For one snake in a Tokyo zoo, dinner became an unexpected roommate.
Zookeepers at Tokyo’s Mutsugoro Okoku zoo were stunned to find that a dwarf hamster they had offered as a tasty meal to their 4-foot-long rat snake instead became its friend.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” keeper Kazuya Yamamoto said.
Zookeepers presented the live hamster – named Gohan, which means “meal” in Japanese – to the snake, called Aochan, in October after the reptile refused to eat frozen mice.
The snake eventually developed an appetite for frozen rodents, but has so far shown no signs of gobbling up Gohan. They’re such buddies that Gohan sometimes climbs onto Aochan to take a nap on his back.
“Aochan seems to enjoy Gohan’s company very much,” Yamamoto said.
Man pays for burying his car problem, literally
Matthew Mueller was facing a huge repair bill when he blew up the engine in his 1997 BMW. So he came up with a pretty low-down scheme: He buried the car.
Mueller rented a backhoe in October 2002 and buried the car on property owned by his father in rural northeast Ohio. Then he collected $20,000 from his insurance company by claiming it had been stolen.
Police received tips last year and excavated the vehicle.
“It looked like a pancake,” said prosecutor Eugene Muldowney.
Mueller, 35, of Akron,was sentenced Tuesday to a year in prison for insurance fraud, tampering with evidence, falsification and receiving stolen property.
He apologized in Portage County Common Pleas Court and paid restitution to Progressive Insurance along with $15,500 to state officials for their costs for digging up the vehicle.
“It was stupidity and completely out of character,” he said. “I broke the law and I tried to conceal it.”
Cat wakes owner, saving woman and baby from fire
A cat interrupted a catnap, possibly saving two lives.
Jean Poole and her 9-month-old granddaughter were dozing Tuesday in Poole’s home in a mobile home park in Manchester, Pa. Poole’s 7-year-old cat, Princess, woke them up, meowing loudly.
Poole got up, smelled smoke and heard crackling flames. She went to check the wood-burning stove in the living room, and saw flames at the window. With fire blocking the front door, Poole grabbed the baby and went out the back door. Then she returned to get Princess.
“She woke me up. I don’t know if I’d have smelled the smoke otherwise,” Poole said.
Firefighters found flames shooting through the roof.
Scott Glassmyer, assistant chief of the Newberry Township Fire Company, said the blaze apparently started accidentally in a trash can outside, ignited the underside of the mobile home, spread inside the siding and broke through to the interior.
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