Doughnuts Lead to Lotto Machine Thief

He was shaping up to be such a promising lottery machine thief, but his gluttony did him in.

Roderick Reifenstahl and two other men allegedly used a stolen key last month to steal about $1,600 out of a lottery game at the Kum & Go store in Des Moines, Iowa, according to The Des Moines Register.

Detective Dave Smith noticed one of the suspects heading off to buy doughnuts and a soft drink while the other two stayed at the machine when he was looking over surveillance footage of the incident.

The mid-burgle doughnut buy was made with a food-stamp card, he later learned.

Cops traced the give-away pastry to Reifenstahl, 42, with the aid of the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals.

The police said last Tuesday that the sweet-cake transaction provided an electronic fingerprint to go with the security tape evidence.

Smith and Des Moines cops "hit a home run on this one," Ken Moon, an Iowa Lottery investigator, told The Register. "We've had several of these thefts reported around the city, and this is the first arrest."

Machines like the Blazing 7s slot-machine-like one the trio allegedly broke into are popular with gamers and a sought-after target of thieves.

A key to the machines was stolen from a store earlier this year and a thief swiped a key ring from a worker who services them in a separate incident, Moon told The Register.

Police have charged Reifenstahl with second-degree theft and say they are on the hunt for the other two alleged thieves.

— Thanks to Out There reader Scott T.

Mommy Says 'Ouch'

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — A baby girl weighing 14 pounds, 3 ounces was born at McAlester Regional Health Center, the largest baby ever born there, a hospital official said.

Lillian Elizabeth Ross was born Friday by Caesarean section to Adrienne and Anthony Ross of Pocola.

The baby already wears clothes made for children 6 to 9 months old.

"The nursery had to go to pediatrics to get diapers for her because they didn't have any that would fit," Adrienne Ross said.

"We've already had to start buying her new clothes. None of the stuff we bought will fit either."

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, less than 1 percent of babies weigh more than 11 pounds at birth.

— Thanks to Out There reader Shannon O.

Music Soothes the Savage Beast

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A moose that had been wandering near Sioux Falls and other parts of eastern South Dakota in recent weeks has been captured and taken to the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls.

Veterinarian Dayton Williams of Sioux Falls brought down the animal with a tranquilizer gun around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday as it moved through snow-covered corn stubble near Interstate 29, south of Sioux Falls.

The animal was loaded into a horse trailer and transported to the zoo.

Connie Evenson of Sioux Falls was among those who saw the moose. She said she noticed movement in her backyard Monday afternoon as she watched television in her living room.

"At first I thought it was somebody's dog," Evenson said. "Then I got up to look out of our bank of windows, and it was much bigger."

She called to her family and took photos of the animal as it came within 20 feet of their house.

"We thought it was kind of funny, but our son, Matt, was practicing his baritone saxophone and had his window open," Evenson said. "We wondered if it was like the call of the wild that attracted the moose to our house."

State Game, Fish and Parks officers had been tracking the moose for a couple of months and decided to catch it to prevent it from becoming a public safety threat, officials said.

"Being it was staying so close to Sioux Falls for such a long time ... we were concerned a little bit with the public's safety," said Arden Petersen, a regional supervisor for the GF&P.

The moose won't be on public display at the zoo, officials said. Instead, they hope to calm it down and relocate the animal.

— Thanks to Out There reader Margaret B.

This Baseball Card's a Grand Slam!

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — Once there was a time when one of the neatest things about opening a pack of baseball cards was pulling out a flat piece of gum.

Barry Scott of Tupelo didn't get any gum in a pack he opened Nov. 19, but he did get the authentic signatures of four Hall of Famers: Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and Walter Johnson. All on one card.

Ruth, Cobb, Wagner and Johnson were four of the five original members of the baseball shrine, along with Christy Matthewson, in 1939.

Scott didn't just pull a great baseball card; he held a piece of Americana.

"When I first saw the card, I only saw the Ruth and Cobb, and I was really excited just to have those two," he said. "When I actually saw the other side with the Walter Johnson and Honus Wagner, I was excited, shocked and in disbelief, all at the same time."

Scott, a collector since 1987, bought the card pack at Sportscards inside the Gloster Creek Village. The card came from the SP Legendary Cuts series, and he bought two boxes with 24 packs in each box. A box of cards retails for $105.

Upper Deck produced the card by acquiring authentic signatures. They buy them from various places, making sure each one is authentic. Gregg Kohn, product manager for baseball at Upper Deck, helped produce the card and said it had been on the market only three weeks.

"We go through auctions and league-approved vendors to get the autographs, which makes the card expensive to produce," Kohn said. "I'm not surprised it was pulled this quick; this product generally goes pretty fast."

Anthony Patterson, store manager of Sportscards in Tupelo, said he has never seen a card of that caliber pulled from a deck at his store. "It's more than a once-in-a-lifetime card because very few people will ever get a card like it in their life," Patterson said. Patterson said it was a touchy moment when the card was pulled.

"I really thought he was going to damage the card because he knocked over a table getting to a chair," Patterson said.

— Thanks to Out There reader Sharon F.

Secret Santa Older Than Santa Himself

ODESSA, Texas (AP) — Residents at the Deerings Nursing Home have a very special secret Santa -- 99-year-old Sybil Rice. Rice, who lives on her own, makes gift baskets for the residents. On Monday, she and her family delivered 70 baskets to residents.

"I think it's quite unusual -- she's doing it for people younger than she is," Nina Rice, her 72-year-old daughter-in-law, said in a story in Tuesday's Odessa American. "She shops on her walker and makes these sacks [for residents]. She buys sugar-free things [for diabetics] and until this year, she has also baked sugar-free cakes."

Nina Rice said she doesn't do it for attention.

"There are so many wonderful people in the nursing homes. I wish more people would come visit," she said.

This year's gift bags look like snowmen with shoe-button eyes and contain cookies, candies and even fresh bananas.

Stephanie Lane, Deerings activities director, said the baskets are always creative.

— Thanks to Out There reader Margaret B.

I Do Declare, I Love My Veggies!

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee politicians have issued proclamations officially praising pork, backing beef and urging constituents to eat their vegetables.

But a group that avoids eating meat altogether claims that politics keeps it from receiving the state's official seal of approval for vegetarian diets.

The Tennessee Vegetarian Society has been trying without success for Gov. Phil Bredesen's entire term to get him to issue a proclamation praising the virtues of vegetarianism.

"That would be nice if we could get the governor to say the vegetarian diet is healthy," Lige Weill, president of the association, said. "We feel like we are second-class citizens."

Bredesen is not the first Tennessee governor to reject proclaiming a special day, week or month for vegetarians. Weill said the vegetarian society has been trying to get a state proclamation in support of vegetarianism for 19 years.

Lamar Alexander, now a U.S. senator from Tennessee, issued a vegetarian proclamation when he was governor in 1986, and the furor that surrounded it may explain why there hasn't been another.

His proclamation stated that raising animals for meat causes "intense, unnecessary suffering," and it said state residents would benefit from a "more healthful" vegetarian diet.

Cattlemen and other farmers were upset with the decree, and Alexander quickly backtracked. Staff members said the document got mixed in with others and was signed by mistake.

In rapid succession, Alexander proclaimed days urging state residents to eat more beef, pork and poultry. He served beef at a luncheon on World Vegetarian Day.

Gov. Don Sundquist would later sign a World Farm Animals Day proclamation that promoted their protection rather than their consumption. Staff members again called the proclamation a mistake.

Bredesen spokeswoman Lydia Lenker said the administration is not discriminating against vegetarians by not issuing a supportive proclamation. "We don't promote one lifestyle over another," she said. "It's really pretty simple reasoning."

So what about government proclamations and resolutions promoting beef and country ham?

"Those are agricultural products," Lenker said. "We do promote Tennessee products."

The Bredesen administration attempted a compromise in 2003 by proclaiming November "Eat Your Vegetables Month."

The proclamation used much the same language as the one requested by the Tennessee Vegetarian Society, and it promoted major crops grown in the state. Tennessee ranks as one of the Top 10 producers of tomatoes and snap beans, and the state produces many other vegetable, fruit and grain crops.

But Weill said the proclamation did not promote vegetarian diets and therefore was not what the society wanted.

— Thanks to Out There reader Sharon F.

Better Buy Myself a Double Lure

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — This fish didn't have a chance. A rainbow trout pulled out of Holmes Lake last weekend had double the chance to get hooked: It had two mouths.

Clarence Olberding, 57, wasn't just telling a fisherman's fib when he called over another angler to look at the two-mouthed trout. It weighed in at about a pound.

"I reached down and grabbed it to take the hook out, and that's when I noticed that the hook was in the upper mouth and there was another jaw protruding out below," said Olberding.

He said in his 40 years of fishing, he's never seen anything like it.

Don Gabelhouse, head of the fisheries division of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, said a two-mouthed fish was new to him, too.

"It's probably a genetic deformity," he said. "I don't think there's anything wrong with it."

The second mouth didn't appear to be functional, Olberding said. He has plans for the fish, which don't included mounting.

"I'm going to smoke it up and eat it," he said.

— Click in the photo box above to see a picture of the two-mouthed fish.

Compiled by FOXNews.com's Andrew Hard.

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