A man from western Pennsylvania is accused of hitting his neighbor with a weed-whacker.
Sixty-seven-year-old Gary Wright, of Southwest Greensburg, is charged with simple assault, recklessly endangerment and disorderly conduct.
Police say neighbor William Bell told Wright to get off his property on May 23 and Wright hit him in the arm with the tool. Bell’s wife says the weed-whacker going full-speed and Bell put his hand up to stop it from hitting his face.
Police say Wright told them that he wasn’t on Bell’s property and that Bell had kicked and tried to grab the weed-whacker.
He’s been ordered to stay away from the neighborhood until his Aug. 7 preliminary hearing and is living about 15 miles away.
— When gas prices hit $4 a gallon, the staff at Dr. Keith Leonard’s dental office in Arlington, Wash., figured it was time to pony up.
Since more than half of the dental assistants and office staff own horses, on Wednesday the crew saddled up and rode in to work.
“We decided that when gas got to $4 a gallon, we would all ride in,” Leonard said.
Ten riders and two bicyclists met up at Leonard’s home about four miles north of his office near this town north of Everett for the commute. The city granted them a special permit to ride as a group.
“We can’t dictate how much oil companies charge, but today we’re not buying,” Leonard said. “We’re using one-horse power.”
Leonard said the ride was a way to encourage his patients to use alternative forms of transportation.
— A man being sought by police in Bridgeport, Conn. for questioning in a series of traffic accidents was arrested after crashing his truck in a state police garage in Connecticut.
The 36-year-old man faces charges including criminal trespass, reckless endangerment and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Police said the man broke through the access arm at the front gate of state police headquarters in Bridgeport on Thursday, drove his pickup into an open garage door and then crashed into a vehicle lift.
The suspect was arrested when he attempted to flee. Troopers said they learned later that Bridgeport police were searching for the vehicle, which had been involved in accidents earlier in the day.
No injuries were reported in any of the accidents.
The man told authorities he was being chased, but there was no evidence to back that claim, police said.
— And finally, authorities in Van Buren, Ark. say an inmate escaped the county jail and left behind a rose fashioned out of toilet paper because he felt sorry for breaking out.
Luis Camacho-Mendoza was recaptured a day later on Wednesday in a Van Buren home after police received a tip. Investigator Ken Howard said Camacho-Mendoza was found hiding in a closet in a pile of clothes with a pillowcase over his head.
“But he wasn’t hiding too good because you could see the outline of his head in the pillow case,” Howard said. “We all grabbed him pretty quick and he didn’t seem to be resisting.”
Authorities said Camacho-Mendoza was in jail on drug charges and was expected to be deported to Mexico by immigration officials.
In his escape, Camacho-Mendoza broke open a lock on a kitchen door using a tool made from two screwdrivers, authorities said. Camacho-Mendoza worked in the kitchen.
When the inmate was discovered missing, authorities also found the flower, Howard said.
“When we asked him about that, he said he felt sorry for the captain for escaping,” Howard said. “(The flower) looked pretty nice.”
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Mid-Daily Items: Weed-whacker attack
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