ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

NJ school cafeteria serves up cheese-sandwich punishment

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.

Students at a New Jersey high school have learned not to mess with the lunch ladies.

Cafeteria workers at Atlantic City High School served only cheese sandwiches last Wednesday and Thursday as punishment for a cell-phone-coordinated food fight.

School superintendent Fredrick Nickles says the school supplies only the basic food requirement when there’s been a food-throwing incident.

Nickles says the policy is effective.

A parent, Bridgitte Reid, became angry after her daughter explained the menu. Reid called it “prison food.”

Students were to get a regular menu Friday.

Unmanned excavator crashes into home in Connecticut

NORTH BRANFORD, Conn.

Police in Connecticut say an unmanned, runaway excavator demolished a shed, knocked over trees, flattened a pop-up camper and smashed into a house.

Charles Bystrack says he was drinking a cup of coffee Thursday morning when his house in North Branford began to shake.

When he looked out his window, he says he saw the construction vehicle sticking out of his garage.

Police say it appears a crew working in a neighboring field turned on the excavator to warm it up, but its movable windshield fell in and hit the controls.

Bystrack estimates it traveled about 60 yards at walking speed.

Police say no charges are expected.

The accident damaged the home’s garage and foundation and cracked some walls inside the house. No one was injured.

Russia: Pilot tries to ask directions and crashes

MOSCOW

A Russian news report says a small plane has crashed when the pilot lost his bearings and decided to ask a tractor driver for directions.

No one was hurt.

RIA-Novosti news agency quoted a local police spokesman as saying the accident happened Friday in southern Russia’s Stavropol region.

It said the pilot lost his way, saw a tractor below and decided to land to get advice from the driver.

Oleg Ugnivenko, a spokesman for the regional branch of Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry, said the An-2 agricultural plane grazed the tractor while landing in the field and broke its landing gear.

He said no one was hurt but gave no further details.

Associated Press