Quick Takes

Sweet surprise

Voters in Maine rejected a proposal that would make illegal the common practice of using pastries to bait bears. The question put to voters in the Nov. 4 election read like this: “Do you want to ban the use of bait, dogs, or traps in bear hunting except to protect property, public safety, or for research?” Bait barrels containing ground-up doughnuts, granola, or other sweets account for a majority of the estimated 3,000 black bears killed every year in Maine. Animal rights activists who supported the measure called the practice inhumane. Mainers rejected a similar plebiscite in 2004.

Hope floats

A Canadian thief may want to rethink his exit strategy after trying to make a getaway aboard a slow-moving canoe. Police in Halifax, Nova Scotia, say a burglary suspect tried to flee a crime scene on Oct. 29 by paddling a stolen red canoe down the Northwest Arm inlet and toward the Atlantic Ocean. Authorities, who had been monitoring the suspect’s slow progress, quickly arrested the 20-year-old when he made landfall and tried fleeing on foot. Halifax police charged the man with two counts of breaking and entering as well as resisting arrest.

Feed fight

A new Fort Lauderdale, Fla., ordinance effectively bans anyone from feeding the indigent in public places, but a 90-year-old World War II veteran plans to fight city hall. On Nov. 2, Fort Lauderdale police arrested Arnold Abbott and two Christian ministers for feeding homeless people in violation of the law, which is designed to keep beggars out of city parks. Abbott faces up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. Undeterred, Abbott returned on Nov. 5 to feed the homeless and was again issued a citation by police. “We enforce the laws here in Ft. Lauderdale,” Mayor Jack Seiler told reporters. Abbott successfully sued the city in 1999 over a similar law. “These are the poorest of the poor,” Abbott said. “They have nothing. Don’t have a roof over their head, and who could turn them away?”

Stress text

A clerical error on Oct. 23 at a California school induced panic when the school sent a text message to every parent indicating their child was absent. School officials at John Adams Elementary in Corona, Calif., noticed the error when some parents of the 717 students showed up at the school demanding to know the location of their children. A spokesman for the school district later explained a clerk at the school inadvertently sent absentee notices to all parents rather than only the small group of parents of absent children.

Special delivery

Always searching for new and faster ways of delivering products to consumers, online retailer Amazon.com is testing a new method: taxis. The tech giant has been using cab drivers to deliver packages in San Francisco and Los Angeles. According to The Wall Street Journal, by using the taxi-hailing phone app Flywheel, Amazon can deliver multiple packages to the same location for about $5 apiece. In its never-ending quest to find cheaper and faster delivery alternatives to UPS and FedEx, the company asked the Federal Aviation Administration in July for permission to begin delivering packages via aerial drones.

Coin toss

New Hampshire’s highest court is set to decide whether a roving band of citizens that feeds quarters into parking meters should be held liable for preventing the city of Keene, N.H., from collecting thousands of dollars in parking tickets. Calling themselves the “Robin Hooders,” the gang of six has made a practice of shadowing city parking enforcement officers and feeding change into expired meters just before the officer has a chance to check. City attorneys insist the practice amounts to harassment, while a lawyer for the group says the six individuals are simply exercising First Amendment free speech and protest rights. A lower court judge had previously tossed out the city’s civil lawsuit, but Keene officials have appealed.

Clean crime

Police called to the Century Drive hotel in Bristol, Conn., placed a customer under arrest after he was accused of mopping too aggressively. The dispute began as a disagreement between customer John Thornton of Southington, Conn., and an unidentified hotel employee. According to police, Thornton then grabbed the employee’s mop and began belligerently swabbing the floor, eventually mopping the employee into a corner. Authorities charged Thornton with second-degree breach of peace and added a second-degree threatening charge when he hurled expletives at the arresting officers.

Tooth and claw

The job may sound ideal, but the devil is in the details. A cat rescue shelter in Newcastle, U.K., used its website recently to put out a call for “cat cuddlers.” According to the listing published by the Westgate Ark, the organization needs volunteers to handle and play with kittens in order to help socialize the strays for adoption. But shelter founder Paul Black confesses that most of the cats needing cuddling are feral or semi-feral. “The older they become,” Black told The Independent, “the harder it is to domesticate them.”

Highway robbery

Drivers on Interstate 270 near Urbana, Md., scampered from their vehicles on Oct. 31 in pursuit of money flying through the air, causing a traffic jam. According to authorities, the back door of a GardaWorld armored vehicle malfunctioned and allowed a bag of cash to spill onto the roadway. Despite a wide search and the use of K-9 dogs, state police were only able to recover $200 of the undisclosed amount lost. Officials with the Maryland State Police indicated that “Finders, Keepers” rules do not apply: Those who scooped up the cash could be subject to criminal prosecution.