O Mantis Tree, O Mantis Tree…
Veterinarian Molly Kreuze of Springfield, Va., is planning to purchase an artificial Christmas tree next year after her natural one came with something extra: more than 100 praying mantises. Kreuze told WJLA-TV the large, leggy insects emerged from an egg sac under the tree’s branches and were “crawling on the walls, crawling on the floor, on the windows, on the ceiling!” Kreuze captured as many as she could and was hoping to find a new home for them, as it seems “people really like” the bugs. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture advised that people who find the egg sacs on their Christmas trees should clip the branch and take it outside. Otherwise, without their regular source of food, the newly hatched insects will start to eat each other.
Lickity Ick
KION TV reported on Jan. 7 that a Salinas, Calif., family’s Ring doorbell camera captured video of a man licking the doorbell for more than three hours. The homeowners were out of town during the encounter, which took place around 5 a.m., but their children were inside. Sylvia Dungan, who was alerted to the activity at her front door on her phone, said, “Who the heck is that!?” Salinas police identified the man as Roberto Arroyo, 33. Arroyo also relieved himself in the front yard and visited a neighbor’s house. “You kind of laugh about it afterwards because, technically, he didn’t do anything,” Dungan said, although police later charged him with petty theft and prowling.
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The Band or the Team?
Dale Sourbeck, 49, of Pittston, Penn., had an arresting start to 2019. In the early morning hours of Jan. 3, he used a hammer to break into the Rock Street Music store and helped himself to two guitars, reported WNEP TV. Presumably realizing he was being watched by surveillance cameras, Sourbeck left and returned to the store—this time wearing a mask—and grabbed three more guitars. Police tracked Sourbeck down using the surveillance camera footage from his first visit (and a shot of his license plate outside) and found the stolen guitars in his home. Upon his arrest, the only statement he made was “Go Eagles!”
Financial Dis-clothes-ure
Three customers and staff of a Wells Fargo branch in Solana Beach, Calif., were stunned on Jan. 3 when 35-year-old Clint Gray entered the bank shortly after it opened and yelled, “This is a robbery! Everybody get on the ground!” a witness told The San Diego Union-Tribune. But Gray, who was unarmed, didn’t follow through. Instead, he stripped down to his underwear and sat in a chair near the front door. He also kindly told one female customer that she could sit in a chair instead of lying on the floor. A sheriff’s deputy arrived shortly, and Gray surrendered without resistance; he was later charged with attempted robbery.
Hands-On Teaching
Students at a Fairfield, Ohio, middle school were subjected to an unexpected lesson in anatomy on Jan. 8 when they reported suspicious behavior “taking place behind the desk” of substitute teacher, Tracey J. Abraham of Cincinnati. WHIO-TV reported that the school resource officer at Creekside Middle School received several complaints from students that the teacher was…ummm…taking matters into his own hands. Abraham was booked and charged with public indecency and ordered to stay away from all locations where there are children under 18 years old.
Gross!
Heather Carpenter, 42, was charged with damaging property and criminal mischief in Sarasota County, Fla., after expressing in a particularly gross way her dissatisfaction with the principal of the school where Carpenter was substitute teaching. Phillippi Shores Elementary School Principal Allison Foster had been helping Carpenter with a professional issue, but Carpenter was unhappy with the way it was going, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. So, on Dec. 1, in a park where Foster was hosting a birthday party for her daughter later in the day, Carpenter—whose own daughter was invited to the party—arrived with human feces, according to a witness, which she spread on the grill and picnic tables. Carpenter pleaded not guilty, but the Sheriff’s Office report stated that she admitted she “intentionally placed human waste and fecal matter on the tables at Urfer Park with the intent of disrupting the birthday party planned by Foster.”
© 2019 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
