“The family horse fell into the basement of a home around July 18, triggering a four-hour rescue operation that included the help of a county backhoe and personnel from road and bridge, the Rattlesnake Fire Department and the Elbert County Sheriff’s Office. The call came into the sheriff’s office around 9 a.m. after the homeowner heard a noise in her basement. She went downstairs to find Summer the horse trapped inside, said Elbert County Sheriff Shayne Heap. Summer had fallen down a four-foot window well and landed in the basement, which was not constructed with a walk-out door. “We thought of bringing her up the basement stairs,” Heap said. “But the stairs didn’t look safe enough to support her weight.” A veterinarian sedated Summer, who sustained minor cuts and injuries in the fall, and a coring company was contacted to cut into the foundation of the home. The initial plan was to expose an area around a second window well, remove a portion of the foundation and create enough space to bring the horse out of the basement, Heap said.” w/ photos

“Police arrested two drunk men from South Jersey for pretending to get arrested after they accidentally locked themselves in the back of a police van taking pictures of themselves. Ryan Letchford and Jeffrey Olsen thought it would be funny to break into the van and take pictures of each other ‘in custody’. But the prank took a turn for the worse when the van locked with the jokers still inside. According to police, a third man, who was also drunk, found his friends in the back of the van after leaving a nearby party to search for them, but he was unable to set them free and was forced to call 911. Radnor constable Mike Connor told the Philadelphia Daily News: ‘I came down and unlocked the doors, and “Dumb and Dumber” pranced out of the van. ‘They looked a little embarrassed.’ The pranksters didn’t regain their freedom for too long, as they were immediately arrested for attempted theft of a motor vehicle, criminal mischief and public drunkenness.” w/ photo

“Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies have released a video of a barking Chihuahua angrily chasing off robbers at an Altadena smoke shop. The video shows two hooded men, one armed with a rifle, running into the Ace Smoke Shop and demanding money. As the store owner begins putting money in a backpack carried by one of the men, the owner’s Chihuahua begins barking incessantly and jumping at the men, chasing them out of the store and down the street.” w/ photo + video

“With the humidity stifling and the temperature soaring into the 90s, Bobby Kirk said this was not a good day for fishing. “It was no good this morning. I never got a bite,” Kirk said, standing in the shade of his porch off Rogers Road, one of the few dirt roads left in Oconee County. “I reckon it was too hot.” But the previous week, the 76-year-old man had caught the largest fish of his life — a 40 pound flathead catfish.”I sold him for $40,” Kirk said as he chewed on a wad of J.D.’s Blend tobacco. Kirk, who is known in this neck of the woods as an expert at training beagles to run rabbits, said he fishes most days at Lake Oconee, especially around the Dyar Pasture area of Greene County… Kirk went to the lake and set trot lines for catfish, which he planned to check the following morning. He organizes fishing ventures to avoid the heat. He arrives at the lake before 6 a.m. and returns home by 10 a.m. “I can’t stand the heat. Now I could when I was young, but I can’t do it now,” he said.” w/ photo

“An annual Mud Festival event in South Korea was attended by nearly 3million people to raise awareness of the region’s mud cosmetics industry. The 14th annual festival took place in Boryeong and, in particular, was praised for the ‘mud mob scene’ where mud was sprayed onto Daecheon beach and millions of revelers partied and danced in the sloppy conditions. The mud, which is hailed for it’s high mineral content, was shipped onto the beach by truck. Other activities on offer were naturally mud related – including mud sliding, mud wrestling, and swimming in a giant mud tub.” w/ photos

“Austrian police say thieves have made off with an unusual heist — 21 tons of mustard and ketchup. The loot was in a semitrailer parked in a lot over the weekend northwest of Vienna. Police say the truck driver showed up to deliver his cargo only to see the trailer missing. Police assume the thieves were more interested in the trailer than its contents.” w/ photo

“An engaged couple in Anderson County says a shadowy image that turned up on a receipt from Walmart looks like the face of Jesus. Jacob Simmons and his fiancee, Gentry Lee Sutherland, said they bought some pictures from Walmart on Sunday. The couple had just come home from a church service when Simmons spotted the receipt on the floor of Sutherland’s apartment. He says the receipt had changed. “I was leaving the kitchen and I just looked on the floor, and it was like it was looking at me,” Simmons said. A dark gray mark on the receipt seems to show two eyes, a nose and a mouth in a thickly bearded face. “Then the more you look at it, the more it looked like Jesus, and it was just shocking, breathtaking,’ Simmons said.” w/ photo + video

“Ten workers in China pushed their boss’s car three miles home after an office party – because they were all too drunk to drive. The group had been enjoying a meal at a restaurant in downtown Changchun, northeast China’s Jilin Province, when they realised their predicament. Boss Zhang Fei announced that he was too drunk to drive and suddenly realised nobody had stayed sober enough to drive his car. Drink-driving was this year listed as a hazardous crime in China and offenders face up to six months in jail and a heavy fine. Zhang did not want to leave his car downtown and it was too late to call out a substitute driver – so vice president Huang Weiyun suggested they all push him home. Huang pointed out that it was only three miles away and that the exercise would do them all good – so all ten quickly agreed and set off with Zhang at the wheel. Passers-by were stunned to see the group, laughing and singing, as they pushed their boss’s VW car home through the city streets during the 45 minute journey.” w/ photo

“Gasoline powers vehicles all around the world, but a sick Chinese man has been drinking the sticky liquid for 42 years under the illusion that it can relieve his physical pain. Chen Dejun, 71, lives by himself in shabby thatched cottage on a hill in Shuijiang township, Nanchuan district of southwest China’s Chongqing municipality. The short and bony man said he drinks 3 to 3.5 kilograms of gasoline every month, which he buys from a station at the foot of the hill. Chen is known locally as a stonecutter and master of weaving bamboo with a good business sense. But he’s also known for his undying love of drinking gasoline. He developed the habit back in 1969 when he suddenly began coughing and felt pain in his chest. Seeing no progress after trying some medicine, he took up the folk remedy of drinking kerosene, Chongqing Evening News reported. It turned out to be helpful for him after the first sip, and he since became addicted to kerosene. Then he moved on to gasoline. Chen said it is hard to calculate exactly how much gasoline he has swallowed throughout his life, but the newspaper reported Chen has consumed an estimated 1.5 tons over the past 42 years.” w/ photos

“An elderly naturist shocked his neighbors by gardening naked – and even cleaning his house guttering and changing a car wheel with nothing on. Kevin Lavelle, 80, was hauled before magistrates after long-suffering residents compiled a dossier of evidence against him. His victims, many of them elderly, told how his antics left them upset and extremely distressed. Lavelle was reported to police last month after neighbors saw him gardening in the front garden of his bungalow wearing nothing but a blue hat. On another occasion, he was spotted in his garden wearing only a pair of trainers. The court also heard claims that Lavelle, from Heald Green, Stockport, had performed a sex act in public. Lavelle pleaded guilty at Stockport magistrates court to three counts of indecent exposure. He was jailed for eight weeks, suspended for six months, fined £85 and placed under house arrest for eight weeks, meaning he has to remain indoors between 4pm and 11pm everyday. Lavelle was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for seven years. The court was told that Lavelle was for many years a naturist who would confine himself to his back garden. But neighbors told how problems began to emerge and escalate over the past 18 months…” w/ photo