Thirty first-year cadets at West Point were injured in the US Military Academy's 2015 pillow fight, with at least 24 students reportedly left unconscious. The injuries came about largely because several cadets used pillowcases stuffed with helmets and body armour. West Point officials have confirmed the events, and Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Kasker told the New York Times that all of the injured cadets have returned to duty, with none of them having been disciplined. He said: 'West Point applauds the cadets' desire to build esprit and regrets the injuries to our cadets. We are conducting appropriate investigations into the causes of the injuries.'
Connecticut's David Pope wanted to help the homeless man he saw pushing a cart of cans and
bottles down the street. Pope grabbed the 77-year-old man by the arm and insisted on taking him
home to have a meal. At Pope's home, the man received food and a dog bite
to the leg.
Once the older man, who was not, in fact, homeless, was able to leave Pope's home undetected,
he rang the police from his own residence to make a complaint about
Pope's dog. Once the animal was under control, an apparently intoxicated Pope explained to officers that he'd assumed the
other man was homeless. The charges against Pope include second-degree kidnapping and
interfering with the duties of an officer of the law.
![[IMG: The crates]](images/koenig.jpg)
Thieves broke into a shop in Mülheim, Germany, and proceeded to open 1,200 bottles of König
Pilsener. They left the bottles in their crates, and the liquid within was untouched.
Investigators believe that the thieves were after winning bottle caps from a brewery promotion.
Caps that didn't feature tokens for tools, speakers, and other prizes were left strewn across
the floor. Brewery spokesman Marc Baron said: 'We have no way to track where the
bottle caps were sold or in this case stolen, but we will now watch for someone who sends in an
unusually high number of caps.'
![[IMG: DAD SAVES KIDS, THEN RIBS FROM FIRE on CNN]](images/ribman.jpg)
In Fresno, California, Robert Wright was barbecuing ribs at 3am when a fire broke out in the
flat next door. He carried his children to safety and also managed to rescue the ribs. Food in
hand, he explained to a reporter: 'The only thing I think first is make sure them ribs is right
and I ran over and got my family, man.'
Others in the block of flats were treated for smoke inhalation, but Wright said that he didn't
need medical attention: 'I didn't get any injuries except for all the smoke in my lungs, but I
already had smoke in my lungs, so I'm alright.'
Speaking for the Houston police, Jodi Silva reports on a 19-year-old Texas man who decided to take a social-media selfie photo of himself holding a gun. She says: 'A witness told police he was taking a selfie with a gun and the gun accidentally discharged.' Deleon Alonso Smith, with his cousin at the time, managed to shoot himself in the throat and died later from the wounds.
A 23-year-old Aurora, Illinois, man took a picture of himself naked and decided to send it to an acquaintance. The acquaintance he ended up sharing it with was someone different, however. According to Elmhurst Police Chief Michael Ruth, the man, who'd just been hired for a new job, 'texted the HR director and sent a nude photo of himself'. He repeated the mistake two days later. When he later rang the HR office, they recognised the phone number. Ruth said that, whilst the HR manager is not pressing charges, 'my understanding is they've rescinded the offer of employment'.
According to the local police, Hampden, Maine, 29-year-old Jordan Toner was driving along a road in a nearby town when he leant over to take a selfie on his mobile phone with some of his seven passengers. The car ended up united with a tree. A woman in the front seat, who was sans seat belt, ended up with a broken nose and cuts to her face, while another seat-belt-free women who'd been sitting in front received at least neck injuries. Other passengers suffered minor injuries.
In Canada, Courtney Pickering's car was stolen at the end of August. A few days later, Calgary
police told her that the vehicle had been recovered and that she could collect it from the
impound lot. The first thing she noticed inside was a knife in the front passenger door. Also,
the glovebox contained four IDs, and there was a baggie of white
powder in the cup holder. At a loss as to what to do with these
items, she says, she asked 'the impound guy' and was instructed: 'Just throw it on the ground,
throw it on the ground!' Pickering then noticed a crack pipe where her son's car seat normally
resides and decided just to leave the car for police to clean up.
After the car had been towed to a nearby auto shop, Pickering
checked it again and found a pellet gun on the back seat. She has filed a complaint with the
Professional Standards Section of the Calgary Police Service. The police response explained
that, though officers don't always search the interior of stolen cars, victims finding drugs and
weapons left behind is fairly unusual.
Australian lawyer Travis George explains that a Maryborough man was
jailed when police officers found suspected crystal methamphetamine in
his car during a traffic stop. George says that the man, his client,
had been in jail for four months before forensic investigators
discovered that the substance was Epsom salt. The charges were then withdrawn.
Maryborough magistrate John Smith said: 'For the last 14 years nothing has been done [to
address forensic analysis delays] - once again the government needs to have a look at what they
are doing in relation to this'.
Because a hand-written '8' in a donor code resembled a '3', Midwest Sperm Bank erroneously
impregnated Jennifer Cramblett with a black man's sperm. A partial refund was not enough for
her and her partner, Amanda Zinkon, who live in predominantly white Uniontown, Ohio.
Cramblett filed suit against the company last year for the costs of
counselling and relocation to a more diverse community, explaining that she suffers from 'stress and
anxiety' even when thinking of daughter Payton having to attend an all-white school. The lawsuit
states that simply getting the now three-year-old girl's haircut 'is not a routine matter':
Jennifer must travel to a black neighborhood, far from where she lives, where she is obviously
different in appearance, and not overtly welcome'.
Judge Ronald Sutter has thrown out the lawsuit, explaining that
Cramblett erred in alleging wrongful birth and breach of warranty against
providing bad tissue or blood. He told her that she can file suit
again, under a negligence claim.
At the Imperia Chess Festival, Arcangelo Ricciardi raised eyebrows by beating several players who have a much higher world ranking than his 51,366th. He drew attention also for keeping his thumb under his armpit the entire time he was playing. Referee Jean Coqueraut then noticed the 37-year-old Ricciardi 'batting his eyelids in the most unnatural way' and confronted him. A metal detector revealed a pendant around Ricciardi's neck. The camera within this apparently transmitted images of the game board when an under-arm switch was activated. Officials believe that someone with a computer was sending moves back; Coqueraut explains that the blinks were Ricciardi 'deciphering signals in Morse code'. Ricciardi has been kicked out of the tournament.
Personnel at a hotel hosting a homeopathy conference in Handeloh, Germany, found several attendees staggering around and 'speaking in gibberish'. Over 150 medical and emergency response professionals were called in, and 29 attendees were hospitalised. Tests determined that they had ingested the psychedelic drug 2C-E, which recently was declared illegal in Germany. Torsten Passie, with the national narcotics commission, said: 'It must have been a multiple overdose. That does not support the view that the people concerned took the hallucinogen knowingly.' An investigation is under way.
According to AP reports from Delaware, 19-year-old Michael Claude broke into the Laurel middle-school building and went for a ride through the halls on a buffing machine before getting on a lift. The lift doors refused to open again, and Claude ended up ringing the emergency services for help. A lift technician freed him, but the police made sure that he did not remain free very long. Claude, who was wearing a school jacket that didn't belong to him, has been charged with burglary, criminal mischief, and theft.
When his Dr Pepper went down the wrong way, the driver of a Neimeyer Milk Transfer lorry drove off a motorway in Pennsylvania and across 200 metres of grass before smashing into a Montrose Buick-GMC-Cadillac building. The lorry crashed into 23 cars at the dealership, pushing one of them into the showroom. Police found no indication that the driver had attempted to brake, and he was given a citation for careless driving.