oddly enough

oddly enough

Caretaker’s death ends old whiskey-theft case

GREENSBURG, PA.

The former live-in caretaker of a Pittsburgh-area mansion has died, ending criminal charges that he drank more than $102,000 worth of old whiskey that he was supposed to be guarding.

A district judge last year ordered 63-year-old John Saunders of Irwin to stand trial after hearing testimony from the owner of the South Broadway Manor Bed and Breakfast.

But the Tribune-Review reports Saunders died July 21, ending the case.

The mansion’s owner, Patricia Hill, told police she had found nine 12-bottle cases of whiskey hidden in the century-old mansion built by industrialist J.P. Brennan after she bought it in 2011.

According to court records, Hill hired Saunders that March to care for the property, which would have included safeguarding the whiskey. But when Hill went to have the pre-Prohibition Old Farm Pure Rye Whiskey appraised in March 2012, she discovered 52 empty bottles, on which police said they later found DNA from Saunders’ saliva.

The whiskey was produced in 1912 and bottled in 1917 by the West Overton Distilling Co. and was appraised at more than $2,000 a bottle.

Utah nude sunbather to fight lewdness charges

FARMINGTON, Utah

A 76-year-old man who police say was sunbathing nude in his backyard next to a church parking lot in Utah has pleaded not guilty to lewdness charges.

The Standard-Examiner of Ogden reports that Myron Lee Kipp was in a Farmington, Utah, court Tuesday. Kipp pleaded not guilty to four counts of lewdness involving a child and three counts of lewdness.

Court documents show a police officer called to Kipp’s house by neighbors March 5 could see the man from the church parking lot. The backyard fence is chain link with no privacy slats.

When confronted, a completely nude Kipp told the officer it was his property and he could do what he wanted.

No joke: Chicken crossing the road blocks traffic

PORTLAND, Ore.

Portland, Ore., police were told there was a chicken — and it was attempting to cross the road.

In fact, the citizen who called the police nonemergency line Monday evening reported that the chicken’s efforts to cross a road in a north Portland neighborhood were bringing traffic nearly to a standstill.

He assured the dispatcher he was not joking.

The dispatcher chuckled — and asked a clarifying question.

“It’s just the one chicken?”

The caller said yes.

Sgt. Pete Simpson says responding officers were unable to locate the chicken.

And so, he notes, police “were unable to determine the chicken’s intent.”

Associated Press