NEWS OF THE WEIRD
Jose’s weevil
Former Toronto Blue Jays star Jose Bautista has another honor to add to his resume, thanks to entomologist Bob Anderson of the Canadian Museum of Nature. On Nov. 22, the Associated Press reported, Anderson named a newly discovered species of beetle after the star third baseman and right fielder. Sicoderus bautistai is a small black weevil found in the Dominican Republic, where Bautista hails from. “I thought what a great way to kind of recognize (Bautista’s) contributions to Blue Jays baseball and to Canadian baseball, really, as a whole,” said Anderson. The scientist has named about 120 weevils over his career.
Awesome!
• Katherine Leigh Mehta, 26, of Arlington, accepted a gig to photograph a wedding at The Springs Event Venue in Weatherford on Nov. 24. But she became the star of the show when wedding guests discovered her having sex with another guest in a room at the venue, according to WSRZ Radio.
A security guard summoned Parker County Sheriff ’s deputies, who found Mehta yelling by a fountain on the property, according to their report. She then walked to a tree and urinated.
While she waited in the back of the patrol car, Mehta screamed: “Y’all families will be dead by Christmas. Y’alls daughters are dead. My dad is going to find out about this, and y’all are dead. D-E-A-D.” At the jail, officers found a bottle of anxiety pills, which they believe she mixed with alcohol, causing her erratic behavior. She faces charges of public intoxication and obstruction/ retaliation.
• All good things must come to an end, and so it seems for Robert Craig Davis, 70, of Key Largo, Fla. Drivers in South Florida had reported seeing a Chrysler Pacifica minivan rigged with a clever device that lowered a black cloth over its license plate each time it drove through an automated toll plaza. But on Nov. 17, according to FLKeysNews.com, an off-duty Florida highway patrolman spotted the vehicle as it passed through the Bird Road toll plaza and he alerted his fellow troopers. Sgt. Carlos Vanegas soon stopped Davis, according to the arrest report, and found a remote control device used to operate the license plate cover. “The actions of the defendant showed an ongoing course of conduct with intent to defraud the SunPass toll system,” trooper Dennis Gallo wrote in his report. Davis was charged with organized fraud and theft.
Criminally incompetent
Suspected car prowler Isaiah John Gellatly, 31, of Vancouver, Wash., was going about his business late on Nov. 19 when Happy Valley police were called, according to Fox12 News. Responding officers found Gellatly lying fully reclined in the driver’s seat of a Honda Accord matching the suspect vehicle’s description. Suddenly Gellatly sat up and sped away, leading to a pursuit and the use of spike strips.
As his ability to control the car decreased, police said, Gellatly opened his door to flee, but forgot to put the Honda in park, so it rolled alongside him as he ran.
Eventually he tried to run in front of it, as the car hit a tree, a building — and Gellatly, breaking one of his legs. Suspected stolen items found in the car included a tennis racket, a Ping-Pong paddle and a Texas Instruments calculator, begging the question: Was it worth a broken leg?