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May 2014


13 May 2014

The police in Huntington, West Virginia, report that Christopher Anderson rang them from a bank to report that workers there had locked him inside the building when closing for the night. Anderson, 32, explained that he had fallen asleep in the loo. He could have added that he had passed out there after using heroin.
Anderson was arrested for misdemeanour possession of a controlled substance and on a warrant that had been issued earlier.

Leonard Tonui, 26, and Michael Shikuku, 35, came across an elephant while in Kenya's Kiptagich forest. They whipped out their mobile phones and started taking pictures of themselves with the elephant, eventually posing with their hands on its trunk and tusks. The pachyderm was not pleased, and it lashed out at them with its trunk. 'It then trampled them and then collected twigs from the forest to "bury" the two' in the words of Kuresoi South divisional police officer David Wambua. Rangers who had tried to rescue the men brought down the elephant.

South Carolina's Courtney Sanford updated her Facebook status while driving. To accompany her new status 'The happy song makes me so HAPPY', the 32-year-old Sanford took some pictures of herself. While so doing, she crossed the median of the interstate highway and ran head-on into a recycling truck. She died, while the driver of the truck walked away from his burning vehicle unharmed.
High Point Police Department spokesperson Lt Chris Weisner called the incident a real-life public-service announcement 'showing what happens when you text and drive'. There was no evidence that Sanford had been speeding or using alcohol or other drugs.

When Milwaukee sheriff's deputy Joseph Quiles t-boned Tanya Weyker's car, she was told that she would have to pay for the damage to his vehicle and face charges such as drunk driving causing injury. Though her injuries, such as four neck fractures, were too severe for a breath sample to be taken, officers had reported her as seeming intoxicated. Weyker, 25, recalls explaining that 'my eyes were red and glassy because I was crying'. Ten months later, it has emerged that the sheriff's office had blood test results exonerating Weyker, along with footage of Quiles running a stop sign in the incident.
The charges have now been dropped, but Weyker still faces medical bills that could reach a million dollars and there is a cap of a quarter this amount on claims against government agencies in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Quiles hasn't been working; he began drawing injury pay for what the hospital had described as minor injuries suffered in the accident.

Annoyed because his girlfriend's three-month-old puppy was continually yapping, Florida's Ephrian Myles allegedly poured hot sauce over the animal, affecting its eyes and throat and triggering seizures. This earned him a year in the county jail for felonious aggravated cruelty to animals, plus 18 months of probation.
The puppy is in a new home, and the 47-year-old Myles is no longer allowed to live in a home with animals.

Jacob Tokaryev, a 32-year-old resident of Novokuznetsk, Siberia, had spent all of his money on drink so couldn't afford a taxi ride home. Therefore, he decided to steal a car for the journey. The next morning, the owner of the Lada he'd decided to take caught him. Doing so wasn't hard - Tokaryev had fallen asleep before even managing to start the vehicle.
The owner of the car, Ivan Deshensky, had expected to drive to work as normal when he''found this guy asleep under the wheel' and rang the police. Tokaryev is being charged with drunkenness, attempted theft, and criminal damage.

After hosting a party at his home in New Zealand, Harris James Davis became aware that a guest had left a car blocking the driveway and taken the keys home. So a couple of friends pushed the car 2-3 metres away while Davis steered from inside. A police officer saw this, and Davis was cited for driving while intoxicated. He eventually pleaded guilty and was handed a fine and a three-month suspension of his driving licence.

When Australia's Matt Lockley woke up shortly before his flight was due to land in Bali, he needed to use the toilet. It seems that he thought he was banging on the WC door when what he was really doing was prompting the pilot to report a possible hijacking attempt to air traffic controllers.
The flight crew pulled him away from the cockpit door and restrained him. He was arrested upon landing. Lockley was initially reported to have been drunk but then was found to have had several painkillers in his system.

In the US state of Georgia, there is a man who became confused while behind the wheel of his car. First, 37-year-old Tobias Exum crashed into police officer Alvin Rodriguez's car but remained unaware that he'd hit anyone. Then, Rodriguez pulled him over and asked to see his driving licence. Exum apparently passed the officer a beer.
The charges against Exum include driving while intoxicated and reckless driving.

Canada's Mike Defazio grew tired of the potholes afflicting Saint John, New Brunswick, so he filled them himself. The City responded by telling him to undo his work or pay a fine, so Defazio agreed. He dug his gravel out of the holes and was informed that he won't face a fine. However, he has given the City a deadline for filling the holes, explaining that 'I just want to see stuff fixed'. If the potholes aren't filled within a week, he'll fill them again, using better gravel this time.

Ana Maria Moreta Folch, 62, asked a Florida bulldozing company to clear away an unused trailer and septic tank. While they were obliging, Folch's neighbour showed up and identified herself as the owner. She said she had no idea how Folch obtained the keys she'd shown the land-clearing company for her flattened property.
To explain her actions, Folch said that the 'people who had lived there were unsavoury' and had probably broken into her car. She described the act as a favour to the community. The police call it criminal mischief with damages well into five digits.

Reuters reports that Turkey's Sefer Calinak, 62, appeared on the television show Luck of the Draw to try to find a new woman to share his life. He explained to the audience that he'd murdered his wife and a former lover but had served his time in prison. Before the host asked him to leave the set, Calinak clarified that the first murder was because his wife had 'irritated' him and that he'd thought the second woman was after his money.


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