xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx
Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.
In Hamlin, W.Va., in January, a 19-year-old driver survived having her car hit by trains on two separate tracks (being knocked off one track onto another and then hit while on that track). She was in that predicament only because she had followed safe-driver guidelines by pulling off the road to make a cell-phone call, but the place she pulled off onto was a railroad track.
Hyperactive Seniors With Guns:
–Wilma Bennett, 79, carrying a .22-caliber revolver and increasingly agitated at having to wait in line at a grocery store, was arrested after brawling with a 31-year-old security guard who tried to calm her down (Akron, Ohio, January).
–Gertrude Raines, 84, was charged with shooting her son-in-law dead at 200 yards in the midst of a longstanding family feud (Murfreesboro, Ark., January).
— Deer hunter Clinton Hurlbut, 89, pleaded guilty to reckless use of a gun after accidentally shooting the horse that a 12-year-old girl was riding (Browns Valley, Minn., November).
–On the bright side, J.C. Adams, 74, owner of a Pac A Sac convenience store that was being robbed, propped himself up on his walker and fired his shotgun at the three perps, killing one, wounding another and causing the third to flee (Decatur, Ga., January).
The Palo Alto, Calif., City Council scheduled for a final vote in May a proposed code of conduct that includes (in order to coax civility among members) an official admonition to avoid even nonverbal forms of disagreement with each other, such as rolling one’s eyes or shaking one’s head or frowning. One former resident told the San Jose Mercury News that the proposal is a prime example of the “Palo Alto mind-set.”
Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, Fla. 33679 or [email protected]
Copyright © 2001 by Chuck Shepherd
NEWS OF THE WEIRD