A man walked drunkenly into a police station last Wednesday — and asked for a job.
Robert Gulley was slurring his words, with glassy eyes and breath smelling of alcohol, Washington State Trooper Maureen Crandall told The Columbian newspaper.
"I guess it was a bad time to go there," said Gulley, 25, of the incident. "It was a bad judgment call."
Crandall told him Gulley probably wasn't in the best shape to apply to be a cop, but the unemployed radio technician insisted he hadn't been drinking.
Another trooper challenged Gulley to prove it — and whipped out an alcohol breath tester.
Gulley blew a 0.095, well above the state's legal limit of 0.08.
He then insisted that he'd had only one drink — a Long Island Iced Tea (search), a potent mixture of vodka, rum, gin, tequila, triple sec, sour mix and cola.
When Gulley was asked how he'd gotten to the Washington State Patrol (search) headquarters in Orchards, a suburb of Portland, Ore., he replied that he'd been dropped off by a friend.
But the troopers watched as he walked out of the building, paced back and forth on a side street for a while — then strolled into the state patrol's parking lot, got in his car and drove off.
A state trooper did the same and pulled Gulley over. Just to make it official, he gave the addled would-be applicant two more breath tests, which came in at slightly over the limit.
Gulley was arrested, given a ticket and released into the custody of his sister, who drove him home.
"I actually still want to join the police department," Gulley said. "Those guys are doing their job keeping the roads safe."
He'd better have a backup plan.
"I guarantee he's not going to get a job with us," Trooper Gavin March told the newspaper. "We've arrested drunks in unexpected ways and places before, but this one just blew me away."
— Thanks to Out There reader Tom B.
Cell Phone Blows Up in Man's Face
HONG KONG (AP) — A mobile phone exploded Tuesday and slightly injured the man who had been talking into it, local broadcasters reported.
The man was standing in line at a bank when the phone mysteriously blew up, Commercial Radio and television ATV reported.
ATV showed footage of phone pieces laying on the floor of the bank lobby, with police gathered around the scene.
"I was just calling my boss to say I would be returning to work a few minutes late, and when I pressed the button to hang up, the phone was suddenly flying everywhere," the man told ATV.
The broadcast reports gave no indication about how it could have exploded, but many similar accidents have been attributed to faulty or counterfeit batteries.
The man, who was not identified, said he was only slightly hurt, with some slivers of telephone parts getting into his eye and scraping his hand. He said he bought the phone secondhand.
Police did not immediately answer when The Associated Press rang seeking comment.
The Room's Small, but Check Out the View
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Beach bums here could receive far too much exposure if a proposed pair of high-rise dorms are built on the cliffs above a world-famous nude beach.
If the University of British Columbia (search) builds the 20-story residences, binoculars and Web cameras will soon be trained on Wreck Beach, ruining beachgoers' privacy, Wreck Beach Preservation Society (search) protesters said.
"It's mean for the university to do," said Stephanie Gibson, 12, who has been raised in the buff on the beach. "I know they need more residences for the students, but they have to think of us."
University Vice President Dennis Pavlich said Monday that the university will keep the group's concerns in mind when designing the buildings.
"All that's been approved so far is the concept," he said. "We are going to run our own tests in June and they will influence design considerations."
Stolen Alligator Brought Back by Bad Attitude
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Would you upset an alligator named Mr. Cranky Pants? Some thieves who chanced it soon changed their minds.
The four-year-old alligator was stolen from a reptile park north of Sydney over the weekend, but officials at the zoo said Monday the thieves may have underestimated his moodiness and let him go.
"Mr. Cranky Pants is a cranky pants, he gets moody and so they probably messed with the wrong alligator and dumped him," said Al Mucci, from the Australian Reptile Park (search) in Somersby on New South Wales state's central coast.
Thieves had scaled two barbed-wire fences and climbed into an alligator pit before stealing the 4-foot beast, Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio said Monday. Park officials then raised the alarm, concerned for his safety.
Following a tip from the public, rangers found the reptile in a nearby creek.
"He looks relieved to be back. You can tell with alligators by their eyes whether they're stressed or not stressed, and he looks glad to be back," Mucci said.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — After much howling in the Legislature, senators decided that dogs could continue riding free in the backs of pickup trucks.
They voted down a bill Monday that would have created a misdemeanor offense, punishable with a $50 fine, for allowing dogs to ride unrestrained in truck beds.
Sponsors said they were trying to protect animals and motorists, but lawmakers — particularly from rural areas of the state — were highly critical.
The bill had been amended to exempt dogs being transported for farming or hunting purposes. Senators then amended it to apply only to trucks driving on interstates, but that wasn't enough for opponents.
They voted 13-11 against it.
The companion bill already had been withdrawn in the House when it became clear that passage was unlikely.
Sneaking Into the Teachers' Lounge
LUDLOW, Mass. (AP) — The Ludlow School Committee (search) has authorized installation of new locks on 13 faculty restrooms in the suburban Springfield high school following a report in the student newspaper that they were being used by students for sexual encounters.
School Superintendent John Welch said administrators were not able to confirm students were having romantic trysts in the faculty washrooms, but two 15-year-olds each were suspended for three days after admitting to having used a student restroom for sex.
The student newspaper, The Cub, quoted two unnamed students in its March 30 edition as saying they had unprotected sex in a faculty restroom and in the girls' locker room.
The student editor, Daniel Muse, 18, told The Republican newspaper that the story arose out of concern that students were engaging in risky sexual behavior.
Compiled by Foxnews.com's Paul Wagenseil.
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