oddly enough

oddly enough

Man charged for refusing to leave North Carolina jail

WENTWORTH, N.C.

A man who’d just been released from jail in northern North Carolina was arrested again for refusing to leave the jail after authorities wouldn’t give him a ride to a motel.

The News & Record of Greensboro reports that 37-year-old Rodney Dwayne Valentine was charged with trespassing.

Valentine was released from the Rockingham County jail the morning of July 21 after being behind bars since May 22.

The sheriff’s office says he asked them to drive him to a local motel, and they refused.

Deputies charged Valentine with second-degree trespassing when he had refused to leave the jail by that afternoon.

He’s being held on $500 bond and is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 9.

It was not clear if he has a lawyer.

Man frees 17-pound lobster from Conn. restaurant

WATERFORD, Conn.

A Connecticut man purchased a 17-pound lobster at a Waterford restaurant, then released the crustacean back into Long Island Sound.

Don MacKenzie of Niantic tells The Day of New London he knew the lobster, nicknamed “Lucky Larry” by local children, would have to be about 80 years old to reach his current size and felt it deserved to live.

“It takes seven years for him to even become a lobster big enough to keep,” MacKenzie said.

“For a lobster to live this long and avoid lobster traps, nets, lobster pots ... he doesn’t deserve a bib and butter.”

MacKenzie won’t say how much he paid The Dock restaurant to take Larry off the menu last Tuesday.

“Let’s just say that it’s the most expensive lobster I never ate,” MacKenzie told the newspaper.

He took the lobster back to sea Tuesday, releasing it in a secret location, where he said it would be almost impossible for |fishermen to drag their nets.

“They drag during the day, so if he does venture out of this area, hopefully it will be at night,” said Steve Wilson, who works with MacKenzie at a local marina and helped him vset Larry free.

MacKenzie received a send-off from a group of children chanting “Let Larry Live” and the lobster was given a salute from the Niantic River Bridge operator who sounded the lift bridge’s siren as the boat carrying it headed to sea.

Mackenzie kept a memento of the experience, the two thick rubber bands that had been wrapped around Larry’s claws to keep him from pinching anyone.

Associated Press