UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Ann Romney: Dog loved roof-top travel

WASHINGTON, April 17 (UPI) -- Seamus, the dog whose car-top travel has become a thorn in U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's side, enjoyed the roof-top trips, Romney's wife Ann says.

Seamus' 1983 trip from Boston to Ontario in a dog carrier strapped on top of the family's Chevrolet has become fodder critics use to paint Romney as uncaring.

During an interview with ABC News that aired Monday, Mitt Romney said attacks based on his Irish setter stung the most "so far," while Ann Romney said the dog enjoyed his rooftop travel accommodations.

"The dog loved it," Ann Romney said. "He would see that crate and, you know, he would, like, go crazy because he was going with us on vacation. It was to me a kinder thing to bring him along than to leave him in the kennel for two weeks."

Ann Romney also confirmed a detail from the 1983 trip critics cite as evidence of her husband's lack of compassion. She said Seamus became sick, soiled himself and the windshield, prompting Mitt Romney to hose them down then resume traveling.

"[He] ate the turkey on the counter," Ann Romney said. "I mean, he had the runs."

Dog rescued from Seattle-area mountain

SEATTLE, April 17 (UPI) -- A French terrier had to be lowered by ropes from the summit of Mount Si, a peak near Seattle, after the animal went off trail, police said.

The terrier, Ana, spent Sunday night on top of the still snow-covered mountain, KING-TV reported.

Mount Si, 4,167 feet above sea level, is a popular hiking spot in the Seattle-Tacoma region. The mountain has a rocky summit with no trail known as the Haystack.

The owner called the King County Sheriff's Office late Sunday afternoon to report that her dog, apparently spooked by something, had raced 200 feet up the Haystack and refused to descend, the report said. The Washington State Animal Rescue Team responded but decided it was too late to bring the dog down safely that night.

In the morning, a Seattle Mountain Rescue team climbed the peak, secured Ana in a harness and lowered her from the mountain.

"These rescue teams are amazing," the owner said. "These people drop whatever they are doing to volunteer their time to save humans and animals alike."

Police arrest 6-year-old for tantrum

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga., April 17 (UPI) -- Police say they needed to handcuff a 6-year-old Milledgeville, Ga., girl for allegedly throwing a tantrum that injured a school principal.

Kindergartener Salecia Johnson allegedly tore items from walls, threw furniture and knocked over a bookshelf that injured the principal of Creekside Elementary School.

When police arrived, Salecia was in tears in the principal's office. They said they tried to reason with Salecia but she wouldn't hear it. So they cuffed her.

Police Chief Dray Swicord said he takes a hard line on suspects, regardless of whether they've had nap time.

"Our policy is that any detainee transported to our station in a patrol vehicle is to be handcuffed in the back," Swicord told WMAZ-TV, Macon, Ga. "There's no age discrimination on that rule."

Salecia was taken down to the station and booked on charges of simple assault and damage to property. She will not have to appear in court, but there's no word on whether or not her milk money will cover bail. She was suspended from school until August.

"She has mood swings some days, which all of us have mood swings some days," said Constance Johnson, the girl's mother. "I guess that was just one of her bad days that day."

Man nabbed in women's underwear theft

WEST GOSHEN TOWNSHIP, Pa., April 17 (UPI) -- A man has been arrested in the theft of women's underwear from apartment complex washing machines in Pennsylvania.

Jeffrey A. Lloyd, 44, of Bridgeton, N.J., was charged Friday on counts of theft and receiving stolen property. He was taken into custody by members of the West Goshen Police Department and the Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department, who responded to a suspicious person call at an apartment building.

He allegedly had 12 items of women's underwear concealed on him that police determined were taken from the laundry area of the apartments.

The arrest came after months of reports, beginning in November 2011, of women's panties missing from coin-operated laundry machines in area apartment buildings, police said.

Friday the management of the Goshen Manor Apartments observed on surveillance equipment a man later identified as Lloyd acting suspiciously in the apartment complex and called police, The News of Cumberland County reported Tuesday.

Lloyd was arraigned in Pennsylvania Magisterial District 15-4-04 by Judge Matthew Seavey. Bail was set at $5,000.