oddly enough

oddly enough

Leg lamp stolen from New York store’s display

NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y.

Who took the leg lamp belonging to Ralphie’s “Old Man” from a New York store’s annual tribute to “A Christmas Story”?

The owner of the Yankee Spirits liquor store in North Tonawanda said his annual window display honoring the holiday classic includes memorabilia from the 1983 film, including several versions of the now-iconic leg lamp.

The store’s surveillance video shows a man in a gray hoodie and sunglasses walking into the store and glancing around before he grabs a large leg lamp and leaves.

Store owner Gary Brennan told Buffalo’s WIVB-TV even his customers are angry about the theft.

In the movie, Ralphie’s father wins a prize that turns out to be a garish lamp in the shape of a woman’s leg in a fishnet stocking. Ralphie’s mother “accidentally” breaks it, leaving the Old Man heartbroken.

Loose black bear eludes capture in Phoenix suburb

MESA, Ariz.

Authorities called off the search Monday for a black bear that was spotted running through an alfalfa farm on the eastern edge of metropolitan Phoenix.

Still, officials plan to relocate the young bear to a more suitable habitat if they come across it in the future. “The best-case scenario is that we tranquilize it and move it,” said Amy Burnett, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

The encounter in Mesa marks a rarity for a metro area that officials say has a bear sighting reported once every two years. The Phoenix metro area is considered a poor food source for bears.

TV news helicopters that captured footage of the bear running across rows of green fields had helped push the animal toward a game warden bearing a tranquilizer gun. The warden wasn’t able to get a good shot.

In the end, the animal proved elusive. It ran into a former General Motors test site that contained fields, shrubbery and trees and is too big of an area to track.

New Jersey Christmas tree controlled by tweets

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J.

Twitter users anywhere in the world can control the lights on a holiday display in New Jersey.

Tweets will turn on a 9-foot Christmas tree, menorah and more than 1,000 LED lights at Oxford Communications in Lambertville. Tweets also turn them off.

The company says it designed the display with the intention to help charities, towns and businesses to develop awareness and fundraising campaigns.

Tweet #brilliant#twinkle to @Oxmas—Tree to light the display, and tweet #figgyypudding to turn them off.

Associated Press