator just after 6 p.m. Sunday while fishing with his cousin in the Patapsco River, The Baltimore Sun reported. Department of Natural Resources Police Sgt. Art Windemuth said the agency was investigating the reported sighting. "We probably deal with a case or two a year," DNR Police Sgt. Brian Albert said. "Someone will go to Florida, get an alligator. They try to raise it, it gets too big and they turn it loose." Officials said it is illegal to keep alligators as pets in Maryland. 911 caller sought ride to liquor store ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla., Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Police in Florida say a man who called 911 to ask for a ride to the liquor store wound up arrested for misuse of 911 and possession of marijuana. Advertisement The St. Augustine Police Department said George McMurrian, 57, called 911 twice Saturday from his room at the Budget Inn and asked for a ride to the liquor store, First Coast News reported. Officers visited McMurrian's room after the second call and told him he would be arrested if he continued to call 911 for non-emergencies. Police said they returned to McMurrian's room after receiving a third call from the location and the caller hung up. Officers saw marijuana in his room and he was arrested on charges of misusing 911 and marijuana possession, police said. Mystery statuettes erected in Toronto TORONTO, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Residents of a Toronto neighborhood said they were surprised and delighted to find someone had installed 39 stone sculptures in the Humber River. Susanne Fletcher of the Old Mill neighborhood said she did not see any statuettes during her Sunday night jog by the river, but the stone sculptures, which some said resemble Inuit inukshuk (landmark) structures, were in the river when her husband jogged by Monday morning, The (Toronto) Star reported. "I hope nobody destroys them. I hope they're left there," Fletcher said. Fletcher theorized engineering students were behind the project, but resident Darko Edravic said he suspects urban artists created the statues. Advertisement "Maybe there's some strange meaning or significance behind it," Edravic said.
