Oh the Ham-anity!
When Beverly Burroughs Harrison, 62, received a gift of ham from her family on Monday, Feb. 12, she waited until they left, set it on fire and then threw it in a trash can at the Bomar Inn in Athens, Ala., where she was living. As smoke filled the room, AL.com reported, Harrison took her dog and left without alerting anyone to the fire. As a result, she was spared from being a victim of the later explosion of charred bits of ham that blew out the front wall of the room when a nearby can of butane fuel was ignited. Harrison was held at the Limestone County Jail on a felony arson charge and could face life in prison if convicted.
The Power of Christ Compels You!
• On Tuesday, March 20, the U.S. Marine Corps fired Navy Cpt. Loften Thornton—chaplain for the Marine Forces Reserve in New Orleans, after he was captured on video having sex with a woman on the street in front of the Crown & Anchor Pub, according to USA Today. Marine Reserve spokesman Lt. Col. Ted Wong said only that Chaplain Thornton had been fired for “loss of trust and confidence.” According to the Navy’s strategic plan for religious ministry, chaplains “provide a source of comfort and refuge” to service members, which Thornton had apparently begun to extend to members of the general public.
• Phoenix mom Sharron Dobbins, 40, was determined to get her two teenage sons out of bed for Easter services on Sunday, April 1, when one of them informed her that they’d rather sleep in. Dobbins then grabbed a Taser and, as she told KNXV-TV, told her sons: “I said get up! It’s Jesus’ Day!,” after which she promptly tased one of them. The 16-year-old called police, who found two small bumps on the boy’s leg and arrested Dobbins for child abuse. As Dobbins explained thereafter, “All I was trying to do is tell my kids to put god first!”
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Ohh…Martha…
At Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., a home rental agreement took an x-turn when Leah Bassett, artist and longtime resident of Aquinnah, unknowingly leased her home to an employee of Mile-High Distribution, Inc.—a pornography production company. In September 2014, the Boston Globe reported, Joshua Spafford rented Bassett’s home from October through May 2015, but by that March, Spafford informed Bassett he had left the house because he was fired, prompting Bassett to ask her parents to stop by and check her place out. They were “shocked by the deplorable state of condition in which they found their daughter’s personal residence,” according to court documents. As “circumstances evolved,” Bassett began reviewing internet sites maintained by Mile High, which “publicly boasted about their porn shoots on ‘chic and tony Martha’s Vineyard.’” Bassett filed suit in late March, alleging Mile High’s site featured photos of graphic sexual encounters taking place in “nearly every room of her home,” including scenes on top of her dining room table, sofas and in her laundry room. Mile High’s defense lawyer says that the lawsuit “arose out of a basic landlord-tenant dispute.”
Flying Cocaine Strikes Again!
Fort Pierce, Fla., police pulled over a car on March 21 after observing it swerving down the roadway. As they approached, they smelled marijuana, and during the ensuing search, passenger Kennecia Posey, 26, was shocked, shocked, when police found two bags in her purse: one containing marijuana and the other cocaine. WPLG TV reported that Posey admitted the marijuana was hers, but told officers: “I don’t know anything about any cocaine. It’s a windy day. It must have flown through the window and into my purse.” Posey was charged with felony possession of cocaine and misdemeanor possession of marijuana.
A Failure to Communicate
Things went from bad to worse for soccer player Sanchez Watt during a match in Hertfordshire, England, on Tuesday, March 6. Awarded a yellow card, Watt was asked his name by referee Dean Hulme, who mistook “Watt” for “What?” As Watt repeated his name over and over, the referee became increasingly perturbed, eventually changing the yellow card to red (a more serious infraction level), BBC Sport reported. Hulme later rescinded the card when someone explained it to him.
Weird Kansas
• Last September, a celebration at a recreational lake in Wichita caught the eye of someone who reported seeing people “dressed in Muslim garb” with an American flag “desecrated with ISIS symbols,” reported The Kansas City Star. Shortly thereafter, Munir Zanial, an engineer for Spirit Aerosystems, was notified by Facebook that authorities were seeking information about his account, and soon a call came from the FBI, saying it had determined that the flag reported to them was a Malaysian flag, and its investigation would be closed. Zanial, a Muslim from Malaysia, had rented the lake to celebrate a Muslim holiday with friends and commemorate the 60th anniversary of Malaysia’s independence. In March, he filed a discrimination lawsuit in U.S. District Court after he was barred from renting the lake again.
• A 23-year-old Salina woman arrived at her home around 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 29, to find that the door had been locked and chained from the inside. She called police, who searched the home and found no one there, but about two hours later, her ex-boyfriend’s legs punched through the ceiling in her living room, the Salina Journal reported. Tyler J. Bergkamp, 25, had been hiding in the attic. Police arrested him and took him to Salina Regional Health Center to recover from his fall. Five days later, however, he left the hospital and broke into another woman’s house, where he left his hospital gown, exchanging it for one of her t-shirts and a pair of sneakers. Bergkamp was rearrested a short time later and faces a number of charges.
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