Small Bits of News

Oregon Man 'Sends' Holiday Greetings From Afterlife
ASHLAND, Ore. — Even in death, Chet Fitch is a card.
Fitch, known for his sense of humor, died in October at age 88 but gave his friends and family a laugh recently: Christmas cards, 34 of them, began arriving — written in his hand with a return address of "Heaven."
The greeting read: "I asked Big Guy if I could sneak back and send some cards. At first he said no; but at my insistence he finally said, 'Oh well, what the heaven, go ahead but don't (tarry) there.' Wish I could tell you about things here but words cannot explain.
"Better get back as Big Guy said he stretched a point to let me in the first time, so I had better not press my luck. I'll probably be seeing you (some sooner than you think). Wishing you a very Merry Christmas. Chet Fitch"
A friend for nearly 25 years, Debbie Hansen Bernard said, "All I could think was, 'You little stinker."'
"It was amazing," she said. "Just so Chet, always wanting to get the last laugh."
The mailing was a joke Fitch worked on for two decades with his barber, Patty Dean, 57. She told the Ashland Daily Tidings this week that he kept updating the mailing list and giving her extra money when postal rates went up. This fall, she said, Fitch looked up to her from the chair.
"You must be getting tired of waiting to mail those cards," he told her. "I think you'll probably be able to mail them this year."
He died a week later.
.
Cops Find Hidden Camera In Bedroom
Sullivan County Sheriff's deputies have charged a Forestburgh man with unlawful surveillance after they found a wireless video camera system hidden in a woman's bedroom.
George Kaiser, Jr., 37, was later charged with burglary and unlawful surveillance, both felonies.
Click Here To Read More
.
Pigeon poop plunge wins New Yorker six million dollars
A former New York doorman who slipped on a pile of pigeon droppings on a subway station's stairs has been awarded six million dollars in compensation, according to a report on Monday.
Fifty-six-year-old Shelton Stewart slipped on the station steps in 1998, injuring his neck and back, despite saying he had noticed the pile of excrement on his way to work the same day, the New York Post reported.
A jury awarded Stewart 7.67 million dollars in damages, but New York City’s transit authority only has to pay 80 percent of the sum, or 6.13 million, since Stewart was found 20 percent liable for failing to avoid the fecal pile.
Stewart was reportedly planning to use his windfall to buy a house and take his two daughters and grandchild to Disney World in Florida.
.
Single Mom Duped by Fake Lottery Ticket
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) - When single mother Mary Ann Shaffer scratched a lottery ticket last week, she thought Christmas had come early.
The ticket indicated she was a $25,000 winner.
"I said, 'Oh my God, it's a miracle," Shaffer told the Naples Daily News.
She looked on the back to find a telephone number to claim her winnings.
Elation quickly turned to sadness as she realized the ticket, given to her by a customer at her concession stand, was a fake.
"Claim forms supplied by Santa Claus. All winning tickets must be validated by the tooth fairy and conform to her game rules ... All winners are losers and must have an excellent sense of humor," the ticket read.
"How can anyone be so mean around Christmas time?" said Bear Terstegge, a Naples Beach Patrol officer who examined the ticket.
Word about the fake ticket spread quickly around the Naples pier where Shaffer sells hot dogs and water.
"It touched everybody's heart," Terstegge said.
In the past few days, Shaffer, who has two young children, has received cards, gift certificates and hefty tips. One regular brought presents for her kids.
And she's even received a few lottery tickets - real ones.
.
Donor Drops $1,000 Into Red Kettle
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - Salvation Army Major Richard Hathorn knew when and where it would happen, but he still doesn't know who slipped the $1,000 bill into one of the charity's Christmas kettles.
Each Christmas since 1978, someone has covertly stuffed one of the big bills into a kettle in this northern West Virginia University City.
This year, Hathorn says, the donor alerted the Salvation Army that the tradition would continue with a deposit between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday at the Wal-Mart at University Town Center.
During the appointed period, Hathorn carefully scanned the faces of people dropping money into the kettle, but he didn't spot anyone with a bill bearing the likeness of President Grover Cleveland.
He found it later, wrapped inside a $1 bill.
Hathorn says he hopes to raise about $62,000 from the kettles this year to provide everything from toys and food to utility assistance.
.
Santa In G-String Gets DUI
A famous Hollywood location had a seasonally appropriate visitor Sunday night.
But when the man got out of his car in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater, it was clear this was anything but a standard visit from Santa Claus.
Click Here To Read More
.
Police Taser Urinating Man
Police have tasered a man after he refused to stop urinating on a shop window in Fortitude Valley this morning.
Officers observed the 24-year-old relieving himself on the shop window in the Brunswick Street Mall about 4.30am and directed him to stop.
Click Here To Read More
.
British Man Brutally Murders Wife, Places Corpse Under Christmas Tree
Police arriving at the home of a retired British school teacher to tell her that her husband was critically injured in a car crash instead stumbled on a gruesome find — the woman's battered corpse stuffed among the presents under the couple's Christmas tree.
Police in West Sussex, England, say Roger Goswell, 66, rammed his car into a tree just two miles from their home, after bludgeoning his wife, Susan, 61, and crudely trying to hide her body beneath the tree, the Daily Mail newspaper reported. Roger Goswell later died at the hospital.
Click here to read the full article in the Daily Mail of London.