US News

WEIRD BUT TRUE

Two hermit crabs dressed as surfers have won a crustacean beauty contest in New Jersey.

The Ocean City competition required people to create tableaux featuring costumed crabs. The Miss Crustacean 2002 winners had their own tiny surfboards and were surrounded by a miniature beach.

Their owners, Patrick, Natalie and Courtney Knause, of Swarthmore, Pa., beat 34 other entries.

Other crabby contestants were dressed as Hansel and Gretel, the Phantom of the Opera, Spider-Man, the Green Goblin and a waiter crab complete with a tray of drinks and tip.

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A trailer-park recluse has left $7.5 million to the University of Alabama.

Alton Scott, 81, died alone in his trailer in Yellow Pine, Ala., in January, but his fortune has just been revealed.

Scott inherited land and timber rights from his dad and had quietly played the stock market. The address on his door read “2 Wall Street.”

His daily routine was to speak to his stockbroker by phone, then drive around local oil fields in which he’d invested. Afterward, he’d take a 7-mile walk in the woods.

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A cat in Maine received a credit-card bill for $1,444, plus interest of $54.

The letter from Credit Store Financial was addressed to Simone, an 18-year-old Siamese who belongs to Arlo and Gloria Hall of Houlton.

The credit-card firm said it had a Social Security number on file for an account belonging to a Simone Hall – and the Halls’ address was accidentally attached. It will now be removed.

“When we got this in the mail, I thought Arlo was going to double over laughing. I was mad. It’s funny, but it’s serious, too,” Gloria said.

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A Pennsylvania man had a blood-alcohol level nearly six times the legal limit when he crashed his truck and was critically injured, cops say.

Lynn Bird, 37, of Williamsport, was charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants and testing for a blood-alcohol level of .576 – apparently from vodka and beer, police said.

Lycoming County Coroner Charles Kiessling Jr. said the amazing part is not that Bird lived through the crash, but that he survived with a blood-alcohol level that high.

The average person would die from a blood-alcohol level of more than .40, he said.