Weird

KODIAK, Alaska (AP) - Dozens of fly swatters bearing logos of collegiate and professional sports teams have been washing up on the beaches of an Alaska island.

 

     The fly swatters found on Kodiak were believed to be debris from last year's Japanese earthquake and tsunami. But the Kodiak Daily Mirror reports that they are from a shipping container that went overboard almost four months ago.

 

     Team Sports America received word that the container ship carrying its products from China lost several shipping containers after a rogue wave hit the vessel in a storm. A cable on the ship broke and a whole row of containers got loose in the Pacific Ocean.

 

     It is likely the containers were on the Cosco Yokohama, a container vessel traveling from Asia to Prince Rupert, British Columbia.

 

 

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Police say a New York man who refused to pay a $12 taxi fare was carrying more than $5,000 when the cabbie drove him around looking for cheap cigarettes.

 

The Post-Standard of Syracuse reports that a 68-year-old man had the driver take him to two stores on Monday. Each time he came out empty-handed, saying the price of cigarettes was too high.

 

When the man had the cabbie take him to a third store, the driver asked for the $12.40 fare. The passenger refused to pay and told the cabbie to call police over the issue.

 

According to the newspaper, the arrest report says the man became uncooperative. Police handcuffed him and searched his pockets, finding more than $5,000 in cash.

 

The man is now charged with theft of services.

 

 REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) - The Ice Cream Store on Rehoboth Beach is debuting 21 new flavors for summer including one that customers will have to sign a waiver to try.

 

     The Daily Times of Salisbury reports that the flavor is the new ghost pepper ice cream, which has three ghost pepper hot sauces added to it. 

 

     Other new flavors include Cereal Milk, Zombie, Traffic Jam and Third Trimester, a peanut butter ice cream with bananas and chocolate swirl. One flavor that may raise eyebrows is the new Crack flavor, vanilla ice cream with pasteurized egg yolk, butter and sea salt.

 

     With the addition of the new flavors customers will have nearly 90 flavors to choose from at the store on Rehoboth Avenue.

 

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Tennessee police are apologizing after arresting a man for using a $50 bill they thought was fake but that turned out to be real.

 

Police in Shelbyville thought the bill was counterfeit after a convenience store clerk called them. The clerk said a marker used to detect false money didn't show the bill was real.

 

The Shelbyville Times-Gazette reported Officer Brock Horner arrested Lorenzo Gaspar on Friday.

 

But a police evidence technician told the arresting officer that some old bills don't react to the markers. So police gave the money to two banks to check, and they said it was real but just very old.

 

Gaspar was released from jail and police apologized to him.

GADSDEN, Ala. (AP) - An Alabama police chief says he recently discovered that his department has two unmanned aerial vehicles.

 

Gadsden Police Chief John Crane tells The Gadsden Times he learned two weeks ago the department has had the unmanned aerial vehicles since 2010.

 

The revelation came to light after the Federal Aviation Administration released a list of agencies certified to fly drones and unmanned aerial vehicles. The Gadsden Police Department was on the list.

 

Crane, who was named police chief in February, says he doesn't know why they were purchased. The cost was about $150,000, paid through a federal law enforcement grant.

 

Crane says the department's UAVs, which have video surveillance capability, haven't been used because there hasn't been a need for them.

 

AMESBURY, Mass. (AP) - A Massachusetts woman who got a bill for $73 from the state of New Jersey for a decades-old debt says she has no intention of paying.

 

Alice Mainville, of Amesbury, got a letter recently telling her she owes New Jersey's Department of Labor $73 because it gave her too much money in an unemployment check 35 years ago.

 

Mainville tells the Daily News of Newburyport she collected unemployment during a labor dispute at the bakery where she worked when she was 17.

 

Mainville, who moved to Massachusetts after high school, says she won't pay because New Jersey officials have not explained how they concluded she owes the money.

 

New Jersey Department of Labor spokeswoman Kerri Gatling says there is no bad debt "write-off" in unemployment insurance law.