Briefly: National news

Prank with plastic wrap hurts 2 on motorcycle

Town of Waukesha, Wis. A prankster tightly wound plastic wrap around traffic poles across a two-lane road, causing a motorcycle accident that injured two people.

Daniel Buckel, and his girlfriend, Theresa Brzykcy, were riding south of Waukesha on Tuesday when their motorcycle crashed into the plastic wrap set up 3 to 4 feet above the road – wound thickly from traffic poles on opposite sides.

Buckel, 22, was within 10 feet when he saw the makeshift barricade, and hit the brakes.

“It’s appalling, and it’s really frightening,” Brzykcy, 19, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Buckel was cut above his eye and broke his finger. Brzykcy also suffered scrapes and bruises.

He bared all during his airport screening

Minneapolis

Daryl Miller didn’t make it through airport security because he couldn’t keep his pants on.

Airport police said a security screener was waving a metal-detecting wand over Miller’s pants area on Friday when Miller pulled his shorts down to his ankles. He wasn’t wearing any underwear.

Miller then said, “There, how do you like your job,” thus ending the screening, according to the police report. He was charged with indecent exposure and released on $300 bail.

“We’ve never had anybody do that before,” said airport police Lt. Matt Christenson. “But it’s not abnormal for people to become frustrated with the screening process.”

“This person exposed themself in a public area, a clear violation of the law, and we needed to take some action on that, otherwise everybody would be dropping their pants,” Christenson said.

Man dies after brother chained him over booze

Dearborn, Mich. A retired doctor who apparently tried to stop his alcoholic brother from drinking by chaining him in his home has been charged with murder after the brother asphyxiated.

The brother was found in his basement with the chain wrapped around his neck, authorities said Thursday.

Merle Rydesky, a retired emergency room doctor, appeared in district court Thursday to face charges of open murder and kidnapping, both of which carry a maximum penalty of life in prison. He was freed on $50,000 bail.

Prosecutors said Rydesky confined his 57-year-old brother James in the basement by wrapping a 30-foot chain around his neck.

“His brother, while certainly intoxicated, attempted to get out of the basement and either fell or became entangled and was asphyxiated,” Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Walker said.

Defense attorney David Cripps said the confinement was an attempt to keep the brother sober for five days so he could be entered a treatment program. He added that the death might have been a suicide.

“My client has for 20-something years been trying to rehabilitate his brother,” Cripps said.

Girlfriend is hit with 3-foot alligator

Port Orange, Fla. A man hit his girlfriend with a 3-foot alligator and threw beer bottles at her during an argument in the couple’s mobile home, authorities said.

David Havenner, 41, was ordered held without bond Saturday on misdemeanor charges of battery and possession of an alligator.

The alligator, which Havenner had been keeping in his bathtub, was turned over to Florida wildlife officials.

Nancy Monico, 39, told investigators that Havenner beat her with his fists, then grabbed the alligator and swung it at her as she tried to escape, sheriff’s spokesman Gary Davidson said. She said the animal hit her at least once.

Havenner told investigators that Monico bit his hand because she was upset that they had run out of alcohol.

Man’s cigarette ignites methane in porta-potty

Blacksville, W.Va. A man smoking in a portable toilet lit up more than a cigarette.

The potty exploded Tuesday when a buildup of methane gas mixed with the lit cigarette, said a spokeswoman for Monongalia Emergency Medical Services. The methane didn’t “take too kindly” to the lit cigarette, she said.

Emergency workers said the man was not severely injured and drove himself to the hospital after the stinky, smoky mess.

DotComGuy changes name back to Maddox

Dallas Call it the DotComGuy bust.

The man who legally changed his name to DotComGuy changed it back Tuesday – to Mitch Maddox.

In 2000, Maddox spent one year at home and living off purchases made on the Internet. Video footage of his life was streamed on the Internet 24 hours a day and attracted worldwide media attention.

He later got married and on Tuesday he and his wife, Anne, appeared in court to legally change their names to Maddox.

Meanwhile, an auction for the DotComGuy name and the domain name dotcomguy-dot-com was to end in April, but it’s been extended – and it’s now on e-Bay.