ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Ky. pastor wants snakes that were confiscated in Tennessee

MIDDLESBORO, Ky.

An eastern Kentucky pastor wants Tennessee wildlife officials to return five venomous snakes confiscated in Knoxville.

Gregory Coots, who’s known as Jamie Coots, is pastor of at the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name Church in Middlesboro. Coots handles the snakes as part of worship services.

He told WYMT-TV in Hazard he bought three rattlesnakes and two copperheads in Alabama on Jan. 31. While he was driving through Knoxville, police stopped Coots for dark window tinting and saw the cages containing the snakes. A state wildlife officer confiscated them.

The district attorney general’s office in Knoxville says Coots is charged with illegally possessing and transporting wildlife.

Coots was similarly charged in Kentucky in 2008. He said he now has a permit for snakes in Kentucky.

Man sentenced to attend church is charged again

SANDY HOOK, Ky.

An Elliott County man whose unusual theft sentence sent him to church has again been charged with stealing.

After James Nickell told a judge he stole from First Baptist Church in Sandy Hook, the judge let him choose his sentence. The choices were a year in jail or to attend worship services at the church for six weeks and walk in front of the church building wearing a sign that read “I stole from this church.” The church is across from Nickell’s home.

WKYT-TV in Lexington reported Nickell chose attending church, but authorities have now arrested him on another theft charge. He’s charged with theft by unlawful taking under $500.

Swedish ice pole-sitting contest has 6 winners

STOCKHOLM

Six contestants have braved butt-numbing cold and boredom to win an annual ice pole-sitting contest in northern Sweden.

Two women and four men shared the $3,100 prize for remaining on 8.25-foot-tall blocks of ice during the 48-hour contest, which ended Saturday.

Competitors said the worst part of the competition was not the cold — temperatures dipped below -18 degrees Fahrenheit — but the monotony, even though they were allowed to come down for 10-minute toilet breaks every other hour.

Organizer Annica Andersson said the contest has taken place annually for a dozen years and was brought to the Swedish town of Vilhelmnina by a resident who had participated in a similar competition in Russia.

Associated Press