Firefighters rescue a tiger, and more

Firefighters rescue a tiger

Houston firefighters who responded to reports of an escaped tiger on top of an abandoned hotel were relieved to find that it was an extremely realistic, life-size stuffed animal. Firefighters used a cherry picker to approach the beast, and were able to determine, first by visual inspection and then by tapping it on the head without provoking any snarling, that it posed no threat to themselves or to the public.

Chicago man shoots a nail in his head

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A Chicago man shot a nail into his brain without realizing it. When his nail gun discharged accidentally, says Dante Autullo, 32, he felt an impact “like I got punched on the side of the head,” but thought the nail “went past my ear.” The next day, however, he felt disoriented and nauseous and went to the emergency room, where X-rays revealed a 3.25-inch nail in his brain. “When they brought the picture, I said to the doctor, ‘Is this a joke? Did you get that out of the doctors’ joke file?’” Autullo said. “The doctor said, ‘No, man, that’s in your head.’” Surgeons subsequently removed the nail.

Drunk man drives SUV into a subway tunnel

The San Francisco subway was shut down for two hours last week when a man drove his SUV into a tunnel. Police say that Scott Mitchell, 40, was drunk when he followed a train into the Muni Metro tunnel, swerved around it when it stopped, and eluded subway employees who chased his SUV on foot. Driving on the tracks, Mitchell went nearly a half mile in the narrow tunnel before hitting a concrete stair and coming to an abrupt halt. “Good times on the Muni,” said one passenger who witnessed the drama. “The whole thing was very surreal.”