Oddities In the News
SAUGATUCK, Mich. Owner receives letter granting dog unemployment benefits
Michael Ryder had been approved for $360 every week in Michigan unemployment benefits — until the state learned he’d been dogging it at the Detroit-area restaurant chain where he supposedly worked.
Ryder is a German Shepherd owned by attorney Michael Haddock on the other side of the state in Saugatuck.
WZZM-TV reports that Haddock received a benefits letter addressed to “Michael Ryder” from Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency. The station says Haddock contacted the agency about the letter.
The agency says its computer system sent the letter, but the claim later was flagged as suspicious and denied.
BRADENTON, Fla. Loaded grenade launcher left at Goodwill store
Talk about one heckuva an explosive donation.
Authorities say a grenade launcher, loaded with a live grenade, was left with other donated items at a Florida Goodwill store.
The Bradenton Herald reports that employees at a Goodwill store near Tampa reported the weapon on Sunday.
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office says the store manager told deputies that the grenade launcher had come in a shipment from another store several days earlier. The employees at the other location said they sent it along because they didn’t know what it was.
Deputies say they disposed of the active grenade in a Hazmat locker, and the launcher was stored in the agency’s property room.
It’s not clear who donated the items.
AUGUSTA, Ga. Sinkhole swallows man and his motorcycle
A motorcyclist got the ride of his life in Georgia when a sinkhole opened up in a parking lot and swallowed him and his bike.
The Augusta Chronicle reports city firefighters pulled the man from the hole at the Augusta Exchange parking lot Wednesday. The motorcyclist had minor injuries.
Augusta Utilities Director Tom Wiedmeier says the hole opened up near a storm drain. The newspaper reports recent sinkholes have been blamed on leaking underground pipes.
APOLLO, Pa. Family’s dog turns up 10 years after vanishing from home
A family has been reunited with its dog 10 years after the dog went missing.
Debra Suierveld and her family assumed their dog Abby had died after she ran away in 2008 from their home in Apollo, but decade-old sadness turned to joy on Saturday when Suierveld received word someone had found the dog.
The black Labrador mix showed up on George Speiring’s front porch in Lower Burrell, 10 miles west of Apollo. Speiring contacted Animal Protectors of Allegheny Valley, which discovered the dog’s microchip and was able to contact Suierveld.
Someone had taken good care of Abby over the years. Abby is in great health and remembers things the family taught her, Suierveld said.
“She would lie on the floor and cross her paws, and she remembers my daughter’s commands, and she remembers the commands I taught her,” Suierveld told KDKATV. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS