Quick Takes: Stuck in a tight spot

Stuck inside a truck stop sign about 130 feet in the air: It’s not how maintenance worker A.J. Gow expected to spend his afternoon. Gow ascended the tall Petro truck stop sign in Wilmington, Ill., before noon on July 21 to perform maintenance. But later he discovered his boom lift machine had broken. Unable to repair the machine, Gow phoned for help after spending nearly three hours in the cramped sign. “I was too hot and thirsty to be anxious,” Gow later said. “I was more so nauseous and dizzy. … It was only 16 inches wide and wasn’t even tall enough to stand fully upright either.” The fire department arrived about three hours into Gow’s plight. But Wilmington Fire District officials discovered they didn’t have a ladder or crane that could reach high enough to rescue him. Salvation came hours later when a boom lift sourced from nearby Joliet, Ill., pulled into the truck stop parking lot with an official escort from the Illinois State Police. “Seeing that lift roll up with police escorts was the highlight of my day for sure,” Gow said.

Early delivery

Told by hospital personnel to go home and return to the hospital when her labor progressed further, expectant mother Regena Felix suspected she might be back sooner than they thought. But she didn’t expect the baby to come that soon. As they drove back to their Casa Grande, Ariz., home in July, Felix told her husband to pull over. After expectant dad Frankie Felix found a spot in a nearby casino parking lot, he rushed to the passenger side of the car and delivered his baby girl. The couple then returned to the hospital to admit both mother and newborn. After the experience, the parents joked that since she was born in the vehicle, their daughter will have to drive it as her first car.

Honking for help

The honking went on all night. But when dawn broke in Gold Hill, Colo., on July 19, one local resident discovered it wasn’t a belligerent neighbor blaring a parked SUV’s horn—it was a bear. After breaking into the parked vehicle, the bear accidentally locked himself in and had repeatedly leaned into the horn while trying to escape. Homeowner Patrick Sullivan discovered the animal, then arranged for cellphone video to capture his risky rescue attempt. Sullivan tied a long rope around a rear door handle, scurried to a safe distance, and then opened the door. Eventually the bear leaped out of the vehicle, but not before inflicting major damage to the car’s interior.

Surveillance branches out

A police department gambit to dress officers in urban camouflage netted scores of tickets in Dunellen, N.J., on July 29. For six hours, patrolmen donned shrub costumes and planted themselves in a heavily trafficked downtown area looking for distracted drivers. At the end of the shift, police officials said their costumed constables had written 74 tickets to drivers violating New Jersey’s law against holding a phone while driving.

Unfit for consumption

Ants are off the menu. At least they should have been. That’s the posture of South Korean prosecutors who in July lodged a criminal complaint against the owner of a Michelin-starred restaurant for using ants as a dessert topping. According to prosecutors, the insects are not one of the 10 approved species of insects fit for human consumption under Korean law. Government officials named neither the restaurateur nor the business, but indicated chefs were giving patrons the option of topping sherbet desserts with ants. The owner could face a hefty fine or up to a year in jail for the offense.

Trash pandas permits

Owning a pet raccoon just got easier in Tennessee. A new state law took effect in July waiving the $31 permit fee the state previously required before adopting a trash panda. “You’d be surprised how many people in Tennessee have reached out and said, ‘We can’t wait for one of these. I’m so excited, thank you!’ Lots and lots. Hundreds, maybe thousands,” state Rep. Jeremy Faison told WKRN. Adopting a wild raccoon remains illegal in Tennessee, meaning the only legal way to acquire one is through an approved vendor that inoculates the animals against disease. Despite the new law, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency webpage about raccoons still pans the idea, issuing warnings like “do not feed raccoons,” and “raccoons do not make good pets.”

Clearing the air

It will soon be safe to go outside again in St. Mary’s. For years, residents of the small town on Canada’s Newfoundland coast have complained about a rotting fish smell carried in by the wind. The stench was caused by about 330,000 gallons of fermented fish sauce abandoned by a food manufacturer more than two decades ago. Once the property of the now-defunct Atlantic Seafood Sauce Company, the 110 containers of fermenting sauce were kept in a building in town. But as the building crumbled over time, the abandoned condiment began sickening residents. Mayor Steve Ryan described it this way: “The worst rotted fish you ever smelled in your lifetime, times 100.” In late July, cleanup crews began disposing of the liquid and dismantling the facility. Officials expect the cleanup to take a few months.