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A Newsletter of Optimism By The Law Offices of
Erase Debt? You Bet!
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Feb. 25, 2003 Thief steals Pakistan intelligence chief's shoes A pair of shoes belonging to a head of Pakistan's national intelligence agency has been stolen. Brigadier Javed Ghumman, director general of Inter-Services Intelligence, was attending a Muslim religious ceremony in Lahore. He had taken off his shoes for the ceremony, in memory of the country's air force chief who died in a recent air crash, when they were taken. Intelligence sleuths on duty carried out extensive search operations but failed to retrieve the stolen shoes. The chief had to leave wearing another pair of shoes hurriedly arranged by his subordinates. Other Pakistani dignitaries and politicians have lost their footwear in similar circumstances in the past. They reportedly include Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafar Ullah Khan Jamali and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. An army officer attached to the Punjab Rangers told Daily Times: "Stealing shoes on such occasions is part of our culture." Feb. 13, 2003 Elderly lovers given suspended sentence for sex in car A couple with a combined age of 159 have been found guilty of indecency after having sex in a car near a school. The man, 85, and woman, 74, were arrested after schoolgirls in Italy spotted the pair in a rocking car with misted windows. When officers arrived at the school at Lanciano they found the senior citizens in a passionate clinch. Despite being naked from the waist down, the man managed to jump out of the car and evade police, but they caught up with him later after the woman gave his details. The couple were charged with indecency. Prosecutors described them as occasional lovers. A judge gave them a 50 day suspended jail sentence and let them off with a warning.
One-armed man named one of best lifeguards in Chile A one-armed lifeguard has been named as one of the best in his job in Chile. Francisco Aguilera Morales, 48, the official lifeguard of San Carlos Beach, lost his right arm above the elbow in a childhood accident. But it hasn't stopped him working as a lifeguard for the last 14 years, and now he has now been singled out by Las Ultimas Noticias online as one of Chile's best. Mr Morales, nicknamed The Wolf for his bravery, said: "I grab their neck with what's left of my right arm and swim back using the left arm. "I have never let anyone drown. I have saved 22 people so far this year. Once I saved 13 people one by one, it took me two hours and I did all on my own. People applauded me." Mr Morales lost his arm when he was five years old. His uncle found a grenade in a field and brought it home, where it exploded.
Man has himself delivered to art gallery in wooden box An unemployed actor had himself delivered to the Tate Britain gallery in a wooden box. Dan Shelton sealed himself inside a wooden crate the size of a portable lavatory for the journey from Brighton to London. The box, which had a single air hole, was then taken to the gallery where Shelton was released two hours later. He said the idea came from a technique used by inventors to seal their plans in a postmarked envelope to prove they came up with a concept, reports The Times. He said he'd turned himself into living art to explore the way that artists are seen as objects. The crate, which was tied with a ribbon, also contained blood samples and nail clippings which would prove who he was. Mr Shelton said: "I had a little bench seat and a light which ran out after half an hour. It was all right, but by the end of the journey I desperately needed to go for a wee. When I arrived at the gallery the box was taken out and the ribbon was cut. A number of people from the Tate came out and applauded." The 23-year-old had received prior permission from the Tate for the delivery, but was told he wouldn't be commissioned for his work. He had been unable to send himself by the Post Office because he was over its weight limit. The project was funded by a £10,000 award created by Charles Webb. Mr Webb is best known for giving away the film rights for his book The Graduate for £14,000 in 1963. The film, starring Dustin Hoffman, went on to make £60 million.
Man battles coyote 'tooth and nail' BY REX SPRINGSTON Jimmy Hawthorne was riding his lawn mower outside his eastern New Kent County home when an animal that looked like a giant fox ran out of the woods and attacked him. Hawthorne, 50, recognized the animal as a coyote, a stealthy predator that is becoming increasingly common in Virginia. Using his mower and later a big stick, Hawthorne fought off the animal for more than 20 minutes Sunday before killing it with a shotgun. "It was like a pit bull or something that wanted to bite me," said Hawthorne, who was not injured. "He wouldn't leave me alone." Tests yesterday proved the coyote was rabid. The big male weighed nearly 50 pounds. "We have never had a report like this," said Robert W. Duncan, wildlife director for the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. "This is unique." Hawthorne, the owner of Hawthorne Laundries and Dry Cleaners Inc., lives in eastern New Kent on a wooded, 300-acre site. He described the incident this way: Hawthorne was riding his mower to blow away leaves about 3:30 p.m. when the coyote ran out of a thicket and tried to bite his leg. Riding about 400 yards from his house, Hawthorne kicked the animal, and it ran off. Hawthorne tried to ride back to his house, but about 300 yards from home, the mower ran out of gas. The coyote ran up and tried again to bite Hawthorne. "I kicked him good," and the animal ran back in the woods. Hawthorne grabbed a stick about 12 feet long, and the coyote came back at him. He whacked and jabbed at the animal while trying to keep the mower between him and the coyote, which was baring its teeth. "An Olympic gymnast couldn't run around the lawn mower any faster than my fat butt ran," said Hawthorne, who is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs about 240 pounds. "I would hit him with the stick, and he would retreat. This went on for probably 20 minutes. . . . I was fighting this animal tooth and nail." After "I hit him really good and I thought I had hurt him," Hawthorne made a break on foot for the house. As Hawthorne reached his yard, he looked over his shoulder and saw the coyote trotting after him. "We had another round in the yard, and he went back in the woods." Hawthorne dashed inside, and the coyote ran up on his steps. Hawthorne grabbed a .40-caliber pistol. When he opened the door, the coyote started moving away. "I shot at him and missed," and the coyote ran off again. This time, Hawthorne armed himself with a 12-gauge shotgun and rode in his truck to the lawn mower. "Here he comes back out of the woods. I shot him with the shotgun and killed him." Hawthorne could joke a little yesterday, but he knows he survived a dangerous encounter. "It's funny now, but it wasn't funny then."
Man thrown from car clings to utility wires Associated Press BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. - An 18-year-old was catapulted at least 25 feet in the air during an auto accident but grabbed onto overhead utility wires like an action hero and dangled for about 20 minutes before a rescue crew brought him down by ladder. Joe R. Thompson III was treated for bruises and scratches at a hospital and was released. "God was definitely in control," he said. Thompson lost control of his Jeep on Monday evening after another car suddenly turned in front of him. Thompson's Jeep clipped the other car and rolled over and over, possibly five times, witnesses said. The Jeep's fiberglass top was ripped off, and Thompson, who was not wearing a seat belt, flew through the air, bouncing off three power lines and falling onto what he thinks was a telephone wire and grounding wire. His leg caught in one wire, and he grabbed for the other. "I just kept saying a prayer over and over," he said Tuesday from his home in the suburb of Blue Springs. The wires were insulated, but the power lines above him had to be turned off before the rescue ladder could be raised. The driver of the other car, Justin B. Elam, of Olathe, Kan., came immediately to check on Thompson. "I just started saying, 'Dude, turn off my car.' He looked around at first, he couldn't find me. Then he looked up and saw me," Thompson said. Meanwhile, Thompson's father had rushed to the scene. "I was told he was hanging on for dear life," Joe Thompson II said. "I didn't know they meant he literally was hanging on for dear life." The father said his son was talking the entire time. "We asked him how long he could hold on, and he said, 'I can hold on as long as it takes.' His arms were turning blue because it was cold, but otherwise he was fine," the elder Thompson said. "And don't forget, this is a great story to remind people to wear seat belts."
Jan. 24, 2003 MAN'S DETACHED HEAD SOWN BACK ON An 18-year-old man has his head literally ripped off in an accident with a drunk driver. Normally that kind of injury kills the victim, but Marcos Parra lived. It is an amazing story. Parra's car was hit by the other vehicle so hard his head was detached from his body. Only skin and some vital internal circuits held it on. Marcos barely recalls what happened. "I just remembered hearing someone screaming," Parra told Good Morning America . "They said it was my friend, but I can't tell you because I wasn't there 100 percent." Marcos was rushed from the scene to the emergency room of a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. The doctors there had never seen such injuries. He had a broken clavicle, pelvis, tail bone and ribs, but that was not what stunned the doctors. His neck had technically been ripped off his head. Normally the skull is attached to the neck by a thick ligament that runs from the base to the first vertebra. During the accident his head was ripped forward, which ripped his ligament. This opened up a space between the head and the neck. There was a wide separation of the bone where the skull was ripped from the cervical spine, detaching the head from the neck. His spinal cord and arteries weren't damaged. His head was reattached with surgical screws and a piece of his pelvis was used to patch his neck and skull together. It has been a long and difficult recovery for Marcos. He spent four months wearing a halo brace to help his neck heal. During that time he had hundreds of hours of rehabilitation therapy. Now, the young man is back on the basketball court and loving every minute of it. Jan. 22, 2003 Handcuffed woman makes off with police car A handcuffed woman stole a police car and kept officers at bay on a 60-mile chase. Jennifer Lach had been arrested for assault before being placed in the back of the car in Belmar, New Jersey. But the allegedly drunken captive slipped her cuffs from behind her back to the front and slithered through a ventilation window between the front and back seats. She took off in the car before officers had a chance to get in. The 33-year-old's speed at times reached over 80 miles an hour and was caught only when she crashed the patrol car, reports the New York Post. Officers arrested her for a second time and charged her with aggravated assault on a police officer, terroristic threats, resisting arrest, escape, eluding police, vehicle theft, criminal mischief, drink-driving, reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident and failure to report an accident. |
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