Roadkill Roasting on an Open Fire
Jim Alexander, 41, and Betina Bradshaw, 54, of Torquay, England, planned quite the holiday feast for family and friends. On the menu: deer, pheasant, rabbits, badgers... all roadkill. Alexander, a trained butcher, has collected nearly 50 animal corpses throughout 2018. “I know people will think it’s unusual, but really it just makes sense,” Alexander told Metro News. Bradshaw says her family refers to him as a serial killer, but he has gradually won her over to the idea of eating roadkill. “The first few times he brought a deer home, he told me it was for the dog. Obviously, you turn your nose up a bit at the start, but now it doesn’t bother me at all,” she said. Alexander said his odd culinary habits have drawn the attention of police, but “once they realize I’m doing nothing wrong, they are fine, and one even helped me lift an animal into the van,” he said.
The Domino Effect
H.W. Taylor III, 51, of Chatfield, Texas, was charged Dec. 12 with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after a parking dispute escalated outside a Domino’s pizza shop in Jerrell. Determined to park his tractor-trailer in a restricted area, reported the Austin American-Statesman, Taylor removed a chain blocking the area and parked his truck there, even as store employees told him not to. Williamson County sheriff’s deputies were called after Taylor pointed a gun at the chest of one the employees and then shot a nine 9mm round into the ground nearby, causing a small piece of the bullet to strike the employee in the ear. Having lost his appetite for pizza, Taylor returned to his truck and drove away, but officers soon caught up to him in another county. The Domino’s worker had a small cut to his ear and is expected to survive.
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Not Music to His Ears
In Mesa, Ariz., diverging tastes in music led to a fatality on Dec. 14, reported the Arizona Republic. Officers responded to a call of shots fired at an apartment complex, where Sheldon Sturgill, 41, told them he shot his roommate after an argument and fistfight over the type of music they were listening to. Sturgill and his roommate had been drinking shots and beer before the altercation. He was held on suspicion of second-degree murder. It is unclear what the offensive music choice was.
Coming to a Pharmacy Near You?
Havana, Cuba, resident Pepe Casanas, 78, has discovered a tried-and-true way to treat his rheumatism pain: Once a month for the last 10 years, Casanas seeks out a blue scorpion, which is endemic to Cuba, and lets it sting him. “I put the scorpion where I feel pain,” Casanas told Reuters. After the sting, “it hurts for a while, but then it calms and goes, and I don’t have any more pain.” In fact, researchers have confirmed that the scorpion’s venom has anti-inflammatory and pain relief effects. It may even delay cancer growth in some patients. A Cuban pharmaceutical company has been selling a homeopathic pain remedy called Vidatox, made from the scorpion’s venom, but Casanas, a former tobacco farmer, takes the simpler route. He sometimes keeps a scorpion under his straw hat for luck, where he says it likes the shade and humidity.
High on Mickey-D’s
Maybe it was the Triple Breakfast Stacks McGriddles that lured Anthony Andrew Gallagher, 23, to the drive-thru lane at a Port St. Lucie, Fla., McDonald’s to satisfy his hungries on the morning of Dec. 16. But when it came time to pay, the Associated Press reported, Gallagher offered the dude in the window a bag of weed instead of money. The worker declined the payment, and Gallagher drove away, returning a while later. McDonald’s staff called police after the first attempt, and Gallagher was apprehended for marijuana possession and driving under the influence.
Bogus Big Foot
The Helena Independent Record (Montana) reported that a 27-year-old man was shot at multiple times on Dec. 16 after being mistaken for “Big Foot,” the legendary (though totally fictitious) hairy ape-man of the Pacific Northwest. The unidentified man told police he was setting up targets for shooting on federal land when bullets struck the ground nearby. He ran for cover, then confronted the shooter, who said the first man “was not wearing orange and thought he was Big Foot,” said Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton. The cryptid impersonator described the shooter’s vehicle to police but didn’t want to press charges, asking only that the shooter be lectured about safe shooting.
© 2018 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
