Sweet ski jump dude

Man tangles wifes arm in seatbelt, rips off

Police say he dragged his wife down a dirt road, her arm tangled in the seatbelt strap through the open door of his pickup, until the limb ripped clean from her body.

His lawyer says he's a hero, rushing his injured wife to the hospital before she bled to death.

Stephen Humphrey, 39, of Romulus was arraigned Thursday in 1st District Court in Monroe on charges of third-offense drunken driving causing serious injury and operating a vehicle with a suspended license, also causing serious injury.

"I'm saying he's a hero," John Gonta, Humphrey's lawyer, said Thursday. "He made sure his wife survived. Whatever happened before that, I don't know, but I'm glad he took her to the hospital."

Police, too, aren't entirely sure what led to 34-year-old Brenda Humphrey's arm being ripped off about 1 a.m. Sunday. After days of searching, police still haven't found the crime scene or the arm.

The Humphreys have been married about three years, police said, and have 1 1/2 -year-old twins. The children were at their maternal grandparents' house while the couple spent Saturday evening drinking at Fenders Bar & Grill on Wabash Street in Milan.

The couple were heading home from Fenders when they began to argue and Stephen Humphrey told his wife to get out of the truck.

Brenda Humphrey agreed, but reached through the passenger door to grab her cell phone. Her husband took off and her arm got tangled in the seatbelt. After she was dragged a distance, her feet got caught beneath a rear tire, and her arm severed between the shoulder and the elbow.

Atkinson said Stephen Humphrey initially told police he'd let his wife out of the truck so she could relieve herself. He drove down the road, then turned around to pick her up and discovered her lying in a ditch, her right arm missing. He said she'd been hit by another car.

Brenda Humphrey remained in fair condition Thursday at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Superior Township. In addition to her lost arm, she suffered a fractured pelvis and ruptured bladder.

Police impounded Stephen Humphrey's 2003 Ford F-150 pickup. Officers still are looking for Brenda Humphrey's arm, her wooden-soled flip-flops and a white Styrofoam cooler. And they are awaiting the results of blood-alcohol tests on Stephen Humphrey.

Atkinson said he often deals with whodunits, but "this one's a little odd." "It's a traffic-related crash, but we can't find where it happened and we can't find what happened to her arm or her shoes."

If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison. He's being held in the Monroe County Jail on $100,000 bond. Article here.

What exactly is this stretch called?

Woman gives birth in Wal-Mart bathroom

A Utah woman went shopping at Wal-Mart and came home with a something that was not on her list -- a baby girl. Brittany Miller gave birth to little Callie in the Salt Lake City Wal-Mart store's restroom.

The store manager lent a hand, gathering towels and calling the paramedics. By the time they got there, the 6 pound, one ounce baby had arrived.

The happy mom says the store has a liberal return policy but she is keeping this package wrapped in pink. Article here.

One hell of a Etch-a-sketch drawing

Man runs himself over with his own car?

A Chicago man is lucky to be alive after a bizarre accident. He ran himself over with his own car.

The man is 56 years old and lives in the Albany Park neighborhood.

He apparently left the car running and started to unload the trunk. The car slipped into reverse and hit him.

The man was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center. He has two broken fingers and some stitches. Article here.

college + spare time = great ideas

Michael Jordan look-alike sues real MJ?

An Oregon man sues basketball superstar Michael Jordan because, according to him, they look too much alike.

Allen Heckard said he has been mistaken as MJ nearly every day for the past 15 years and he's tired of it. He is suing Jordan and Nike founder Phil Knight for $932 million dollars. His claim alleges defamations, permanent injury and emotional pain and suffering.

Jordan has not commented on the suit.

Everybody lean back & put your paws up!

Dude proposes using a field of corn

Spending over 40 hours of work, Brian Rueckl asked Stacy Martin to marry him Monday using a cornfield.

"At first I was in shock and forgot to say, 'yes,'" Martin said Rueckl, 23, had tilled a 40,000-square-foot message, "Stacy will you marry me," and two hearts into a cornfield near the Manitowoc and Kewaunee county line.

Rueckl, an employee of the Farm Service Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, used his educational background, the fact that his fiancée grew up on a farm and his love for computer-mapping programs to create the message in the 5-acre farm owned by his boss.

He had persuaded farmers to plant the corn there more densely than usual to make it easier to pick, researched corn mazes and received permission from his boss to use the field.

With spray paint and stakes as guides, Rueckl used Geographical Information System software to get the coordinates of the letters and Global Positioning System data to lay out and manually till the land, making the letters 40 feet high and 5 feet long and the hearts 125 feet high. Tilling the message took 10 hours.
"We got bit up by mosquitoes and sunburned, but it was worth it," he said. "It was definitely a good reaction."

Rueckl planned to reveal the message in the fall, but decided to propose at 8:30 a.m. Monday so the stalks wouldn't grow too long and create a shadow.

He asked Martin, a 22-year-old University of Wisconsin-Green Bay student, to take pictures of the land as a ploy to get her up in an airplane. The Luxemburg couple flew from the Rio Creek Airport and settled at 1,000 feet to get the best view of the message

"I don't even know if I saw it right away," she said. "I wasn't looking for anything." When she finally realized there was writing in the field, it took Martin a minute to register it was for her. Article here.

Dude totally wrecks his BMW X5

I got a new kidney from my limo driver?

As tips go, Chicago limousine driver Abdul Faraj got a priceless one this week when one of his regular customers offered up a kidney, media reports said.

Faraj and Minnesota businessman Dave Baker underwent transplant surgeries at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital. "He gave me part of his body. He saved my life," Faraj, a diabetes sufferer whose kidneys were failing despite a three-times-a-week dialysis regime, told area television stations.

Baker has used Faraj, a native of Lebanon, as his driver on trips to Chicago for several years. Making small talk months ago, Baker learned of Faraj's poor health and struggle to find a kidney donor with a matching blood type.

"At that time, he tells me, 'What's your blood type?' I tell him O-positive," Faraj said. "He said, 'I'm 0-positive. I'll give you one.'" Baker is out of the hospital and expected to fully recover within weeks. Article here.

Ridiculous car hydraulics

Keyboard/Computer food tray?

Do you like your computer so much that you never want to leave it... even when you have to eat? Checkout this food tray -- ideally fitted onto any keyboards which occupy a lot of space on the desk, so user can eat their food during working without any interruptions of their work. You might be a little nerdy if your considering buying this. But then again, I think it's kinda cool (via).

Jack and Jill... they're pretty crazy kids

(click to enlarge)

62-year-old woman gives birth!

A 62-year-old child psychologist has given birth to a boy, becoming the oldest British woman to have a baby.

Patti Farrant — delivered her son, J.J., by Caesarean section on Wednesday, according to The Daily Mail newspaper. The baby was conceived after fertility treatments.
Farrant has three grown children from a previous marriage. It is the first child for her husband, John, 60, an education management consultant. "He is adorable, and seeing him for the first time was beyond words," she told the newspaper.

The oldest woman in the world to give birth is believed to be Romanian Adriana Iliescu, who was 66 when she had a daughter in Bucharest in January 2005.