Watercooler Stories

Neighbor pitches fuss over feces

LORAIN, Ohio, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- Everyone has a limit, and for one Ohio man it was the piles of dog feces on the roof of his tenant's back porch that made him go ballistic, police say.

The neighbor told Lorain police his landlord, Keith Whitnight, knocked on his door and started yelling at him about the trash and dog feces on the apartment's porch roof, The (Lorain) Morning Journal reported Monday.

Whitnight, 59, then allegedly threw a dog kennel from the second-floor rooftop.

"Whitnight continued with his tirade, and name calling, which upset (the man), so (the man) called for police," a responding officer said in his report.

After being warned by police and leaving, Whitnight allegedly returned a short time later and threw feces at the man's apartment, and tossed garbage cans, trash and feces around, prompting another visit by police, the Journal said.

The officer said the neighbor's explained a recent snowfall had prevented him from picking up the poop and it was exposed when subsequent warmer temperatures melted the snow.

The upshot is Whitnight was arrested and taken to Lorain City Jail to face several charges, the newspaper said.

Man charged for squirrelly sense of humor

BARTONVILLE, Ill., Dec. 14 (UPI) -- An Illinois man was cited for disorderly conduct for allegedly chucking a dead squirrel through a fast-food restaurant's drive-through window, police say.

Christopher Thompson, 26, of Pekin, is accused of rolling up to a Hardee's drive-through window in Bartonville Dec. 3 and asking the attendant for "extra nuts" for the squirrel he was petting. When the employee said she didn't think it was a real squirrel, he allegedly replied, "Yes it is," tossed in the window and drove off.

Thompson was tracked down days later and issued a ticket for disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, the Peoria Journal Star reported.

Where did Thompson get the dead squirrel for what he allegedly told Bartonville police was a "stupid prank?" He said a friend had left it in his car as a joke, police said.

Teacher sues over 'unruly' class

NEW YORK, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- A New York teacher's lawsuit claims he was given "unruly" students purposefully to aggravate his heart condition and urge him toward retirement.

Monte Kuhr, 46, said in his lawsuit against the city administrators at A. Philip Randolph High School, including Principal Henry Rubio, dismissed a suggestion from his physician that he stick to teaching the senior classes, which are "the source of fewer student behavioral problems," the New York Daily News reported Monday.

However, Kuhr said he was instead given five freshmen classes to teach in fall 2009, prompting "high-intensity interactions with misbehaving students."

Kuhr, who underwent triple bypass surgery in 2005, said he was moved to a senior class in the spring after his doctor sent a second letter, but he continued to receive blame for school problems including poor attendance.

Nazi baton sells for $731,600

TOWSON, Md., Dec. 14 (UPI) -- A Maryland auction house said a Nazi field marshal's baton sold for $731,600 after it was valued at only $10,000 to $15,000.

The 19-inch long baton, which once belonged to Nazi Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, was listed with an estimated value of $10,000 to $15,000 prior to Saturday's auction at Alex Cooper auctioneers in Towson, The Baltimore Sun reported Monday.

The auction house declined to release the name of the buyer.

The baton was discovered by a U.S. soldier searching a Berlin castle for traps in July 1945, the Alex Cooper Web site said. The item was passed down to his son, who consigned it for auction.

Kesselring died in 1960 at age 74.