Cab Ride Stretches 2,200 Miles
EVERETT, Wash. (May 12) - What started out as just another early morning fare turned out to be an odyssey stretching about 2,300 miles for taxi driver Mark Forbes.
"When I look back at it, it was one of those cab rides that you think about, but you never realize it's going to come true," Forbes said. "I think every cab driver has a once-in-a-lifetime trip."
The 62-year-old cabbie was nearing the end of a 12-hour shift April 10 when he picked up two men at a Days Inn and one asked to go to a Sikh temple near Seattle, about 25 miles to the south.
After they had gotten a few miles south, the passenger changed his mind and said they wanted to visit his brother in Milwaukie, a Portland suburb.
Once the 1991 Chevrolet Caprice Classic got to Portland, the passengers used Forbes' cellular telephone to call for the brother for directions that didn't line up with the streets.
"Are there two Milwaukees?" the taller passenger asked.
"Yes," Forbes said. "There's another Milwaukee. In Wisconsin."
"How much for you to take us there?"
Figuring it had to be close to 2,000 miles to Milwaukee, the driver asked for $3,000, a discount from his normal rate of $1.60 a mile, and the two agreed.
The trio arrived in Milwaukee the evening of April 12. The bill was paid and Forbes began the long trip home.
But he said his view of the job has changed. Now, he says, when a fare asks to go to the mall or a restaurant, he thinks, "Is that all?"
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Oklahoma Police Looking for Grease Thief
EDMOND, Okla. (May 13) - A slippery thief is on the loose in Edmond, where police say nearly 5,000 pounds of used cooking grease has been stolen from three restaurants.
The latest theft was of 1,700 pounds of grease from Alvarado's, taken between 10 p.m. Monday and 9 a.m. Tuesday, police said.
Two other restaurants have been victimized twice with about 2,200 pounds taken from Panda House and about 1,000 pounds from Jamil's.
"It's one of the most unusual cases of theft we've had in Edmond," said police spokeswoman Glynda Chu.
Police think the thief is someone familiar with the restaurant industry and is looking to turn in the grease for the recycling value, Chu said.
The grease was to be picked up by Evergreen Grease Service of Cashion, which resells it.
Evergreen officials said the grease has a resale value of about $380.
05/13/04 13:00 EDT
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Katherine Harris Forgets to Sign Ballot
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LONGBOAT KEY, Fla. (May 8) - Rep. Katherine Harris, the former Florida secretary of state who oversaw the disputed 2000 presidential election, admits she's responsible for a vote going uncounted - her own.
Harris forgot to sign her absentee ballot when she voted in Longboat Key's local election March 9.
"I feel terrible," the Republican said Friday. "It's a mistake. I regret it."
Harris said she was in a rush to catch a flight to Washington, D.C., when she handed the unsigned ballot to her husband to send in. She said she usually votes in person and has never had trouble before.
"I know how important voting is," Harris said.
The election decided the fate of a proposed community center, a Longboat Key Town Commission seat, and a term-limit proposal for town officials. Harris later received a letter from the supervisor of elections informing her that her vote did not count.
As secretary of state, Harris oversaw the disputed count that gave George W. Bush a crucial 537-vote victory over Al Gore in Florida. Harris said all along that she simply followed the letter of the law, but she became a darling of GOP activists and was elected to Congress in 2002.
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World's Heaviest Raccoon Dies
Woman's Pet Weighed Nearly 75 Pounds at Death
PALMERTON, Pa. (May 11) - A junk-food crazed critter billed as the world's weightiest raccoon has died, ending a 10-year life marked by more than a few midnight snacks.
Bandit will no longer raid his owner's pantry, hunting down chips and cheese curls, Froot Loops and French Fries.
"I haven't been eating, I haven't been sleeping," a bereaved Deborah "Pepper" Klitsch said Monday, two days after health problems forced her to euthanize her favorite pet.
Klitsch - who lives in Palmerton, about 90 miles west of New York City - denied the occasional charge that she overfed the rotund raccoon, whose weight ballooned to nearly 75 pounds, three times the average for his breed.
He was born with a bad thyroid gland, Klitsch said.
When he hit 52.5 pounds in 1999, Bandit's girth garnered him a spot in Guinness World Records.
Klitsch vowed to lock her cabinets, but Bandit continued to plump up, registering 54.4 pounds in late 1999, then 64.9 pounds in 2001 and finally pushing past 70.
Klitsch, a foster mother, told the tale to various news outlets, including a British radio show, and Bandit snagged a spot on cable TV's Food Network.
Back home, the raccoon was a regular at Ice Cream World, where owner Tim Pitts would watch him sit in Klitsch's sport utility vehicle, holding a cup of blue raspberry Slush with his paws and drinking through a straw.
"He was a good customer," Pitts said. He had sold a birthday cake for Bandit a few days before he died.
Klitsch believes that Bandit always thought he was a dog.
Her Collie had raised him as one of her pups, nursing the young animal and giving him tongue baths.
He started to decline this spring, following the deaths of two of the puppies he had grown up with. Bandit had also developed a cancer-like growth on his side.
"I could see he was suffering, because he stopped eating," Klitsch said. "In the whole entire world he was my best friend."
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All of these are from
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/collection.adp?id=936&_mpc=news%2e10%2e14 Stephen
Topic: Taxi, Grease thiefs, and a few other Funny News stories. (Read 1116 times)