Watercooler Stories

Florida woman arrested after post-sex row

PALMETTO, Fla., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A 50-year-old Florida woman was locked up this weekend after allegedly beating up her younger boyfriend due to unsatisfying sex.

Jennie Scott was booked into Manatee County jail on a misdemeanor battery charge for allegedly whacking Jilberto Deleon, 32, with a stick and threatening to upgrade her weapon of choice to a pipe wrench, The Smoking Gun website reported.

The arrest report indicated Scott became enraged when her paramour wrapped up his part of the tryst first and then decided to call it quits.

A witness called the sheriff's department after seeing Scott on top of Deleon "punching and scratching" him.

Scott refused to go quietly and police told her she would be maced if she didn't stop kicking at the patrol car window.

Investigators concluded alcohol played a significant role in the fracas, The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.

Orphaned orangutan dies in Milwaukee zoo

MILWAUKEE, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Zookeepers are mourning the loss of Muhal, a 5-year-old orangutan so popular the red-haired ape had his own Facebook page.

Veterinarians suspect the young orangutan who was rejected by his own mother died of pneumonia, but a necropsy is planned to confirm the cause of death.

Muhal had been at the Milwaukee County Zoo since 2008, where he lived with a surrogate grandmother who raised him until she died.

"He was doing very well after a really rough start to life," Zoo Director Chuck Wikenhauser told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "He was a showoff. He knew he was popular."

Muhal was seen as an ambassador for his endangered species.

Zookeepers noticed Muhal was lethargic Thursday and he was found dead on Saturday.

Orangutans can live well into their 30s.

Suspected grease thieves arrested

HEMET, Calif., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Two men were arrested in Hemet, Calif., for allegedly stealing cooking grease from a McDonald's restaurant, police said.

The suspects, identified as Noel Portillo, 22, and Ricardo Robles, 24, were arrested early Friday at the McDonald's, the Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise reported.

Police were tipped off to the alleged heist by the restaurant owner, who said thieves have been targeting restaurants and stealing thousands of dollars worth of cooking grease to resell to recyclers. Recyclers then turn the grease into biodiesel fuel.

The McDonald's owner, whose name was not reported, told police around midnight that he would be waiting inside his restaurant and would call again if the suspects arrived. Around 1:50 a.m. he called police to say the suspects were at the restaurant stealing grease.

When authorities arrived they found Portillo and Robles sitting inside a Dodge Ram with a large metal tank mounted on the bed, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Police reviewed surveillance footage before arresting the pair.

Vultures vex Everglades visitors

EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK, Fla., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Park rangers in the Florida Everglades are offering visitors loaner bungee cords and tarps to protect their cars from marauding vultures.

The big black birds apparently have a taste for automotive rubber, including window seals and wiper blades, and have been known to strip a parked car clean in a matter of hours.

"Exactly why they do it or when they do it or why they choose one vehicle over another, any reasons for that are pretty much unknown," Skip Snow, a park biologist, told The Miami Herald.

Black vultures fly into the Everglades every winter, but their penchant for parked cars makes they atypical snow birds. Park officials have tried to shoo them away from parking lots with loud noises and water hoses.