UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Civil War tag wins metal detecting contest

BATH, Ohio, April 2 (UPI) -- An Ohio man who won a Virginia metal detecting contest by finding a 152-year-old Civil War identification tag said he has researched the tag's history.

Jeffrey Rees, 33, of Bath, said finding the tag on the last day of the 2013 Grand National Relic Shootout near Richmond won him the March contest on behalf of team Teknetics, a brand of metal detector manufacturers, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported Tuesday.

"It will probably be the best thing I'll ever find," Rees said of the tag. "This was great because it provided a lot of information that you normally would not obtain, such as the name and the soldiers' unit. I thought, 'That's cool!."

Rees said the tag belonged to Union soldier John Brandt of Albany, N.Y.

"His tag was made with silver, which meant he paid a lot for it," Rees said. "Most tags were made with stamped brass. What also made it unusual was that all of the battles he fought in were listed on the backhand side."

He said his research discovered Brandt enlisted in the Union Army at the age of 27 in 1861 and lost his tag in 1863 before heading to Petersburg, Va.

Brandt continued to serve in the army until 1866, Rees said.

Dispatcher calls mom to save boater

CATHLAMET, Wash., April 2 (UPI) -- A Washington state 911 dispatcher said she called on her mother to rescue a stranded boater because the woman was closer than responders to the emergency scene.

Raedyn Grasseth, a 911 dispatcher and spokeswoman for the Wahkiakum County Sheriff's Office, said she received a call Sunday afternoon from a 45-year-old woman who said she had become stranded on a piling in the Columbia River near a jetty at the mouth of Birnie Slough, The (Longview, Wash.) Daily News reported Tuesday.

Grasseth said she alerted the sheriff's office to the plight of the woman, whose kayak had sunk and whose companion had left the area to seek help.

The dispatcher said it then occurred to her to alert her own family, as they live in the area and operate boats.

"I knew they could be there within 5 to 10 minutes," Grasseth said.

Grasseth's mother, Cindy Faubion, an avid kayaker, and other family members quickly reached the stranded woman with a kayak and a skiff.

Grasseth said the woman was cold and shaken, but did not require medical care.

"She's lucky she's alive, plain and simple," Grasseth said.

Tenant allegedly attacked over cleanliness

INDIANAPOLIS, April 2 (UPI) -- An Indiana man was allegedly attacked by his landlord's son during an argument about the home's state of cleanliness, police said.

Indianapolis police said Paul Perry, 50, told officers he arrived home Monday to find a man cooking a meal in his kitchen, The Indianapolis Star reported Tuesday.

Perry said he recognized the man as his landlord's 30-year-old son, whose name was not released.

"They began arguing verbally," the police report said. "[The landlord's son told] Mr. Perry that he was lazy and had not kept the house clean."

Perry said the other man threatened him before retrieving a tire iron from his car and striking Perry on his left bicep, elbow and thumb.

Perry was treated for his injuries.

$1,500 necklaces accidentally sold for $47

CINCINNATI, April 2 (UPI) -- Ohio-based department store Macy's apologized for a pricing mistake showing a $1,500 necklace on sale for $47 instead of $479.

The chain said advertisements mailed across the country listed the necklace, made of sterling silver and 14-karat gold, on sale from $1,500 and $47, and stores sold the pieces of jewelry for the sharply discounted price until officials discovered the error, WFAA-TV, Dallas/Fort Worth, reported Tuesday.

Signs were erected in Macy's stores explaining the necklace was supposed to be repriced to $479, not $47, and customers such as Robert Bernard, who ordered two of the necklaces when the Dallas Macy's ran out of stock, received phone calls Friday explaining their money would be refunded.

Macy's released a statement Friday afternoon.

"When the mistake was caught, signage did go up in the fine jewelry department and on store doors alerting customers that a mistake had been made," Macy's spokeswoman Beth Charlton wrote in an email to WFAA-TV. "For those customers who bought the necklace at the $47 price, they were fortunate. For the gentleman you spoke with, he was not so fortunate. We are sincerely sorry he was disappointed and unable to buy the necklace at the $47 price for his wife."

Macy's did not say how many necklaces were sold for the $47 price.