Giant emojis on house roil Calif. community
MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. — A Southern California seaside community is in an uproar after a home was given a new paint job featuring two huge emoji on a bright pink background.
Manhattan Beach residents railed against the makeover during a City Council meeting Tuesday night, citing problems with spectators and asserting that it was done with bad intent.
One speaker called the paint job graffiti and another said it was an attack on neighbors.
The new paint job appeared after neighbors reported the home was being used for short-term rentals and the homeowner was fined $4,000.
“This all got started because a neighbor was trying to help the city enforce the rules,” resident Dina Doll told the council.
The home in the city’s El Porto neighborhood stands out dramatically on a steep street that descends toward a pleasant beach usually filled with surfers. Both bright yellow emoji are cross-eyed and have distinctly big eyelashes. One has a goofy expression with its tongue hanging out. The other has its mouth zippered shut.
Owner Kathryn Kidd told KABCTV she didn’t realize short-term rentals weren’t allowed and she denied the redecoration is retaliation.
“Oh no, no. Never,” she told the station, while acknowledging that it may not fit in the neighborhood.
“Some people may like it,” she said. “Some people don’t like it.”
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A nearly toothless South Florida woman says she bit a man who forced his way into her apartment.
Alice Coleman tells WSVN she woke up early Monday morning to a fire alarm going off. The 61-year-old says that when opened the door, a man pushed his way inside.
She says he kept calling her “mama” and telling her everything would be OK. Coleman says that “with the little teeth I got, I bit him.”
Coleman says she ran out of the apartment and he locked himself inside. She called police from a neighbor’s house. They arrested Fitzroy Morton on three felony charges. Jail records don’t list a lawyer for him.
Coleman says she’ll be more careful about opening her door now, adding she will open it with her Taser.
Florida woman says toilet explodes after lightning strike
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — A Florida woman says lightning destroyed her septic tank and caused a toilet in her house to explode.
Marylou Ward tells television station WINK News that the sole toilet in her