News of the Weird:Man claims Dr. Phil provided kidnapping idea

Latest Rights
Eric Laverriere, 25, filed a federal lawsuit in Boston in July, claiming the Waltham, Mass., police violated his constitutional right to be drunk when they arrested him at a private New Year’s Eve party even though there was no evidence that he was disturbing anyone. (The law in many states requires police to detain someone who is incapacitated and who might be a threat to himself, and indeed, some police departments have been sued if they fail to detain someone who later injures himself.)

And in July, Britain’s High Court declared illegal London’s 9 p.m. curfew for those under age 16 who are not with an adult. Lord Justice Brooke said “everyone” should have the right to “walk the streets without interference from police.”

The Litigious Society
In Old Saybrook, Conn., in October 2004, Alan Hauser, who was parked with engine running, sitting with his mother-in-law, accidentally hit the accelerator, causing the SUV to jump a curb and plunge down an embankment into the Connecticut River, where rescuers (who were later cited for heroism) pulled the woman out 30 minutes later. (Hauser managed on his own.) The woman, 75, suffered serious brain damage from being submerged, and in August filed a lawsuit against the city for not having guardrails, not having regular patrols of trained and equipped rescuers, and not having more signs warning people of the danger of falling into the river. (Hauser was also sued, but the family’s original plan, to sue individual rescuers, was scuttled.)

Ironies
New World Order: In April, the communist government of China presented its quinquennial Vanguard (or Model) Worker award (in the past, given to loyal factory workers, dedicated public-outhouse stewards, and the like) to Yao Ming, the Houston Rockets’ basketball player who lives most of the year in the United States and earns about $15 million annually from playing and from product endorsements (which is about 15,000 times the average earning of Chinese urban workers).

Things People Believe
About 200 major league baseball players wear $23 titanium necklaces made by the Japanese company, Phiten, according to a June New York Times report, with many accepting the company’s claim that they improve circulation and reduce muscle stress. Said a company spokesman: “Everybody has electricity running through their bodies. This product stabilizes that flow of electricity if you’re stressed or tired.” Said New York Mets pitcher Heath Bell (who has two necklaces): “If you think it works, it’s going to work. If you don’t think it works, it’s not going to work. But I’m going to keep wearing it, because next year, there will be something new we’ll all have to get.”

Questionable Judgments
Steven Newell was hospitalized in London, Ontario, in June after his large plastic swimming pool, which he had just placed on his second-floor balcony and then filled with water, caused the balcony to collapse and plunge to the ground. The pool, 8 feet in diameter and filled with water as it was to a height of 20 inches, would require about 640 gallons, weighing more than 2 1/2 tons. Newell had relocated the pool to the balcony in order to avoid the safety requirement of building a fence around it.

News That Sounds Like a Joke
Lawyers for horror novelist Stephen King acknowledged in June that King had been sued once again by Anne Hiltner, who now claims the obsessed, psychotic nurse in the movie “Misery” must have been based on her. She had earlier claimed that a psychic character from King’s TV show “Kingdom Hospital” was based on her and sued him before that for allegedly breaking into her home and stealing manuscripts.

Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or [email protected] or go to www.NewsoftheWeird.com.