oddly enough

oddly enough

All 18 taxis in NH city pulled off road

MANCHESTER, N.H.

Odds are you won’t get a cab in New Hampshire’s largest city after police sidelined all 18 licensed taxis for inspection failures or failing to show up for inspection.

Seventeen cabs in Manchester were cited for mechanical violations. The 18th was sidelined for failing to show up.

Police Lt. Maureen Tessier said Tuesday six of the 18 cabs had such severe defects including conditions that could compromise their brakes inspectors pulled their registrations and they had to be towed.

Queen City Taxi has surrendered its operating permits to the city clerk’s office. The taxi that wasn’t inspected belongs to Manchester Taxi Dispatch. The companies haven’t commented.

Tessier says officials appreciate the inconvenience to those among the city’s 110,000 residents who rely on taxis and will work with the companies to get the taxis back on the road.

Long Island cat found in Times Square

NEW YORK

It took a zombie to find Disaster at the Crossroads of the World.

Two years after he disappeared from his Long Island home, Disaster the cat was found last week in the heart of Manhattan — by a Times Square haunted-house promoter dressed up as a zombie.

Jeremy Zelkowitz, who sells tickets for the Times Scare haunted house, spotted Disaster last week crossing 42nd Street. He snatched up Disaster, a black and white cat who appeared to be well-kept and neat, and brought him to a nearby animal hospital. “I’m a big animal lover, but I have a dog, so I couldn’t take him,” Zelkowitz, 22, said. “The whole situation is very, very bizarre.”

Staff at the Blue Pearl Veterinary Partners animal hospital scanned Disaster, who had been implanted with a microchip, revealing his last known owner: New York City police Officer Jimmy Helliesen.

Helliesen, 51, received a call Saturday morning from the hospital, informing him that his long-lost feline friend had been found.

“I was shocked,” Helliesen said. “How did he get to Manhattan? That’s quite an adventure.”

For years, Helliesen has adopted stray cats he finds hanging around his Brooklyn precinct. Two years ago, he adopted Disaster after he strayed from the precinct and ended up getting captured by local Animal Care and Control. That’s when Helliesen got him fixed and implanted with the chip.

But six months after living in his Long Island home, Disaster escaped one day through an open window and never returned.

Helliesen never thought he’d get the cat back — and has since taken in eight more cats he’s found around the precinct that need homes.

“Disaster makes it nine,” he said. “My wife has been very understanding.”

Associated Press