ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Man practicing Parkour falls 40 feet down chimney

DENVER

A 26-year-old man says he was making an action video with friends when he fell 40 feet down the chimney of a downtown Denver apartment building.

Dustin Hinkle tells KCNC-TV that he and a couple of friends were making a Parkour video on the roof of the Denver City Lofts recently when he fell through a chimney cover. Parkour involves moving from point to point using obstacles along the way.

Hinkle plummeted down the old incineration chimney until a cable caught his fall. He was stuck for nearly two hours until firefighters broke through a brick wall to get him out.

Hinkle, who along with his friends faces a trespassing charge, says he thought he was going to die.

The Denver Post reported that jail records show Hinkle is 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 170 pounds.

American flag has 51 stars for Pence visit to EU

BRUSSELS

The Star-Spangled Banner looked more starry than usual during one of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s appearances in Brussels.

A background picture of the American flag that went up alongside the European Union flag as Pence and EU leader Donald Tusk spoke Feb. 20 had 51 stars instead of the usual 50, one for each state.

The Brussels version of the flag had three rows of nine stars and three rows with eight stars each. American flags typically feature a total of nine alternating rows of five or six stars

The EU flag featuring 12 stars in a circle against a blue background was configured correctly. And the American flag had the right number of stripes – 13.

The EU Council did not immediately respond when asked about the error with the misplaced star-state.

Follow that horse: Police track manure to culprit

BERLIN

Police in Bavaria say they were able to track down a man responsible for a hit-and-run by following the hoof prints and manure left behind by the horse pulling his carriage.

Police in Grafenrheinfeld said the 78-year-old man scraped a car parked at the side of the road recently as he trotted through the town near Schweinfurt, the dpa news agency reported. The man continued on without reporting the accident, but an eyewitness reported the incident to police. Police say the trail of hoof prints and manure led them to the suspect’s stable, and he confessed the accident when confronted.

He’s responsible for about $2,100 in damage.

Associated Press