oddly enough

oddly enough

Santas shake it up at annual summer meet

COPENHAGEN, Denmark

If Santa looks thinner than usual come Christmas, it may have something to do with Zumba, the Latin-inspired dance fitness craze.

A Zumba exercise class with hula hoops was a novelty at this year’s World Santa Congress, which brings St. Nicks from around the globe to an amusement park in Copenhagen this week.

“It was a sweaty experience, and it didn’t help having an extra 10 pounds of clothing on, but now I’m hooked. I think I will be doing some more Zumba in my spare time,” said Douglas Gowin, a 57-year-old Santa from Washington, D.C.

Now in its 55th-consecutive year, the four-day World Santa Congress has more workouts on the schedule, including an obstacle course in which Santas must go down a chimney and climb an ice mountain.

Pa. man nabbed for DUI at state police barracks

CORRY, Pa.

State police say a man showed up at a northwestern Pennsylvania barracks by driving under the influence of alcohol.

Troopers from the Corry barracks tell the Titusville Herald that 49-year-old Timothy Shrock came to the barracks Thursday to be fingerprinted for another recent offense. That’s when troopers determined he was drunk, processed him and released him. He’ll be mailed a summons to answer the drunken-driving charge.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for Shrock, whose home phone number was disconnected Friday.

Court records show he was charged with public drunkenness, harassment and other crimes by the state police at the same barracks last month.

Police say Shrock showed up drunk to be fingerprinted on the charges about 11:20 a.m. Thursday.

Pa. man says gun threats harmed only ‘bad people’

SOMERSET, Pa.

A western Pennsylvania man tried to persuade a judge to give him less prison time for four incidents in which he threatened people with guns during drug deals by arguing that he was harming only “bad people just like me.”

The Daily American of Somerset reports Somerset County Judge John Cascio wasn’t persuaded and sentenced 30-year-old James Vance-Ivey Jr. to 18 months to five years in prison for endangerment, threat and drug charges Thursday.

Cascio explained to Vance-Ivey that “even people with criminal records have rights and have the right to be protected by the law and by the Constitution.”

The defendant had argued that his actions weren’t justified but told the judge he wasn’t targeting “a workin’ man or some law-abiding citizen. These are all bad people, just like me.”

Associated Press