Watercooler Stories

Man 'always wanted' police to chase him

BUTTE, Mont., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- A Montana man who told police he led them on a chase because he "just always wanted to do that" was fined $1,000 for reckless driving.

John Hughes, 55, of Butte was fined Thursday after pleading guilty to misdemeanor reckless driving while eluding a peace officer, The (Butte) Montana Standard reported Tuesday.

City Judge Dan Sweeney said the county attorney's office recommended no jail time because Hughes has no criminal record and was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the offense.

Police said Hughes intentionally got a police car to chase him in Butte around 3:25 a.m. and the chase reached the interstate, where Hughes drove at speeds exceeding 100 mph.

Hughes was eventually stopped when police deflated his tires with stop sticks.

A police report quotes Hughes as saying he started the chase because "I just always wanted to do that."

Dad picking up DUI son gets DUI

MEDIA, Pa., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Police in Pennsylvania said man who came to pick up his son, who was charged with driving under the influence, was arrested for the same offense.

Pennsylvania State Police said Timothy Smith of Chadds Ford showed up at the barracks in Media to pick up his son, who had been arrested on a DUI charge, at 10:45 p.m. and troopers quickly got the impression that Smith had also been drinking, the Philadelphia Daily News reported Tuesday.

Police said they determined Smith had driven his car from Chadd's Ford to the barracks and arrested him on a DUI charge.

Police: Robber had pies, not bomb

SACRAMENTO, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Police in California said a bank robber who claimed to have a bomb in a fast food bag was actually only carrying a pair of McDonald's apple pies.

Sacramento police said Daniel Hegwood, 33, was carrying the McDonald's bag when he walked into a Wells Fargo bank around 1:15 p.m. Saturday and told a teller there was a bomb in the bag, KCRA-TV, Sacramento, reported Tuesday.

"The suspect left a package at one of the teller windows and said there was a bomb inside. He got cash from the teller and fled on foot," police spokesman Andrew Pettit said.

The spokesman said Hegwood, who left the bag at the bank, was found in the nearby Sutter Hospital parking garage wearing a red backpack with money protruding from it.

Police said Hegwood claimed to have a bomb in his backpack, but they found only money and Hegwood's belongings.

Investigators said the fast food bag Hegwood left at the bank was found to contain two McDonald's apple pies.

Nail surgically removed from man's skull

ST. PAUL, Minn., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Doctors at a Minnesota hospital said they removed a 3 1/4 inch nail that became lodged 2 3/4 inches into the back of a construction worker's head.

Jeff Luptak, who sustained the injury when a colleague was handing him a nail gun at a Bismarck, N.D., construction site on Feb. 1, said his doctor at St. Alexius Medical Center in Bismarck gave him three options, the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press reported Tuesday.

"Leave it in, it'll rust and you'll die of infection. Pull it out and you'll bleed to death. Or you can go to St. Paul," Luptak quoted the doctor as saying.

"So we took the St. Paul option," Luptak said. "Never got any painkiller -- didn't need it, didn't feel anything."

Dr. Eric Nussbaum, a neurosurgeon at St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul, said the surgery to remove the nail was further complicated by the fact that it had penetrated a blood vessel.

"It's almost like having your finger in a dike," Nussbaum said. "Pull it out, and the hole on the bottom will allow blood to seep into the brain."

Nussbaum and colleague Dr. Patrick Graupman said the surgery took about 75 minutes.

"Somebody was looking out for me," Luptak said after the procedure.