Police: Angry fast-food worker beans supervisor with burrito
Spartanburg, S.C. (AP) – Police say a fast-food worker upset at having to work a morning shift has given new meaning to a burrito to go, slinging a hot one at his Taco Bell supervisor. Police in South Carolina say officers were called to the Spartanburg eatery Monday, where a supervisor reported telling the worker to “stop being a crybaby” – just before being beaned with the food-filled projectile. A police report says the supervisor had turned away when melted cheese from the airborne burrito splattered her left arm, side and leg. Gooey stuff also “made a mess of the entire kitchen,” police say. Police say the worker didn’t stop there, adding they were told he took off his headset, broke it on his knee and “stormed out.” No arrests have been made.
Couple weds in courthouse bathroom after mom falls ill
Freehold, N.J. (AP) – A New Jersey couple recently changed their wedding venue from a judge’s chambers to a courthouse bathroom after a relative had an asthma attack. Brian and Maria Schulz were set to tie the knot on Jan. 2 when the groom’s mother had difficulty breathing. She was taken to a women’s room at the Monmouth County Courthouse, where sheriff’s officers administered oxygen and called EMT’s. If they had postponed the wedding, they would have had to wait 45 days for a new marriage license. So one of the officers suggested holding the ceremony in the bathroom. In a video posted on the sheriff’s office Facebook page, Judge Katie Gummer performed the ceremony. The groom’s mother is doing fine.
Grumpy Cat snatches lump of cash in California court
Santa Ana, Calif. (AP) – It still won’t make her smile, but Grumpy Cat has won some scratch. A California jury gave the furry frown queen more than $700,000 this week in a federal lawsuit over the use of her identity. According to documents obtained by The Washington Post, owner Tabatha Bundesen of Morristown, Arizona, won the lawsuit first filed three years ago against the Grenade beverage company. She signed on for the cat to endorse a “Grumpy Cat Grumpuccino,” but the company subsequently used the cat’s image to help sell other products, which an eight-person jury on Monday found was unauthorized. Grumpy Cat, whose dwarfism and underbite give her the permanent frown she’s famous for, became an online phenomenon-turned-merchandising-machine after Bundesen first posted pictures of her in 2012.
Storm blew historic building to Canada; Maine wants it back
Lubec, Maine (AP) – A fishing-industry building on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places is half-submerged in waters near a Canadian island, and conservationists fear it could disintegrate before legal tangles are resolved. The Jan. 4 blizzard tore the brine shed from its mooring at McCurdy’s Smokehouse off Lubec, Maine, and it was blown to nearby Campobello Island in New Brunswick, the Bangor Daily News reported. The shed is among five buildings that comprise the last traditional smoked-herring facility in the U.S., and an organization called Lubec Landmarks has worked for almost 25 years to preserve it. Lubec Landmarks President Rachel Rubeor said legal tangles, including salvage rights claims by some Canadian citizens, could doom the building. “The bureaucratic nonsense is hampering us big time,” said Rubeor, who said vandals with chain saws are threatening to dismantle the building. A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said the senator’s staff has worked to facilitate communication among organizations across all levels of government on both sides of the border “to help save and possibly preserve this historic landmark.” The shed’s remains, which include significant portions of its roof, flooring and fireplace plus some side walls, floated under the bridge between Lubec and the Canadian island. “It is just a miracle that it didn’t hit the bridge. It just sailed right through the pilings,” said Lubec Town Administrator Renee Gray.
