Police Officers Buy Back An Elderly Couple's Wedding Ring That Was Pawned To Buy Groceries

In an age where it seems the only new we read is bad news, this story in the Cornwall Seaway News was too wonderful not to share. :)

"Cornwall, Ontario police officers went above and beyond the call of duty by helping an elderly couple buy back a wedding ring that was pawned to buy groceries.

City cops were attending what they believed was a domestic call at a home involving an elderly couple who were in the midst of an argument. Upon visiting the home, police discovered that an elderly woman was suffering from dementia. They further determined that the husband had recently pawned his wedding ring in an effort to purchase groceries.

The couple had been married 54 years and the husband admitted he was finding it difficult to not only care for his wife, but to put food on the table.

Police quickly began canvassing among themselves and raised $150 to purchase groceries for the couple, as well as $130 to buy the ring back from a local pawn shop.

The officers who helped are expected to receive a commendation from the police services board for their act of kindness."

Duck Hunting

This true story about two hunters from Michigan was originally reported on the news:

A guy buys a brand new Lincoln Navigator for $42,500 and has $560 monthly payments. He and a friend go duck hunting in winter, and all the lakes are frozen solid.

These two guys go out on the lake with the guns, the dog and, of course, the new vehicle.

They drive out onto the lake ice, unload the guns, decoys, dog, etc. and get ready.

Now, they want to make some kind of a natural landing area for the ducks and something for their decoys to float on. In order to make a hole large enough to look like something a wandering duck would fly down and land on, it is going to take a little more effort than an ice hole drill.

So, out of the back of the new Navigator comes a stick of dynamite with a short, 40-second fuse.

Now these two Rocket Scientists do take into consideration that they want to place the stick of dynamite on the ice at a location far from where they are standing (and the new Navigator), because they don't want to take the risk of slipping on the ice when they run from the burning fuse and possibly go up in smoke with the resulting blast.

They light the 40-second fuse and throw the dynamite.

Remember a couple of paragraphs back when I mentioned the vehicle, the guns and the dog? Let's talk about the dog: A highly trained Black Lab used for RETRIEVING. Especially things thrown by the owner.

You guessed it, the dog takes off at a high rate of doggy speed on the ice and captures the stick of dynamite with the burning 40-second fuse about the time it hits the ice. The two men yell, scream, wave their arms and wonder what to do now.

The dog, cheered on by all the shouting and waving, keeps coming.

One of the guys grabs the shotgun and shoots the dog. The shotgun is loaded with # 8 birdshot, great for ducks, but hardly big enough to stop a Black Lab. The dog stops for a moment, slightly confused, but continues on.

Another shot and this time the dog, still standing, becomes really confused and, of course, terrified, thinking these two geniuses have gone insane.

The dog takes off to find the nearest cover, which happens to be under the brand new Navigator.

----BOOM!---- Dog and Navigator are blown to bits and sink to the bottom of the lake in a very large hole, leaving the two idiots standing there with this "I can't believe this happened" look on their faces.

The insurance company says that sinking a vehicle in a lake by illegal use of explosives is not covered by their policy.

He still had yet to make the first of those $560 a month payments!

And you thought you had bad days.

Where's That 8 Inches?

This had most of the state of Michigan laughing for 2 days and a very embarrassed female news anchor who will, in the future, likely think before she speaks.

What happens when you predict snow but don't get any? This is a true story...

There was a female news anchor who, the day after it was supposed to have snowed and didn't, turned to the weatherman and asked, "So Bob, where's that 8 inches you promised me last night?"

Not only did HE have to leave the set, but half the crew did too because they were laughing so hard!

Excerpt From A California Radio Show

Female newscaster: "So, Mr. Jones, what are you going to do with these children on this adventure holiday?" Mr. Jones: "We're going to teach them climbing, canoeing, archery, shooting..." 

Female newscaster: "Shooting! That's a bit irresponsible, isn't it?" 

Mr. Jones: "I don't see why; they'll be properly supervised on the range." 

Female newscaster: "Don't you admit that this is a terribly dangerous activity to be teaching children?" 

Mr. Jones: "I don't see how, we will be teaching them proper range disipline before they even touch a firearm." 

Female newscaster: "But you're equipping them to become violent killers." 

Mr. Jones: "Well, you're equipped to be a prostitute, but you're not one, are you?"

Bet With A Blonde

Jim walked into a sports bar around 9:58 PM. He sat down next to a blonde at the bar and stared up to the TV. The 10:00 PM news was now on. The news crew was covering a story of a man on a ledge of a tall building preparing to jump.

The blonde looked at Jim and said, "Do you think he'll jump?"

Jim replied, "You know, I bet he'll jump."

The blonde said, "Well, I bet he won't."

Jim placed a $20 bill on the bar and said, "You're on."

Just as the blonde placed her money on the bar, the guy did a swan dive off of the building, falling to his death. The blonde was very upset and handed $20 to Jim saying, "Fair's fair, here's your money."

Jim replied, "I can't take your money, I saw this earlier on the 5 o'clock news and knew he would jump."

The blonde replied, "I saw it too, but I didn't think he'd do it again."

Jim took the money.

Veteran Fired For Giving A Homeless Man A Muffin

A 73-year-old veteran says he was fired from a Venice, Florida, Cracker Barrel restaurant for giving a needy man a few condiment packets and a corn muffin.

He admits it was against the restaurant’s rules, but says he thinks it was the right thing to do.

For three plus years Joe Koblenzer put on his brown and yellow Cracker Barrel apron and greeted those who come in to the Venice location.

“It’s a fun job. A job really suited to me,” Koblenzer said.

The 73-year-old says that a man, who looked like he might be homeless, came through the restaurant doors.

“He looked a little needy. He asked if I had any mayonnaise and some tartar sauce. He said he was going to cook a fish,” Koblenzer said.

The man whose job it is to be friendly obliged.

“I got it for him. As I walked out I put a corn muffin in,” Koblenzer said.

That gesture apparently cost Koblenzer his job.

“The general manager called me in and said he had some bad news for me. ‘Joe we are going to have to let you go,'” Koblenzer said.

He admits he’s been written up before. Two years ago for getting a fountain drink on the job and a second time for giving a cup of coffee to woman. He claims she actually paid for it.

Rules are rules.

“It’s a rule. They legally can do this because I did break the rule,” Koblenzer said.

Now the Vietnam vet who was trying to supplement his social security is the one down on his luck.

“Hurt me? Oh yeah it has,” Koblenzer said.

The debate over the seriousness of the event and the subsequent firing has started a fire storm online.

In the following days, the story got out on Facebook, on pages like the "Venice Scoop" and even the restaurant's own page.

While some say it’s the company’s right to do as they will, the establishment’s reviews have plummeted with more than 30 negative comments about the firing.

“I feel badly it shines a bad light on the company. I would not want that on any company but it happened,” Koblenzer said.

Koblenzer says he’s sad over the situation and misses the regulars and employees he’s gotten to know. Earning the maximum amount of stars on his apron for performance achievement and responsibility.

“You know what? At 73 I was really proud of doing this. I was really proud of getting those stars,” Koblenzer said.

He says, yes it was against the rules and yes they have a right to let him go. But morally it still feels like it was the right thing to do.

“I don’t think I will be working for a corporation again, so I don’t know if that will ever come up. Ha,” Koblenzer said.

Joe says he is looking for a new job but not quite sure yet what he will do.

A Cracker Barrel spokesperson provided the following statement to WWSB:

“During the time he was employed, he violated the company’s policies regarding consuming food without paying or giving away free food, on five separate occasions.

Mr. Koblenzer received multiple counselings and written warnings reminding him about the company’s policies and the consequences associated with violating them.

Cracker Barrel is grateful for and honors Mr. Koblenzer’s service to our country as we honor all service men and women and their families.”

The Clerk

This is supposedly a true story, it happened in a small town of the province of Quebec, Canada, in October 1996. They showed the video surveillance tape on the news, and even the anchorman, although he tried to contain himself, kept laughing through it...

A robber came into a convenience store wearing a ski mask and a gun wanting to empty the cash register. He took the clerk to the backstore and locked her up in the fridge. Unfortunately, when he came back to the front of the store, a customer had come in. So he took off the ski mask and the gloves, and pretended to be filling in for the clerk. The customer wanted a lottery ticket, so he tried to help her out, by pressing a whole bunch of buttons on the machine (thus leaving fingerprints everywhere), but the machine would not cooperate.

Meanwhile, another customer walked in. Finally, he tells the first customer (after about 5 minutes of close-up shots from the surveillance camera) that the machine is not working and that he won't be able to help her. The robber makes the sale to the second customer, who leaves as well.

The robber then puts back on his gloves to take the money (after touching just about everything in the store without gloves), and hides his face with the palm of his hands as he is leaving. This scene lasts well over 10 minutes, during which, you see and hear the robber as well as in a movie.

The day after, excerpts of the tape were aired and the phones at the police station started ringing off the hook. Apparently, even though no reward had been offered, people thought he was so stupid, he needed to be put in jail just for his own protection!

He turned himself in to the police that same day.

Newspaper Headlines

A Harley rider is passing the zoo, when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside the cage, under the eyes of her screaming parents. The biker jumped off his bike, ran to the cage, and hit the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain, the lion jumped back, letting go of the girl, and the biker brought her back to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.

A newspaper reporter, who had watched what occurred, approached the biker and said, "Sir, that's the most gallant and brave thing I ever saw a man do in my whole life."

The biker replied, "Why, it was nothing, really. The lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger, and acted as I felt I had to."

The reporter said, "Well, I'm the lead reporter with the local newspaper and tomorrow's paper will have this story on the front page. So, what do you do for a living, and, just out of my own curiosity what political affiliation do you have?"

The biker replied, "I'm a U.S. Marine and I'm a Republican."

The following morning, the biker buys the newspaper to see if it, indeed, brought news of his actions, and reads on the front page: "U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH."

Thief Wanted

Tim Lake was victimized by an unknown assailant, but the Phoenix resident said he’s not about to give up on justice without a fight!

Lake had placed an order on Amazon and was patiently waiting for his package to be delivered. It arrived, but someone showed up on his doorstep and stole it.

However, the theft was caught on camera, showing a middle aged, blonde haired woman walking up to Lake's doorstep, grabbing the package, and then fleeing.

“She runs off into the distance, scurrying almost like she’s got a flat tire in there,” Lake told a local news station.

Lake responded to the theft by combining his sense of humor with some due diligence.

First, he created a “wanted” sign, which he posted around his neighborhood. The poster reads, in part:

“Beware! Have you seen this robber?”

The poster goes on to described the thief as, “Either a woman, or Dog the Bounty Hunter has really let himself go.”

Lake reached out to local news media to get his story out to the public. When asked to describe the woman in the video, Lake stated, “Eyes vacant, uncaring, lacking a soul.”

In a hilarious interview, Lake pretended to become emotionally distraught over the missing package and even paraphrased some lines from the Liam Neeson revenge film, “Taken,” when asked what he’d say to the woman if he met her on the street.

Oh, and for the record: Lake said the items stolen were a package of coffee pods and an ice tray.