ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Heroin-stuffed teddy bear is focus of police probe

ATHENS, Ga.

Police are trying to learn who shipped a teddy bear — with heroin hidden inside — from Mexico to northeast Georgia.

A woman told Athens-Clarke County police that she received the bear last week, in an unexpected package from Mexico.

The Athens Banner-Herald reports that the woman opened the package, saw an old teddy bear and called police because she suspected something dangerous might be inside.

An officer who examined the toy found something hard within the stuffing, then noticed a slit in the back of its neck. He pulled out a plastic bag with some type of powder. A drug-task-force member later determined the powder was heroin.

Police are trying to determine where the heroin came from and whether someone else was the intended recipient.

Police: Man calls 911 after injury during break-in

LOUISVILLE, Ky.

Police in Louisville, Ky., say a man called 911 after falling from a ladder and breaking his leg in the middle of a home break-in.

The Courier-Journal reported Monday that, according to an arrest warrant, emergency workers found 34-year-old Kenneth Dewhawn Splunge inside a house.

Louisville police in the warrant say Splunge last week climbed a fence and onto a roof before trying to get inside a home by kicking out a skylight. Police say Splunge dropped the ladder through the opening, but fell and broke his leg while climbing down.

Splunge was taken to a hospital. He was arrested and charged with second-degree burglary at the hospital later.

He was being held in jail a $2,500 cash bond. Jail records did not list an attorney.

Pets vie for mayor in fundraiser

DIVIDE, Colo.

The chief operating officer at the Teller County Regional Animal Shelter in Colorado knows she’s not supposed to have favorites, but she wants soulful-eyed bloodhound Pa Kettle to be mayor.

This unincorporated mountain town of Divide doesn’t have a human mayor. In all, 11 animals are competing for the unofficial title in an online race to raise funds for the shelter, and awareness for groups such as Teller County Search and Rescue, for whom Pa Kettle works.

Each vote means $1 for the shelter, and voters click from around the country.

Voting began in February, and chief operating officer Mary Steinbeiser says about $9,000 had been raised by Monday. That will pay for scores of spaying or neutering operations.

Steinbeiser says she likes Pa Kettle because she’s a fan of hounds.

Associated Press