Oddly Enough

Oddly enough

Man claimed to be ‘mad scientist’

UNIONTOWN, Pa.

A man was charged with trespassing and pushing a nurse as he wandered the halls of a southwestern Pennsylvania hospital claiming to be a “mad scientist,” but he told The Associated Press he was just curious about hospital operations and meant no harm.

“I just went up to the hospital. I was in my house studying science books. I like to study them because I’m a mad scientist,” Jerry Wingrove, 37, of Uniontown, told the AP last week.

Police did not immediately return a call to comment on charges of aggravated assault, defiant trespass and harassment against Wingrove, who was released on bond after a mental-health evaluation. He faces a preliminary hearing May 1.

Police charge that Wingrove was wandering on the second floor and trying to read patient information on hospital computers when he pushed the nurse. Although that normally would be simple assault, a misdemeanor, police filed a felony aggravated-assault charge because the nurse was in a position of legal authority at the time.

Wingrove acknowledged he was wrong to touch the hospital computer but tried to explain his actions by telling the AP that he was studying brain waves and other phenomena and intended to heal some people at the hospital, including the nurse.

“That’s all it was. I wanted to heal her mind, but she’s just so daggone sick,” Wingrove said.

Pa. thief loses stolen TV that falls out of car

INDIANA, Pa.

State police say they’re searching for a thief who “lost” a 65-inch television he stole — when it fell out of a car that the thief also stole.

Troopers from the barracks in Indiana, Pa. say the thief took the car, the flat-screen TV and a video-game system from a woman’s apartment in Center Township.

Police say the TV fell out of the trunk as the thief sped away, and a motorist in a pickup truck stopped to recover the TV.

Police continue looking for the thief and the stolen car.

Indiana is about 45 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

Turkey hits windshield, injuring Pa. woman

EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa.

Police in northeastern Pennsylvania said a woman suffered a minor injury after a turkey flew into the windshield of the car she was driving.

Pennsylvania State Police said 50-year-old Robin Friend of East Stroudsburg was driving on Interstate 80 about 10 a.m. Thursday when a turkey flew in front of the car and struck the windshield.

Troopers said was treated at a hospital. Her car had to be towed from the scene.

Associated Press