ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Police: Man baked potato, raked leaves during break-in

HOBBS, N.M.

A New Mexico man is facing charges after police say he walked into an unlocked home, stole car keys and stunned a resident who found him baking a potato and raking leaves.

Patrick Lynn Waits, 45, was arrested June 2 after a bizarre chain of events that confused residents of a Hobbs home, the Hobbs News-Sun reported.

A female resident awoke to noise in her kitchen, and found Waits purportedly wiping down a countertop and baking a potato in her microwave oven, police said. “She asked him what he was doing there, and he told her he was making a potato,” according to a police report.

When told to leave, a criminal complaint says Waits walked outside and left his potato in the microwave.

The report said Waits then went outside to rake leaves in the front yard.

The female resident convinced Waits to stay by saying she wanted to pay him for his service, police said. The move was apparently a ploy to get Waits to stay long enough before authorities arrived, police said.

Waits was found stumbling while walking, and he slurred when he talked, officials said.

Waits was arrested on burglary and unlawful-entry charges. He also faces several felony warrants for failure to appear in court.

It was not known if Waits had an attorney.

Fake orca nearly drowns before it can scare Oregon sea lions

PORTLAND, Ore.

When a 32-foot replica killer whale buzzed through the water to scare off hundreds of sea lions piled on Oregon docks, onlookers cheered. And then the dummy orca went belly-up.

The motorized fiberglass orca was brought to the seaside town of Astoria on June 4 as a sort of maritime Clint Eastwood called upon to deal with ne’er-do-wells, in this case sea lions crowding onto docks and making it difficult for locals to access their boats.

But the orca’s first day on the job was a flop.

About 1,000 people cheered as the dummy whale – with its human operator inside – took to the water. Jim Knight, executive director of the Port of Astoria, said sea lions that were crowded onto the docks became “deathly silent.”

But as a cargo ship passed by, the phony orca started to list from the vessel’s wake. And then the bogus orca capsized.

“Our crew from the port had to go rescue the operator so he didn’t drown,” Knight said.

So what did the sea lions think about this spectacle?

“They probably think it’s dead now that it’s belly-up,” Knight said. “You can’t make this stuff up.”

Associated Press