Lift those knees: Babies crawl to the Lithuanian finish line
Vilnius, Lithuania (AP) — In Lithuania, the rat race of life apparently starts early. Twenty-five babies have taken to the red carpet in Lithuania in a crawling race as their parents, grandparents and onlookers cheered the spectacle. Saturday’s event in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, was the 20th annual event staged by a local radio station to mark International Children’s Day, celebrated in this Baltic nation on June 1. Teams waved toys and even banged baby food cans to spur the 7-to-11-month-old baby girls and boys to move faster on the carpet. An 11-month-old baby boy named Ignas managed to crawl over a few meters (yards) and reach the finish line first.
Court confirms man’s custody of dog, denies ex-girlfriend
Augusta, Maine (AP) — Maine’s Supreme Court has upheld a ruling granting a man sole custody of his dog, denying his ex-girlfriend’s bid to take the pet. The Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday affirmed that pets are property in confirming a district judge’s decision that the Lab-boxer mix named Honey belongs to the man whose name appeared on adoption papers. His former girlfriend sued for custody. The ruling was swift, and there was no written opinion. During arguments two weeks ago, Chief Justice Leigh Saufley questioned whether it’s a good use of time for judges to analyze pet custody in cases involving unmarried couples. Pets are considered property in all 50 states. Only three states — Alaska, Illinois and California — have specific laws that address pet custody when a marriage dissolves.
Gator busts through kitchen window, breaks bottles of wine
Clearwater, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say an 11-foot (3.4-meter) alligator busted through a kitchen window and broke several bottles of red wine in a Florida home before it was captured. Police tweeted that the gator was removed from Mary Wischhusen’s Clearwater condominium early Friday. No one was injured. Wischhusen uses a walker. She told news outlets that the moment she saw the lumbering reptile, she moved into her bedroom, closed the door and called police. She says she played computer games while waiting for help to arrive. Wischhusen says it took two trappers and 10 police officers two hours to get the alligator out of the home, where she has lived for almost four decades.
Merkel fan accidentally grounds chancellor’s plane
Berlin (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government plane was grounded by an excited fan who jumped out of her van to take a photo of it at Dortmund airport but forgot to put the parking brake on, and the vehicle rolled slowly into the nose of the jet. Germany’s Spiegel Online posted a picture Tuesday of the low-speed collision with the Global 5000 jet and reported that the van driver was an employee of the airport. The German air force confirmed in a tweet that Merkel returned to Berlin by helicopter Monday after her plane was damaged by a vehicle, but didn’t provide further details. The accident is a headache the air force doesn’t need, after a string of highly publicized breakdowns of the aging government fleet causing delays for Merkel and others.
Someone breaks into home, takes nothing, gives it good scrub
Marlborough, Mass. (AP) — Whoever broke into a Massachusetts man’s home last week didn’t take a thing. They did, however, leave the house spotless. Nate Roman tells The Boston Globe that when he returned to his Marlborough home from work May 15, he could tell a stranger had been there. Nothing was missing, but the 44-year-old Roman noticed the beds were made, the rugs vacuumed and the toilets scrubbed. They even crafted origami roses on the toilet paper rolls. He called the experience “weird and creepy” and contacted police. Sgt. Daniel Campbell says that the department hasn’t heard of similar episodes and that there are no suspects. Roman says he may have left his back door unlocked. He thinks perhaps a housekeeping service went to his home by mistake.
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