Friday, July 25, 2014
oddly enough
Employee accused of using company check to pay prostitute
SLIDELL, La.
Police in a New Orleans suburb say a health-food store worker is accused of using a $200 company check to pay a prostitute after a back-room encounter.
Surveillance cameras showed it all. That’s what Slidell Police spokesman Detective Daniel Seuzeneau said in a news release. It all came to light when the store’s manager reviewed surveillance footage after finding that a company check was missing.
Seuzeneau said 24-year-old Charles West remained jailed last Thursday after being booked on charges of theft, forgery and soliciting prostitution.
Seuzeneau said he did not know whether West has an attorney.
Police say they plan to arrest the woman for prostitution once they identify her.
Chief Randy Smith said, “We can’t make this stuff up. ... I’m at a loss for words! This is unbelievable.”
Plane lands on NY highway for 2nd time
EAST MORICHES, N.Y.
A New York pilot who landed his disabled plane on a highway for the second time in several days said he’s lucky to have escaped unhurt and thankful he didn’t hit anyone.
Frank Fierro, 75, said he was “shaking” as he glided the single-engine Challenger ultralight plane to a landing on the eastbound lanes of Sunrise Highway just before 1 p.m.
Fierro landed the same plane in a nearby median July 10.
Police said Fierro was flying the plane for the first time since an incident two weeks ago.
Both times it developed engine trouble, forcing Fierro to find a makeshift runway before he could get back to Spadaro Airport in East Moriches.
“I was hoping to stop in the same spot, but on the median there was a truck,” Fierro said. “I was hoping they would move; when they didn’t, I snapped the controls and moved over to the right and went on the highway.”
Fierro said he hesitated to land on the highway, a heavily traveled east-west thoroughfare from the New York suburbs to the Hamptons on the south shore of Long Island.
“The last thing I would want to do is hit a family in a car,” he said. “A beautiful family with children stopped right behind me.”
Fierro said despite the close calls he’ll keep flying. He cited Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot who landed a passenger jet on New York’s Hudson River after a bird struck an engine, as inspiration.
Plus, he said, he’s got luck on his side and, possibly, a higher power for a co-pilot.
“I think someone up there is paying attention to me,” Fierro said. “And that means a lot.”
Associated Press