ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Camel, teen driver collide far from desert on Ala. road

SARDIS, Ala.

Far from the desert, a teenage driver collided with a camel on an Alabama road, injuring the driver and animal.

Sardis Police Chief James Harp tells The Gadsden Times that the camel’s owner was leading it across the road when the crash happened Sept. 12.

The police chief said camel owner Terry Turk waved his arms to get the driver’s attention and leaped out of the way to avoid the car. But the camel crashed onto the hood, showering glass onto the driver, who was treated for minor injuries.

The chief said the camel had to be euthanized.

Harp said Turk operates Turk’s Bama Bucks, which breeds deer. The company’s website says its farm has been home to other animals such as kangaroos and elk.

Snakes alive! Missing pythons on the loose

HEPHZIBAH, Ga.

In a real-life version of the children’s reader “Snakes Alive!,” state wildlife officers are searching for 14 pythons in an east Georgia subdivision after a woman reported that someone let the pet snakes loose.

Jacqueline Heim told authorities the snakes were in secure cages. She suspects someone set them free.

Heim told WRDW-TV the ball pythons are not harmful. Ball pythons, sometimes known as royal pythons, are so named because their key defense against predators is to roll up in a ball.

Priscilla Crisler of Augusta Animal Services says the snakes “typically are very docile.”

But neighbors like Shekelia Wilcher are on edge. Wilcher told WJBF-TV that young children in the neighborhood wait for their school bus and “one might just crawl up on them.”

Force awakened: Dressed as Darth Vader, man slays galaxy garbage

BLACKSBURG, Va.

A Virginia man troubled by litter along the highway has decided it’s time for the empire to strike back.

WSLS-TV reported that Henry Wakley of Blackburg on Thursday dressed as the “Star Wars” character Darth Vader while cleaning a stretch of highway that he “adopted” through the Adopt-a-Highway program.

Wakley says he’s disturbed by the amount of garbage along the roadway, and likes to get out and dress up because it makes people smile as they drive by. As he picked up garbage along a 1.5 mile stretch, many drivers honked, waved or even stopped by to take a picture.

Wakley says it’s a fun way to bring awareness to the environment.

Associated Press