A Really Cold Case
When an employee of Sarabeth’s Restaurant in New York City opened the walk-in freezer door on Aug. 5, a man jumped out, yelling, “Away from me, Satan!” and grabbed a knife from the kitchen, which he used to threaten restaurant staff. Carlton Henderson, 54, of Cave Creek, Ariz., struggled with workers but eventually fell unconscious and was transported to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the New York Post reported. Authorities don’t know why or how he entered the freezer or even why he died as yet, but they did determine he was charged last year with two 1988 cold-case murders in Boston. He had been released on bail the week before the freezer incident and was scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 14.
A Hair-raising Experience
Armed thieves in New Delhi, India, left a craftsman deep in debt after they made off with 500 lbs. of wigs and raw hair worth more than $20,000 on July 27, according to Associated Press. “People think wigs are cheap, but they cost a fortune to make,” wigmaker Jahangir Hussain said. In fact, he had borrowed more than $17,000 to buy hair last month from South Indian wholesalers. India exports wigs and hair extensions to the tune of $300 million a year; much of the raw materials are collected at Hindu temples where people shave their heads as a religious sacrifice, a practice called tonsuring.
How Cello Can They Go?
Chicago cellist Jingjing Hu, a student at the DePaul University School of Music, found herself being escorted off an American Airlines flight on Aug. 2 after trying to return to the Windy City from Miami with her instrument. Hu paid in advance for an extra seat for her cello, worth almost $30,000 and housed in a hard case, and had no trouble on her flight from Chicago to Miami, where she participated in a music festival. But, on her return trip and after settling herself (and her cello) into their seats, a flight attendant approached her and told her she would have to leave the plane because the aircraft was too small for her instrument. Hu was booked on a flight the next day on a larger plane. American blamed the incident on “miscommunication,” according to WBBM TV, but Hu’s husband, Jay Tang, said, “I don’t think we did anything wrong here, and I think the way they handled it was humiliating.”
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What Could Possibly Have Gone Wrong?
Zemarcuis Devon Scott, 18, of Texarkana, Ark., really wanted to attend a rap concert in another state, so on July 4, he executed his plan to get there. Scott was seen by Texarkana Regional Airport security officers around 2:30 a.m. jumping a fence and trying to get into an American Eagle twin-engine jet parked there. When police arrived, Scott was inside the cockpit and sitting in the pilot’s seat, the Texarkana Gazette reported. Scott, not a licensed pilot, told officers he thought there wasn’t much more to flying a plane than “pushing buttons and pulling levers.” On July 31, he was charged with commercial burglary and attempted theft; he’s currently grounded at the Miller County Jail.
A Vested Interest in Business
Apparently, the unofficial “uniform” for Bay Area techies and venture capital investors is a vest, so the Japanese company Uniqlo is cashing in with a vest vending machine at the San Francisco International Airport. The airport’s public information officer, Doug Yakel, says the machine is no joke; it earns $10,000 a month on average. Do the math: At $49.90 apiece, the company is selling about 200 of its ultra-light down vests each month. “This is the first time we’ve had clothing available for sale from a vending machine, which we thought was very unique,” Yakel told Business Insider.
Epic Fail
The Baltimore Sun reported that a driver’s license examiner in Glen Burnie, Md., got a whiff of something illegal on Aug. 6 when she approached a car about to be used in a driving test. She called Maryland State Police, who found Reginald D. Wooding Jr., 22, of Baltimore waiting in his mother’s car to take his test. But he never got the chance. Wooding was in possession of marijuana, a scale, more than $15,000 in suspected drug-related money and a 9mm Glock handgun with a loaded 30-round magazine.
Today’s Euphemism: “Technical Stuff”
Airport security at Berlin’s Schönefeld Airport evacuated a terminal on Aug. 7 after spotting “suspicious content in a luggage piece” during a routine X-ray, according to CNN. The bag’s unnamed owner was summoned, but he was reluctant to identify the mysterious items, calling them just “technical stuff.” After an hourlong investigation involving the bomb squad, the 31-year-old traveler admitted to German federal police that the items were sex toys—including a vibrator and other electric devices—he had brought along for his trip. He was allowed to proceed after a thorough baggage inspection found nothing potentially harmful (at least to non-consenting adults), and the terminal reopened shortly afterward.
© 2018 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
