Weird News

[VisibilityMissing]

Well, they did trust FEMA with the keys, didn't they?

Originally posted: August 14, 2006
The key to FEMA trailers

Posted by Frank James at 1:06 pm CDT

So what could be worse than having your home destroyed by a hurricane then having to live in a FEMA trailer? How about learning that the entry doors on the trailer you call home are insecure because the keys that open the doors of other trailers can also open yours?

That's the situation for some of those dispossessed by Hurricane Katrina. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has issued a press release announcing the problem and offering to replace the locks for any worried trailer residents.

Like the folks at FEMA apparently, I wasn't aware trailers were made with the same locksets. That being the case, why did the manufacturer or manufacturers even bother to put identical locks on the doors since a lock that can be opened by any number of other people with similar trailers really isn't much of a lock.

Here's the FEMA press release.

Disaster News

POTENTIAL FOR IDENTICAL LOCKSETS IN TRAILER PARKS-FEMA WORKS AGGRESSIVELY TO DETERMINE EXTENT OF PROBLEM AND SOLUTIONS

NEW ORLEANS - The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is taking immediate steps to address the potential that some industry-standard travel trailers in FEMA group site trailer parks have the same locksets.

Deputy Director of Gulf Coast Recovery Gil Jamieson said, "We are working aggressively to establish the extent of the problem and determine the best solution for the safety and security of those who now reside in these trailer units."

"We are asking residents to be extra vigilant and take precautions to secure the trailer that they occupy. As always, residents should report any suspicious activity to security or local law enforcement immediately. We encourage them to work together to promote a neighborhood watch and help ensure the safety of all residents."

FEMA has implemented an awareness campaign to inform residents of these trailers of the potential for the same key to open more than one trailer. Most importantly, FEMA is taking steps to ensure the safety and security of residents living in FEMA group trailer parks. Some of these measures include changing out existing locksets, increased vigilance by security personnel at group sites, notification of local law enforcement officials for additional surveillance, and promoting the use of neighborhood watches by residents.

Residents who would like to have their trailer locks changed should call their maintenance service provider or contact the manager of their FEMA group site trailer park. The phone number is posted inside their units.

FEMA manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, works with state and local emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.

###

Editors: For more information on Louisiana disaster recovery, visit www.fema.gov or www.ohsep.louisiana.gov.

I was struck by the press release writer's apparent attempt to minimize the problem as a "potential" one. The second paragraph is less hypothetical, acknowledging an actual problem whose scope is unknown but real.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) issued a response to FEMA's notification.

For Immediate Release

Sen. Landrieu Comments on FEMA Travel Trailer Locks
Keys revealed to open doors to other trailers.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., released the following statement today after a congressional staff briefing in which FEMA officials disclosed that doors on many FEMA-issued travel trailers may be unlocked using keys issued to other trailers.

Sen. Landrieu said:

"Today's news from FEMA is very troubling. Having lost everything to hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the devastating levee breaks that followed, Louisiana and Mississippi residents now in travel trailers rely on FEMA for their homes, their safety, and many basic living essentials. While this development certainly adds to a long list of oversights lost in the dysfunctional bureaucracy of the agency, I'm encouraged that FEMA has already begun to take steps to ensure the security of the residents entrusted to it."

- 30 -

While the senator adds this lock-and-key problem to the bill of particulars against FEMA she at least gives the agency credit for stepping up to it. But the question is, while FEMA deserves plenty of blame for many mistakes, like the failure to provide supplies to survivors immediately following Katrina, can this one fairly be added to the list?

If you were the bureaucrat who ordered thousands of trailers, wouldn't you just assume that the locksets would be different enough to avoid this problem, especially since FEMA has used trailers in the past to house homeless storm victims?
in Bureaucracy , FEMA

[Zaaphod]

Only in Los Angeles...

Los Angeles dogs living the lush life

by Zachary Slobig
Thu Aug 17, 1:12 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A thriving pet pampering industry offers Los Angeles' most fortunate dogs life's essentials: food, clothing, shelter and often a level of luxury some find insulting.

From nightclubs for canines and their human companions, to custom-designed dog couture fit for the runway, Los Angeles is a Shangri-La for man's best friend.

A nightclub called Skybark, held on a downtown rooftop, invites dogs and their owners to mingle and mix, while enjoying cocktails and live music.

The organizer dreamed up the event to promote his invention, PETaPOTTY, a contraption lined with sod for apartment dwelling dogs to relieve themselves.

Crunch Fitness, a Los Angeles gym, offers "Doga" classes, yoga sessions for members who want to incorporate their pets into their workout routines.

One Los Angeles progressive-reform Jewish congregation, Temple Beth Shir Shalom, celebrates "bark mitzvahs," a rite of passage of 13-year-old dogs, complete with a blessing, photographs, and a catered canine meal.

The number of US households with at least one dog has jumped by three million since 2002, and owners spent close to 35 billion dollars on their pets in 2004, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.

Los Angeles, setter of so many trends, seems to be the center of this industry, which includes clothing and baked goods.

Three Dog Bakery specializes in catered dog events and has seen its share of doggie indulgence.

"Last year I was hired for a 30,000-dollar wedding for two Labradors named Alex and Hannah at the Beverly Hills Hotel," owner Mark Bodnar told AFP.

He made a four-tiered cake for the nuptials.

"They called it bow-vows," he said.

Bodnar passed out free "pupcakes" on Friday afternoon in the newest of his three Los Angeles dog bakeries.

He frosts the miniature peanut-flavored pastries with non-fat yogurt sweetened with honey. He also offers a wheat-free variety for his food-sensitive customers.

"It's a great business because everyone that comes in here to spend on their dogs is in a good mood," said Bodnar.

He once had a customer that snatched up 650 dollars worth of "Boxer Brownies" and "Drooly Dream Bars" in one trip.

Some dog owners insist on the latest in fashion for their pets, and the boutique Fifi and Romeo offers hand-made couture for canine royalty.

Here, miniature raincoats and sweaters start in the 200-dollar range. In-house designers also produce matching garments for owner and pet for approximately 1,000 dollars.

"We are a culture that loves our animals," Los Angeles Dog Spa owner Danny Stewart told AFP.

"I used to get hate e-mail to my website from people overseas that think it a disgrace that people would spend this kind of money on a dog. People are starving out there, they'd say."

Stewart's boutique has occupied an unassuming storefront in West Hollywood for six years. Where many Los Angeles businesses proudly display photographs of star customers, the pink walls of the LA Dog Spa are filled with headshots of well coiffed canines.

The shop is open to the public, but potential clients must satisfy Stewart's discerning standards to become a regular customer.

"We keep the door locked to keep out the riff-raff," said co-owner and master groomer, Rick Edwards, as he clipped the coat of a terrier named Trixie.

"Our clients don't choose us. We choose them."

Spa clients must maintain a regular schedule of beautification or they will be blacklisted from service.

"It's like a garden," said Stewart. "If it gets too overgrown, I just can't be bothered."

"I guess here in Los Angeles, sometimes we treat dogs better than we treat people," Stewart said.

[Muninn]

Those dogs have better lives than some people do.

[VisibilityMissing]

Honey, where's the emu?!

Aug 17, 9:24 PM EDT

Wayward Emu Captured With Bread Bribe

CANTON, Conn. (AP) -- An emu that took flight - not easy for a bird that can't fly - was captured in Canton on Thursday, six weeks after it fled a West Simsbury farm with a companion that is still on the loose.

The native Australian emu, known as Louise, was busted by a dog. Patrick Sullivan, 11, heard his dog barking, went outside his Canton home and saw what he called a "huge bird."

"I came running in to tell my mom and everyone else," Patrick said. "They were shocked to see this bird standing out in our yard."

His brothers corralled the bird by leading it to a shed. The emu ran into a nearby woods, but the captors bribed it with wheat bread and it soon entered an area cordoned off by rope.

Nevin Christensen, a worker at Flamig Farm where the emu lived, arrived with four helpers. He grabbed the bird and the others used rope to secure its legs, which are known for their strong kick.

Louise was returned by truck to the farm where she "seemed sort of resigned," Christensen said.

The bird appears to be fine, he said.

One emu remains on the lam. An emu has been spotted not far from where Louise was picked up, but it's unclear if that bird was Louise or her missing compatriot.

"The saga continues," Christensen said.

[Zaaphod]

Snakes? Who cares about snakes? There are BEES on my plane!

Bees on a plane are a real-life problem

Nick Timiraos
Wall Street Journal
Aug. 17, 2006 08:21 AM

As pilot Brian Murphy prepared for a quick flight from Burbank's Bob Hope Airport to San Francisco in May, his ground crew alerted him to a problem on his Beechcraft King Air 200: A five-foot-wide blanket of bees was draped over the plane's left engine cover and many bees were finding their way into an engine compartment and even into the cockpit.

"I was just shocked," says the 36-year-old charter pilot, who raced to shut the cockpit's open vent windows. "Within just 20 minutes there were thousands of bees that had moved onto the exhaust area." He considered turning on the engines to shoo away the swarm but decided that that might make matters worse by agitating the bees.

The bewildered crew didn't know what to do, either, but the Burbank Airport Fire Department knew the drill. "I could hear them yell down into their fire shack, 'It's time to go spray the bees again,' " recalls Steven Schell, the general manager for Mercury Air Center-Burbank.

Firefighters hosed off the King Air 200 with an insecticide foam that suffocates bees. "They were dropping straight to the ground, whole big chunks of them," Mr. Murphy remembers. The bees inside the engine cover, meanwhile, came crawling out through the inner lip once the foam hit the plane. "Once they started spraying, those bees weren't ever able to fly," he says. Then the pilots vacuumed up three dozen bees that had entered the cockpit.

"Snakes on a Plane" may be the hot horror movie of the summer, but bees on planes are creating the most buzz in some aviation circles. Africanized honey bees - the infamous "killer bees" - are increasingly making unscheduled layovers at airports across the Southwest. The aggressive bees, which entered the U.S. from Mexico in the early 1990s, like to travel across open spaces and stop to rest whenever the queen gets tired. Airports have few trees or other natural rest stops. That makes planes, jetways, baggage-loading equipment, terminals and parking garages popular for stopovers.

Consequently, pilots and mechanics sometimes find thousands of bees burrowing in engine covers, clinging to cockpit windshields or swarming in the luggage compartment.

"The Africanized honeybee changed everything," says David Marder, the owner of Bee Busters, a Laguna Hills, Calif., pest-control outfit. He says that his exclusive deal with Orange County's John Wayne Airport, in Santa Ana, which he has serviced more than 20 times this year, is a big reason business has soared since the Africanized honeybee arrived in Orange County in 1996.

That is creating scenes like one that unfolded at Love Field in Dallas last April. Gordon Guillory, a 39-year-old Southwest Airlines mechanic, knew something wasn't right when he arrived at the hangar for his shift: A buzzing noise was coming not from the engine but from the tail of the Boeing 737-700.

"You really couldn't see them, but you knew there were tons of them in there because there were so many that would fly out," he says. "I've been working on airplanes for 15 years and I've never, ever seen anything like it."

The mechanics watched from a safe distance as the beekeeper smoked out and vacuumed up the bees. When the beekeeper started banging on a compartment in the tail to chase out the swarm, the mechanics became even more agitated. "The guys started yelling at him. You just can't do that. You could damage the plane," Mr. Guillory explains.

Scents and colors also attract the bees. At an airport, that can lead bees to cluster on a turboprop that's been recently cleaned with lemon air-freshener. "For whatever reason, they seem to like the smell of jet fuel, and especially the yellow color of the Southwest airplane," says Judy Alexander, senior director of operations at Tucson International Airport.

Authorities there became proactive in 1995 after a swarm on the outside of the air-traffic control tower led some stragglers into the command center. The problem "had to end there," says Ms. Alexander. "You just can't evacuate the tower." The airport installed traps that emit a bee-attracting pheromone. They capture between 60 and 80 swarms every year.

Africanized honeybees are hybrids of the African honeybee, which were imported to Brazil in 1956 by a scientist who let them escape. The bees got into the U.S. through southern Texas in 1990 and have spread throughout all of Arizona and the southern parts of California, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas. Northern expansion of the bees has slowed as they encounter colder temperatures on the high plains, but they are expected to grow along coastal corridors.

In the southwest, "they're here to stay," says Mr. Marder. And as urbanization spreads through the countryside outside Las Vegas, Phoenix and Southern California, human interaction with bees is bound to increase.

The Africanized hybrids are dangerous because they are more easily provoked and attack in large numbers. But while beekeepers warn of the dangers of disturbing a colony, they say that the idea of "killer bees" has been exaggerated. "To hear the news media, we were going to be enslaved," says Lewis West, an Anaheim, Calif., hobbyist beekeeper.

Last year, he responded to a call from a World War II aviation club that couldn't fly out of Ontario International Airport near Los Angeles because an invading swarm of 30,000 bees had invaded the gun turret in the nose of their restored B-29 bomber.

While bees don't pose a serious threat to planes, bee experts advise against the temptation to use the engines to suck in and kill a swarm of the uninvited passengers. Bees carry a small amount of honey with them when they travel, and if a jet engine ingested a swarm, "it could do some damage," says George Botta, a Las Vegas exterminator who serves on Nevada's Board of Agriculture. "It's not as bad as hitting a flock of birds, but it'd be like pouring a tank of honey into the engine."

Two years ago, he was called to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas to spray bees off the windshield of a Hawaiian Airlines plane that had been preparing to taxi for takeoff. Another time, he watched a swarm attack the conveyer belt as baggage handlers were unloading suitcases. The color black, he explains, can agitate bees, and he sprayed them off the luggage equipment. "People down at the carousel were left wondering why their luggage was wet and soapy," he says.

While the problem is mostly limited to the Southwest, the bees, as stowaways, can become an issue for everyone. In 2001, a ground crew at an airfield in Greenfield, S.C., discovered an Africanized honeybee colony inside the wing of an aircraft that had just arrived from Arizona.

And Mr. Murphy, the King Air pilot, found a similar surprise after his trip to San Francisco: Bees had melted to an exhaust stack inside the plane and hundreds more littered the floor of the engine compartment. Only a handful of the stowaways survived. "I couldn't have imagined how many bees were in there," he says. "If I had not been there to see this, I would never have believed it."

[VisibilityMissing]

Death by chocolate?

Aug 19, 2:59 AM EDT

Man Trapped Waist-Deep in Chocolate

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) -- It might sound like a chocoholic's dream, but stepping into a vat of viscous chocolate became a two-hour nightmare for a 21-year-old man Friday morning.

Darmin Garcia, an employee of a company that supplies chocolate ingredients, said he was pushing the chocolate down into the vat at Debelis Corp. because it was stuck. But it became loose and he slid into the hopper.

"It was in my hair, in my ears, my mouth, everywhere," said Garcia, who has worked at the company for two years. "I felt like I weighed 900 pounds. I couldn't move."

The chocolate was 110 degrees, hotter than a hot tub, said Capt. Greg Sinnen of the Kenosha Fire Department.

Co-workers, police and firefighters tried to free the man but couldn't get him loose until the chocolate was thinned out with cocoa butter.

"It was pretty thick. It was virtually like quicksand," said police Capt. Randy Berner.

Garcia was treated for minor injuries and released.

After more than two hours in the chocolate, does he still have a taste for it?

"Not so much anymore," Garcia said.

[Niko123000]

Don't Worry, The Chocolate Mary Will Save him.

WORKERS SEE VIRGIN MARY IN CHOCOLATE DRIPS

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. - As a chocolatier to the rich and famous, Martucci Angiano has posed with many celebrities ? but on Thursday she held in her hand a figure that dazzles her more than any Hollywood star.
ADVERTISEMENT

Workers at Angiano's gourmet chocolate company, Bodega Chocolates, discovered under a vat a 2-inch-tall column of chocolate drippings that they believe bears a striking resemblance to the Virgin Mary.

Since the discovery Monday, Angiano's employees have spent much of their time hovering over the tiny figure, praying and placing rose petals and candles around it.

"I was raised to believe in the Virgin Mary, but this still gives me the chills," Angiano said as she balanced the dark brown figure in her hand. "Everyone should see this."

Kitchen worker Cruz Jacinto was the first to spot the lump of melted chocolate when she began her shift Monday cleaning up drippings that had accumulated under a large vat of dark chocolate.

Chocolate drippings usually harden in thin, flat strips on wax paper, but Jacinto said she froze when she noticed the unusual shape of this cast-off: It looked just like the Virgin Mary on the prayer card she always carries in her right pocket.

"When I come in, the first thing I do is look at the clock, but this time I didn't look at the clock. My eyes went directly to the chocolate," said Jacinto, dressed in a hair net and apron as she paused from her work. "I thought, 'Am I the only one who can see this? I picked it up and I felt emotion just come over me. For me, it was a sign."

The chocolate, on display for most of the week in the front of the company gift shop, now rests in a plastic case in a back room and is brought out only for curious visitors.

The stack of hardened confection has a wide base and tapers gently toward a rounded top, giving the appearance of a female figure with her head tilted slightly to the right. The dark brown melting chocolate hardened into subtle layers that resemble the folds of a gown and a flowing veil.

A tiny white circle, about the size of a pencil eraser, sits in the upper center of the creation, just above a slight ridge that runs across it. Cruz says the white speck is the head of the babby Jesus as he is held in Mary's folded arms.

For Jacinto, the discovery came just in time. Raising a son on her own, she has struggled with marital problems for months and says she was about to lose her faith.

"I have big problems right now, personally, and lately I've been saying that God doesn't exist," she said, pulling the dog-eared prayer card out of her pocket. "This has given me renewed faith."

Angiano, who co-owns the 10-year-old company with her sister, has rubbed shoulders with plenty of stars in her job.

The gourmet boutique runs booths at all the big awards shows, including the Emmys, the Golden Globes, the
Oscars, the Country Music Awards and the Latin
Grammys. Pictures of Angiano with top celebrities ? and her chocolates ? line the office walls.

But this week's brush with the image of a 2,000-year-old idol has left even Angiano star-struck.

"That's our Oscar right there," she said.

___

On the Net:

Bodega Chocolates: http://www.bodegachocolates.com

[Llewthepoet]

Can we officially declare Vis Miss the king of Weird News?

[gen200]

Don't Worry, The Chocolate Mary Will Save him.

'TIS THE MARK OF THE DIVINE!!!!

JUST LOOK AT IT!!!!

LOOK AT IT!!!!!

WHY AREN'T YOU LOOKING!?!?
---
this has been a production of the Overzealous Evangelist's Alliance

[Zaaphod]

When in doubt, consult mystic dwarves.

Filipino 'dwarf' judge loses case

BBC News: Friday, 18 August 2006, 01:57 GMT 02:57 UK

A Philippines judge who said he consulted imaginary mystic dwarves has failed to convince the Supreme Court to allow him to keep his job.

Florentino Floro was appealing against a three-year inquiry which led to his removal due to incompetence and bias.

He told investigators three mystic dwarves - Armand, Luis and Angel - had helped him to carry out healing sessions during breaks in his chambers.

The court said psychic phenomena had no place in the judiciary.

The bench backed a medical finding that the judge was suffering from psychosis.

The Manila trial judge had asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the complaint and return him to the bench, after being sacked in April.

"They should not have dismissed me for what I believed," Mr Floro told reporters after filing his appeal in May.

The judge said he had made a covenant with his dwarf friends that he could write while in a trance and that he had been seen by several people in two places at the same time.

Judge Floro reportedly changed from blue court robes to black each Friday "to recharge his psychic powers".

In a letter to the court he said: "From obscurity, my name and the three mystic dwarves became immortal."

However, the Supreme Court said dalliance with dwarves would gradually erode the public's acceptance of the judiciary as the guardian of the law, if not make it an object of ridicule.

[VisibilityMissing]

Willy the Tortoise back in custody, claims that "These walls can't hold me!"

Aug 22, 7:14 AM EDT

Willy the Tortoise Comes Home

RIDGEVILLE, S.C. (AP) -- Willy the tortoise made a break for freedom - well, break may be too strong a word. It was more like a slow crawl. But after a month on the lam, the 40-pound tortoise with a 2-foot-wide, gold-colored shell is back in the wading pool at his owner's home.

Kellie Copeland-Burnup reported the tortoise escaped about July 1.

A local emergency medical services technician spotted Willy on Sunday along a rural road about five miles away. During six weeks on the run, Willy averaged .005 mph, well short of a new land speed record.

The tortoise is now inside a chain-link dog kennel in Copeland-Burnup's back yard although she knows he is capable of digging under a fence.

"I'll be keeping an eye on him," Copeland-Burnup said.

---

Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.charleston.net

---------------------------------------------

Racoons terrorize Olympia, Washington . . . D.C. presses for investigation into ties with terrorist groups.

Aug 22, 10:52 AM EDT

Psycho Killer Raccoons Terrorize Olympia

OLYMPIA, Washington (AP) -- A fierce group of raccoons has killed 10 cats, attacked a small dog and bitten at least one pet owner who had to get rabies shots, residents of Olympia say.

Some have taken to carrying pepper spray to ward off the masked marauders and the woman who was bitten now carries an iron pipe when she goes outside at night.

"It's a new breed," said Tamara Keeton, who with Kari Hall started a raccoon watch after an emotional neighborhood meeting drew 40 people. "They're urban raccoons, and they're not afraid."

Tony Benjamins, whose family lost two cats, said he got a big dog - a German Shepherd-Rottweiler mix - to keep the raccoons away.

One goal of the patrol is to get residents to stop feeding raccoons and to keep pets and pet food indoors.

Lisann Rolle said she began carrying an iron pipe when she goes outside at night after being bitten by raccoons when she tried to pull three of them off her cat Lucy. She obtained rabies shots afterward as a precaution.

"I was watching her like a hawk, but she snuck out," Rolle said. "Then I heard this hideous sound - a coyote-type high pitch ... It was vicious. They were focused on ripping her apart."

The attacks have been especially shocking because raccoons came within five feet (1 1/2 meters) of cats without any problem in previous years, Benjamins said.

"We used to love the raccoons. They'd have their babies this time of year, and they were so cute. Even though we lived in the city, it was neat to have wildlife around," he said, "but this year, things changed. They went nuts."

In one case five raccoons tried to carry off a small dog, which managed to survive.

The attacks, all within a three-block area near the Garfield Nature Trail in Olympia, are highly unusual, said Sean O. Carrell, a problem wildlife coordinator with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, adding that trappers may be summoned from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to remove problem animals.

"I've never heard a report of 10 cats being killed. It's something were going to have to monitor," Carrell said.

Meanwhile, residents have hired Tom Brown, a nuisance wildlife control operator from Rochester, Washington, to set traps, but in six weeks he has caught only one raccoon. He and Carrell said raccoons teach their young - and each other - to avoid traps.

Brown said he had seen packs of raccoons this big but none so into killing.

"They are in command up there," he said.

[Zaaphod]

Mooooose!

Man convicted based on moose DNA

Created: 8/23/2006 9:04 AM MST - Updated: 8/23/2006 7:19 PM MST

SALIDA (AP) - Authorities used moose DNA to convict a Wisconsin man of illegally killing a moose near St. Elmo.

State Division of Wildlife district manager Ron Dobson began investigating after finding a moose skull that had been dug up by a bear.

"It was obvious to me that whoever killed the moose went to a great deal of trouble to conceal the crime by burying portions of the hide and skull. If it hadn't been for the bear, the evidence might still be buried," Dobson said.

A citizen's tip pointed them to Charles Pedraza of Oshkosh, Wis., and a computer revealed he had an elk license for the period.

A search of a storage unit held by Pedraza turned up a moose pelt and photos that placed him at the scene. A DNA test confirmed they belonged to the moose whose skull was found. Pedraza then pleaded guilty.

"This case is a good example of how a citizen's tip can be combined with old-fashioned detective work and high-tech DNA evidence to solve a cold case," Dobson said. "Colorado takes poaching very seriously."

A Chaffee County judge ordered Pedraza to pay an $11,391 fine.

[Jerry Roosevelt]

You can't blame me, there were ten cats, twenty cats-- some of them had knives. I think I spotted a couple gats...guns. >_>

(Thank you, Alex Shelley. )

[VisibilityMissing]

Thief steals cross from atop church

August 24, 2006, 6:08 PM CDT

A 4-foot MEHTUL cross was stolen this week from atop a Hoffman Estates church, police and church officials said Thursday.

Thieves apparently hoisted themselves onto a one-story portion of the Alliance Fellowship Church, 665 Grand Canyon Pkwy., above a church office, and removed the cross from the highest point on the roof Tuesday night or early Wednesday, a police report and church officials said.

They removed bolts that attached the cross to the roof's peak at the southwest corner of the building, a police report said.

The cross had been on the roof for at least 30 years. When it apparently was pushed to the ground, it damaged some trees, church secretary Euiyoung Lee said Thursday.

"I have no idea who took it, it might have been school-age kids," Lee said. "I hope whoever did take it finds the meaning of the real cross in their hearts."

The church has about 620 members, Lee said. The MEHTUL cross, painted white, may have been too heavy for one person to carry, but a search of the grounds turned up nothing, Lee said.

Church officials said it will cost about $600 to replace the cross.

Copyright ? 2006, Chicago Tribune

[VisibilityMissing]

You'd think they'd check these things . . .

Metra: Rail worker failed to fill 'er up

By Virginia Groark and Courtney Flynn
Tribune staff reporters

August 25, 2006

Among the many woes of Chicago area commuters, here's a new one: The train ran out of gas.

A Chicago-bound Union Pacific North Line train sputtered to a stop at Central Street in Evanston about 7 p.m. Wednesday leaving 82 passengers stranded.

The problem was traced Thursday to a Union Pacific employee, said Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet.

"An employee was told on a number of occasions to refuel the locomotive and failed to do so," she said.

Metra riders reported that even the crew sounded bewildered when announcing that the train, which departed Kenosha at 5:51 p.m., had run out of fuel.

"I could hear them saying in disbelief, `We're out of gas.' ... Like they were trying to register it themselves," said Chicago resident John Hines, 45, who was on the train.

Some stranded passengers waited an hour for the next train or used their cell phones to arrange for rides home. Others walked to their destinations or hopped on a Chicago Transit Authority train to finish their ride into Chicago.

Despite the inconvenience, several riders got a chuckle out of seeing a locomotive engineer in a predicament that usually befalls absent-minded or cash-strapped motorists.

"I thought they were only joking," said Joan Ellis, 43, who takes the train nightly from her babby-sitting job in Lake Forest to her Evanston home.

Typically, locomotives on that line are filled with diesel fuel in a Chicago yard before heading north on the rail route, which runs between the Ogilvie Transportation Center and Kenosha, Pardonnet said.

But on Wednesday, the Union Pacific employee never filled the tank, Pardonnet said.

The train left Ogilvie at 4:13 p.m. and made it to Kenosha without any problems. But on its way back to Chicago, it ran out of fuel north of the Central Street stop in Evanston and "sort of limped into the station," Pardonnet said.

Another train had to push the disabled one back to Chicago, she added.

Union Pacific, which operates Metra trains on the North Line, apologized to riders.

"We regret that and certainly apologize to the commuters and those who were affected," said Union Pacific spokesman Joe Arbona. "It was not our intention."

Train crews are responsible for monitoring fuel levels, said Arbona, who did not provide details about the incident. He would not say if the employee who failed to refuel the locomotive or anyone else was suspended or fired.

"That's a personnel question and obviously we keep those private," he said.

It was the first time in recent memory that a locomotive had run out of fuel during a passenger run, Pardonnet said. Union Pacific senior management officials told Metra Thursday that they were taking steps to ensure it would not happen again, she said.

Chicago resident Herman Surjono, 33, laughed when he heard the announcement that the train was out of fuel.

"It was kind of funny," said Surjono, who takes the train nightly from his Lake Forest job to his home on Chicago's North Side.

"I guess I was surprised. I mean how could this have happened? I thought public transportation was supposed to be more reliable."

The incident caused several commuters to seek alternate ways home, but it posed a different problem for Hines, who snapped photographs as proof that it had occurred.

"The most difficult part for me was trying to convince my girlfriend, Kathy, that I was going to be late because the train ran out of gas," he said. "That's why I took the pictures."

----------

vgroark@tribune.com

cflynn@tribune.com

Copyright ? 2006, Chicago Tribune