Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Baseball mascot's head stolen AVON LAKE, Ohio, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- The Lake Erie Crushers, an Ohio Frontier League baseball team, said someone stole the head of their mascot, Stomper the bear, from a storage closet. Advertisement The team said the head of Stomper, the team's mascot since 2009, was taken from a storage closet at the Crushers' Avon Lake facility, causing the mascot to miss the last two home games and the playoffs, WEWS-TV, Cleveland, reported Wednesday. "It affects everyone's time at the ballpark," said David Helm, vice president of business operations for the Crushers. "He was always dancing, signing autographs … It takes away from the experience fans can have." "He's more recognizable than any of the players and all of the staff," Helm said. "People really love him." Officials said they have ordered a new head for Stomper and it is expected to arrive in about two weeks. They said the thief or thieves are encouraged to return Stomper's head with no questions asked. Advertisement 800-pound mounted bear found UNIONTOWN, Pa., Sept. 22 (UPI) -- The owner of a Pennsylvania bar where an 800-pound mounted grizzly bear was stolen said police have found the bear and identified suspects. John El-Ayazra, owner of Sam's Restaurant and the Eagle's Nest bar on Morgantown Street in Uniontown, said a man involved with the Sunday morning theft turned himself in to police Tuesday night and told them where they could find the bear, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Wednesday. "They admitted to it," El-Ayazra said. "They have it. It's now a matter of how much they'll have to pay to fix it." Police said they know the location of the bear but El-Ayazra said it has not yet been returned to the bar. El-Ayazra said one of his customers spotted a group of three or more men wheel the bear across the second-floor outdoor deck and down a set of wooden stairs at 1:30 a.m. Sunday. He said the men fled when questioned and the bear was placed against a side door for temporary safekeeping. However, El-Ayazra said his daughter, Tina Senda, found the bear was missing at 7 a.m. Sunday. Police said the bear's base was damaged in the theft and its mouth was damaged when it was brought down the stairs. The 8-foot mount is worth $10,000, El-Ayazra said. Advertisement Arizona woman's lost ring found in Iowa PHOENIX, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- An Arizona woman who lost her class ring 26 years ago says she has no idea how the object wound up in Iowa, a state she has never visited. Cindy Herzner said she obtained the ring from Phoenix's Trevor Browne High School in 1985 and lost it six months later, The Arizona Republic reported Wednesday. Herzner said she never thought she would see the ring again until she recently received a call from Amanda Kennedy, whose grandmother, Sandy Neuhaus, discovered the ring entwined in the roots of a dead evergreen she was removing from her Dyersville, Iowa, yard in August. Kennedy said the ring bore the year and name of the high school as well as the engraved name Cindy. She said she used Yahoo to find a virtual yearbook and identify the ring's owner. "I didn't realize until talking to her that it had been missing for 26 years." Kennedy said. Herzner said the ring's journey is a mystery, especially considering she has never visited Iowa. "The coolest thing was the ring came two days before my 44th birthday, and it looks exactly like it did the day I lost it," Herzner said. "It was like the best present you could ever get from someone you've never met." Advertisement Arizona authorities lasso runaway steer WELLTON, Ariz., Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Authorities in Arizona said a lasso-wielding sheriff's deputy captured a runaway steer, ending a chase involving multiple public agencies. The Yuma County Sheriff's Office said authorities learned the steer had escaped when a rancher transporting a load of cattle pulled over on Interstate 8, the Yuma (Ariz.) Sun reported Wednesday. Deputies and officers from the Wellton police, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and Arizona Game and Fish responded to the report and saw the roping steer weaving in and out of traffic. "Our biggest concern was people traveling down the interstate at 65 mph not knowing this cow was there," sheriff's spokesman Maj. Leon Wilmot said. "So getting it off the interstate was a priority." Wilmot said officers and deputies chased the animal away from the highway and attempted to corral it with their cars. The steer charged one Wellton police car, taking off a side mirror and damaging a door. The steer was eventually cornered and lassoed by a deputy standing in the bed of a sheriff's office truck. The animal was returned to the rancher.
