The Weird Week in Review

Farmer on Tractor Crushes Seven Police Vehicles

Vermont farmer Roger Pion was apparently angry at the local police for his recent arrest on marijuana possession and resisting arrest. So angry that he drove his tractor to the Orleans County sheriff's offices and right over seven of the department's vehicles! Five marked cruisers, one unmarked car, and a transport van were all crushed under the tractor's weight. Deputies could not chase Pion down, as they had no vehicles left to pursue him with. Newport city police found Pion soon after. He is being held on several felonies for the incident. No one was injured.

Fisherman Saves Bear Cub from Whirlpool

Mike Polocz, of Soldotna, Alaska, looked for a little fishing solitude on the Kenai River last weekend. He spotted a family of bears watching a cub that was caught in a whirlpool! The cub was shrieking in terror. Polocz's son Dustin steered the boat near, and the fisherman tried prodding the panicked cub with a fishing net frame, hoping to nudge him out of the eddy. After 10 to 15 minutes of poking, he finally moved the cub out of the whirlpool and into slower-moving water. The cub ran to shore, where his huge mother met him. Polocz's friend Charles Mettile captured part of the rescue on video.

Man Shoplifts Book on Ethics

Terry J. Davis was arrested in Louisville, Kentucky, Wednesday on a charge of theft by unlawful taking. In most instances, that means shoplifting. University of Louisville police report he is accused of stealing a textbook called Resolving Ethical Issues from the UofL’s Health Sciences Center and trying to sell it at a bookstore. Apparently, he didn't take time to read the book.

Chihuahua Finds Lost Girls

Carlie and Lacey Page, ages 5 and 8, became lost while walking a forest trail near their home in Newnan, Georgia on Monday. Police and firefighters began a search for the girls. Neighbor Carvin Young joined in as well, with his 3-year-old chihuahua named Bell. Bell found the girls about two hours after they went missing, as he recognized their smell. The girls were scared but unhurt, and Bell is now considered a hero.

Police Officer Couldn't Find Himself for Eviction Notice

Lithonia Police Chief Washington Varnum, Jr. is fighting to keep his job, although the city of Lithonia, Georgia found out his police credentials had been revoked in 2010 for an incident in his past position in the DeKalb County Sheriff's department. Apparently, he was accidentally given the task to serve an eviction notice on himself.

"He basically provided a sworn statement to the courts that he himself could not be found," said Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council (POST) spokesman Ryan Powell.

Varnum was living at the Les Jardins apartment complex and working as a DeKalb County Deputy Marshal when, he said, a co-worker asked him to serve a stack of eviction notices at the complex.

Varnum told Channel 2 investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer that he noticed his name was at the top of one of the notices, but he did not serve any of them. He instead checked the box which read, “Defendant not found in the jurisdiction of this court,” and hand-wrote underneath, “All breezeways must be properly marked with the unit numbers for service.”

The option chosen is a technicality used when officers cannot find a certain address, but the marshal's office has a policy that deputies cannot be an interested party in papers they're serving.

Varnum's defense is that he showed no partiality and treated his own eviction notice the same way he treated all the others in the stack. By ignoring them. Varnum resigned from his job while under investigation in 2010, and was hired by the city of Lithonia -and promoted to police chief- since the incident.

London Mayor Left Hanging From Zipline

London mayor Boris Johnson is enjoying his time in the spotlight and the opportunity to promote his city. However, there’s always the risk of something going wrong. One of those promotional opportunities was at Victoria Park, where Johnson took a ride on the zipline while carrying two British flags. But the wire sagged about 65 feet from the end of the line, and the mayor was left dangling in the wind. It was only a few minutes before help arrived, but the press was there to record the event. Johnson used the time to wave the flags and cheer on the British Olympic team.

Rare Brazilian Amphibian Resembles Something Else

When engineers drained a hydroelectric dam basin on the Madeira river in Brazil, they discovered a strange creature described as a "blind snake." That was last November, but scientists have just announced they have identified the "snakes" as Atretochoana eiselti, which are not snakes at all, but amphibians. However, the creatures look like eyeless snakes, or, actually, they resemble a penis. You can see pictures that are technically safe for work, but you may have to offer an explanation if someone sees them on your computer screen.