ODDLY ENOUGH | Broken toilet delay Pittsburgh flight by 3 hours

ODDLY ENOUGH

Broken toilet delays Pittsburgh flight by 3 hours

PITTSBURGH

A Continental Airlines flight from Pittsburgh International Airport to Houston was running about three hours late because the toilet in first class was broken.

Continental spokeswoman Mary Clark told The Associated Press that an earlier report that the flight was delayed because a plunger couldn’t be found was incorrect.

She said plungers aren’t used to repair toilets on airliners. She said, “It’s not a toilet like you have at your home. It’s a mechanical process to repair the lavatory.”

Clark said she doesn’t know the nature of the malfunction but said Flight 655 took off about 11:15 a.m. instead of 8:15 a.m. Monday after airline officials decided to close the broken lavatory.

That means all passengers had to use a lavatory in the coach section.

Greeter charged with robbery of own Walmart in NC

STATESVILLE, N.C.

Police have charged an 83-year-old greeter at a North Carolina Walmart with trying to rob the store over the weekend. Police say George Plane Jr. of Mooresville was working Sunday night when he went to his car, donned a disguise and walked back inside the Statesville store with a gun.

Statesville Police Chief Tom Anderson says Plane put the gun to a fellow employee’s head and demanded money from a cash register. Anderson says Plane fired a shot in the air after leaving with the money. Plane was arrested later Sunday.

Man says he took ambulance because he needed a ride

HAZARD, Ky.

A man in eastern Kentucky charged with stealing an ambulance says he just needed a ride home.

A Perry County ambulance crew was inside a hospital in Hazard for only a few minutes Friday night and left the keys in the ignition. WYMT-TV reports that when they came out, the vehicle was gone. City Police Sgt. Randy Napier says an off-duty Kentucky State Police detective saw the ambulance being driven erratically and pulled it over.

Napier says 26-year-old Shane Hale told the detective he only needed a ride home and was going to call the ambulance service the next day and report where the vehicle was.

Raven knocks out power in downtown Anchorage

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

A raven to blame for an hourlong power outage Sunday afternoon in much of downtown Anchorage won’t ever darken Alaska’s largest city again.

Municipal Light and Power workers found its carcass at a switchyard where its wings shorted out electrical lines. The Anchorage Daily News reports the mishap brought down three substations serving about a third of downtown.

Associated Press