Oddly Enough July 3

Woman, 89, dents car with cane, helps nab Pa. duo

NEW CASTLE, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania police say an 89-year-old woman used her cane to dent the car of two people who stole her friend's purse, and authorities were able to track down the getaway car based in part on the cane's imprint.

New Castle police Chief Thomas Sansone says the woman and her 82-year-old friend were accosted outside a pizza shop Sunday. Police say 27-year-old Jerry Brown Jr. grabbed the purse but couldn't peel away before the 89-year-old banged the car's trunk with her cane.

Police found the car, and, based on the description of the robber - and dents matching the cane - arrested Brown and 21-year-old Tatiana Vargas.

The two are jailed in Lawrence County on robbery charges and on warrants for unrelated crimes. Online court records don't list attorneys for them.

Colo. man spends 15 hours in air-conditioning vent

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) - A 28-year-old Colorado man was rescued dusty but alive after he was trapped nearly 15 hours in an air-conditioning vent.

Englewood police say they responded to calls for help Tuesday from the roof of an elementary school, where they discovered a man trapped 30 feet down the vent.

Firefighters had to cut open the vent to pull the man out.

The Denver Post reports that the man, who wasn't identified, told police he stole a friend's purse Monday night and threw it on the roof. When he climbed onto the roof to get the purse, he fell into the vent and became stuck.

Man stung by scorpion

on commercial flight

PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) - All Jeff Ellis could do was wait as he sat terrified 30,000 feet (9,000 meters) in the air staring at the wriggling scorpion that stung him on a flight to Alaska.

He repeated to himself that a doctor said he'd be fine - probably.

Ellis first had to wait 30 minutes to see whether he succumbed to anaphylactic shock.

"In the movies, scorpions kill people," Ellis, 55, said Thursday. "I was just nervous, on edge, making sure that my heart was beating normal, that I wasn't sweating."

Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said the scorpion probably crawled on board the plane during a stop in Austin, Texas. The plane then landed in Seattle, where Ellis boarded for a flight to Anchorage.

About three hours into the flight, Ellis dozed off. Then, he felt something tickling his arm.

"I felt it on my shirt-sleeve and brushed it off, I thought it was a little spider or something," Ellis said. "Then I felt it back on my elbow."

He grabbed it with his napkin and his girlfriend, Suzanne Foster, called a flight attendant, who tossed the scorpion into a clear plastic bag.

The writhing arachnid terrified children seated nearby.

"Their mother told the flight attendant, 'Get that thing out of my face,'" Ellis said.

As Ellis monitored himself for signs of a fatal allergic reaction, emergency responders in Anchorage were told to get ready; the flight would be landing soon.

But they had a problem, Ellis said: Scorpions aren't common in Alaska, and the EMTs didn't know what to do.

"They had to Google it," he said.

News traveled quickly through the cabin, but Ellis said no one panicked. He was the first to get off the plane, he said, where he was met by a police officer.

In the end, it turned out that the doctor on the flight was right. Ellis was OK, and all that's left of the incident is a mark on his arm.

Ellis thinks - based on photos he took of the eight-legged pest - that he was stung by a striped bark scorpion, which is common in Texas.

He said he is happy with the flight crew's response, and said the airline has offered him 4,000 frequent-flier miles and two round-trip tickets.

His return flight to Seattle, he said, was uneventful.