List-Eater On the Loose in Texas

There's at least one student who's not very popular at Texas A&M University.

Aggies started camping out last Sunday to buy tickets for this season's SBC Cotton Bowl (search), in which A&M plays the University of Tennessee in Dallas on New Year's Day.

At 4:30 a.m. Thursday morning, an unnamed woman marched right past snoring football fans and took her place at the head of the line.

When the campers woke up at around 6 a.m. and began protesting, she grabbed the posted sign-up list of students who'd been waiting for days — and ate it.

"The piece of paper doesn't justify a spot in line to me if no one is standing there," the anonymous woman, a senior, later told the Battalion, the student newspaper. "If they wanted a spot, they should've woken up."

A spokesman for the university's athletic department said students had been putting their names on lists while waiting for tickets since at least 1985.

"[She] walked up in the line and people were trying to explain to her that she had to put her name on the list," said sophomore Amineh Baradar. "She didn't want to because she said [keeping lists of who was there first] wasn't an official university policy."

Needless to say, the reaction was far from enthusiastic.

"As we kept standing out there, people kept yelling, 'Beat the hell out of the list-eater,'" student Micah Gertson told KBTX-TV of Bryan and College Station, Texas. "As she's up there talking, people started throwing doughnuts at her."

Aggie football fans regularly urge the team to "beat the hell out of" its opponents.

Texas A&M football coach Dennis Franchione (search), who'd shown up with the doughnuts, reportedly told the woman, "Eat doughnuts, not paper."

The "list-eater" told the Battalion that she'd meant to burn the list, but shoved it in her mouth when someone in the crowd grabbed her.

"People started screaming at me, asking for the list back," she said. "I spit it out and put it in my purse. I'm not dumb enough to swallow paper."

Within hours, she'd filed assault charges with campus police against a man who'd allegedly grabbed her wrist.

At 8 a.m., the ticket windows opened, and the list-eater, still second in line, got her tickets as others shouted "Eat your tickets!" according to KBTX-TV.

Most people waiting at each of the eight ticket windows ended up getting the tickets they wanted — A&M's allotment of 2,600 was sold out in 90 minutes — but students say it's the principle that mattered.

"Its just frustrating because the list is an honor system, and for her to get in the front of the line is just not right," said Baradar. "Right now, it's not university regulated because it doesn't need to be."

The list-eater, who according to other students declared she was "right with God," defended her actions.

"There were a lot of people who weren't on the list who were still in line," she said to the Battalion. "I did something a lot of people wanted to do, but didn't have the guts to do it."

— Thanks to Out There readers Colby H., Jason N. and a Texas A&M student who wishes to remain anonymous.

Woman Gives Up Job for SpongeBob

PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) — A Burger King employee was fired after she refused to return a 10-foot-tall SpongeBob Squarepants (search) balloon that she sold for $1,025 in an Internet auction.

Viney Richards, 36, said a manager gave her the 50-pound balloon after it was taken down from the restaurant's roof.

But when she asked permission to be photographed by The Tampa Tribune, which was writing a story about the balloon's listing on the Internet auction house eBay, she was told to stop talking to the media and return the balloon.

"I really like my job at Burger King," Richards said. "But I just couldn't give back the SpongeBob."

She said she was fired from her $6.15-an-hour job on Wednesday.

The balloon was one of several listed on eBay. As earlier reported in Out There, dozens of the balloons have been stolen from the roofs of Burger Kings from Florida to Utah since the release of "The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie," authorities said.

Carpenter Nailed in Chest, Lives to Snowboard On

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A Moses Lake man is home recovering after a 2 1/8-inch nail — misfired from a nail gun — was removed from his chest.

"I told him that I thought the nail might be in his heart," said Dr. Mike Jemmette, the emergency-room physician at Deaconess Medical Center (search) who first examined Steven Faber.

"He said, 'Sweet. Can I go snowboarding tomorrow?'" Jemmette reported.

Faber, 24, was injured Thursday while he was putting up siding on a garage in Cheney, about 15 miles south of Spokane. He said the nail gun malfunctioned when his business partner, Brent Heroux, handed it to him.

He credits Heroux and the hospital team for saving his life.

"I really thought I was dying," said Faber, co-owner with Heroux of Green Desert Construction (search). "It was like my whole life was crashing before my eyes."

Heroux called 911 and then started driving Faber to the hospital. An ambulance intercepted them and took Faber the rest of the way. Emergency room staff removed the clothes nailed to Faber's chest.

"Every time his heart would beat, it would move," Jemmette said of the nail. "We knew it was right next to or in his heart."

X-rays and ultrasound confirmed the nail had jabbed a chamber of the heart.

Heart surgeon Dr. Jack Leonard pulled out the nail, noting tongue-in-cheek: "I didn't use a claw hammer."

There was little bleeding and no need for surgery. Faber was discharged Saturday. He's expected to make a full recovery and will only need a week or so away from work.

Jemmette said he often sees nail-gun injuries in the emergency room.

"Nail guns are to be respected," he said. "I've seen nails in everything. I've seen nails in people's butts. I've seen nails in people's heads."

Faber plans to display the nail on his car's rearview mirror.

Boy Does Brisk Business in Lumps of Coal

WEST COVINA, Calif. (AP) — Always wanted to leave a lump of coal in some Scrooge's Christmas stocking? Then Alec Nystrom has a deal for you.

The 11-year-old West Covina boy is selling lumps of coal for 50 cents each from a stand in front of his home in this suburb 20 miles east of Los Angeles. So far, he says, he's raked in about $100.

Alec got the idea after his father, Roy, told him how his parents always warned him he'd receive a lump in his Christmas stocking if he wasn't good.

It turns out his father also knows a little something about coal. He is an artist who often uses it in his work, so Alec had a ready supply to sell.

As he manned his stand Saturday, Alec said he hopes to sell enough lumps this holiday season to buy a dirt bike.

"One person actually got 20 'cause they are having a Christmas party," he said.

Woman Loses 66 Pounds in One Hour

CINCINNATI (AP) — A woman who weighed more than 300 pounds noticed something strange happening to her body.

As she lost more than 60 pounds over several weeks without going on a diet, she said she could feel a large mass growing inside her.

"It didn't feel normal," Grace Radtke said. "It was like a long pregnancy."

After being encouraged by family members, she finally went for medical help that led to the removal of a 66-pound non-cancerous, ovarian tumor from her abdomen on Dec. 3 at University Hospital.

"I can't believe that thing was in me," said Radtke, a grocery store deli counter worker in her early 40s who lives in Peebles in southern Ohio.

Doctors in Hillsboro found a large mass, but could not determine whether it was cancerous and referred her to University Hospital.

Doctors there found a mucinous ovarian tumor (search), one of several kinds of ovarian cysts.

Dr. Gregory Duma and his team removed the tumor in one piece in a one-hour operation.

The team had to lift and roll the tumor so that surgeons could disconnect blood vessels feeding it from underneath. It took four sets of hands to lift the slippery, watermelon-shaped mass out of her body.

Radtke came to the hospital wearing 245 pounds. When she went home on Friday, she weighed 160 pounds.

"I'm just thankful I'm here," she said.

Duma said the tumor could have been growing for up to five years.

Hospital officials are not sure if the tumor is the largest removed in the region. Other ovarian tumors have topped 100 pounds.

Toilet-Tipping Epidemic Continues

DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) — A portable bathroom prankster has plagued building sites in Dothan, tipping over about 50 of the unsecured toilets, police said.

As earlier reported in Out There, the tipper has struck at construction sites in upscale subdivisions around Dothan, leaving portable toilet vendors to clean up the mess.

"It's not funny at all," said Kelly Powell, co-owner of Portable Toilet Services in Dothan, which has 400 rental toilets and three people to service them. "It's pretty cut and dried: They turn them over and we have to go clean it up. It's very time-consuming."

Dothan Police Capt. John Givens admitted that he chuckled at the first few tippings, until the pranks became a more disgusting problem.

"There are additional problems if it lands door-down," Given said. "If it leaks out, there is no ventilation. It gets really nasty in there."

Police have stepped up patrols around the building sites, which seems to be helping. Authorities suspect a teenager or group of kids may be responsible, since a portable toilet can weigh between 220 and 400 pounds.

Powell and Givens estimated each damaged toilet costs $150 in time, energy and repairs, plus the drain on police resources.

Compiled by FOXNews.com's Paul Wagenseil.

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