Watercooler Stories

Deer found inside python in Florida

EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK, Fla., Oct. 29 (UPI) -- The intact body of a 76-pound deer was found inside a nearly 16-foot-long Burmese python in the Florida Everglades, officials said.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported the adult female deer was found inside the snake after it was captured and killed Thursday on a tree island in western Miami-Dade County.

Skip Snow, a biologist and python specialist at Everglades National Park, who conducted the necropsy on the snake after it was killed by a shotgun blast, said it had a huge bulge from recently consuming the deer.

Burmese pythons have been breeding in the Everglades over the past several years after pet owners released pythons that had grown too large or escaped from enclosures during Hurricane Andrew, the Sun Sentinel said.

The snakes eat mainly smaller animals and birds, but larger pythons consume alligators, deer and hogs.

Work crews discovered the snake while walking on the island to remove non-native lygodium plants, said Scott Hardin, exotic species coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"It's pretty clearly one of the biggest snakes we've seen," Hardin said. "We haven't gotten anything longer than 16 feet in the wild in Florida."

Tussle erupts over severance check

NEW YORK, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- The maker of the drug Viagra has sued a former company executive to recover $411,288.49 of a half-million-dollar severance check it says was issued by mistake.

Pfizer Vice President Janet Rodriguez, 54, of New York was let go in December 2009 in a round of company layoffs and on March 31, 2010, the company issued a $517,140.24 severance check, the New York Post reported Sunday.

Several months later Pfizer said it was a misunderstanding and began efforts to recover what it said was an inadvertent overpayment.

The company sent four letters, which Rodriguez ignored, and hired a collection agency.

Finally, Pfizer filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court last week.

A lawyer for Rodriguez, who worked for Pfizer 16 years, said the company's claim would not succeed.

"By virtue of the fact that they bring this claim so late in the game, so long after their alleged mistake, [it] is just a cheap bullying tactic that we expect the court to see right through," attorney Saul Zabell said.

For adults, Halloween becomes sexy fantasy

CHICAGO, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Halloween is not just kids trick-or-treating, it's also become an adult holiday more about role playing than dressing in costume, a U.S. lingerie expert says.

Lingerie expert Jada Michaels and owner of JadaMichaels.com, a Web site for lingerie and couture shoes, said Halloween is the one night of the year when every woman gets to live out her fantasy and dress super sexy and nothing is over the top.

"We've progressed Halloween these last few years from sexy nurse costumes to body paint," Michaels said in a statement.

"Halloween is the one time when it's OK to finally wear those sexy costumes that we dream of wearing without anyone holding judgment."

To make your costume even sexier, choose a character you think is sexy -- in the past it was Snooki or Lady Gaga, but this year the trend is more hot chef, Cupid, sexy flappers, free-love hippies and Goth girls, Michaels said.

"Second, make the costume your own. For example, add a leopard bra, black-diamond fishnet stockings, a rhinestone-studded belt and thigh-high boots," Micheals said.

Michaels conducted a poll to find out which Halloween costume ideas men thought were sexiest. Among the winners were a "Ms. Gangsta" costume, which features a pinstripe dress with a side slit and sultry hat, and "Wild Thing," a costume consisting of a leopard print bodysuit with opera-length animal print gloves, ears and tail.

Bracelet returned to vet after 66 years

SEABROOK ISLAND, S.C., Oct. 30 (UPI) -- A World War II veteran from South Carolina got a bracelet back he lost in Italy during the war 66 years ago.

Jim Turck first received the bracelet from his mother shortly after he joined the war in 1943, The Courier, Charleston, S.C., reported.

The bracelet bore his name, James J. Turck, and a serial number, along with the inscription "Love, Mother."

Turck served as a ski trooper with the 10th Mountain Division in the northern Apennine Mountains of Italy in 1945, where he lost the bracelet.

"I don't remember losing it," said Turck, now 87 and living on Seabrook Island.

While using a metal detector for the first time, Bruno Bernardoni found the bracelet in the village of Iola in April. It was about a foot underground.

Bernardoni said when he first picked it up he said, "So much hard work for a dog collar," before realizing it was a bracelet. "I realized the importance of that object."

The man enlisted the help of his niece to find the owner and they eventually traced the medal to Turck.

"It's unbelievable," said Turck, who received the bracelet Aug. 24. "After 66 years underground, it is in relatively good condition."

"It's really an amazing story that something like this could be found 66 years later," his wife Becky said. "Mr. Bernardoni went through a lot of trouble to get it back, and he wasn't asking for anything in return."

Turck mailed Bernadoni a copy of "Soldiers on Skis: A Pictorial Memoir of the 10th Mountain Division," gave him his address on Seabrook Island and welcomed a visit from him if he ever comes to the United States.

"He must be a great guy," Turck said.

Cop clocked at 120 mph on way to 2nd job

MIAMI, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- A Miami cop who found himself cuffed after facing a state trooper's gun at the end of a 120 mph chase said he was late for his second job, authorities said.

Florida Highway Patrol Trooper D.J. Watts had her gun drawn when she arrested Fausto Lopez, 35, Oct. 11 following a 7-minute chase on the Florida Turnpike in Broward County, The Miami Herald reported Saturday.

The trooper said the Miami squad car drew her attention because it was switching lanes lanes dangerously, and the driver then failed to respond to her patrol car's flashing lights and siren.

Lopez, who the Herald said couldn't be reached for comment, finally stopped his car near Hollywood.

Watts ordered Lopez out of the vehicle at gunpoint, handcuffed him and detained him. Lopez allegedly told the trooper he was driving fast because he was late for his off-duty job, the Herald said.

The Miami officer, charged with reckless driving, is still on the job because, Cmdr. Delrish Moss told the Herald, "at this point it's a traffic offense."