UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Philly women gets back class of '42 ring

PHILADELPHIA, March 20 (UPI) -- An 87-year-old Philadelphia woman said she never expected to ever see her high school class ring, which turned up in the estate of an old boyfriend.

Arletta Pardoe Bateman was reunited with her 1942 class ring after being tracked down by St. Hubert Catholic High School and the descendants of an old flame who died in Florida in 2001.

I never expected this," Arletta said after she slipped the ring on during a visit to St. Hubert this week.

The Philadelphia Inquirer said Arletta, a member of the first graduating class at St. Hubert, lost track of the ring after she gave it to her then-boyfriend John Dauplaise when she left Philadelphia for a wartime job in Baltimore.

The couple had lost touch with one another and Arletta married George Bateman in 1945.

Dauplaise kept the ring in a jewelry box the rest of his life. His children contacted St. Hubert officials who traced it to Arletta using the initials engraved on it.

The Inquirer noted Arletta has a great-granddaughter who is a senior at St. Hubert and has her own class ring.

Man spends years with blade in back

FORT GOOD HOPE, Northwest Territories, March 20 (UPI) -- A man from Canada's Northwest Territories said he had a 3-inch knife blade embedded in his back for three years without doctors noticing.

Billy McNeely, 32, of Fort Good Hope, said he repeatedly complained about pain in his back following a stabbing, but doctors never took X-rays and told him the pain was from nerve damage, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Wednesday.

"I've done some jail time in the past. The guards rub over you with a metal wand detector, and every time it hit my back in the jail it went off," he said.

McNeely said a lump formed in the painful spot on his back and earlier this week he touched it and felt something odd.

"My nail caught a piece of the tip of the blade that was underneath the skin and made a little sound, so that worried me," he said.

His girlfriend, Stephanie Sayine, examined the lump and discovered there was a blade embedded in his back.

Doctors removed a 3-inch knife blade from McNeely's back.

"I'm kind of upset with the health system," he said. "They should've X-rayed right off the beginning in case there was internal damage," he said.

McNeely said he is in contact with lawyers about potential legal action against the territory's health system.

Portable urinals set up in Danish capital

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, March 20 (UPI) -- Officials in the Danish capital have installed portable plastic urinals in a city square to prevent men from urinating in doorways and on park benches.

The Copenhagen City Council said the mobile urinals, essentially large plastic funnels that direct the urine into city sewers, have been installed in the Stroget area in the city's center to prevent men from drunkenly using benches, doorways and corners as toilets, The Copenhagen Post reported Wednesday.

Claus Robl head of the Center for Renhold, which is responsible for daily cleaning in the city's public areas, said the portable urinals were originally designed for the Distortion music festival and were tested in the Stroget area last weekend.

"It's something we developed for the Distortion music festival to create an easy, simple solution to an urban problem that can be set up and taken down easily," Robl told the Politiken newspaper. "We did not get nearly as many complaints about people urinating on the walls of houses or on garden gates."

"These are not something that should be permanently standing in the streets," Robl said. "They can be put up as needed, and we want to find out where it makes the most sense to put them up."

Charge: Guard stole $100, tried to eat it

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, March 20 (UPI) -- A security guard at a United Arab Emirates airport is accused of stealing a $100 bill from a U.S. woman and attempting to swallow it with water.

The woman and her husband, who is a commercial pilot, said the man, identified in court documents as H.A., 33, took the cash from the woman's handbag at Dubai International Airport and attempted to hide it in his pocket, Gulf News reported Wednesday.

The husband said he confronted H.A. and the security worker then put the bill in his mouth and attempted to use water from a nearby cooler to wash it down.

H.A., who pleaded not guilty to a theft charge, told the Dubai Court of First Instance the money fell on the ground while he was searching the bag and he put it in his pocket with the intention of returning it to the woman.

A verdict in the case is expected March 31.