ODDLY ENOUGH | Driver’s dog helps Oregon deputy make drug bust

ODDLY ENOUGH

Driver’s dog helps Oregon deputy make drug bust

MORO, Ore.

An Oregon deputy sheriff didn’t need a drug dog to point out a stash during a recent traffic stop. The driver’s dog did it for him.

KGW-TV reports that Sherman County sheriff’s Sgt. John Terrel was pulling over a pickup truck Feb. 9 when he saw a sock fly out the window. It turned out to be stuffed with marijuana and hashish.

The driver told Terrel he was trying to hide the sock, but his pit-bull mix grabbed it and wouldn’t let go, enjoying a tug-of-war game.

The dog won the tussle and tossed the sock out the window, and the 32-year-old driver was indicted on drug-possession charges.

Sheriff Brad Lohrey says he wished everyone traveled with their own personal drug dog.

Someone swipes giant cactus statue from NM library

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

Police in Albuquerque, N.M., are investigating a thorny theft case of gigantic proportions.

KOB-TV reports that someone stole a giant fiberglass cactus Monday night from behind a public library.

High school students spent an entire summer building the $50,000 art piece shaped like a prickly pear cactus. They were part of a nonprofit group that provides art education for at-risk kids.

City officials say thieves probably unbolted the bright green cactus from the ground and used a pickup truck or van to cart it off. The city says the statue doesn’t weigh much, so it likely was easy to carry off into the night.

A nearby resident, Paul Freshour, says the statue is probably pretty tough to hide, so he’s hopeful that officials will recover it.

Law to protect German children’s right to noise

BERLIN

Children of Germany take heart — it may soon be perfectly legal to make noise.

Germany is so desperate to encourage people to have more children that the government is proposing a bill allowing citizens under age 6 to laugh, shout and play at any volume.

Germany is a land of many rules, especially about noise. The government’s move comes after a series of lawsuits about children and noise and a recent call from a senior citizens’ chapter of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, who sought to ban kindergartens from residential areas because they are too loud.

The government said Wednesday the proposed law would exempt children from strict regulations on noise limits, which force construction sites to stand idle for hours at midday and prohibit mowing lawns on Sundays.

Associated Press