Oddly Enough

oddly enough

Pennsylvania man’s banana car peels through Flint

FLINT, Mich.

Talk about peeling out.

A Pennsylvania man cruised into Flint, Mich., last week in his giant, motorized banana and parked it on the bricks of Saginaw Street.

Some looked confused. Many snapped pictures.

Banana-car owner Steve Braithwaite tells The Flint Journal he had no idea how much he was going to enjoy people laughing and smiling at him.

The Coopersburg, Pa., resident with Flint ties brought the former pickup truck back through the area, more than two years after buying the original vehicle from a junkyard in Genesee County’s Argentine Township.

Braithwaite decided one day he wanted to turn a Ford F-150 into a banana and travel the world in it.

So, what he calls his “crazy desire to do something ridiculous” became a yellow-tinged reality.

Wayward baboon, likely from park, captured in NJ

HOWELL TOWNSHIP, N.J.

A wayward baboon that apparently escaped from an amusement park and became a mini-celebrity — appearing at a golf course and being followed on Twitter — was captured Saturday after spending three days on the lam.

The animal appeared to be unharmed when it was found and tranquilized at a farm in Howell Township in southern New Jersey. The farm isn’t far from Six Flags Great Adventure’s Monkey Jungle in Jackson Township, which has about 150 baboons that are part of a drive-through safari.

Park officials confirmed the capture and said they believed the animal was theirs. But they won’t know for sure until it’s assessed and they can see if it has a microchip that’s embedded in all their baboons.

Numerous online followers tracked the baboon’s travels after it initially was spotted Thursday. Many posted on a tongue-in-cheek Twitter account created by a person posing as the baboon.

Park spokeswoman Kristin Siebeneicher said the baboon, which appeared to be an adolescent, would be taken to the park for a physical exam and health assessment. She said all of Great Adventure’s baboons are vaccinated, fenced in and implanted with microchips beneath their skin, but they are not counted daily because they sleep outside in the Monkey Jungle preserve.

And if it turns out that it was one of their baboons that escaped, park officials want to know how it got out because they have found no signs that an escape occurred.

Associated Press