oddly enough

oddly enough

Flying fruit lid sparks $150,000 settlement offer

DETROIT

A man who says he was knocked unconscious when a lid exploded off a jar of fruit and hit him in the face was offered $150,000 to settle his lawsuit against a grocer and a fruit company.

Del Monte Foods of San Francisco and Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. insist there’s no credible evidence that the jar was unsafe, but they made the offer Tuesday after a judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit by Darryl Alexander of Southfield, Mich.

Alexander’s lawyer, Mark Miller, said the offer is too low because his client has permanent eye damage.

Alexander said the stubborn lid flew through the air and struck him in the eye after he hit it with the rubber handle of a screwdriver in April 2008. He said he first placed the jar of Orchard Select mixed fruit under warm water.

Kroger and Del Monte made the $150,000 offer this week, about a month after U.S. District Judge Patrick Duggan cleared the way for a trial by refusing to throw out much of the lawsuit. A trial date has not been set.

The offer is “not an admission that defendants are liable,” said Jack Klamink, attorney for Del Monte and Kroger.

The court file includes a photo of a fruit jar and a badly damaged lid that no longer fits. Alexander was treated at a hospital and wore an eye patch for several weeks.

Columbus Zoo acquires daughter of late longest snake

COLUMBUS

An Ohio zoo says a new resident has big snakeskin shoes to fill.

Weeks after announcing the death of the longest snake in captivity, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium said Wednesday it has acquired that python’s smaller daughter.

The zoo’s new, 12-year-old snake is 6 feet shorter than her mother. Eighteen-year-old Fluffy stretched 24 feet, about the length of a moving van, when she died Oct. 27 of an apparent tumor.

Fluffy held the Guinness World Record as the longest snake living in captivity and drew large crowds.

Bras worth $6,000 stolen from central Pa. mall

LANCASTER, Pa.

Call it a case of lingerie larceny.

Police are investigating the theft of more than 100 bras from a central Pennsylvania mall.

Lancaster police say 110 bras disappeared from a Victoria’s Secret store in the Park City Center mall sometime Sunday or Monday. Twenty-five bras were stolen from the same store in a similar theft Oct. 14.

Authorities tell the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era the store manager put the value of burgled bras at more than $6,000.

Associated Press