oddly enough

oddly enough

Delaware fishing buddies reel in stolen, dumped cars

NEW CASTLE, Del.

A couple of fishing buddies from Delaware have been catching more than just bass. They’ve been helping police reel in cars.

Larry Newirth and Dan Cathell spotted a white BMW 750 sedan June 17.

Then last Friday, they found a late-model Honda Accord.

Police say the cars were stolen and abandoned. No arrests have been made.

Newirth, a 63-year-old retired carpenter, jokes that he and Cathell better stop finding cars or the police will think they’re the ones stealing them.

Cathell, a 44-year-old millwright, says he hopes the thieves stop dumping the cars from the boat ramp so police don’t close the dock to the public.

Dublin Zoo relieved over return of stolen penguin

DUBLIN

Kelli the penguin’s back home in Dublin Zoo after pranksters snatched the bird and abandoned her on a city sidewalk.

Dublin Zoo condemned Thursday’s theft as no joke, because the 10-year-old Humboldt penguin could have been injured during her abduction or crushed by a vehicle.

Zoo officials said police tracked down Kelli using a signal from a microchip planted on the bird. She got the medical all-clear and was returned to her penguin partner, Mick.

Police said the thieves climbed over a security fence into an enclosure housing about a dozen Humboldt penguins and picked Kelli for reasons unknown.

Dublin Zoo has been targeted by annoying pranks before. In 2008, its switchboard was overwhelmed by callers asking to speak to Rory Lyon, G. Raffe and Ana Conda.

Iowa man arrested after lawn mower ride on highway

MADRID, Iowa

A middle-of-the-night ride on a lawn mower landed one Iowa man in jail.

The Boone County Sheriff’s Office says deputies stopped the man on Highway 17 near Madrid around 1 a.m. Wednesday after receiving reports of someone driving a mower all over the road with no headlights. Madrid is about 25 miles northwest of Des Moines.

The man was arrested on a drunken-driving charge. The sheriff’s office says his blood-alcohol level was .190 — well above Iowa’s limit of .08.

Boone County Sheriff Ron Fehr says it’s illegal in Iowa to drive any kind of motor vehicle anywhere while drunk.

Fehr wasn’t sure how fast the man was going on the six-speed Bolens lawn tractor. The Des Moines Register reports that the top speed for that mower is about 5 mph.

Associated Press