Apex Man Kept Pet Sheep In His Basement

APEX, N.C. -- Authorities charged the Apex man who shared his home with 77 sheep with several counts of cruelty to animals.

Now, NBC17 has learned that he had even more animals at two other locations.

David Watts appeared in court Wednesday where he is charged with 30 misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals.

That's one count for each of the 30 sheep that were so sick they had to be euthanized.

Officials have also found 66 sheep and five horses on property that watts owns north of Sanford in Lee County.

Chatham County authorities also say Watts had about 60 sheep as well as cows and llamas on land near Moncure.

We're told all of the animals were in need of food and water.

In the meantime adoptions are pending for 35 sheep.

NBC17 was there when 13 animals left Thursday for a very special home.

The newborn lambs that Molly Goldston has taken care of were the sickest of the recovered sheep.

Volunteers with her non-profit group "Saving Grace" have bottle fed the lambs every four hours the past couple days.

"Their moms weren't healthy enough to feed them," Goldston said. "I don't know what they had the first couple weeks but it's not what they should have considering what they look like."

Animals once near death will now hopefully survive.

"A newborn would look just like this, and this one is a couple of weeks old, and it's the same size as a newborn," said Chris Fulbright of Bandy High School.

But now it's as if Mother Nature is taking care of her most vulnerable creatures.

Students from the Future Farmers of America program at Bandy High School in Hickory are adopting 13 lambs.

The school runs a farm on campus and 250 students are enrolled in the agriculture program.

There's already talk about entering the sheep at the state fair.

Watts' attorney says his client wanted the best for the animals but was overwhelmed by an especially busy lambing season.

Next week Apex City Council members will discuss a new law that would prohibit anyone from bringing and keeping multiple farm animals in town.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can only shake my head at what this man has done.

Driver Hits Pedestrian After Being Told To Slow Down

(03/20/07-- RALEIGH) - A Raleigh man says shouting "slow down" to a speeding driver put him in the hospital.

On Saturday, David Barber yelled at a man driving too fast in his neighborhood while he was walking his dog near Jeffries and Norton Roads in Raleigh. Barber says the man stopped then turned around.

"I was thinking, that's kind of odd and then he revs his engine up and I was thinking you're not going to hit me. And then he hit me," Barber explained.

David Barber has road rash on one leg and the other leg is broken in two places

Police arrested the driver 23-year-old Doroteo Henandez and charged him with attempted murder and DWI.

Barber is stuck with a pin in his leg permanently and he'll probably need a walker for several months.

Despite his injuries, he says if he had to, he'd yell "slow down" again.

Police shocked by video of pot-smoking toddlers
By Ed Stoddard

DALLAS (Reuters) - Texas police said on Monday they were shocked by the video recording of a pair of toddlers aged two and five being encouraged to smoke marijuana by their uncle and a friend of his.

Police discovered the video last month as they searched a house in the Texas town of Watauga for stolen goods. Local television station aired the video during the weekend.

"Our investigators are shocked. Many if not all of them are parents themselves and they cannot believe that someone would do this to a child," said Bruce Ure, the director of Watauga's department of public safety.

In the recording shown on the local Fox news channel, two young adult males can clearly be seen lighting marijuana cigarettes and encouraging the two baby brothers to puff on them. The faces of the children are blacked out.

Police say the young adults are Vanswan Polty, 18, and Demetris McCoy, 17. McCoy is the toddlers' uncle.

"The two have been charged with two counts each of injury to a child with bodily injury," Ure said. The charges could land them in prison for up to 10 years.

Ure said the pair had admitted that the substance in question was marijuana. They appeared affected in the recording, in which they are shown laughing and with slurred speech.

Ure said police discovered the video while executing a search warrant on the house related to a burglary case in nearby Fort Worth.

The children's mother lives in the house where the recording was made, but local media reported that her sons had been put in the care of child protective services.

The toddlers' great-grandmother, Shirley Russell, was quoted on Fox as saying that she wanted the boys to come home but was mortified by the situation.

"It's very shocking ... I just wish it hadn't happened," she told the network.

Watauga is a town of around 24,000 located just outside the city of Fort Worth.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is WRONG with people?!

Topless Wife Photo Ends Man's Pole Protest

Reuters

A German man who spent 10 days in a self-made box atop a 22-metre high pole to protest a looming jail term was lured off his perch by his wife — who sent up a topless picture of herself in his lunch box.

Fred Gregor, 45, was bidding to have his 15-month conviction for fraud overturned by squatting in his tiny 3.25 square metre cubicle atop a converted television mast. He told Reuters in a telephone interview last week that he wanted a new trial.

His wife Susanne, 25, backed his protest until the former stripper and mother of their five children decided she had had enough. Bild newspaper published the topless photo of herself in a wedding dress she sent him. He came right down, she told Bild.

Slovenian halfway through Amazon swim

By TALES AZZONI, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) Slovenian Martin Strel approached the halfway point of his attempt to swim the entire length of the Amazon river Thursday, trying to avoid severe burns, alligators and the dreaded bloodsucking toothpick fish.

The 52-year-old Strel has swum Europe's Danube River, China's Yangtze and the Mississippi, according to his support team. He has averaged about 56 miles a day since he began his 3,290-mile swim from the river's source in Peru on Feb. 1.

Swimming 12 hours a day, with only a short daily break for lunch, Strel has covered nearly 1,616 miles of the Amazon, the world's second-longest river, after the Nile.

Speaking by satellite phone during a break, Strel said his entire body hurt and his greatest adversary has been the glaring equatorial sun.

"We thought heavy rains would be an issue, but they are not; the sun is," he said.

Just days into his swim, Strel developed second-degree burns on his face and forehead. His team fears they will progress into third-degree burns, which could become easily infected.

His team has fashioned a mask out of a pillow case for protection, but Strel complains it is hot and makes it very hard to breathe, so he doesn't use it all the time.

By the end of each day, the area around Strel's mouth is brown with dirt that accumulates from waves breaking on his face. His lips are blistered, and scabs form on his nose and upper cheeks.

In addition, his eyes are very sore and swollen, probably from sun lotion getting inside his goggles.

On the first day of his swim, Strel passed a 6-foot alligator.

The team accompanying him also saw a school of candiru - or toothpick fish - swimming only a few feet from Strel. The bloodsucking fish swims into body orifices and erects spiny barbs to lodge itself inside and suck blood.

"They are very dangerous," Strel said. "I just got out of the water after we stopped for the day and we saw them swimming very close to where I was. They can really hurt you, not even the wet suit is a good protection."

Actually, the wet suit can be more of hindrance than a help.

The constant rubbing of the suit on his skin has eaten away the flesh behind Strel's knees.

"It's not something that he will recover from; it will only get worse," said Yoram Yaeli, one of the expedition's coordinators. "He is suffering a lot."

Other obstacles include whirlpool currents and river debris.

"I injured my hand several times because of the debris," Strel said. "It's dangerous because you don't want to start bleeding inside the water."

Flesh-eating piranhas are attracted by blood, but otherwise are usually harmless.

Strel is being shadowed by a small wooden boat carrying local guides and other people who monitor his health. He also has been joined by pink river dolphins from the beginning.

Strel is likely to make slower progress while fighting with the wind and waves as the river gets wider toward the end of his swim, which he expects to finish on April 10.

Strel says that, as hard as it has been, exhaustion hasn't been a major concern.

"I take short naps while swimming, just two or three minutes at a time," he said. "My body will keep swimming, like a machine, the only problem is that sometimes I start going in the wrong direction."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I only needed to read this part here to know this guy was crazy.

"The team accompanying him also saw a school of candiru - or toothpick fish - swimming only a few feet from Strel. The bloodsucking fish swims into body orifices and erects spiny barbs to lodge itself inside and suck blood."

Here's the link to the article: Crazy Amazon Swimmer