Some of these stories made the news and some didn’t, but here’s a round up of the dangerous, heroic and the just plain bone headed work place weirdness for 2008, courtesy of MSN News….
1. Firefighters in Florida revived several dogs by performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation after they were rescued from a house fire. The dogs were taken to local hospitals. (Source: Local6.com)
2. A Pasco, Washington man took calling in sick to new extremes after he had his friend shoot him the shoulder so he could miss work. The man told deputies he was shot in a drive-by while jogging before work. He later revealed that he’d asked a friend to shoot him so he wouldn’t have to take a drug test at the office. (Source: MSNBC.com)
3. The police chief of a small Kansas town was convicted of stealing beer after a surveillance tape showed him taking it from the fire department’s refrigerator. It wasn’t disclosed how much beer he pilfered or why it was in the fire department. He was suspended without pay pending an appeal of the conviction. (Source: Fox News)
4. Two crocodile farm workers in northern Australia were collecting crocodile eggs by a river bank when a crocodile grabbed one of them by the arm. The second man shot the crocodile, which caused him to release the victim. The second shot the man fired, however, hit the injured man in the same arm in which the crocodile grabbed him. The injured man survived. (Source: CNN.com)
5. Barry McRoy, a South Carolina fire and rescue director, was leaving a Waffle House restaurant when two men came in fighting over a gun. The gun went off, hitting one of the struggling men, shattered a window and hit McRoy, who didn’t realize he’d been shot. The bullet hit a DVD McRoy had in his pocket; he suffered only a bruise. No word on what the title of the DVD was. (Source: MSNBC.com)
6. A Vero Beach, Florida, McDonald’s cashier received an indecent proposal when a drive-through customer offered to pay for his meal with marijuana. The cashier called police, who found drugs in the customer’s car and arrested him. (Source: MSNBC.com)
7. After being robbed three times in one year, a New Hampshire convenience store is now requiring customers to be “approved” and identified by the store owner before coming in. The store will keep its doors locked and customers are refused if the owner can’t recognize them through the glass doors. (Source: WISHTV8.com)
8. A 66-year-old Florida mailman doing his rounds was bitten by a poisonous snake when he put mail inside a mailbox. He told authorities he beat the snake against his car door to loosen its grip. He continued his rounds for the next 30 minutes before seeking help. The snake may have been an Eastern diamondback rattlesnake. (Source: MSNBC.com)
9. Two former security employees at a Neiman Marcus in Illinois are suing the department store. They allege they were illegally videotaped while having sex at work. The two claim they were secretly videotaped on a hidden video camera and were fired because of their interactions. They also allege that a store manager shared the videotape with several others and on a nationwide online database of security personnel. (Source: Chicago Tribune)
10. Two brothers employed at a Maryland restaurant argued over their job duties, which resulted in a knife fight. One brother reportedly told the other to mop the floor, which enraged him. Both brothers suffered small cuts, but only one was charged with first-degree assault. This was the second report from the same restaurant involving fights where one worker attacked another with a knife. (Source: Baltimore Sun)
11. A San Diego man allegedly stabbed a barber who gave him an unacceptable haircut. The man attacked the shop owner at closing time and slashed him twice in the face. The motive? The man was unhappy with a previous haircut and wasn’t going to let the second one go unavenged, according to authorities. (Source: 10News.com)
