oddly enough

oddly enough

Phone call from police lobby leads to man’s arrest

EUGENE, Ore.

The young man apparently just wanted to phone his parents. But his mistake came when he made the call from the Eugene, Ore., police station lobby.

Police say an officer working a desk assignment Wednesday recognized the man from surveillance footage of Tuesday’s robbery of a Wells Fargo bank branch.

The officer notified detectives, who arrested the man nearby.

Police say 23-year-old Nathan Alan Bramlage was booked into the Lane County Jail for investigation of second-degree robbery and violating probation.

Detective Ralph Burks tells the Register-Guard, “I just assume that he didn’t believe that we’d recognize him.”

Zoo wolverines treated to Ohio State pinata mascot

ROYAL OAK, Mich.

The University of Michigan football team could only dream of faring as well against the Buckeyes as a pair of other wolverines did at the Detroit Zoo.

Luka and Jigi tore apart a pinata designed to resemble the Ohio State University’s mascot Wednesday, only three days before the annual college-football rivalry is renewed in Columbus.

The male and female wolverines made quick work of the 4-foot-tall Brutus Buckeye replica, which had an Ohio “O” emblazoned on its chest and a head made to look like the nutlike seed from the buckeye tree.

It took them all of five minutes to topple Brutus and rip off his head. Later, they chewed their way inside his torso to find a prize of meat.

Zoo officials long have used pinatas and other objects to enrich environments and make them more engaging to the animals.

Firefighters on river rescue find floating dummy

LOS ANGELES

Firefighters who were called to rescue someone from the Los Angeles River found themselves retrieving a real dummy.

Fire-department spokesman Erik Scott says a 911 call sent firefighters to a section of the concrete channel in the San Fernando Valley on Wednesday morning.

But rescuers didn’t find a flailing swimmer. They actually spotted a mannequin similar to those used as CPR-training devices.

Scott says a helicopter and a swift-water rescue team were dispatched. The chopper wasn’t needed, but the firefighters waded into the water and retrieved the dummy so it wouldn’t prompt other calls.

Scott says it’s unclear whether the mannequin got into the channel by accident or was part of a deliberate hoax.

Associated Press