ODDLY ENOugh

ODDLY ENOugh

Dog-walker has close call with coconut cannon

BERLIN

A dog walker in the German capital can be thankful he turned out to be a fruitless target after his close call with a coconut cannon.

The man was walking in an industrial area recently when he heard a bang and a ball-shaped projectile flew past him, hitting a nearby lamppost.

Berlin police say officers called to the scene were surprised to find a large homemade cannon capable of shooting coconuts at high speeds with compressed air.

A 23-year-old man told officers he had helped to build the cannon for an art project in the Antarctic and wanted to test it before it was shipped.

Police said they impounded the cannon, and prosecutors are investigating whether it breaches arms- control laws.

Boulder that caused dispute could become landmark

GREENUP, Ky.

A boulder that was at the center of a three-year dispute between Kentucky and Ohio may be getting a new home where the public can view it.

The Independent reports officials in eastern Kentucky will seek grant money to build a gazebo in South Shore where the 8-ton boulder known as Indian Head Rock can be placed.

The rock was a well-known landmark on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River before it was removed in 2007 by a group who took it to Portsmouth, Ohio, saying it needed to be protected. Kentucky sued to get it back. The rock was returned to Kentucky in 2010 and was put in storage.

2 charged in fight over shoveled parking spot

ASHLAND, Pa.

State troopers have charged two Pennsylvania women with disorderly conduct for a hair-pulling fight that erupted over a newly shoveled parking spot on a snowy street.

Troopers in Schuylkill County say a 23-year-old woman claimed she shoveled the spot only to have her 43-year-old neighbor’s husband park his pickup in it. It happened in Ashland borough recently. The region took the brunt of that day’s winter storm.

Police say the women argued about the parking space before pushing and punching one another, and then pulling each other’s hair.

Both have been charged with disorderly conduct.

Associated Press