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A female ring-necked duck shot and brought home by a hunter in Tallahassee, Florida, in January was rushed to medical attention after the hunter’s wife discovered it alive in their refrigerator a day and a half later. While undergoing surgery at a local wildlife sanctuary, the duck stopped breathing twice but both times was revived, via an oxygen mask and thumps on the chest. A witness told BBC News that after the second recovery–the duck had just been declared dead by the surgeon when it lifted its head and flapped its wings–the emotionally drained personnel in the operating room burst into tears.
In just over two weeks in March a pair of Labrador retrievers sent to Malaysia by the Motion Picture Association of America helped authorities there recover nearly $3.5 million worth of pirated DVDs, CDs, and video games. Lucky and Flo are believed to be the only dogs in the world trained to sniff out the materials in optical discs; following their first successful bust extra security measures were taken to protect them, as according to a Malaysian official local piracy syndicates had placed a bounty on their heads.
People With Issues
To the list of stories that were formerly weird but now occur with such frequency that they must be retired from circulation we must add: (83) The very young child who brings a parent’s illegal drugs to school for viewing by classmates (in March a first grader in Shreveport, Louisiana, told police he’d found his show-and-tell item, a rock of crack cocaine, in the cup holder of his mom’s car). (84) The person who phones in a fake bomb threat for self-serving reasons having nothing to do with terrorism or other crime (as 26-year-old Brandy Killin, of Kearney, Nebraska, allegedly did in March; police said that to get out of working a 10 AM Saturday shift at a credit card service center, she made a threatening call at 9:52).
