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RUFF RIDE: FLORIDA DOG BUMPS CAR INTO MOTION, GETS SOLO TRIP
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) — Florida authorities say they responded to a rogue vehicle spinning in reverse around a suburban cul-de-sac with a lone occupant inside: a Black Labrador.
News outlets report residents called police Thursday after seeing the dog trapped and clambering around in the car as it spun in circles in a Port St. Lucie neighborhood.
Police say they think the dog’s owner stepped away from the running car and that’s when the pet knocked it into reverse. A neighbor says she watched the furry speed racer take out a mailbox and a trash can.
The neighbor says the dog was in high spirits after being rescued, saying the dog jumped out of the car, wagging his tail.
Police stopped the joyride by punching a passcode into the driver’s door. No one was hurt.
BORDER AGENTS SEIZE 154 POUNDS OF BOLOGNA AT TEXAS CROSSING
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — No baloney: U.S. border agents seized more than 150 pounds of bologna from a driver entering the country from Mexico.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says that the driver told agents at the El Paso crossing Thursday that he had rolls of frozen turkey ham in his pickup truck. Upon further inspection, though, the agents determined that it was 154 pounds of Mexican bologna, which is made of pork.
The agency says the driver was released but the bologna was seized and destroyed. It says bologna can’t be carried across the border because it could introduce foreign animal diseases to the domestic pork industry.
ALASKA MAN ARRESTED AFTER DRUGS FOUND IN SPOILED GOAT GUTS
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A 71-year-old Alaska man has been arrested after being caught with $400,000 in illegal drugs hidden inside spoiled goat intestines at an Alaska airport.
Authorities say Cenen Placencia of Kodiak was arrested last week at Anchorage’s international airport.
Court documents say investigators searched a large fish box Placencia had checked as luggage.
The affidavit says loosely wrapped frozen meat, which had partially thawed and smelled of spoiled meat was inside the fish box. A police dog detected the presence of drugs and investigators found packages inside with about 740 grams of heroin and 389 grams of methamphetamine. According to the affidavit, Placencia told investigators he had packed the bag himself and denied knowing about the drugs. He told investigators he bought the goat intestines for $140 from a California rancher for his own consumption. But, Placencia had been on the legal radar since last February. Authorities also searched his home and seized about 247 grams of heroin and 13 grams of crystal methamphetamine.
Placencia was arraigned Friday on a charge of possession with intent to distribute controlled substances.
WILD COWS RETURNED HOME AFTER HURRICANE
CAPE LOOKOUT, N.C. (AP) — A trio of castaway wild cows have returned home after being found on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, where they apparently washed up after swimming for miles to escape Hurricane Dorian’s storm surge.
The Raleigh News & Observer reports that the cows were returned to their native stomping grounds on Friday after a two-day operation.
Officials think the stranded cows swam about 5 miles during the September storm before being found near Cape Lookout this month. The cows belong to a herd that roams freely on Cedar Island, across the sound.
When Dorian generated an 8-foot “mini tsunami,” it washed them and dozens of other animals away, including 28 wild horses that died.
POLICE: $1M IN DIAMONDS TAKEN DURING MAUI HALLOWEEN HEIST
LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — An insurance company is offering a $50,000 reward to help find a masked man in a full-length black gown who stole more than $1 million in diamonds from a Hawaii jewelry store on Halloween.
Maui police say the gowned and masked man also wore black gloves to rob Greenleaf Diamonds in Lahaina at gunpoint.
Police say there were no customers inside when he brandished the pistol and demanded three items from the display case. Police say he stole a pink diamond valued at $240,000, diamond stud earrings valued at $378,000 and a platinum “fancy light pink” diamond valued at $450,000.
Jewelers Mutual Insurance Company is offering the reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction. The company will also pay 10% of the cost of any merchandise recovered through the information provided.
CARCASS OF GIANT BLUE WHALE BROUGHT TO SURFACE FOR STUDY
NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) — The carcass of a giant blue whale that’s been submerged off the Oregon coast for more than three years is being hauled to the surface so it can be reassembled, then studied and put on public display.
Oregon State University said Friday that the dead whale washed ashore near Gold Beach, Oregon in 2015.
It’s extremely rare for a blue whale to wash ashore intact, as the creatures can be the length of two school buses.
Scientists removed 58 tons of its flesh and then placed the bones in the water off Newport, Oregon so scavengers could pick them clean.
The university says the 365 bones were brought back to land Thursday, including 18-foot-long mandibles and a skull weighing 6,500 pounds.
Researchers estimate that it will take a year to reassemble the whole whale’s skeleton.
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