ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Europe cocaine seizure means more bananas for zoo

THE HAGUE, Netherlands

A major cocaine seizure in Europe has turned out to be good news for the animals at Rotterdam’s zoo.

The drugs were hidden among boxes of bananas, and the fruit was later donated to the monkeys and other creatures at the Blijdorp zoo.

Dutch prosecutors said Friday more than 8 tons of cocaine was hidden among the bananas on a ship from Ecuador. The drugs were seized Oct. 8 in the Belgian port of Antwerp, while the bananas were allowed to continue on to Rotterdam — the shipment’s final destination. Dutch police arrested a Belgian truck driver and four Dutch men Oct. 9.

Dutch authorities say the seizure is the biggest ever in the Netherlands or Belgium.

4 elephants are OK after circus truck wrecks in Miss.

JACKSON, Miss.

A circus official says a truck pulling a trailer full of elephants ran off an interstate in Mississippi over the weekend, but the four pachyderms and the driver weren’t harmed.

Renee Storey, an executive with Cole Brothers Circus of the Stars, said the elephants were being transported from Alabama to Louisiana on Sunday night when the truck went off Interstate 10 and ran down an embankment.

Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Johnny Poulos said the truck driver reported another vehicle forced him off the interstate. The truck was disabled, but the trailer wasn’t seriously damaged and later was towed it to its intended destination at circus grounds in Hammond, La.

Storey says the four elephants were calm and playful Monday after their arrival in Louisiana.

Michigan ‘Batman’ says he has good intentions

PETOSKEY, Mich.

A Michigan man is facing charges for his effort to keep an eye on his community while wearing a Batman outfit.

Mark Wayne Williams tells the Petoskey News-Review that dressing in costume is his way of saying “it’s not up to the government to save us.”

He’s due in court Thursday.

State troopers arrested the 33-year-old Sept. 29 because they say he refused to leave them alone while they searched for a driver who fled an accident. Williams was charged with resisting and obstructing police in an investigation.

It’s not Williams’ first brush with the law as the caped crusader. He was arrested last year after police received a report of a man dressed as Batman on the roof of a Petoskey business.

Associated Press