Quick Takes

Airborne drop

North Korea might not like Sony Pictures’ movie The Interview, but a South Korean activist wants his neighbors to the north to watch it anyway. South Korean Park Sang-hak said he intends to drop over 100,000 DVD copies of the Sony film using balloons. The film, which depicts the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was met by a furious North Korean response. The Obama administration has blamed North Korea for hacking Sony. Park, who defected from North Korea in 1999, is a democracy activist in the south.

Box of rocks

It’s a good thing Igor Baksht bothered to look inside the box before wrapping up his niece’s Christmas gift. Baksht purchased a PlayStation 4 from a Walmart in Stapleton, Colo., on Dec. 19. That night wrapping gifts, Baksht decided to check inside the box to make sure all the components were present. Instead, he found the gaming consul missing and two bags filled with small rocks in its place. The package Baksht originally purchased had been previously opened and returned. Initially Walmart refused Baksht’s request to return the PlayStation because managers said they couldn’t verify his story. However on Christmas Eve, a manager with the retailer relented and gave Baksht a full refund.

Hedgerow fund

A man walking his dog on Dec. 23 in Lincolnshire, England, stumbled upon an $18,000 diamond—and he can keep it in good conscience. In an August promotion, London-based diamond retailer 77 Diamonds launched a 1.14-carat diamond into the atmosphere attached to a weather balloon (see “Diamond drop,” Sept. 6, 2014). The company said whoever found the gem could keep it. But as the balloon veered off course, the tracking GPS system attached to the diamond’s package faltered. And after months of concerted searching in the presumed landing area, many considered the promotion a flop. But months later—and 10 miles from the original search site—Allan Bell’s springer spaniel, Rosie, pulled the package from under a hedgerow. Bell says he plans to sell the diamond and use the proceeds to take his wife on a cruise for their 25th wedding anniversary.

Angry and alone

Police in Lowell, Mass., are warning citizens: If you see a stray goat, do not approach it. The goat escaped from an owner in a nearby town on Dec. 26 and made its way into Lowell. Police describe the 200-pound animal as both elusive and angry—not to mention possessing impressive horns. “Although goats are normally docile animals, in stressful situations, such as being loose in unfamiliar territory, he possibly can become scared and resort to attacking in a survival mode,” a Lowell police spokesman said in a statement.

To save a pig

Michelle Miller says she was trying to do the right thing. When she found a lost pig wandering the streets near her St. Cloud, Fla., home, Miller captured the 350-pound porker, put it in her backyard, and called animal control. Authorities at the Osceola County Animal Services said they wouldn’t take the pig unless it was damaging property. That was months ago. “I put signs up at the feed store,” she said. “I put signs up at the corner.” But no one claimed the pig. So Miller named the pig Eva and adopted the animal. But in late December the pig got out of the yard and was spotted by a neighbor who called animal control. The county then gave Miller a $105 citation and a choice: Surrender the pig to be euthanized and have the fine waved, or pay the fine, keep the pig, and risk further citations. Miller told WFTV she wouldn’t surrender the pig to be killed.

Crash from the past

For 51 years Arthur Lampitt carried around a souvenir from the 1963 car crash that nearly took his life. Earlier in December, Lampitt was moving concrete blocks at his Granite City, Ill., home when he noticed pain in his left arm and a protuberance under his skin. A series of X-rays revealed a 7-inch metal object lodged in his left arm. The revelation made Lampitt think back to his 1963 automobile accident in which a truck struck his new Thunderbird in a head-on collision. Lampitt, now 75, speculated that doctors then ignored his arm injuries while treating his severely broken hip. His guess was confirmed on Dec. 31 when a surgeon removed a ’63 T-Bird turn signal from his arm. Doctors expect Lampitt to make a full recovery.

Danger zone

The whale carcass floating off of Australia’s western coast attracted 26-year-old Harrison Williams. Unbeknownst to him, it also attracted hungry sharks. On Nov. 1, Williams leapt from a boat near Rottnest Island and swam until he could climb on top of the carcass of a massive humpback whale. Meanwhile, a news helicopter filming the carcass had spotted sharks circling the food source—including one an estimated 20 feet long. After posing for photographs, Williams delicately climbed back into his boat. Later he confessed that both his mother and father were disappointed in him for the reckless swim.

March of the penguins

After a few months of gorging on fish, the penguins at the Asahiyama Zoo on the northern island of Hokkaido have been prescribed exercise. Zookeepers there organized a 30-minute waddle session twice a day to help the portly penguins stave off obesity during winter months when they typically are less active. Zoo officials say the penguins, who began exercising in December, will continue until March. Patrons of Asahiyama have flocked to the zoo to see the birds’ daily march.

Legal supervision

Dale Garcia of Okeechobee, Fla., wasn’t happy when he returned from a shopping trip on Dec. 29 to learn that his two 12-year-old daughters had been arguing. And when he learned that one had locked herself in a bedroom and the other had used a knife to pick the lock, he decided to call the police. But Garcia didn’t want cops to intervene—just supervise his spanking of his knife-wielding daughter. “It happens,” Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Noel Stephen said, referring to the practice of parents calling deputies to supervise corporal punishment. “And has happened several times in the past.” According to the dispatched deputy, Garcia spanked his daughter four times without breaking the law once.