News Quirks 

David Kelbaugh, 23, rammed his car into a hot dog stand in Cary, N.C., after the vendor refused his demand to sell him a hot dog and drink for $1.

Claudia De La Rosa notified Miami International Airport that a bomb was aboard an American Airlines flight to Honduras, according to investigators, so that her boss, who was running late, wouldn’t miss his flight.

A fire that gutted the garage of a home in Damonte Ranch, Nev., destroying two vehicles and most of the roof and attic area, started, investigators told the Reno Gazette-Journal, while an occupant of the house was examining a flare gun to see if it was loaded. It was and discharged, igniting the fire.

Don’t Touch

A civilian passenger riding in the back seat of a South African air force jet accidentally ejected himself after grabbing the black-and-yellow striped handle between his legs. The rocket-powered seat smashed through the canopy and blasted 300 feet into the sky. The Guardian reported the passenger was recovered by helicopter unharmed and returned to Langebaanweg air force base. The aircraft, piloted by a member of South Africa’s air force aerobatics squad, landed safely.

When Guns Are Outlawed

While spending Thanksgiving with their parents in Algoa, Texas, a 26-year-old man who was arguing with his 23-year-old sister smacked her in the face with a piece of hot pecan pie. Galveston County sheriff’s Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo told the Houston Chronicle the sister required treatment for first- and second-degree burns to her face and neck.

Pre-Judgment Day

The day before Gary Joseph Wessel, 55, was set to stand trial on child molestation and sodomy charges in Illinois, state police found his body with a shotgun wound to the chest lying on the side of the road next to a truck with a low tire. Police Lt. James Morrisey said Wessel shot himself while trying to change a tire when he dislodged the jack, and it snagged on the shotgun case, causing the gun inside to discharge through the case.

Illegal Aliens

Officials of an Arizona school district accused Brad Niesluchowski, the district’s former information technology director, of using school computers to search for space aliens, bogging down the district’s computer system and interfering with technology use in classrooms. Higley Unified School District Superintendent Denise Birdwell told the East Valley Tribune the problem would cost more than $1 million to fix.

Pay and Pay and Pay Phone

When Los Angeles hairdresser Barbara James, 49, accepted a collect call from a customer using a pay phone to say she was running late for her appointment, James was billed $45.09 for the three-minute call. Service provider Network Communications International Corp. charged her $37.40 for the brief, in-the-neighborhood collect call, $4.74 in regulatory fees and taxes, and an extra $2.95 just for what it called “billing cost recovery fee.” NCIC’s president Bill Pope told the Los Angeles Times the tiny number of collect calls nowadays makes such prices inevitable, especially since pay phones are largely unregulated.