May 11, 2017
Lost Cellphone Tracked To NJ Garbage Dump
Camden, NJ (AP) A boy’s lost cellphone ended up in a New Jersey garbage dump and survived.
Ethan Roncace’s phone got thrown away at a high school in Haddon Township on Monday.
 His father, Craig, tells WCAU-TV in Philadelphia he used an app to track the phone and saw it was on the move. The signal led the family to the Covanta waste-to-energy facility in Camden.
He suited up and started digging through a mountain of trash. He recovered the phone in 30 minutes and it still worked.
Workers were close to dumping the trash into a 50-foot-high (15 meters) and 25-foot deep (7 meters) pile of garbage.
Covanta’s Rich Harrington says there’s a little better than 50 percent success rate when they can identify the trash truck.
Momma Don’t Play When It Comes To Her Stew
Albuquerque, NM (AP) A New Mexico man arryested for breaking into his mom’s house to steal her traditional New Mexican stew won’t face charges after all.
Last week, a state district judge dismissed charges against Jonathan Carlos Ray, who was charged in 2015 for the theft of his mother’s posole (poh-SOH-lay). The judge says the only witnesses to the alleged crime were Ray and his mother.
 Police say Ray was arrested after he ignored his mother’s orders to stay away from her posole and ran off with the holiday dish.
According to a criminal complaint, Ray sent his mom a text message saying he wanted some of her posole. She told him no.
The complaint says the mother later found her gate and garage broken and a pot of the posole missing.
Posole, a hominy, is a traditional soup or stew made with pork or chicken popular in Mexico and the American Southwest.
Daring Deer Licks Barrel Of Turkey Hunter’s Shotgun
Danville, IN (AP) Some daring deer approached a group of hunters in central Indiana and one was so unafraid that it licked the barrel of a shotgun and allowed one of the men to stroke its neck.
 Perhaps they knew the men were hoping to bag a turkey?
Leon Champine says the young animals didn’t have their mother with them “to teach them what is dangerous.”
Champine, of Indianapolis, told WXIN-TV that he and his friends encountered the inquisitive animals over the weekend in Hendricks County.
One of the men, Corey Cook, recorded video showing the deer wandering toward the camouflaged men who are hidden in the undergrowth. The video shows one nuzzling the barrel of a gun in the waning afternoon sunlight.
Champine calls it a “once in a lifetime encounter.”
‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’ Teen Girl Shows Up For Prom In Coffin
Pennsauken, NJ (AP) A New Jersey high school student who hopes to become a funeral director has surprised her classmates by arriving at her prom in an open prop coffin .
 Megan Flaherty says she mainly wanted to have fun while attending Pennsauken High School’s junior prom Saturday.
The 17-year-old says she checked with her date to make sure he had no reservations about her plans.
Flaherty’s open coffin slid out of the back a hearse. She then stepped out of the coffin on the hand of her date and smiled as other prom goers looked on in amazement.
Photos and video of Flaherty’s entrance have become an online topic.
Many commenters seem to like the entrance, with some joking Flaherty was “drop dead gorgeous.” But others say her actions were insensitive and tasteless.
Fire Set To Scare Off Opossums Destroys Man’s Home
Lancaster, PA (AP) A Pennsylvania man trying to scare away opossums by setting a fire has destroyed his home.
 LNP reports the row house blaze on Wednesday in Lancaster began when a man used butane to light a pile of leaves in his backyard. The man apparently hoped the smoke would help rid him of the marsupials, which are known for playing dead.
A city fire marshal says the fire got out of control and spread to the home, which was built of wood.
The building was condemned. Three people were displaced as a result of the fire, which did $50,000 in damage. A firefighter required hospital treatment for a shoulder injury.
Officials say the man had problems with bees also.
Ex-Deputy Mayor To Revive Burlesque Career For Charity
Jersey City, NJ (AP) A former deputy mayor in New Jersey is resurrecting her career as a burlesque dancer for charity.
 Former Jersey City deputy mayor Leona Beldini will take the stage as Hope Diamond for the first time in more than 40 years.
She tells The Jersey Journal she won’t be dancing three months after knee surgery, but she can “still strut a little bit.” She won’t be stripping either, although she may “take off a glove.”
Beldini, who is in her early 80s, was a deputy mayor under Jerramiah Healy and arrested in 2009. She was sentenced to prison in 2012 for a bribery conviction and released in 2014.
In the early 1950s, she was known as the “gem of the exotics.” Though she bared mostly all, Beldini says “by today’s standards, we were nuns.”
The May 11 fundraiser will benefit the city’s Kennedy Dancers company.
Man Takes Minivan hen Driver Mistakes Him For Valet
Atlantic City, NJ (AP) Authorities say a man stole a minivan at an Atlantic City hotel when the driver mistook him for a valet.
 Atlantic City police say 35-year-old city resident Steven Jacobs was arrested around 7 a.m. Sunday after officers stopped the vehicle. They say a loaded handgun was found on the floorboard.
Authorities say the car had been taken Saturday at the Wyndham Skyline Tower, shortly after the minvan’s owner arrived at the site and voluntarily gave Jacobs’ his keys.
Jacobs is charged with theft of movable property and a weapons offense. It wasn’t known Monday if he’s retained an attorney.
Sam The Missing Python Slithers Back To Alaska Home
Anchorage, AK (AP) A 17-foot python that had caused concern in a community north of Anchorage, Alaska, since it went missing two weeks ago has returned home.
 Matsunika-Sustina Borough Animal Care reports that Sam slithered back into view Monday in the living room of its owners’ home in the town of Meadow Lakes.
Sam had attracted international media attention after it went missing 14 days ago.
One of its owners tells the borough’s Animal Care department that Sam was fed a 25-pound rabbit before it disappeared.
“He doesn’t know where it was hiding,” Animal Care Officer Darla Erskine wrote in her report. “The owner walked into the living room, and Sam was slithering across the floor.”
There are no wild snakes in most of Alaska.
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