Watercooler Stories

Suspect stuck in vent for 6 hours

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C., Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Police in South Carolina said a burglary suspect was stuck in a grease vent at a restaurant for more than 6 hours.

North Charleston police said a worker at Shoney's restaurant called 911 at about 4:47 a.m. Monday and said she heard cries for help upon entering the closed eatery, The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier reported.

Police said they discovered Kevin Michael Harley, 23, stuck vertically in a vent above a stove.

Harley, who police said was wearing socks on his hands to avoid leaving fingerprints, told officers he had become stuck in the vent at about 10 p.m. the previous night.

Firefighters freed Harley from the vent and he was arrested and charged with burglary in the second-degree. He was treated at a local hospital for minor injuries.

Man relieved when $20,000 bid falls short

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill., Sept. 1 (UPI) -- An Illinois man who bid $20,000 for ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich's Elvis statue said he was relieved to lose and soon found an identical statue for $550.

J.R. Bramlett, 67, of Orland Park, said he bid $20,000 for the statue at the Aug. 19 auction in Arlington Heights, which was held after Blagojevich's campaign organization failed to pay back rent on a storage space, but he was outbid by $500, the Arlington Heights Daily Herald reported.

However, Bramlett said he was relieved to lose when he discovered he could purchase an identical statue for $550 from a Texas seller and similar statues with different poses for the same price.

Bramlett said his home is now adorned with two of the statues for a total $18,600 less than his bid for Blagojevich's Elvis.

"God looked over to me," Bramlett said of losing the auction.

Dress doubles as cellphone

LONDON, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- A London fashion company said it has developed a dress that doubles as a cellphone, using gesture recognition software.

Designers CuteCircuit said the M-Dress allows a wearer to insert a SIM card under the label to connect with their usual phone service provider and allows for multiple ring tones to be programmed in for different callers, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The company said its gesture recognition software answers a call when the wearer holds a hand up in the traditional pose of using a phone and hangs up when the arm is dropped.

"Very often phone calls are missed because mobile phones are quite awkward to carry, especially for women, that have garments with small or no pockets. To allow women to stay connected while remaining stylish, CuteCircuit designed the M-Dress. A mobile phone in its own right but built out of soft circuitry," CuteCircuit said on its Web site.

The company said the dress is scheduled for release next year.

Train-hopping cat reunited with owner

DUBLIN, Ireland, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Transportation officials in Dublin, Ireland, said they found the owner of a cat that hitched a 10-mile ride on a local train.

Officials with Iarnoid Eireann, Ireland's national railway system operator, said the cat was found at Dublin's Pearse Street train station and a review of security footage determined the feline had boarded a Dublin Area Rapid Transit train in Malahide, RTE News, Dublin, reported.

The rail company issued an appeal on its Twitter feed for the cat's owner to come forward and the animal was soon reunited with owner Eric Bieci.

Bieci thanked railway workers for helping reunite him with his pet.