In Other News

[Ming]

Sweet-toothed bear raids South Lake Tahoe ice cream shop, leaves with a taste for strawberry

A bear was discovered satisfying its sweet tooth behind the counter of an ice cream parlor in a California resort city on Lake Tahoe last week, authorities said.

Deputies responded to an ice cream shop at Camp Richardson in South Lake Tahoe in the early morning hours on Aug. 17 and found a large bear, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

"The deputies could barely believe their eyes as they saw a large bear behind the counter of the shop," the sheriff’s office wrote in the post.

Photos show the bear, who the sheriff’s office nicknamed Fuzzy, standing behind the parlor’s counter as if he were an employee waiting to serve the responding deputies.

Fuzzy had already sampled a variety of flavors before deputies could arrive and shoo it away, though the sheriff’s office said it appeared to prefer one sweet treat.

"With some encouragement, the bear ultimately left, but only after showing interest in the strawberry ice cream," authorities said.

The ice cream shop sustained little damage during the bear’s ice cream raid, and there was "barely any cleanup," the sheriff’s office said.

Camp Richardson is a 128-acre resort in South Lake Tahoe, about 66 miles south of Reno, Nevada.

[Uncle Sparky]

The World Huminoid Robotic Games have taken place in Beijing...
I welcome our new robotic overlords.

[Uncle Sparky]

The World Huminoid Robotic Games have taken place in Beijing...
I welcome our new robotic overlords.

So, less than 1 week after this, leaders of most Asian nations 'appeared' in Beijing for a summit.
Coincidence? I think not!

[Ming]

TJ Maxx shoplifters’ thwarted after fast-foot pit stop during getaway: Felonies do not come with a side of fries


Nuggets with some handcuffs and a soda.

Two alleged shoplifters saw their getaway thwarted when they stopped at a fast-food drive-thru near the scene and were arrested by cops, authorities said.

Around 2 p.m. on August 13, police in Auburn, Massachusetts, responded to a report that two women shoplifted from a TJ Maxx store. An employee said the two suspects left the store with more than $2,000 in merchandise.

The suspects fled the area in a black Ford Edge with a Connecticut license plate, according to police.

However, they didn’t get very far. In fact, according to authorities, the pair stopped at a Wendy’s drive-thru directly across the street from the store.

Police spotted the suspect’s vehicle in the drive-thru line and the two suspects were arrested.

Dominique Marion, 38, and Tynaja Williams, 24, were identified as the alleged thieves. They were both charged with larceny over $1,200 and conspiracy.

After searching their car, officers say they also found items taken from other stores in the region. The two may now face additional charges.

“Moral of the story: Felonies do not come with a side of fries,” police noted in announcing the arrest.

[SlowwHand]

[Broken_Erika]

B.C. man ticketed for driving pink Barbie Jeep while impaired during morning commute

A Prince George, B.C., man received a 90-day driving prohibition after he was spotted by police driving an unusual vehicle on a street on Friday morning.

On Sept. 5, an officer was on patrol in the area of 15th Avenue and Nicholson Street at 9 a.m. when they spotted a man driving a pink toy car down the street.

“While this may seem like something that should have flown under the radar, it was kind of out of the ordinary, as well as this is a busy area during morning commute and put other drivers on the road at risk, as well that particular driver himself,” Cpl. Jennifer Cooper, media relations officer for the Prince George RCMP told Global News.

“Motorists aren’t used to looking out for someone kind of at that level, the toy car level. So it was enough to start a traffic stop.”

The toy appears to be a Power Wheels Barbie Jeep Wrangler.

Kasper Lincoln told Global News he’d borrowed the toy, which belongs to his roommate’s daughter, to go get a Slurpee.

“It’s not like it was a high-speed chase,” he said. “I waited until it was safe, and when I crossed the road I was doing my hand signals.”

During the stop, the police officer believed the driver to be impaired and found that the driver had a suspended licence.

The driver was arrested for prohibited driving and he then provided two breath samples that were both over the legal limit and was subsequently issued a 90-day driving prohibition, police said.

Lincoln said he hadn’t had anything to drink that morning and had just woken up.

“I didn’t think you could get a DUI in a Barbie truck,” he said.

He added that the Barbie Jeep was not impounded and had been returned to his roommate’s daughter.

RCMP said any vehicle on a roadway that is powered by anything other than muscular power fits into the definition of a motor vehicle and requires a licensed driver and insurance.

Police added that the driver posed a risk to himself and other drivers, as motorists were forced to go around him.

He is set to appear in court in December.

https://globalnews.ca/news/11402996/bc-man-ticketed-driving-pink-barbie-jeep-impaired-morning-commute/

[Broken_Erika]

Kentucky nurse gives CPR to drunk baby raccoon trapped in a dumpster

Misty Combs found the critter drowning in rain water after feasting on fermented peaches

When Misty Combs found a baby raccoon, drunk on fermented peaches and drowning in a dumpster, she knew she had to try to save it.

As a nurse, Combs was well aware of the risks of interacting with a wild animal in distress. She could get attacked. She could even get rabies.

But when she saw the little critter — sopping wet, unconscious and wreaking of booze as its mother paced frantically nearby — her caregiving instincts kicked in.

"I decided, hey, I'm going to save him," she told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. "I would do it again."
'It smelled like it had drunk all night'

Combs works for the Letcher County Health Department in Whitesburg, Ky. That's where she was on Aug. 14, when people started to report a raccoon wandering around the parking lot in distress.

She and her colleagues went outside to check it out.

"We heard noises. It was like little chitter-chatters coming from the dumpster. And it was two baby raccoons."

The dumpster belongs to a nearby distillery, and was filled with rainwater and bags of fermented peaches leftover from infused peach moonshine.

Combs and her colleagues recognized the furry family. They'd seen the mamma raccoon and her two babies around the building before, usually in the evening.

They figure the animals must have crawled into the bin to feast on the boozy fruits, only to get trapped when the rain started.

"There was a shovel there and I went ahead and got the first baby raccoon onto the shovel and sort of, like, tossed it out gently to its mother," Combs said. "It ran over and it joined its mom."

But the second baby was under water and harder to reach.

"I leaned over into that dumpster and I grabbed the raccoon by the tail," Combs said. "It was not responsive. It was not breathing. It was soaking wet, and it was full of water."

It also, she says, "smelled awful."

"It smelled like it had drunk all night," Combs said. "Like it was at the bar."

Combs is trained to administer CPR to people, not raccoons. Nevertheless, she sprung into action and started administering chest compressions.

With each compression, she says, the raccoon spit up more water.

"It started coming to, which was a miracle, I thought, because we all thought it was dead," Combs said.
Raccoon is legal drinking age, says distillery owner

Colin Fultz, owner of the Kentucky Mist Distillery, says he was offsite when a worker called him to say there was a drunk raccoon in the dumpster, and a lady was giving it CPR.

"I thought it was just a joke," Fulz told CBC. "I said, 'Oh God, if that guy dies, we're hurting.'"

Fultz says he's extremely grateful to Combs and her colleagues for rescuing the animal, who is now doing just fine. He's asked the city to provide a lidded dumpster so this doesn't happen again.

After Combs and her colleague revived the raccoon, they contacted the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, who sent an officer to retrieve him.

"We are very glad that Ms. Combs' quick and compassionate action was able to save the juvenile raccoon and it was able to be released back into the wild," Lisa Jackson, a spokesperson for Fish and Wildlife told CBC in an email.

"We do, however, want to remind the public that any interaction with wildlife is inherently dangerous and we urge them to contact a trained wildlife professional if they find a wild animal in distress."

The little guy was taken to a veterinarian, who confirmed Combs' suspicions that it was drunk, and administered fluids to help it recover from its big night.

Fultz says he spoke to the vet on the phone and was assured the animal is 21 "in raccoon years," which is the legal drinking age in the U.S.

"So we was OK," he said with a chuckle.

• Snake spits up frog, so Australian man revives it with CPR
• Remembering Bandit, the world's largest pet raccoon who was 'addicted to Pringles'

Combs and her colleagues nicknamed the raccoon Otis, after Otis Campbell, a character on the '60s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show who was frequently depicted as inebriated.

Wildlife officials brought Otis back to Combs the next day, to allow her the honour of setting him free.

As Otis scampered out of his cage to reunite with its family under a nearby bridge, Combs says he appeared no worse for the wear.

"I guess he may have had a small hangover," she said. "Hopefully, he learned his lesson."

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/drunk-raccoon-cpr-1.7630379

[The Mad Monk]

B.C. man ticketed for driving pink Barbie Jeep while impaired during morning commute


RCMP said any vehicle on a roadway that is powered by anything other than muscular power fits into the definition of a motor vehicle and requires a licensed driver and insurance.
URL]https://globalnews.ca/news/11402996/bc-man-ticketed-driving-pink-barbie-jeep-impaired-morning-commute/[/URL]

...so all those teens and pre-teens zipping around on those little electric push scooters?

[The Mad Monk]

How is it that I am "not authorized to update this post" on the above post?

[Uncle Sparky]

This site does stuff like that all the time... try again later, or try it as a seperaty post.

[Ming]

Yeah... the site does strange things... I try to approve things as fast as possible.

[Broken_Erika]

‘Very mean squirrel’ seeking food has sent at least 2 people to the ER in a California city

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Residents of a San Francisco Bay Area city are on the lookout for an aggressive squirrel that has sent at least two people to the emergency room for medical treatment.

Joan Heblack told ABC affiliate KGO-TV that she was walking in the Lucas Valley neighborhood of San Rafael when a squirrel seemingly came out of nowhere and attacked her leg, clawing and biting.

“It clamped onto my leg. The tail was flying up here. I was like, ‘Get it off me, get off me!’,” Heblack said.

Isabel Campoy also said she was attacked while walking in the same area. The squirrel launched itself from the ground to her face and wound up on her arm, leaving it bloody, she said.

Both women went to the emergency room, the TV station reported in its Monday story.

Flyers have now been posted, warning residents that the squirrel is no joke and that more than five people have been attacked by a ”very mean squirrel” that “comes out of nowhere.”

Lisa Bloch with Marin Humane says they have had no reports of squirrel attacks since mid-September. If the squirrel crops up again, the nonprofit will coordinate with the state to remove the animal, she said.

“We’ve seen this kind of behavior before,” she said. “It’s almost always because someone has been feeding the animal.”

The good thing is that squirrels are not vectors for rabies. She says people should never feed wildlife.

San Rafael is in Marin County, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of San Francisco

https://apnews.com/article/aggressive-squirrel-hurt-people-43efad83aa78de39affc1b3cd3c93afe?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

[SlowwHand]

[SlowwHand]

[Broken_Erika]

Meet Beef: a mega-sized Albertan steer with a record-breaking height
The massive steer is taller than a pickup truck and as heavy as a rhinoceros




It was love at first sight when Jasmine Entz locked eyes with Beef's scrawny, slimy body covered in straw that had emerged from the womb at the first slip of dawn in August 2017.

"He looked at me and I looked at him and I thought: that one's cute," said Entz, of Vulcan County, Alta.

She asked her boss at the dairy farm if she could take the calf home once he was weaned off milk. He said yes.

For reasons she didn't understand, Entz, 29, had always wanted a steer she could ride.

She had no intention of raising one that would become a global phenomenon, taller than a pickup truck, as heavy as a rhinoceros — her own bovine version of Clifford the Big Red Dog.

The Guinness Book of World Records announced Beef as the world's tallest living steer at 1.95 metres tall (six foot five), edging out by one centimetre the record held by an Oregon steer named Romeo.

Beef, now eight years old, last weighed in at 1,100 kilograms (2,400 pounds), when officials took his measurements two years ago as the first step in confirming the record.

He's grown since then, Entz said, which Beef confirmed when he could no longer fit inside his trailer earlier this year.

About 45 kilograms of hay is needed each day to power the hulking Holstein, Entz said, at a cost of about $400 a month.

"I was always told that steers never stopped growing. And I was like, 'That's got to be a lie,"' she said. "Except here we are, at eight years old, and he's still growing."

Beef is a breed of cattle often fed to eventually be slaughtered for meat. Despite his name, he was never meant to be anything more than a pet.

Entz started training him to pull a cart and later to saddle up and ride.

She was riding him by the time he turned two, and it was sheer joy, she said.

But that only lasted one season. That year, Entz gave Beef the winter off after he was injured. She hasn't saddled him up since, in part because she'd need to get a customized tack to fit his body.

In those intervening years, she said she realized through suggestions from friends that Beef's size likely put him in record territory.

Beef is now living out his days grazing across the farm with his "best buddy" Josie, a white cow covered in black speckles, a horse named Talent and more than 50 miniature goats.

"He literally lounges. That's the best way to put it — he doesn't do much of anything," Entz said.

Except eat.

And that makes fall a special time.

Last year, Beef needed just three hours to polish off an entire post-Halloween pickup full of pumpkins.

"He sees a pumpkin coming towards him," said Entz, "and he lights right up."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/beef-tallest-steer-alberta-1.7645648

[BeBMan]

Next: Albertan steer vs. aggressive squirrel deadmatch