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WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) - Never underestimate a mouse's determination.
There's a mouse in Bill Exner's house that he says he has captured three
times. Each time, the mouse escaped, and the last time the rodent made
off with his lower dentures.Exner, 68, said he and his wife Shirley
scoured his bedroom after the dentures disappeared from his night stand.
"We moved the bed, moved the dressers and the night stand and tore
the closet apart," he said. "I said, 'I knew that little stinker stole
my teeth' - I just knew it."
They found a small opening in a wall where they suspected the mouse
was coming and going, and their daughter's fiance, Eric Holt, stepped in
to help.
"He brought a crowbar and hammer and he sawed off a section of wood
and pulled up the molding and everything," Exner said. "It was quite a
job."
They retrieved the dentures, and Holt suggested his future
father-in-law boil them in peroxide and whatever else he could find for
to disinfect it.
The mouse apparently isn't done. It frequently comes out and stares at
Exner, his wife said.
"He's taunting him - I swear he's taunting him," Shirley Exner said.
Published: Monday, March 26,
2007 | 1:13 PM ET
Canadian Press: DIAA HADID
JERUSALEM (AP) - A woman with three
crocodiles strapped to her waist was stopped at the Gaza-Egypt border
crossing after guards noticed that she looked "strangely fat," officials
said Monday.The woman's shape
raised suspicions at the Rafah terminal in southern Gaza, and a body
search by a female border guard turned up the animals, each about 50
centimetres long, concealed underneath her loose robe, according to
Maria Telleria, spokeswoman for the European observers who run the
crossing.
"The woman looked strangely fat. Even
though she was veiled and covered, even with so many clothes on there
was something strange," Telleria said.
The incident, which took place on
Thursday, sparked panic at the crossing.
"The policewoman screamed and ran out of
the room, and then women began screaming and panicking when they heard,"
Telleria said. But when the hysteria died down, she said, "everybody was
admiring a woman who is able to tie crocodiles to her body."
In her defence, the woman said she "was
asked" to carry the crocodiles, said Wael Dahab, a spokesman for the
Palestinian guards at the crossing.
The reptiles, which had their jaws tied shut
with string, were returned to the Egyptian side of the border.
Dahab said the animals were likely meant for
sale to Gaza's small zoo or to private owners. The crocodiles would fetch
"good money," even in the impoverished territory, he said. In Gaza, the
animals can fetch about C$580 - roughly two months' salary for a low-ranking
policeman.
The woman was not the first to try to smuggle
exotic wildlife through the Rafah crossing, Dahab said: Another woman tried
to bring in a monkey tied to her chest, and other travelers tried to smuggle
in exotic birds and a tiger cub. Border guards more frequently confiscate
cigarettes, prescription drugs and car parts.
The crossing is the only way in and out of
Gaza for residents of the crowded coastal strip.
Since Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, the
crossing has been subject to a complex system of control: Egypt and the
Palestinians are responsible for the crossing, with European monitors are
stationed at the terminal and Israeli inspectors watch from a distance over
closed-circuit TV.
Israel retains final say over whether the
crossing can open, and has kept it closed over 80 per cent of the time since
an Israeli soldier was captured by Hamas-linked militants in Gaza nine
months ago, charging that the crossing is being used to smuggle money and
weapons to militants.
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