Small Bits of News You Didn’t Know you Needed

Florida man wanting ride to bar calls 911
Authorities say an Oldsmar Florida man who called 911 claiming he'd been beaten and shot at was hoping the tale would get him a ride to a bar.
Instead, 37-year-old Gregory J. Oras is facing charges of misusing the 911 system and battery of a law enforcement officer.
An arrest report says Oras called 911 three times before his arrest early Tuesday in Oldsmar, northwest of Tampa. He told the dispatcher he had a broken nose and bleeding ears, and claimed people were shooting at him.
Authorities say he was actually looking for a ride to another bar.
The report also says Oras kicked a Pinellas County sheriff's deputy in the knees and a Taser was used to subdue him.
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What can go wrong when you steal a car?
A guy trying to steal a cop car filled with all kinds of cop stuff needs a lesson in crime.
First he accidentally Tazes himself. Then he accidentally locks himself up in handcuffs. Then he has to call the police to set him free.
Now Shane Thomas Williams-Allen of Orlando is in custody. He might be linked to as many as nine car burglaries around Clermont and Minneola.
One of them was an unmarked Ocoee cop car. Stolen from that car were a Tazer, an expandable baton, handcuffs, a Glock handgun magazine, a digital camera and a digital recorder, reports the Orlando Sentinel.
Williams-Allen, 19, discharged the Tazer and shocked himself. Cops caught up with him when he locked himself up with the handcuffs and had to call the cops to set him free.
He should plead guilty to stupidity.
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Apartment tenants want privacy wall gone
Residents of a New York apartment building said their neighbors erected a four-story privacy wall that building tenants can touch from their windows.
The tenants of the building in the College Park neighborhood of the city's Queens Borough said the residents of a neighboring house put up a four-story metal wall that blocks light and air from their apartments, the New York Post reported.
One tenant, who gave his name as William, said house residents Donald, Charles and Carol Weidel erected the wall to protect their frequent parties from prying eyes, the report said.
"They do parties in the summer and they don't like for people to see what they're doing," William told the Post.
CPY Realty, which owns the apartment building, said it is seeking to have the courts force the homeowners to tear down the wall and pay $2 million in damages.
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Boy's science project prompts school evacuation
Fire officials said a San Diego middle school was evacuated when a student's science project was mistaken for a bomb. Fire-Rescue spokesman Maurice Luque said a vice principal's concerns prompted the evacuation of Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School Friday afternoon. Luque said an arson team took photos and x-rays of the empty plastic bottle with wires and determined it was harmless.
Luque says the 11-year-old boy was trying to build a motion detector from instructions he found on the Internet and parts he bought online with help from his father. His parents did not realize that the object looked threatening.
He said the student was "a genius-type kid" who undertook the project on his own, had no intentions of hurting anyone or causing any disruptions.
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