Cock tempts fast-food fate

A brave bird has made a fast-food chicken joint in Slidell, La., its new roost. Employees at a Slidell Popeyes Chicken have been harboring a stray rooster for months after the bird became lost after Hurricane Ida slammed into the Gulf Coast in 2021. After failing to find the bird’s owner, employees built the animal a coop and named it Rocco. In March, store general manager Muhassin Shepherd told WWL-TV the chicken keeps busy around the property entertaining customers in the drive-thru lane. “It’s like he knows we’re watching him. It’s like he wants everybody to come see him, look at my feathers, listen to me crow,” Shepherd told WWL-TV. “We’ve been actually increasing sales and business so, you know, meeting a lot of new friends just to come in and see Rocco,” said Shepherd.

Fishing sliders

Three men were blown nearly a mile across a frozen lake when gusts approaching 50 mph unmoored their ice fishing shanty in Huron County, Mich. First responders were alerted to the imperiled shanty by an onlooker watching from the shore of Saginaw Bay. By the time firefighters reached the men, they had already made it to shore. According to the firefighters, the men said they had underestimated the winds and overestimated the friction of their homemade fishing shack.

Island lost

In March, a Royal Navy patrol vessel discovered a small island in the South Pacific wasn’t where the Royal Navy left it. Sailors aboard the HMS Sprey had been tasked with updating the United Kingdom’s cartographical records and set sail for Henderson Island—a small, uninhabited landmass in the Pitcairn Islands. On March 10, the crew of the Sprey arrived at the British Overseas Territory 3,600 miles west of Chile and began satellite measurements. They discovered that previous records misplaced the island by about a mile. The previous official cartography of the island dated back to aerial photography in 1937.

Gas too cheap

A pair of gas stations in a Milwaukee, Wis., suburb have filed a lawsuit against a third station, alleging it’s selling gas too cheaply. WISN-TV reported in March that companies operating a BP station and a Shell station made their complaints under the state’s Unfair Sales Act. The law prohibits businesses from selling goods for less than cost—which the stations accuse Waukesha Woodman’s Market of doing. In its own lawsuit, the Woodman’s Market says it has to keep its prices low to compete with the closest Costco.

Star DIY-er

Complaining that local authorities weren’t doing their jobs, 77-year-old rock icon Rod Stewart led a small crew to fill potholes near his Harlow, U.K., home. Stewart’s March 11 Instagram post showed him and a small group of men shoveling filler into large potholes in a country lane. “My Ferrari can’t go through here at all,” Stewart explained, adding that recently an ambulance burst a tire on one of the potholes. “I’m repairing the street where I live as no one else can be bothered to do it.” A local transportation authority spokesman said it appreciated his efforts but would prefer the legendary rocker not attempt to do the work of professional street crews.

Shrinkflation

Inflation doesn’t just nibble away at the value of money. Sometimes it devours chips straight from the bag. Frito-Lay admitted it reduced the size of some chip bags rather than raise prices in order to account for inflation. The snack maker confirmed it reduced the contents of its Doritos bags from 9.75 ounces to 9.25 ounces—a difference of about five chips. “Inflation is hitting everyone … we took just a little bit out of the bag so we can give you the same price and you can keep enjoying your chips,” a company spokesman said. And shrinkflation might be spreading. The makers of Bounty, Wheat Thins, Gatorade, and Crest have all announced the downsizing of their offerings in order to save money.

Ditched crane

An Alabama tow truck driver foiled a man’s plan to steal a truck containing a 70-ton crane. According to Chilton County sheriff’s deputies, 26-year-old Johnny Kent Mims hired the unnamed wrecker driver to haul the massive vehicle out from a wooded area and deliver it to a scrap yard for salvage. But the driver remembered moving the same crane a few years back and decided to place a call to the owner to double check. When the crane’s owner said he hadn’t sold the vehicle and didn’t want it moved, the tow truck driver called police. Deputies say Mims tried to move the vehicle himself but ended up stuck in a ditch. Authorities arrested Mims and charged him with first-degree theft.