Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Man attacked with toilet cover, guitar LAS VEGAS, July 24 (UPI) -- Las Vegas police said they arrested a man accused of breaking into a neighbor's home and attacking him with a guitar and a toilet bowl lid. Advertisement Police said Ronald Hetzel, 41, allegedly broke into a neighbor's home in the Southern Highlands neighborhood by opening a window and struck the owner over the head with a wooden guitar and a porcelain toilet bowl lid during a confrontation, the Las Vegas Sun reported Tuesday. Investigators said Hetzel, who was displaying "symptoms of excited delirium," also repeatedly tried to strangle the homeowner. Police responded to a report of a man throwing objects out of the home and arrived to find Hetzel sitting on the curb. They said the suspect was not wearing a shirt and was "very hostile" toward an officer. Hetzel, who attempted to flee but was tracked down and caught by a K9 officer, was arrested and charged with home invasion, burglary, attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon and battery with substantial harm. Advertisement The homeowner was treated for his injuries at St. Rose Domincan Hospital's Siena campus. Proposal-towing plane goes down WESTERLY, R.I., July 24 (UPI) -- The U.S. Coast Guard credited an 8-year-old boy and a boater with the rescue of a pilot who crashed in Rhode Island while towing a marriage proposal banner. James Warcup, an aeronautics inspector at Rhode Island Airport Corp., said the Piper Pawnee plane, which is registered to the owner of a banner towing company and was pulling a banner reading, "Will you marry me," took off from Westerly Airport around 3 p.m., headed for Block Island, The (New London, Conn.) Day reported Tuesday. "Within 10 minutes the pilot reported a loss of power," Warcup said. "He elected to ditch the plane in the Block Island Sound. When he did, the landing gear broke." Lt. Bryan Swintek, a Coast Guard spokesman at the Southeastern New England Sector at Woods Hole, Mass., said officials received a report around 3:21 p.m. of a radio transmission between a pilot and a young child, later identified as the pilot's 8-year-old son. The Coast Guard got in touch with the boy, who told rescuers his father had gone down shortly after takeoff. Advertisement "He was incredibly calm," Swintek said. "He played a key role in helping his dad." The pilot was picked up by a civilian boater before being turned over to the Coast Guard. The rescuers took him to Point Judith, where doctors determined he was not seriously injured. Swintek said the Coast Guard is now trying to locate and recover the plane. Magazine compiles exam answer mistakes LONDON, July 24 (UPI) -- A London-based higher education magazine has released the entries in this year's "exam howlers" contest, which seeks to find the funniest test mistakes. Times Higher Education said the entries in this year's contest, which are submitted by professors, include a sentence about the time "Stalin began to build a buffet zone in Eastern Europe," rather than a "buffer zone," and a student's statement that during the Middle Ages, "most books were written on valium," rather than vellum. "Spain was a very Catholic country, since Christianity had been taken there in the third century B.C.," wrote one student, while another, submitted by the same professor, spoke of "Pope Paul V, himself a Catholic." The winner of the contest is scheduled to be announced in next week's issue of Times Higher Education. Advertisement Rowling plans tree houses for her kids EDINBURGH, Scotland, July 24 (UPI) -- "Harry Potter" scribe J.K. Rowling revealed she is spending $388,000 to build a pair of interlinked tree houses for her kids in Scotland. Rowling submitted drawings to Edinburgh Council planners showing each of the tree houses, one for her 9-year-old son and another for her 7-year-old daughter, will be accessible through tunnels built in the garden of her home and the two houses will be linked by a rope bridge, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday. "It would be highly unlikely that J.K. Rowling will not get permission for these tree houses," a council source said, "They are only for her children to play in, she's not seeking permission for residential permission for them."
