ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Police: Thief stole bucket of gold flakes worth $1.6M

NEW YORK

Police in New York City are looking for a quick-thinking thief who stole an 86-pound bucket of gold flakes worth nearly $1.6 million off an armored truck in Manhattan.

The unidentified thief swiped the 5-gallon metal bucket off the back of the vehicle Sept. 29 when a guard briefly went to the truck’s cab to reportedly retrieve his cellphone.

The incident occurred in broad daylight on West 48th Street in Midtown Manhattan.

Security video shows the black bucket on a pallet inside the open back door of the truck. The man looks around, approaches the truck and lifts the bucket out.

Two men are standing on the sidewalk beside the truck, engaged in animated conversation, and don’t appear to notice the man with the bucket walking past them.

Lots of other pedestrians and vehicles stream past as he heads down the sidewalk with one arm wrapped around the bucket and his other hand beneath it.

At one point, he sets it down at the curb, takes a breather for a few seconds, then hoists it again and steps into the street.

Police say it took the thief an hour to complete what would normally be considered a 10-minute walk. He then hopped into a white van and fled.

Police say the suspect likely didn’t know what the bucket contained.

The suspect is believed to be hiding out in Florida.

Friendly otter jumps onto kayak, joins man’s birthday celebration

MOSS LANDING, Calif.

A friendly otter joined a couple celebrating a birthday in Northern California by jumping into one of their kayaks and making itself at home, rolling around and even nibbling on some shoes.

Heather VanNes said recently she and her husband, John Koester, were celebrating his birthday in a slough near Moss Landing and had just gotten in the water when they spotted a raft of otters.

They went by to watch them from a distance of at least 50 feet when one of the otters began swimming toward her husband’s kayak and jumped right onto it.

Koester says the otter plopped into the front of the boat, rolled around, scratched his belly and ears and nibbled on rope and his shoes.

He says it appeared the otter “was having a good time.”

Koester says the otter was at least 80 pounds and stayed on the kayak for at least 10 minutes until. After he started paddling, the otter jumped back into the water.

Associated Press