Vegetarians Rejoice 

Curses, Foiled Again
Police accused Ryan Mullins, 22, of breaking into a pharmacy in Swansboro, N.C., and stealing a safe containing prescription drugs. He made his getaway by tying a rope around the 100-pound safe and dragging it behind his vehicle for two miles before he passed a police cruiser. The officer noticed the safe being dragged and pulled him over. (New Bern’s WCTI-TV)

• Robert D. Haught Jr., 42, aroused police interest by leaving an unattended van running in a handicapped parking space at a shopping mall in Burlington, Mass. An officer ran the license plate and learned it belonged to a different vehicle. As the officer approached the vehicle, Haught got in and drove off, leading police on a high-speed chase. He rammed two cruisers that tried to stop him and hit two other vehicles before abandoning the van. Police arrested him and found evidence in the van suggesting he was involved in a credit-card fraud operation. Police charged Haught with multiple violations, including attempted murder, but not unauthorized use of a handicapped parking space. (Boston’s WCVB-TV)

Vegetarians Rejoice
Tick bites are causing victims to become allergic to beef, as well as pork, venison, rabbit and some dairy products. The culprit, researchers said, is the Lone Star tick, which has spread throughout the South and the eastern half of the United States. Its bite transmits a sugar, called alpha-gal, that triggers an immune-system response that sets the stage for a severe allergic reaction the next time the person eats red meat, which contains the same sugar. In some cases, eating a burger or a steak has hospitalized people. Dr. Erin McGintee, an allergy specialist on New York’s Long Island, has seen nearly 200 cases in the past three years and said few patients seem aware of the risk. “Why would someone think they’re allergic to meat when they’ve been eating it their whole life?” she said. (Associated Press)

Music Hath Charms
Kyra Kopestonsky said she was stalked by a mountain lion while hiking alone in Placerville, Colo., before she figured out how to shake it. “I don’t know why, I just started singing opera really loud,” Kopestonsky said, noting it got as close as eight feet. “It kind of put its ears down and just kept looking at me, and it sort of backed away.” (Denver’s KUSA-TV)

Slightest Provocation
British baker Shane Thompson, 22, damaged a computer-operated sausage-roll machine by head-butting it after it stopped working properly. “He admits he became frustrated with the equipment,” defending solicitor Robert Vining told a Yorkshire magistrates court, which ordered Thompson to pay $1,125 toward the cost of repairing the $42,000 machine. (Britain’s The Press)

When Guns Are Outlawed
Philadelphia police said a man entered a convenience store, waited in line, took a banana from the counter next to the cash register, stuck it in his sweatshirt pocket to simulate a gun and demanded cash and cigarettes from the clerk. Surveillance video of the incident shows the robber escaping on a bicycle. (Associated Press)

• Malissa Robert, 18, admitted to burning a 20-year-old woman on the left buttock and lower back with a lit cigarette and hitting her on the right buttock with a cooking spatula, according to police in Westfield, Mass. The victim was passed out at the time of the attack. (Springfield’s The Republican)

Nothing to See Here
Carl Cannova invented a portable screening device that can be set up at accident scenes to prevent passing motorists from rubbernecking. The SRN 1000 privacy, safety and security barrier system comprises a 6-by-12-foot weather-resistant screen and three folding tripods that fit in a portable bag. Cannova said he has sold more than 400 of the $2,299 SRN 1000s to law enforcement agencies, medical coroners, hospitals, airports, hotels and even filmmakers to screen scenes from view. “It’s easy to put up, easy to put away,” Sarasota, Fla., Police Chief Bernadette DiPino said. “You can’t see anything. You can’t begin to pay attention to what’s going on.” (Tampa-St. Petersburg’s WTSP-TV)

• When Florida’s Department of Transportation set up reversible express lanes on a 9.5-mile stretch of Interstate 595 in Fort Lauderdale in March, it installed 34 warning gates and five barriers intended to keep motorists from entering in the wrong direction. Each entrance has signs warning drivers to keep out if the lanes are closed. In the first five months, drivers plowed into the gates 105 times. “It sounds like maybe people aren’t paying attention and veering to the left a bit and smacking into the gates,” Highway Patrol Sgt. Mark Wysocky said. The warning gates cost $3,000 to replace; the barrier gates, $7,000. (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Return of the Ottoman Empire
Surveillance cameras at a home in Fairview, Ore., showed a woman stealing footstools from the front porch. (Portland’s KPTV-TV)

Hard Lesson to Learn
Christina Jahnz admitted she was texting and driving when she hit a guardrail pole that went through the front of her pickup truck and pierced her thigh and buttocks. Firefighters in Elizabeth, Colo., had to saw off the front and back ends of the pole to get the woman out of the vehicle before they could rush her to the hospital to have the rest of it removed. She was released after four days and is expected to make a full recovery. “I’m truly a miracle,” she said. “They said if it had gone just a little bit the other way, I would have bled out.” (Denver’s KUSA-TV)

Ban the Ban
Mayor Kent Guinn of Ocala, Fla., wants the city council to repeal a ban on saggy pants on city property, even though he signed it into law. He said he meant to veto it, but there were too many papers on his desk, and he mistakenly approved it. (Orlando’s News 13)

• Brothers Anthony Kelly and Ted Kelly injured each other with sticks when they got into a fight after Anthony accused Ted of stealing okra from his garden in Spartanburg, S.C. Police who arrested the pair said they were too intoxicated to give written statements. (Greenville’s WHNS-TV)

• Jimmy Morgan Jr. called police to report someone had broken into his home in Wichita Falls, Texas, and that he had stabbed the intruder with a spear. “I don’t have a firearm, so I have a short spear, very quick, very agile and very deadly,” Morgan said after police arrested Thomas McGowan, 25, who suffered hand and shoulder injuries. (Wichita Falls’s KFDX-TV)

Compiled from mainstream news sources by Roland Sweet. Authentication on demand.