Watercooler Stories

Woman passes driving test while in labor

LIVINGSTON, Scotland, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- A Scottish woman who took her driving exam while in labor said she passed the test and drove herself to the hospital to give birth.

Emma French, 20, of Livingston said her water broke about 4 a.m. on Aug. 30 and she decided to take the 8:40 a.m. driving exam when the baby did not immediately come, The Mirror reported Tuesday.

"Everyone was telling me to go to the hospital but I had waited so long for my driving test, I was determined to do it," French said.

French said she kept her contractions, which were about 10 minutes apart, a secret from the examiner and drove herself to the hospital after passing the test.

"I didn't dare tell the examiner I was in labor in case he made me cancel the test. The nurses in the hospital were very confused because I was getting congratulations cards for both my baby and my driving test. When I told them, they were all in shock. They couldn't believe it," she said.

Baby Eva MacFarlane was born that night, French said.

Pastor apologizes for tract

HILLSBORO, Ohio, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- An Ohio pastor apologized for his church handing out a tract to trick-or-treaters with a comic book-style drawing of a small child hanging from a noose.

Pastor Kenny Cousar of the Northview Baptist Church in Hillsboro apologized for the tract, which was handed out Thursday during Beggars' Night, a Halloween-style trick-or-treating event, The Hillsboro Times-Gazette reported Tuesday.

"We deeply apologize for it. We were careless. We did not flip through and look at all the pamphlets. We don't create them. We purchase them from a company, and because they are in comic-book style, we figured kids and teenagers would like them," Cousar said. "But, I have small children, and I would never want them to see that tract. We do not support the methodology, especially as far as scare tactics, that was portrayed in that tract. We were careless and we will not let it happen again."

Police nix controversial T-shirts

TWIN RIVERS, Calif., Nov. 2 (UPI) -- A California police officers association said it has stopped selling controversial T-shirts bearing an image of a young child behind bars.

Twin Rivers police union President Arlin Kocher said the shirts, which bear the Twin Rivers Police Officers Association logo on the front and the picture of the child on the back with the message "U raise 'em, we cage 'em," were designed in 2009 as a fundraiser for families of fallen officers, the Sacramento Bee reported Tuesday.

"I don't think this will be received well by the public, which is why we stopped selling them," Kocher said. "Our chief came to us (about a year ago) when he found out that we were selling them. He asked us to take it off the union Web site. Our union, especially me, take full responsibility."

The shirts have drawn sharp criticism from community leaders and child advocates.

"There is nowhere on the planet where it is OK to wear a shirt like this," said Ed Howard, senior counsel for the University of San Diego's Children's Advocacy Institute.

Twin Rivers Unified Superintendent Frank Porter, who oversees the police department, said he has not decided whether any disciplinary action will be taken.

30-year-old dynamite found in trunk

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Authorities in Virginia said they destroyed five sticks of 30-year-old dynamite that had spent years in the trunk of a broken-down vehicle.

The Virginia Beach Fire Department said the homeowner had used dynamite for land clearing before retiring and had forgotten the dynamite was stored in the trunk of the vehicle in his back yard until he rediscovered it Monday morning, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Tuesday.

The fire department said the dynamite was waterlogged and had lost its original potency, but it was burned by the city's bomb squad as a precaution.