Quick Takes: Hot enough to hatch eggs

Europe’s summer heat wave caused misery across a continent unused to warmer temperatures. But for some special residents of southeastern France, the rising mercury was just right. Officials at a wildlife preserve in the town of Pierrelatte said temperatures got hot enough for 10 Nile crocodile eggs to hatch under natural conditions. Visitors to the Crocodile Farm wildlife preserve said they noticed the eggs hatching on Aug. 22. By Aug. 26, park officials confirmed that the Nile crocodile hatchlings had safely emerged from their shells without incubators or any kind of human intervention. Typically, zoos and preserves hatch baby crocodiles under climate-controlled conditions with keepers monitoring their progress. And under normal circumstances, that wouldn’t be possible in France. The reptiles, native to the Nile River basin and sub-Saharan Africa, require consistent temperatures around 90 degrees for about three months to hatch naturally. According to preserve officials, the unusually hot temperatures across France between June and August heated the sand in the crocodiles’ habitat and helped it maintain just enough warmth at night.

Mistaken stadium

Organizers of the Aug. 30 Sydney Marathon couldn’t run away from their problem. In the lead-up to the biggest distance running event in Australia, organizers had medals fashioned, showcasing landmarks from Sydney’s skyline, including the famous Sydney Opera House. Race officials also meant to include an engraving of the city’s Allianz Stadium. But designers accidentally substituted the angular shapes of Munich’s Allianz Arena instead, meaning a portion of the marathon’s official medal honors a German landmark. Authorities called it an honest mistake, saying, “A little too much international flavor has found its way onto the back of the finishers medal.”

Worse than a mouse

A Richmond, Va., woman awoke in her bed as she felt what she believed to be a mouse scurrying into her mouth. It turned out to be so much worse. Krista Edelman said her thoughts settled on a mouse because she had been dreaming of a mouse when she was roused from her slumber on Aug. 20. But when she felt the animal’s coarse hair, she knew it was something else. “I screamed, and I was screaming repeatedly, something to the extent of like, ‘There’s a bat in my mouth,’” she told WTVR. Despite the screaming, Edelman, a medical doctor, kept her wits. Rather than killing the bat, she captured it so she could test the varmint for rabies.

Stout heist

Authorities in the United Kingdom announced Sept. 3 they were looking for a pair of thieves who had stolen so much beer they could open their own pub. A few days before, the thieving duo hooked their trucks onto a pair of cargo trailers at a depot near Liverpool and drove off with about 70,000 pints’ worth of Guinness. According to police, the beer, valued at about $155,000, was in barrels and bound for pubs across the area.

Car trouble

Stephanie Watson had some second thoughts about getting back in her SUV after a 3-foot bull snake slithered in. Watson was waiting in a credit union drive-thru line Aug. 31 in Riverton, Wyo., when she spotted a woman in the car in front of her jump out and begin swinging a bag at an object on the ground. It was a snake. Eventually the bull snake maneuvered under Watson’s car, and she fled. “Anything that slithers and doesn’t have legs is the devil, in my book,” she told the Cowboy State Daily. After onlookers confirmed the snake had crawled into the frame of Watson’s car, someone suggested she drive it to the nearby auto dealer to seek help. “You can drive it off a cliff for all I care,” she recounted to the paper. “I’m not getting in that thing.” Eventually a dealership employee moved the car, and local police removed the snake.

Community service

A group of schoolchildren who owed money on their school lunch accounts got an unexpected jackpot from an even more unexpected set of benefactors. Students at Norton, Kan., public schools owed about $6,000 on school meal accounts when classes ended earlier this year. Most of the debt came from families with few means to pay back what they owed. After learning of the debts, inmates at a local prison who formed a support and community service group called Reaching Out From Within pooled their meager resources and came up with a $3,810 donation from about 30 prisoners. Prison staff kicked in another $457. Prisoners presented the donation to school officials Aug. 3.

Political target

The longtime mayor of a Canadian town thought he was looking into a mirror during a Sept. 2 visit to a local Goodwill thrift store. Cam Guthrie, mayor of Guelph, Ontario, discovered a dartboard with his face printed on it. Naturally, he bought it. On social media, Guthrie said being mayor requires having thick skin. “[I’ve had] a bag of dead flies mailed to me, graffiti about me. Lots of memes made about me,” he said. “This one is the most epic surprise find ever.” The mayor, who has held office since 2014, said he was just happy he found the dartboard unused and still in its plastic wrapper.