star-telegram.com: Weird News
News, sports and entertainment from star-telegram.com

• Wis. man graduates college at age 87
  

  A 50-year gap in his higher education didn't stop Clarence Garrett.After returning to college in spring of 2006 as a full-time student, Garrett completed course work at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and was awarded his bachelor's degree at commencement ceremonies Sunday - at the age of 87."We are not sure if Clarence Garrett is the oldest to ever graduate from UWM, but we do know that there had not been a graduate for some time who was born when the president was Woodrow Wilson," Chancellor Carlos Santiago said.On hand were Garrett's wife, Mary, his children and grandchildren.He was chosen to lead the graduates from the College of Letters and Science into the U.S. Cellular Arena, and he earned a standing ovation when awarded his degree.The Baltimore native served as a civilian at a U.S. Navy facility in Virginia before World War II. Once the war began, Garrett, who is black, served with the segregated Army in Europe.He later settled in Milwaukee and took courses at the college that later became UWM, but he gave up college to raise a family."After all my children went to college ... I said, 'Why shouldn't I?'" Garrett said. "And I have loved it ever since."

• Contractor, owner fight over hidden cash
  

  A contractor who helped discover bundles of cash totaling $182,000 hidden behind bathroom walls says the homeowner should turn the money over to him - or at least share it.Bob Kitts said his feud with the owner of the house, a former high school classmate, has deteriorated to the point where they speak to each other only through lawyers.Kitts said his lawyer has drafted a lawsuit that he hopes will force Amanda Reece to turn over the money she has kept. Meanwhile, Reece accuses Kitts of shaking her down.Most of the currency, issued in 1927 and 1929, is in good condition, and some of the bills are so rare that one currency appraiser valued the treasure at as much as $500,000, Kitts said.The fight began in May 2006 when Kitts was gutting Reece's bathroom and found a box below the medicine cabinet that contained $25,200."I almost passed out," Kitts recalled. "It was the ultimate contractor fantasy."He called Reece, who rushed home. Together they found another steel box tied to the end of a wire nailed to a stud. Inside was more than $100,000, Kitts said. Two more boxes were filled with a mix of money and religious memorabilia."It was insane," Kitts said. "She was in shock - she was a wreck."The bundles had "P. Dunne" written on them, probably a reference to Peter Dunne, a businessman who owned the home during the Depression.Kitts said he took some of the currency for an appraisal and learned that many of the $10 bills were rare 1929-series Cleveland Federal Reserve bank notes, worth about $85 each. There also were $500 bills and one $1,000 bill.John Chambers, an attorney for Reece, said Kitts rejected his client's offer of a 10 percent finder's fee and demanded 40 percent of the small fortune.Kitts asserts he found lost money, and court rulings in Ohio establish that a "finders keepers" law applies if there's no reason to believe any owner will reappear to claim it.Kitts said it would be unfair for him to take everything."For such a happy, exciting adventure, I can't believe it just went to heck like this," he said.

• Man being chased drives through car wash
  

  A driver did not make a clean getaway early Sunday, despite taking his vehicle through a car wash while fleeing an officer.A reserve officer tried to stop the driver on suspicion of drunken driving, the Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Department said in a statement. But the motorist fled by driving through a car wash, then sped away and nearly struck a Fond du Lac police officer who had stopped to help.A tire deflation device was eventually used to stop the car, and officers used a stun gun to take the 18-year-old driver into custody, the Sheriff's Department said. An 18-year-old woman also in the car was arrested and released.

• Newlyweds skydive to celebrate
  

  Talk about taking the plunge. Jeanie Dulski and Jamy Knittle actually took two plunges on Friday: First, they got married at Hazleton Municipal Airport, then they went skydiving.As Dulski explained it: "Getting married is scarier than jumping out of a plane."Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta performed the ceremony on the ground for Dulski and Knittle, both 30. About 45 minutes later, the bride and groom took a plane up to 10,000 feet and leaped out.It was the second marriage but first skydive for Dulski, who made a tandem jump with an instructor. Knittle, who had skydived once before, jumped separately.Barletta called it perhaps the most unusual wedding ceremony he has performed."I'm sure my wife would like to see me jump out of an airplane without a parachute," he joked.

• Fla. woman has 10 husbands, charges say
  

  The honeymoons are over for a 26-year-old woman who authorities say has at least 10 husbands.Eunice Lopez has been charged with bigamy, accused of marrying 10 men between 2002 and 2006 without divorcing any of them, federal immigration authorities say. The Miami Herald reported Saturday that a records search by the newspaper found seven additional marriages under the bride's name and birth date.Lopez arrived in South Florida from Cuba in 2002 and was a legal U.S. resident."I can tell you that none of the individuals she married had any type of residency," said Terry Chavez, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade office of the state attorney.Prosecutors say she charged her husbands an unspecified amount to help them secure immigration status and continued asking the men for money long after the wedding, threatening to expose them if they didn't pay.Chavez said the state attorney's office began investigating after being tipped off by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.Lopez was released on $18,000 bond. Her last known address was in Hialeah, just north of Miami. A telephone listing for her could not be located, and it was not known whether she had an attorney.

• Deer invades basement of Mich. home
  

  When Jody Fabry descended the basement stairs to her seasonal home and saw broken glass on the floor, then spied what caused the mess, she didn't know who was more frightened - her, or the deer that was the culprit.A young doe apparently got into the basement through a window, then couldn't get out. Fabry called officers to her home, but it was more difficult than it looked to remove the animal.Officers eventually ended up chasing it around the basement until it jumped back out the way it came, then bounded off.The deer, which Fabry guessed had been in the unoccupied home for a day, appeared to be unhurt.

• Suit over socks costs school $95,000
  

  Officials in a Northern California school district might not think Tiggers are such wonderful things after agreeing to pay $95,000 in lawyers' fees to five families who sued the school over its dress code.The parents went to court after a student was disciplined for wearing socks with the "Winnie the Pooh" cartoon character Tigger on the first day of school last year.The district's superintendent said Thursday that the settlement money is for the plaintiffs' lawyers; the district is also on the hook to pay the lawyers it hired.The settlement also says Redwood Middle School may no longer require students to wear only solid-color clothing.

• County jail in Ohio getting painted pink
  

  Jail administrator Dee Sandy thought the sheriff was joking when he mentioned painting cellblocks pink. He wasn't.Inmates at the Miami County Jail are putting color on the jail's once cream-colored walls after Sheriff Charles Cox entered the academic debate over the color pink's calming abilities.After Sandy realized Cox was serious, she said she picked purple for the jail bars, which had been blue.The jail, about 20 miles north of Dayton, houses up to 111 inmates, both men and women.Researchers have documented the ability of certain colors to evoke emotional and physical responses, and many jails around the nation have been painted pink as a pacifying measure.County jails in Arizona, Tennessee and Texas have had similar makeovers, but last year, the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department abandoned pink for institutional gray. Jail officials there said the pink hue had no discernible effect on prisoners but annoyed the jail staff.

• NYC nightclubs defend ladies' nights
  By LARRY NEUMEISTER

  Men are not discriminated against by "ladies' nights" at Manhattan nightclubs, just as people in their 20s do not suffer because some restaurants let children eat for free or have "early bird" specials for older customers, according to nightclub lawyers fighting a federal lawsuit.Roy Den Hollander has sued clubs including Lotus and the China Club, saying he was discriminated against by ladies' nights, which offer women free or discounted admissi