"On top of Old Smokey, all covered with sand, I shot my poor teacher, with a red rubber band. ..."
That children's parody of the traditional folk song may not be so funny to 13-year-old Robert Gomez of Orlando, Fla.
He's been suspended for two weeks, and could be expelled, for allegedly shooting a rubber band at his seventh-grade science teacher at Liberty Middle School (search), reports WKMG-TV of Orlando.
His mother, Jenette Rojas, said she was shocked to find her son had been deemed guilty of a "Level IV offense" — a category that includes selling drugs or alcohol, robbery and using or possessing weapons.
The school district reasons that a rubber band is a weapon, and that the boy threatened assault.
Robert says he just picked up the rubber band and slipped it around his wrist — and that when the teacher asked for it, he put it on her desk.
His mother's statement seems to allow for some rubber-band flying time.
"They said if he would have aimed it a little more and he would have gotten it closer to her face, he would have hit her in the eye," Rojas told the TV station.
Nevertheless, she says, suspension or expulsion is a stretch.
"It's ridiculous," the aggravated mother said. "It's a rubber band."
— Thanks to Out There readers Mike S., Marty S. and Harley W.
Mourners Mourn Loss of Limousine
ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Police in Erie were searching for a car thief who slipped into a limousine and drove away while mourners were inside a church during a funeral.
The limousine was idling outside of the St. Mary Catholic Church Wednesday when someone stole it, police said.
The vehicle was found wrecked not far from the church.
Funeral directors were able to secure a sedan to take the family to the burial.
It was the first time anyone has heard of a limousine being stolen during a funeral, directors in the region said.
— Thanks to Out There reader Kevin E.
Missing: One In-Ground Swimming Pool
OSLO, Norway (AP) — A Norwegian family's swimming pool wasn't just bolted down, it was in the ground. But that did not impede a band of determined thieves.
When the Nicolaysen family visited their mountain cabin last weekend, they discovered a big hole in the yard in place of the swimming pool that had been installed 20 years ago.
"This can't be, we thought," Arild Nicolaysen told state radio network NRK last Monday. "We didn't think it was possible. No one can steal a swimming pool."
Evidently, someone did.
At some point since early November, when the family closed up the cabin for the winter, their 16-foot-diameter pool and all its equipment was uprooted and stolen.
"It must have been a terrible job to disassemble such a big pool. There is a steel lining all the way around, plus there is a plastic liner and then there was a skimming system, a filter system and a lot of big hoses and pipes," said Brit Nicolaysen, who owns the cabin with her husband.
— Thanks to Out There reader Allen S.
Lost Wallet Recovered From Old Plane Crash
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — One of 16 survivors of a 1972 Andes plane crash made famous by a book and movie has gotten his wallet and jacket back 32 years after leaving them in the mountain snows.
Eduardo Strauch, who survived 72 days in high mountain snows, received the aged wallet, driver's license and other personal items Wednesday, a week after they were found in the Andes by a mountain climber.
Strauch, now a 57-year-old architect and father of five, was aboard a flight with fellow rugby players, relatives and friends when their plane crashed high in the Andes on Oct. 12, 1972.
"Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors," by Piers Paul Read, publicized the story with accounts of how survivors ate flesh from some of the victims to survive. The story was later dramatized in a Hollywood movie.
A Mexican hiker chanced upon the items just yards from the site where the plane went down.
The hiker passed the items on to a local hotelier, who gave them to Alvaro Mangino, another Uruguayan who survived the flight and happened to be in western Argentina at that time. Mangino delivered to Strauch.
"This is just a feeling that's impossible to describe," Strauch told The Associated Press on Thursday. "It's incredible, amazing that this episode continues to speak for itself."
Sorry, We Expected to See You Dead
MONTROSE, Colo. (AP) — Rescuers trudged through waist-deep snow to the site of a plane crash in a Colorado canyon, expecting to find bodies or seriously injured passengers.
Instead, they found the pilot, sitting outside a snow shelter he had built and named "Motel 6."
Scott Thurner, 57, was the only person aboard the Cessna (search) when it crashed Feb. 16. He survived the accident with only scrapes and bruises.
Thurner then dug a shelter in a snow bank and used a door from the twisted wreckage of his plane for a roof. He started a fire with papers from his briefcase and donned all the ski clothes in his suitcase.
"It looked just like if you put a can on the ground and stomped the thing. I can't even describe the carnage of that plane," said Troy Wallace, a member of the search-and-rescue team.
Thurner pulled the emergency beacon from the plane and fashioned a makeshift antenna. A military satellite picked up the signals before Thurner shut it down to conserve batteries.
The Montrose County sheriff launched a search that culminated in Thurner's rescue the next day. He had been flying from Laughlin, Nev., to Paonia, Colo., to visit a son.
Even Less Reason to Deal With the Real World
NEW YORK (AP) — Demonstrating a deep understanding of what its computer-gaming audience needs, Sony has built the ability to order pizza into its latest online multiplayer game.
Type the command "/pizza" while playing Everquest II (search), a fantasy game with 330,000 active players, and get the Pizza Hut Web site, where you can place orders for delivery.
Chris Kramer, spokesman for Sony Online Entertainment, said he believes this is the first time a game accepts orders for real-world items.
Sony plans to integrate the pizza function more tightly into the game, so players can charge pizza to their monthly game subscription bill.
"The goal for the future is to eventually let people do more things like this," Kramer said. "They could type '/harry potter' and get the new Harry Potter book delivered, or '/star wars' and get the new Star Wars DVD."
Many games incorporate ads and product placements, but such opportunities are limited with fantasy games such as Everquest, which takes place in a sprawling medieval world.
Though the new pizza feature might satisfy appetites, caution is required as the game doesn't pause while you're ordering.
"You wouldn't want to order pizza in the thick of combat, but anywhere that's safe is a good place," Kramer said.
Compiled by FOX News' Paul Wagenseil.
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