Quick Takes

Road work

A grease overflow at a Milan, Mich., McDonald’s caused the city to shut down Dexter Street for more than an hour on July 28. Milan fire chief Bob Stevens said his department got a call at 10:49 a.m. that grease from underground containers underneath the local McDonald’s had overflowed and spilled onto the road. “When it puddled, vehicles were moving through, tracking the grease out of the parking lot onto the roadway,” Stevens said. The greasy, slippery conditions caused a driving hazard. Public works crews and two McDonald’s employees armed with mops and degreaser cleaned up most of the spilled grease, and the city reopened the roadway.

Acting out

Most fugitives try to keep a low profile, but not Jason Stange. The convicted bank robber, who last year escaped from a Spokane, Wash., halfway house, sought out and received an acting role in the low-budget horror film Marla Mae. Officers from the U.S. Marshals Service recognized Stange in a photo for a newspaper article about the shooting of the film, and they arrested him near the film set in Olympia on July 24. The film is scheduled for a 2016 release. “He did a good job. He was friendly. Well-liked,” Marla Mae producer Brandon Roberts told the Reuters news service. “We didn’t know he was a criminal or anything like that.”

Florida find

Treasure seekers in Florida hit the jackpot in June when they recovered 51 rare gold coins and 40 feet of ornate gold chain from an early 18th-century shipwreck off the Florida coast. The Schmitt family, subcontractors of treasure-seeking company 1715 Fleet—Queens Jewels LLC, made an earlier find in 2013 at the site where, in 1715, a convoy of Spanish ships carrying silver and gold back to Spain from the New World sank off the coast of present-day Vero Beach, Fla. Though the Schmitts made their most recent discovery in June, they held back the announcement to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the sinking on July 30.

Smoked out

A tradition as old as Texas is under assault in the Lone Star State’s own capital. The Austin, Texas, city council voted July 23 to give preliminary support to a measure that would restrict smoke emanating from the city’s beloved barbecue restaurants. After hearing several citizen complaints of smelly homes, Councilman Pio Renteria launched an initiative in April, proposing that barbecue joints either purchase expensive smoke scrubbers or adopt natural gas barbecue pits. The initiative to ditch traditional wood-fired or charcoal grills drew scorn from barbecue aficionados.

Swiss misstep

Renowned for its neutrality, Switzerland staged an unexpected invasion into France on July 23 in order to save thirsty Swiss cows. A recent heat wave in the Swiss Alps left a few Alpine herds in the nation’s west dangerously low on water. To solve the problem, the Swiss air force sent helicopters across the border to draw water from Rousses Lake in Eastern France. Days later, Swiss officials apologized, saying they believed at the time the helicopter operation fell within the rules of a bilateral agreement that allows the Swiss air force to fly over France. Government officials in Switzerland have promised to compensate France for the stolen water.

Bridge blockers

The bridge between Sabula, Iowa, and Savanna, Ill., had too much traffic on July 18, and authorities had to shut it down. But the problem wasn’t cars or trucks; it was mayflies. After sunset on July 18, mayflies reportedly began congregating on the U.S. 52 bridge that spans the Mississippi River between the two towns. Later that night, massive knee-high drifts of mayflies forced local authorities to shut down the bridge until road crews could snowplow the insect heaps off the roadway. Additionally, Iowa authorities opted to sand their side of the bridge because millions of smushed insects had left the bridge slippery. Authorities in both states promised to leave the lights off on the bridge for a while until mayfly season ends.

Shot selection

What happens when a former NBA star walks up to the basketball contests at a county fair? According to Gilbert Arenas’ Instagram account, the three-time NBA All-Star left the Orange County Fair in California with a massive haul of stuffed animals for his children. In an Instagram post dated July 26, Arenas showed off the bounty of prizes and bragged that the fair had banned him from the basketball games. In response, a fair official told ABC7 in Southern California that the former All-Star guard simply reached the daily prize limit and was welcome to come back anytime before the OC Fair closes on August 16.

Stacking the deck

Microsoft devotees making the switch to Windows 10 may make a rude discovery on their first lunch break after upgrading. Microsoft’s popular solitaire time-waster will integrate advertisements in the new operating system. Good news, though: Solitaire junkies who don’t want ads can pay $1.49 per month (or $9.99 per year) to upgrade to Microsoft Solitaire Collection Premium and skip the ads.

Low-speed chase

Graham L. Ley’s escape from police was doomed from the time he chose his getaway vehicle: a mobility scooter. Police in Elyria, Ohio, went after Ley after complaints for days about a man in a mobility scooter driving recklessly in traffic in the Cleveland-area town. On July 27, police spotted the 31-year-old driving erratically and moved to pull him and his scooter over. Undeterred, Ley attempted to make a slow-motion getaway, first crossing four lanes of traffic and then pulling onto a sidewalk. But eventually Elyria police were able to corner Ley on a driveway and charged him with resisting arrest, criminal damage, and failure to comply.