Hot dogs fall from the sky in Detroit

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich., May 23 (UPI) -- To celebrate a Detroit restaurant's 95th anniversary, 955 raw hot dogs were dropped from a hovering helicopter onto a soccer field Wednesday morning.

The stunt, arranged by WKQI-FM, Detroit, honored the American Coney Island restaurant, whose third-generation owner, Grace Keros, noted the famed eatery has "been at the same location for the past 95 years."

The hot dogs, referred to at the restaurant as "coneys," were dumped from a helicopter several hundred feet off the ground, and fell from the sky before 25 contestants, chosen by the radio station, swarmed the field to see who could collect the most, The Detroit News reported.

Sylvia Lopez, 37, of Imlay City, Mich., was declared the winner, with 76 hot dogs stuffed into her shirt, and later admitted, "I love hot dogs, but I have to admit that right now my hands smell kind of rank."

She will receive, for her efforts, $1,000 in "gas money" from the radio station, and a year's supply of coneys from American Coney Island, the newspaper said.