Mid-Daily Items: Parkin' It

May 16, 2008 10:45 am

— Brian LaFave of Sheboygan, Wis. couldn't care less how high gasoline prices climb these days — he's parked his pickup truck and is refusing to buy gas for a month.
"The goal is to not use one drop of gas for 31 days," he said, calling it his personal stand against the oil companies.
Now LaFave, 31, is riding his bicycle or walking everywhere he goes. He won't even let friends pick him up unless they already planned on being in the neighborhood.
"If they're not going out of their way, I can take the ride," he said. "But if they're going out of their way, then ... I'm still consuming gasoline so it kind of defeats the purpose."
LaFave started the effort May 11. He bikes to his third-shift job at Aldrich Chemical in Sheboygan Falls, a 9-mile commute.
"I did like a practice run ... two days in a row to make sure I could do it," he said. "I'm not in the greatest shape. The mornings are the worst. It feels like it takes forever. I get like a mile down the road and I want to die."
It's a big change for someone who put 300 miles on his truck the week before he stopped driving it.
LaFave fills out a chart each day listing how many miles he bikes, the destination and the gas price that day, among other things. He plans to compute his savings and donate that amount to a charity that provides food to children in Africa.
"I think just with the gas prices being so high, everybody complains about it but no one ever really does anything about it," LaFave said. "People continue to drive nonstop and not think about it, but I just wanted to take a stand and say, 'I'm not gonna pay this much money for gas.'"

- A robbery was foiled Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa by an unusual crime-fighting tool — a parked car.
Karla Gierstors of West Des Moines was walking in downtown Des Moines about 6:15 a.m. Thursday when a man threatened her with a box cutter and grabbed her purse.
A passing motorist stopped to help, and as the robber looked back at the victim he slammed into the car, dropping the purse and box cutter. He then ran away.
Nothing was missing from the purse, but the side and trunk area of the car were damaged.

- And from Crossville, Tenn. comes word today of a couple charged with whacking each other with a frying pan.
Heather and Samuel Newcome are both charged with domestic assault. They told Sheriff's Deputy Timothy Tutor last week that they got into an argument and hit each other with cookware.
Other family members got involved in the fray as well and apparently came to blows, but none decided to file charges.
Tutor took Heather Newcome the Cumberland County Justice Center, where she was charged, then took out a warrant on her husband, who later turned himself in.