Taking cue from The Office, man helps save woman’s life
A classic scene from a decade-old episode of The Office helped an Arizona mechanic save an unconscious woman’s life. The Arizona Daily Star reports that 21-year-old Cross Scott found a woman locked in her car this month and broke in, finding she wasn’t breathing.
He doesn’t have any emergency training but thought of the show where Steve Carell’s character does CPR to the tune of the Bee Gees’ song Stayin’ Alive. The song has the correct tempo for chest compressions. Within a minute, the woman was breathing, and she was taken to a hospital and later released. Scott, who shares the last name of Carell’s character Michael Scott, had help from two women who also stopped when they saw the car and called 911.
(AP)
Man says emotional support alligator helps depression
A Pennsylvania man says his emotional support alligator helps him deal with his depression. Joie Henney, 65, said his registered emotional support animal named Wally likes to snuggle and give hugs, despite being a 5-foot-long alligator. The York Haven man said he received approval from his doctor to use Wally as his emotional support animal after not wanting to go on medication for depression, he told Philly.com. “I had Wally, and when I came home and was around him, it was all OK,” he said. “My doctor knew about Wally and figured it works, so why not?” Wally was rescued from outside Orlando at 14 months old and is still growing; Henney said Wally could be 16 feet long one day. Henney says Wally eats chicken wings and shares an indoor plastic pond with a smaller rescue alligator named Scrappy.
Wally, who turns four this year, is a big teddy bear, in Henney’s words. The cold-blooded reptile likes to rest his snout on Henney’s, and “he likes to give hugs,” he said. The alligator has never bitten anyone and is even afraid of cats, according to Henney.
Henney acknowledged that Wally is still a dangerous wild animal and could probably tear his arm off, but says he’s never been afraid of him. Henney’s background also indicates a comfort with creatures like Wally. He hosted a show called Joie Henney’s Outdoors on ESPN Outdoors from 1989 to 2000, according to the York Daily Record. Henney frequently takes Wally out for meet-and-greets at places like senior centers and minor-league baseball games. “He’s just like a dog,” Henney told a woman at a recent outing to a senior centre. “He wants to be loved and petted.”
(AP)
Pungent ‘J-Queen’ durians sell for $1,000 in Indonesia
An Indonesian variety of the durian — a pungent, spiky fruit considered a delicacy across many parts of Asia — has been sold in a store on the island of Java for a hefty $1,000 per fruit.
The “J-Queen” durian was selected by a panel of farmers in a region of central Java because it was deemed to have a special taste and texture, said Sudarno, a farmer who grew the fruit. Two of the rare durians, which were displayed in a perspex case in a store in Tasikmalaya in the neighboring province, were sold for 14 million rupiah ($1,002) each, said Sudarno, who uses one name like many Indonesians.
Asked why anyone would pay such a high price, he said the harvest from this particular tree had failed in past seasons, but a new fertiliser helped to produce fruit this year. “It’s sweet..fluffy and delicious,” Sudarno said by phone, describing the texture as creamy like butter. Durian are often grown in family orchards or small-scale farms and are hugely popular in many parts of Asia.
Sometimes described as smelling like an open sewer or turpentine when ripe, durian are banned in some airports, public transport and hotels in Southeast Asia. Sudarno said most of the 20 durians produced by his tree were premature, but four were offered for sale. Two were sold and the others pulled from display after their quality faded. He did not know who bought the fruit.
(Reuters)
Bank robber gets cold feet, rips up note
Police in Massachusetts are looking for a woman they say intended to rob a bank but got cold feet and left without a penny. Fall River police tell the Herald News the woman walked into the Fall River Municipal Credit Union on Monday afternoon and approached a teller. Police say the woman hesitated, told the teller “give me a minute,” and went to a counter and wrote on a piece of paper. But she ripped up the note, dropped the pieces in the trash and walked out. Bank employees pieced the note together and it said: “Give me the money.” Anyone who recognises the woman in surveillance images is asked to contact Fall River police.
(AP)
911 dispatcher helps boy with fractions homework
Police dispatchers are trained to deal with a number of situations, and a dispatcher in Indiana had to know her numbers when a boy called 911 seeking help with his homework. Lafayette Police dispatcher Antonia Bundy answered the call from the boy, who said he had “a bad day at school.” It seemed the boy had “tons of homework” before the dispatcher narrowed down that he was having trouble with fractions.
An audio recording of the call posted on Twitter shows how the dispatcher helped the child solve the equation: Three-fourths plus one-fourth. She had him take out a piece of paper to figure out the answer: One. The boy thanked the dispatcher and apologised for calling 911. Police say they don’t recommend calling 911 for homework help.
(AP)
