Quick Takes: Delivery dilemma

A FedEx delivery to the wrong address left a Massachusetts woman in a quandary in November: return the package or get scratching? According to Danielle Alexandrov, the heavy parcel contained a huge bundle of lottery tickets. “And I’m thinking, ‘Is this a joke?’ until I look at the receipt and its value is $20,000 worth of scratch tickets,” she told WCVB. After investigating the package label, Alexandrov learned the box should have gone to a nearby liquor store that sells lottery tickets. Alexandrov said she briefly considered keeping the tickets, but instead returned the box to assuage her conscience. That was the best move, a lottery official said, because without activation at a retailer, the tickets would have been rendered void.

Dogs get into trouble …

Vehicles at a Texas car dealership got a toothsome makeover when a pair of stray dogs ripped into at least five cars on the lot. Surveillance footage at G Motors in Harris County, Texas, showed the dogs damaging fenders and tearing bumpers in three separate November attacks. Store personnel initially blamed a wolf because of the severity of the damage, which a representative estimated at up to $350,000. Surveillance footage pinned the blame on the stray dogs. In the first attack, the dogs appeared to be chasing a cat, which strategically took shelter under the cars to escape the attacks.

… And get out

As sheriff’s deputies in Martin County, Fla., executed a drug bust, a dog from the suspects’ home knew the jig was up. SWAT team members were attempting to serve warrants at a mobile home in a Nov. 21 raid when the dog, later identified as Bear, bolted out the door. Instead of running away, however, the dog ran straight into the back of an armored vehicle and waited while officers arrested five people inside the home. “He made the right decision,” a spokesperson said. “He is in good hands.”

Between rocks and a hard place

One person’s art is another person’s eyesore. A St. Paul, Minn., city inspector has told Iris Logan, 70, she’ll have to clean up her front yard rock garden because it violates city code. The inspector’s recommendation to the City Council says Logan will have until Dec. 22 to demolish the handiwork that made her home a local landmark. Logan said she began placing rocks and statues in her yard decades ago after a city construction crew inadvertently killed her tree. She is appealing the decision.

Caught in the slammer

Three men who broke into an abandoned jail in St. Louis, Mo., accidentally got trapped in a cell Nov. 16 and needed help from police to break out. A police spokesperson said the three men illegally entered an abandoned jailhouse colloquially known as the “Workhouse.” The jail, which opened in 1966 and was officially known as the Medium Security Institution, closed in 2021 amid allegations of inhumane conditions. The trespassers had to phone 911 for help escaping the locked cell. After rescuing the trio, police immediately arrested the men on trespassing charges and took them to a different city jail.

What happened here?

The discovery of an apparently crashed Cessna in the Canadian wilderness sparked an investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. With only a wrecked fuselage—and no registration number—police initially believed the plane had crashed more than 20 years ago, but no plane fitting its description had been lost in that area during that time period. Canada’s Civil Air Search and Rescue Association solved the mystery Nov. 16: Last year its members dragged the fuselage up the mountaintop for training exercises. A spokesperson told The Guardian he’s not sure how the mix-up happened: “There are placards in the wreck and even a phone number to call.”

Tails it is

A flip of a coin is all it took to resolve a tight mayoral election in Monroe, N.C. Robert Burns and Bob Yanacsek each garnered 970 votes to tie for first place in the five-way race held Nov. 7. Neither man sought a recount, so to resolve the deadlock, the men flipped a coin at a county elections board meeting Nov. 17. Yanacsek called heads, but an election official flipped tails, making Burns the winner. Under North Carolina law, tied elections are resolved by casting lots. Some other states pull names out of a hat. In Nevada, electoral contestants have drawn for a high card to resolve ties, and New Mexico state law says a game of chance can serve as a tiebreaker.