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Drivers give police 'astonishing' excuses

DORCHESTER, England, May 17 (UPI) -- A man stopped for speeding in southwest England told officers poor eyesight made the speed limit signs too hard to see, Dorset Police said.

Dorset Police revealed a list of bad excuses as part of its "No Excuse" campaign against unsafe driving.

A driver pulled over in Poole told officers the speed limit signs were hard to read and he was en route to an eye exam. On another occasion, a woman pulled over for speeding in Weymouth said she was keeping up with traffic. Officers then pointed out she was the only car on the road.

Police said a man pulled over for talking on the phone while behind the wheel told officers, "Well I wouldn't have used my mobile if I knew there were policemen in an unmarked car behind me."

A woman whose driving privileges had already been revoked for repeated speeding incidents was stopped again in Bournemouth and told an officer, "The use of the laser in an unmarked car to catch people is criminal."

12-pound baby born naturally in Britain

MANCHESTER, England, May 17 (UPI) -- British doctors delivering an infant via water birth said the 12-pound, 6-ounce baby girl set a new record for the hospital.

Doctors at North Manchester General Hospital said Bethany Jane Turner is the country's third-largest baby girl to be delivered via natural birth and the largest ever born at the hospital. She was delivered at midnight May 11 after about three and a half hours of labor, The Mirror reported Wednesday.

Parents Naomi Turner, 33, and husband Gavin, 32, said they had two previous children born weighing 8 pounds, 10 ounces and 8 pounds, 9 ounces.

Doctors said the average weight for a newborn girl is 7 pounds, 4 ounces.

Red wolf births 6 pups at Wash. zoo

TACOMA, Wash., May 17 (UPI) -- A Washington state zoo said an endangered red wolf gave birth to at least six pups on Mother's Day as part of a nearly 40-year-old breeding program.

The Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma said 8-year-old Millie went into labor about 10 p.m. Sunday at the Red Wolf Woods exhibit and gave birth to two pups with an additional four pups being born early Monday, The (Tacoma) News Tribune reported Wednesday.

Zoo staffers said each of the cubs, which were fathered by 9-year-old red wolf Graham, weighed about 13 ounces at birth.

Will Waddell, the zoo's red wolf program coordinator, said the cubs were conceived as part of a breeding program designed to protect the species from extinction.

"It gives us an opportunity to highlight the program and let the folks who visit the zoo, and the community, know about our involvement in the program and some of the challenges that red wolves still face," Waddell said.

Officials said the pups will remain with their parents for at least a year until biologists decide whether to send them to other zoos as part of the breeding program.

15 try to claim Goodwill donation cash

ST. LOUIS, May 17 (UPI) -- Officials at a Missouri Goodwill store said more than a dozen people have attempted to claim ownership of $14,505 found in a donated box.

Goodwill chief executive officer Lewis Chartock said 15 people have come forward to claim the money since it was donated to the St. Louis store in a box filled with Christmas decorations May 8, KTVI-TV, St. Louis, reported Wednesday.

Officials said security camera footage shows two men donating the box along with other items from a trailer being pulled by a green Ford F-150 pickup.

"Everybody's coming out of the woodwork. Everybody donated it and 'it's mine', of course," store manager Tina Wells said. "(But) they have the wrong day. Some of them have the wrong things."

Chartock said it will be up to the courts to decide who rightfully owns the money.

"Goodwill is going to interplead the funds into the registry of the Circuit Court of St. Louis County. Then it's up to everybody to do their best, because we really don't know," he said.