The Weird Week in Review

Man in  La-Z-Boy Charged with Drunk Driving

61-year-old Dennis LeRoy Anderson of Proctor, Minnesota pleaded guilty to leaving a bar and crashing his vehicle. The vehicle was a converted La-Z-Boy recliner with a lawn mower engine, decked out with cup holders and a stereo, which he drove into another vehicle in the parking lot. Anderson's blood-alcohol level was measured at .29 percent at the time of the crash. Anderson's lisence had been revoked due to an earlier drunk driving charge. The La-Z-Boy was impounded and is scheduled to to sold at auction.

Cat in a Freezer for 19 Hours

A cat named Krillen survived 19 hours in a freezer in Te Kuiti, New Zealand. Sarah Crombie heard a faint meow when she approached the freezer, which hadn't been used since her partner Sid Sisson shut it the night before. He didn't realize that Krillen had jumped inside. The freezer was set to -18C, the coldest possible setting. Krillen attempted to jump out but was so cold he just rolled over into the bottom of the chest freezer. Sisson put the cold kitty under his shirt and climbed into bed. It took three hours under the covers for the cat to stop shaking. Krillen appears to have recovered without frostbite.

Coyote Struck, Travels to California

Daniel East and his sister, Tevyn were traveling on Interstate 80 near the Utah-Nevada border when a coyote ran in front of the car. They hit the animal, but kept driving as they assumed it was dead. Eight to ten hours later, they stopped in California and noticed the coyote was stuck in the car's grill! They called the Wildlife Rehabilitation and Release office in Penn Valley, which sent a volunteer.

Jan Crowell, a rehabilitation center volunteer, said she brought a catch pole, an animal carrier, gloves and blankets.

When she arrived, East and his sister were taking the screws out of the car's grill in an effort to get the animal out. Once the grill was pulled forward, the coyote poked its head out.

"No broken bones, no internal injuries -- nothing," Daniel East said, adding that the animal only had a few scrapes on one of his paws.

The coyote was kept at the center until it escaped on its own.

Leech Convicts Australian Robber

XXXXXXX Vanity Plate Spells Trouble

Scottie Roberson went by the name Racer X when he built custom cars in Alabama. So when he got license plates for his everyday car, he bought vanity plates with seven Xs. That led to $19,000 in traffic tickets. It turns out that when Birmingham police ticket a car that has no license plates, they enter seven Xs for the plate number. The tickets have been racking up for Roberson for over a year. A city spokeswoman said officials are aware of the problem, and that Roberson will not be charged. She also said police are looking into changing the system to keep him from receiving more tickets.

Car Thief is a Real Bear

Moscow Mayor Promises No Snow

Yury Luzhkov, the mayor of Moscow, has hatched a plan to keep the city snow-free this winter. Usually snow is a problem from November to March. Luzhkov proposes to pay the Russian Air Force to seed clouds before they bring snowstorms to Moscow. That plan is used already to keep rain away from Victory Day and City Day celebrations. The cost of the scheme will be around $6 million, but that's half of what the city usually pays to clear snow from the streets in winter. The Moscow City Council has already approved the idea.