Louisville Man Seriously Injured In Potato Gun Explosion

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A man was hospitalized after being seriously injured in a potato gun explosion.

Police said they received a report of a shooting in the 200 block of Alpha Avenue at about 4:15 p.m. Monday, where they found 53-year-old John Berthiaume II lying in the street.

Berthiaume suffered injuries to his right arm and leg when his homemade potato gun exploded, Louisville Metro Police spokesman Dwight Mitchell said.

The victim's brother, Tony, said it appeared that his brother put too much black powder into the device.

"I guess it stressed the metal out too much, and it blew up," he said.

Martha Dodd said the explosion sent shrapnel into her home across the street.

"I looked out the door and saw him sitting on the ground and I said, 'You just shot a hole in my house,'" Dodd said.

Berthiaume was taken to University of Louisville Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Mitchell said.

"He's got a chunk of his arm torn up. His butt cheek, his thigh and lower calf on his right side," Berthiaume's brother said. "A chunk of meat was hanging off of his arm: you could see to the bone."

Berthiaume will be charged with wanton endangerment, Mitchell said.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaA potato cannon (also known as a spud gun) is a pipe-based cannon which uses air pressure (pneumatic),[1][2] or combustion of a gaseous fuel,[3][4] to launch projectiles at high speeds.[5] They are built to fire chunks of potato, as a hobby, or to fire other sorts of projectiles, for practical use. The projectile can be dangerous and result in life-threatening injuries, including cranial fractures, if a person is hit.[6]

Texas Drought and Fires Increases Snake Encounters

As the Texas drought continues, snakes will be on the move in search of food before hibernation. If the snakes can not get enough food to build their fat stores, it will be hard for them to remain in hibernation throughout the winter months.

Not only will the snakes be in search of food, they will also be attracted to areas where they will find water.

"The drought has dried all of the grass that the rodents normally feed on," said Central Texas snake expert, Jerry Cates. "It's a chain effect, when there are less rodents for the snakes to eat, they will be ranging further and further out from their normal foraging areas."

"It's possible we could see snakes into the winter months as we did after the 2010 drought," said Cates. "We saw snakes out of their normal areas in Round Rock, Texas in early January."

Most species of snake found in Texas are non-venomous. There are some species of venomous snakes that people should be aware of. They are the rattlesnake, Texas coral snake, the cottonmouth and copperheads.

If you should come across a snake, the best thing to do is to slowly move away from it. If you or your pet should get bitten, seek medical treatment immediately.

"Treatments that involve plastic surgery cost between $100,000 and $150,000," Cates said. "Bites that don't involve plastic surgery cost between $10,000 and $75,000 to be treated." Plastic surgery is often needed to treat snake bites from pit vipers. "All pit vipers produce gangrenous injuries."

People can reduce their risk of snake bites by wearing leather shoes when in areas of tall grass and when mowing their lawns. Snakes also like to sun themselves on rocks.

"Since January 1, Austin, Texas had received only 39 percent of their normal rainfall", said AccuWeather meteorologist Brian Edwards. One of the driest areas is Lubbock with only 11 percent of their normal rainfall.

The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that 81.08 percent of Texas is currently rated as experiencing exceptional drought conditions.

JOKE: Hillary Clinton went in for a physical

Hillary Clinton went in for a physical, only to learn she was pregnant. She was furious. "In the middle of my run for vice-president?!" she thought. She dialed Bill's cell phone and screamed, "You bastard! How could this have happened? With all I have going on, you get me pregnant?! How could you? This is all your fault!" There was dead silence on the phone. She screamed even louder, "Do you hear me? What have you got to say for yourself?"

Finally Bill whispered, "Who is this?"

GOT CAPTION? 9/08

GOT CAPTION? 9/087 v.2.0

VIDEO: Parrot Chasing Laser Pointer

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Bear Steals Car and Crashes it

It was 3:30 a.m., and Brian McCarthy was fast asleep when a bear took his 2002 Toyota Prius for a test drive. The Pleasanton man's car had been parked in the driveway of his west Lake Tahoe cabin. After wedging itself inside the car, the bear became stuck. Frustrated, hungry and mad, it kicked, scratched, bit and tore at the interior of the hybrid, trying to force a way out as easily as it found its way in. In its behind-the-wheel rampage, the bear ripped open the seats, bit a chunk out of the steering wheel and damaged the Prius' gear box, shifting the car into neutral. From the safety of the cabin, the awakened family watched helplessly as the commandeered Prius slowly started rolling out of the driveway.

"Our son was the first one who woke up, and he was watching the bear through the window," McCarthy said. "We were looking out of our bedroom window and from our view, you could look down and see the bear in the car, and its arms were just flailing all over the place, through the windows and everything." The driveway was slightly inclined, so the car began picking up speed. The Prius rolled across the street, hopped a small rock wall and finally came to a stop on the porch steps of a neighbour's house. The bear eventually found its way out of the car and escaped back into the woods, leaving behind a totalled Prius.

McCarthy, 61, couldn't believe what he had just seen. He said he had no clue why a bear would want to get inside his car. "The car was completely closed. There wasn't any food in there," he said. "The only things in there were a beach towel, some CDs and a few phone chargers." The incident occurred on Aug. 28. McCarthy said he called the sheriff's department immediately to alert deputies to the bear's antics. The South Lake Tahoe Police Department answers calls about bears often, but McCarthy's situation was a bit different.

"We don't really get very many animal-vehicle break-ins out here, but it does happen," said Lt. David Stevenson of the South Lake Tahoe department. "I've never actually seen a bear open a car door before, but they have been known to stick their paws in the windows that are left cracked." Stevenson said the thought of a bear opening a door and accidentally crashing a car into a house was hard to imagine but not absurd. "Normally, you'll get reports of the Dumpster divers and trash divers, but bears breaking into cars is different," he said, laughing. "It's not uncommon, but it's definitely not a normal thing to hear about."

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX_NUGcK8iI

Remembering 9/11: She Was the One

When Richie Pecorella met Karen Juday, she captured his heart and changed his life. They were engaged and living together in Brooklyn when Karen was killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, where she worked as an administrative assistant. Here, Richie remembers Karen, his love and inspiration.

Gold fever sweeps the criminal underworld

ON GUARD: Private security guard Gus Rodriguez stands outside El Palacio de Oro jewellery store in downtown Los Angeles.

Gus Rodriguez looks more like a soldier than a jewellery store security guard, with a Beretta handgun strapped to his bulletproof vest, shades wrapped around his shaved head and pepper spray bulging from a breast pocket.

"I am not afraid," the former Ecuadorean military man says, patting his pistol. "They call me Rambo."

After a summer of brazen attacks on gold stores, parts of downtown Los Angeles now look more like a militarised zone than a commercial corridor.

The gold fever that has driven prices to an all-time high is also fuelling a crime spree in the precious metal. Police throughout the US are seeing an uptick in robberies and burglaries related to gold prices, which peaked at US$1891 (NZ$2293) an ounce last month, up more than US$600 (NZ$727) from a year earlier.

The FBI doesn't keep numbers for gold thefts but local police departments have plenty of anecdotal evidence of a spike. Dozens of women have had their necklaces snatched in daylight attacks, burglars are targeting gold in homes and robbers in New Jersey even cleared out a mining museum's irreplaceable collection of nuggets.

"It's really bad," said the owner of Abel's Jewellery, one of scores of gold stores lining Broadway, a grubby street through the heart of downtown Los Angeles. "You work all your life trying to have something for the family and they want to take it all in one day."

Jewellery store owner Abel stands inside his store in downtown Los Angeles.

The beauty of gold, from a criminal stand point, is that it's easy to fence. Rings and necklaces can be melted down - destroying the evidence - and sold. Precious items such as diamonds are harder to alter and easier to trace.

Abel, the jewellery store owner, asked his last name not be used for fear of bringing unwanted attention from criminals. His store has already been robbed twice this year, most recently about two months ago when three men smashed his glass displays with hammers and made off with about US$10,000 of gold. They escaped in a getaway car.

There were at least six Los Angeles gold store robberies in June and July. On August 22, four men with hammers were arrested outside a jewellery store, Los Angeles police Lieutenant Paul Vernon said.

These thefts were suspected to have been carried out by gang members who covered their faces with hoods and hats, then rushed into stores and swiped what they could in a matter of seconds. One surveillance video shows a shopkeeper being blasted by pepper spray while robbers destroy display cabinets and grab what they can.

"Certainly the surging gold prices motivated these people to want to do these smash-and-grabs," Vernon said. "They are not trading what they steal at the market value of gold. Even if they get it half that, they are making a pretty penny."

In Oakland, police say dozens of women have had gold necklaces yanked from their necks on the street. More than 100 similar thefts have been reported in Los Angeles, a rash of robberies is taking place in St Paul, Minn., and police in Phoenix say muggers chatted up high school girls then ripped their gold necklaces from them.

"We've never seen this," said Oakland police Sergeant Holly Joshi. Most of the victims were robbed while distractedly looking at their phones.

In July, thieves smashed open a glass display in the Sterling Hill Mining Museum in New Jersey and made off with about US$400,000 in gold samples collected from mines across the globe.

Rodriguez, the LA security guard, hasn't had to use his weapon in the four months he's stood guard. The stocky 44-year-old earned his nickname from gang members who he says regularly look him over as they slowly drive past the shops he patrols.

Most of the jewellery stores on Broadway are low-end enterprises with owners keen to make a quick buck buying jewellery, melting it and reselling it. The street alternates from squalid to splendid, dotted with crumbling former theatres and refurbished art deco high rises.

Opposing forces of gentrification and homelessness play out on the street, where hustlers stand outside cheap electronics stores blasting Mexican music and drivers swoop into secured garages beneath newly renovated apartment buildings.

A couple hundred metres down the street from Rodriguez, another gold store guard pops open the leather clasp securing his .357 magnum pistol when he sees two young men walking toward him.

Oscar Quintero says he's never had to fully unholster his gun but a few weeks ago thwarted a robbery by blasting pepper spray at a man who tried to run away with a gold chain around his neck.