oddly enough

oddly enough

Fire set to scare off opossums destroys house

LANCASTER, Pa.

A Pennsylvania man trying to scare away opossums by setting a fire has destroyed his home.

LNP reports the row house blaze May 3 in Lancaster began when a man used butane to light a pile of leaves in his backyard. The man apparently hoped the smoke would help rid him of the marsupials, which are known for playing dead.

A city fire marshal says the fire got out of control and spread to the home, which was built of wood.

The building was condemned. Three people were displaced as a result of the fire, which did $50,000 in damage. A firefighter required hospital treatment for a shoulder injury.

Officials say the man also had problems with bees.

Lost cellphone tracked to New Jersey garbage dump

CAMDEN, N.J.

A boy’s lost cellphone ended up in a New Jersey garbage dump and survived.

Ethan Roncace’s phone recently got thrown away at a high school in Haddon Township.

His father, Craig, told WCAU-TV in Philadelphia he used an app to track the phone and saw it was on the move. The signal led the family to the Covanta waste-to-energy facility in Camden.

He suited up and started digging through a mountain of trash. He recovered the phone in 30 minutes, and it still worked.

Workers were close to dumping the trash into a 50-foot-high and 25-foot-deep pile of garbage.

Covanta’s Rich Harrington says there’s a little better than 50 percent success rate when they can identify the trash truck.

Smitten with mistress, elected official lands in jail

NORTHPORT, Mich.

An elected official in a small Michigan town is serving a 90-day jail sentence after he was accused of forging documents to impress an overseas mistress.

Charles Rogers is a member of the village council in Northport, north of Traverse City. Authorities say he created divorce documents with forged signatures of court officials and sent them to a woman in London.

The Traverse City Record-Eagle says the woman contacted Rogers’ wife, who reached out to police. Rogers pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and began a jail sentence in February in Leelanau County.

Northport Village President Phil Mikesell says Rogers plans to be released in time for the board’s June meeting.

Associated Press