ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Jail time for Mass. woman who bit off officer’s ear

SALEM, Mass.

A Massachusetts woman who bit off a portion of a rookie police officer’s ear during her arrest outside a bar has been sentenced to four years in jail.

The Boston Herald reported that 19-year-old Emma Wiley was sentenced Jan. 18 after pleading guilty to assault and battery on a police officer and mayhem.

The Marblehead woman was also sentenced to three years’ probation.

Prosecutors say Patrolwoman Jessica Rondinelli responded to reports of a fight outside a Salem bar in August. While Rondinelli was putting Wiley in a cruiser, Wiley bit off a piece of the officer’s ear. Doctors were unable to re-attach it. Rondinelli had been on the force for just a few weeks.

Wiley’s lawyer says his client has mental health issues and feels “sincere remorse.”

Passengers scream as Fla. alligator leaps into airboat

MIAMI

A Missouri couple vacationing in Florida had a close encounter with an alligator when it leapt into their airboat and became wedged in the boat’s railing.

Passengers screamed as 30-year-old Tylor Hindery of Springfield, Mo., captured the moment in a Facebook live video posted Jan. 17.

Hinderey told the Miami Herald he talked his wife, Emerald, into an airboat ride.

The guide killed the engine and floated close to the bank so people could photograph the gator.

But Hinderey says the boat got stuck. The guide didn’t want to start the engine and scare the gator so he prepared to push off the bank. Just as he warned passengers not to make any sudden movements, the gator jumped into the boat. The gator eventually slid in to the water. No one was hurt.

‘The Hobbit’ book returned after 38-year journey

ITHACA, N.Y.

A hardbound edition of “The Hobbit” is back on the shelves at a New York library nearly 40 years after it was checked out by a reader who traveled the world as a Marine.

Bob James told WSTM-TV in Syracuse that he checked out the J.R.R. Tolkien book from the Tompkins County Public Library in Ithaca before enlisting in the Marines in 1979.

The book became so popular with his fellow Marines that there was a waiting list. James believes the book was passed along to Marines and sailors serving aboard at least eight different ships in the western Pacific.

He brought the book home after getting out of the Marines and held onto it until Monday, when he returned it to the library.

The library didn’t charge him any late fees.

Associated Press