Holiday shoppers got into a knock down fight over a parking space in West Hartford, Conn. Police said the confrontation developed just after 3:30 p.m. in the crowded lot of the Corbins Corner Shopping Center, home to Best Buy, Toys "R" Us and other retailers.When a parking space opened up, two cars turned up to fill it.
A woman riding in one of the cars tossed an orange peel at the other vehicle. Angry words erupted and three people jumped out of the cars and, within moments, Officer Kevin McCarthy said, "all three went to the ground."
"It turned into a little free-for-all," McCarthy said.
No one was hurt, but Luz Alicea, 43, Jasmin Kurtz, 16, both of Hartford, and Julia Baldini, 22, of Suffield, were all charged with breach of peace.
In Oxnard, California, police were dispatched when a large Santa Claus statue had a series shots fired at it.
Officers found five bullet holes marring the jolly face of old St. Nick. Five 9 mm casings were lying on the street nearby, police said.
Mike Barber, Santa's caretaker, said the gunshots shattered the lenses on Santa's glasses and broke the frames. He and a friend used screws, glue and wire to patch the frames back together.
UPDATE: Via Aldo 'Deadline, what Dealine?' Calcagno.
Drivers traveling between Oxnard and Camarillo on Highway 101 can catch a glimpse of a 20-foot Santa that Mike Barber brought to Ventura County last year. He is a 27-year Nyeland Acres resident, president of Garden Acres Mutual Water Co. and keeper of the Kriss Kringle. For the past two Saturdays, Barber has encouraged kids to visit the jolly, plaster Santa by hosting a Christmas toy drive on site. For three hours, kids and parents could spill their wish list to a volunteer dressed as St. Nick and drop off presents that will be handed to needy kids throughout the county. The event this past Saturday was marred by vandalism earlier that morning -- somebody had shot Santa five times in the face. It was the first vandalism incident in Santa's two years here, and the culprit had not been caught as of Sunday. The story of how this Santa came to Nyeland Acres is a Christmas tale of rebirth. For 50 years, he rested on a candy store rooftop on Santa Claus Lane near Carpinteria. When the shop got a new owner and its roof grew unstable, Santa seemed destined for the wrecking ball. That was, until Barber offered to transplant the oversize Christmas symbol to an empty, Ventura Boulevard lot owned by the water company. Now, thanks to Barber, Santa has been given new life as a tourist attraction. And thanks to the recent toy drive, Santa is handing out presents this Christmas.
A Christmas tree shortage in Hawaii has the price of a tree jumping from about $70 to more than $200 dollars.
1 comment:
This really pissed me off. I have been driving by this Santa Claus statue for over 20 years when I go north to Ventira or Santa Barbara (less than 30 minutes from where I live). It was bad enough that the city of Carpenteria said take this thing away, which as you can imagine thee was a public outcry, but there was no place to put the statue. No city wanted to take on the history of the thing. Mike Barber needs to be sainted for donating the land and the upkeep of Santa. The cowards who shot at it need to be found and punished.
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