Quick Takes: Side yard parking

Johan Helberg got a rude awakening May 22 when a neighbor began ringing his doorbell near daybreak. “I thought, who in the world rings the doorbell at 5:45 in the morning?” the Norwegian man told The New York Times. As it turned out, the neighbor had woken up 45 minutes earlier when a 440-foot cargo vessel, NCL Salten, ran aground just off the corner of Helberg’s home on Trondheim Fjord. Helberg, a retired museum director, had slept through the crash, but as soon as he looked out the window, he discovered his tranquil vista of the Norwegian fjord replaced with the view of the massive container vessel’s green-and-orange hull. According to Helberg, the bow of the ship missed ramming his home by mere feet. Local police, who were still investigating the cause of the grounding, said the officer piloting the vessel had fallen asleep. Helberg said he’s no stranger to seeing cargo vessels transit the waters. “Big ships pass us now and then,” he said. “We don’t usually see ships right outside our living room window. So this is especially strange.” Five days after the ­surprise stopover, a tugboat hauled the errant ship to a nearby harbor.

Hard-to-find fiction

A major American newspaper’s summer reading list contained works of fiction so fictional they didn’t exist. On May 20, officials with the Chicago Sun-Times acknowledged that portions of the paper’s “Heat Index” summer reading ­suggestions were generated by a contractor who used artificial intelligence. As a result of AI hallucination—wherein an AI program invents facts and presents them as true—many of the books on the reading list featured fake titles from real authors. The Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer both ran the special section May 15. Officials with King Features said they fired the writer contracted for the special section.

Castaway casket

Maryland county councilman Calvin Hawkins called it “among the top five unbelievable constituent calls” he’s ever received. On May 29, a citizen complained about a casket on the side of an Upper Marlboro road. The call was so unusual, Hawkins told WUSA9, he had to check it out: “I thought somebody was playing a prank.” Before he got to the scene, a city employee opened the casket to see if it was empty. It was. Employees with the Prince George’s County public works department carted off the casket and issued a warning online against illegally dumping trash.

Breaking news edition

Local newscaster Olivia Jaquith proved she was a pro’s pro May 21 when she was able to finish her telecast despite going into labor. Two days after the pregnant reporter’s due date and just before she went on air to anchor the CBS affiliate WRGB morning newscast, Jaquith’s water broke. “I’m happy to be here, and I’ll stay on the desk for as long as I possibly can,” Jaquith told viewers. “But if I disappear, that’s what’s going on.” According to the WRGB anchor, she decided she’d rather focus on her work during the early stages of labor than wait around in a hospital. The next day, Jaquith announced the birth of her son Quincy.

Pigeon pandemonium

Two unwelcome passengers caused delays for a Delta flight departing Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on May 24. First a pigeon flew into the cabin as passengers boarded Delta Flight 2348. After baggage ­handlers captured the wayward bird, the Airbus A220 taxied away from the gate. But that’s when another pigeon emerged and began walking down an aisle. “It was on the floor, strutting down the aisle,” a passenger told The Minnesota Star Tribune. “Somebody near me reached down to try and grab it, and that’s when the chaos happened because the bird just launched into flight.” The plane returned to the gate where baggage handlers eventually captured the stowaway pigeon and the plane departed—but arrived in Madison, Wis., about an hour late.

Picking the wrong job

The first mistake was ­trying to steal a tire. The second mistake was inadvertently choosing an off-duty police officer’s vehicle to pilfer. Call it a bad choice compounded by a bad choice. Police in Newark, N.J., say the off-duty officer intervened when he saw the suspect trying to pry a tire from his personal car in the early morning hours of June 1. After a bit of tussling, more officers arrived to subdue the suspect, who was taken into custody.

Next time try catnip

It works on house cats. That was the thinking of Colorado law enforcement officers trying to use a laser pointer to lure a bobcat from its hiding place inside a Denver-area residence. While responding to a wildlife complaint on May 22, deputies with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office found the bobcat perched on a shelf inside the home. One deputy theorized the bobcat might chase the green laser pointer attached to his Taser device. According to bodycam footage, another less credulous deputy replied, “It’s not a normal cat.” Ultimately the bobcat took no interest in the laser but later left through an open back door. “Guess some intruders just aren’t dazzled by our high-tech tricks,” the sheriff’s office posted on social media.