The Daily Item, Sunbury, PA - Mid-Daily Items Blog

Mid-Daily Items: Pabst is World’s Ugliest Dog

A prominent under-bite, scrunched face and floppy ears are the hallmarks of a winner. That is the winner of the World’s Ugliest Dog contest. Pabst, a boxer-mix rescued from a shelter by Miles Egstad of Citrus Heights, Calif., won the annual contest on Friday at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Northern California. It was an upset victory for Pabst, who beat former champion Rascal, a pedigree Chinese Crested. Pabst’s owner took home $1,600 in prize money, pet supplies and a modeling contract with House of Dog. Miss Ellie, a blind 15-year-old Chinese Crested Hairless, won the pedigree category.

— Naked time got a little too public for a former Georgia mayor. Authorities arrested Mark Musselwhite and charged him with public indecency after state Department of Natural Resources officers found him sitting nude at his Rabun County, Georgia, campsite. Officers had received a complaint about a naked man walking along a nearby road earlier in the day, but the 43-year-old Musselwhite said he was not the same man. Musselwhite told the DNR officer he had been swimming in a nearby creek. The Republican was elected to the Gainesville City Council in 2000, where he served for six years, including a stint as mayor. He lost a bid for a state Senate seat in 2006. Musselwhite could not be reached for comment by The Associated Press on Saturday.

— Parents are proud of their children when they excel. But in the case of a high school secretary, her daughter did not excel as she expected. So mom allegedly changed her daughter’s grades in a school computer system to improve her class standing. Caroline Maria McNeal of Huntingdon is accused of using the passwords of three co-workers without their knowledge to tamper with dozens of grades and test scores between May 2006 and July 2007 at Huntingdon Area High School in central Pennsylvania, the state attorney general’s office said. Criminal charges were filed against her Thursday. McNeal, 39, is alleged to have improved her daughter Brittany’s grades and reduced those of two classmates to enhance Brittany’s standing in the 2008 graduating class. School officials corrected the grades before the students graduated, prosecutors said. In all, McNeal is accused of altering nearly 200 scores and grades covering four school years. The situation came to light in October 2007, when an employee of the high school guidance office discovered conflicting SAT scores for Brittany McNeal, who is not charged with any wrongdoing.McNeal was charged with 29 counts of unlawful use of a computer and 29 counts of tampering with public records. Each count is a third-degree felony punishable by a maximum of seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine, said Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for Attorney General Tom Corbett’s office.

— Police say a California man donning a bustier and watching porn on a computer in an apartment complex gym was arrested after officers found drugs in his backpack. Sgt. Todd Bullock says 45-year-old Stephen Murdoch of Tustin was arrested early Tuesday after a security guard spotted him in a workout room that was supposed to be closed and locked. When police peered inside, they saw Murdoch — also in a miniskirt, fishnet stockings and heels — hiding behind exercise equipment and watching an adult film on a laptop. Officers noticed Murdoch was sweating profusely and talking quickly. They arrested him on suspicion of drug possession after allegedly finding marijuana, methamphetamine and pipes in his bag.

June 29, 2009 10:42 am

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Mid-Daily Items: Dog gets ‘stoned’ at park

A dog that ran off from its owner in Seattle’s Seward Park found and ate some marijuana and got high. Owner Jen Nestor Waddell told KING-TV in Seattle the 11-year-old black Lab mix named Jack was “just stoned” May 12 after they returned home from the park. The dog’s eyes glossed over and he had trouble walking. The vet said Jack had swallowed a large amount of dried, harvested marijuana. After some medication to induce vomiting and a night of rest Jack was back to normal. Waddell told police about the drugs and joked they could borrow Jack to find them if they paid the $1,500 vet bill.

— When drivers on a stretch of South Carolina interstate saw someone jump off a bridge, they called 911, fearing they were watching a suicide. Instead, multiple media outlets reported Thursday that the callers were just watching Lyle Silkwood jump from the Interstate 26 bridge into the Saluda River near Columbia to meet a passing friend in a boat after his truck ran out of gas. Firefighters, paramedics and rescue boats searched the river for more than an hour. Authorities finally figured out what was going on when they ran the license tag on the truck and called Silkwood’s home. He answered and told them what happened.
Authorities said they spoke to Silkwood about the incident and he was able to get some gas and drive off in his truck.

— Sometimes wives like to outshine their husbands. One week after Chuck Hill won $5,000 in the Georgia Lottery’s Weekly WinFall drawing, his wife did even better. Karen Hill bought a World Class Millions scratch-off ticket on her way to work at City Chevron in Villa Rica. Her $20 ticket won $1 million. The couple has two children, ages 6 and 8. They said they would pay off bills with the money. Hill works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and her husband works in electrical engineering.

— A man has been charged after a neighbor said she found him wearing a purple bra and boxer shorts while rummaging through her car. Jacob Andrew Fast, 20, was arraigned Wednesday on charges of first-degree home invasion and resisting and obstructing a police officer. Lisa Collins told WZZM-TV in Sparta, Mich., she found Fast rifling through her car on Tuesday afternoon and called the police. The car keys were missing from her house. Collins said the bra he was wearing wasn’t hers. Fast will be back in district court in Rockford on June 19 for a preliminary exam. He was ordered held on $20,000 bond and has requested a court-appointed attorney.

June 12, 2009 11:37 am

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Mid-Daily Items: It’s an international mystery

In October, the Smith family in O’Fallon, Mo., had a photograph taken for a Christmas card. Danielle Smith said Wednesday that the photo taken of her family last year was sent to family and friends, and was posted on her blog and a few social networking sites. The photo shows her and her husband, Jeff, holding their two young children. About 10 days ago, one of Smith’s college friends was driving through Prague when he spotted their huge smiling faces in the window of a store specializing in European food. He snapped a few pictures and sent them to a flabbergasted Smith. “It’s a life-size picture in a grocery store window in Prague — my Christmas card photo!” said Smith, 36. Mario Bertuccio, who owns the Grazie store in Prague, said the photo was from the Internet. Details were sparse, but he said he thought it was computer-generated. When told it was a real photo - of a real family — he said he started taking steps to remove it. Smith has gotten 180,000 hits to her Web site since she recently posted the story about the well-traveled snapshot. She said the photo wasn’t used in an unseemly manner, it was just used to tell potential shoppers about the store’s delivery service. Smith said next time she posts a photo on the Internet, she’s going to lower the resolution or add an electronic watermark to make it hard to reproduce.

— When you have to go, you don’t do it at a crowded festival. A 31-year-old Detroit man faces a misdemeanor assault and battery charge after allegedly urinating on several people during an annual gay pride event. The Daily Tribune of Royal Oak reported the man had been drinking and was upset that he was splashed with water aimed at street dancers Sunday during the Motor City Pride Festival. Police Lt. William Wilson said “he may have wanted to take revenge,” turned and urinated on the leg of a man standing next to him. The Detroit Free Press reports two other people were sprayed in the process. The man is to be arraigned June 23.

— A Spain bakery is in trouble for allegedly throwing away an employee’s severed arm. A Spanish trade union is suing the Rovira bakery in the eastern Valencia region that allegedly threw the severed arm of an employee into a bin after it was amputated in an accident with a kneading machine. The Workers Commissions said in a statement Wednesday that Bolivian immigrant Franns Rilles lost his left arm May 28. The union said that while Rilles was being taken to a hospital someone tossed his arm into the garbage. It says the bakery then cleaned the machinery and continued production. Police found the arm the next day, the union said, but doctors were unable to reattach it. The union said Rilles had worked illegally at the factory for two years, earning euro23 ($32) a day, and had not been properly trained on the kneading machinery.

— A 27-year-old man apparently did not like it when a judge increased his bond on drug charges and placed him under house arrest Tuesday. The unidentified man upset with how his case was going bolted from a Cincinnati courtroom and was chased by police officers on hand to testify in other cases. Deputies radioed to officers in the Hamilton County Courthouse to cover the exits while the man raced down two flights of stairs. He was caught and returned to the courtroom, where he cursed the judge, his attorney, the deputies and others. Judge Steve Martin ordered the man jailed on contempt for running and cursing. After the man serves the 30-day contempt sentence, he still faces the drug counts.

June 11, 2009 10:25 am

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Mid-Daily Items: Old almanac pays off for society

We published a front page story today in the newspaper and online about a rare find in Berwick. Members of the historical society found a dusty, long-ignored copy of Benjamin Franklin’s 18th-century “Poor Richard” almanac on their shelves a few months ago, they decided to find out whether it could be real. Well it is real and it brought the historical society a nice chunck of change. Well more than change like $556,500. An anonymous bidder paid that amount Tuesday at the Sotheby’s auction house for the 1733 edition, the second highest price ever for a book printed in America. The windfall was reason to celebrate for the historical society members. “We’re on the second bottle of champagne,” historical society president Thomas McLaughlin said when reached on his cell phone aboard the bus taking 14 society members on the 150-mile trip home from New York back to Berwick Tuesday.

— In the dumb and dumber department today, we find police in south-central Pennsylvania reporting a drunken driver who was sleeping in a police station parking lot stopped his car between two marked cruisers so he could take a nap. He has been arrested. East Pennsboro police Chief Dennis McMaster said the 37-year-old man caught the attention of an officer Sunday night. He said the officer saw the man park in a space reserved for police cars, turn off his headlights, recline his seat and close his eyes. He said when the officer approached the car to check on the man he saw an empty vodka bottle on the floor and found a pipe with traces of marijuana. The man has been charged with driving under the influence and possessing drug paraphernalia.

— Free speech is one thing. Honking a car horn is another. And, it is not considered free speech. Judge Richard J. Thorpe ruled Monday that “Horn honking which is done to annoy or harass others is not speech.” A woman who vented at a neighbor by leaning on her car horn at 6 a.m. was cited with a noise violation. She appealed on free-speech grounds. Helen Immelt of Monroe, Wash., expressed her anger in 2006 because the neighbor had complained to their homeowners association about her having chickens against the association’s rules. She parked in front of his house at 5:50 a.m. the next day and leaned on her horn for 10 minutes straight. He called the police, but she repeated the honking two hours later. After exhausting her appeals, Immelt finally learned free speech is not horn honking.

— Everyone is reminded to recycle. Tina Asmus, of Lakemoor, Ill., likes to recycle discarded items. But some of the items she has recyled is not sitting well with neighbors and village officials in Lakemoor. They are upset about the planters in her front yard. She created the planters out of two old toilets and a pedestal sink. Mayor Todd Weihoffen, who is a plumber by trade, said he stands behind police who have given Asmus 30 days to remove the toilets. He said she faces a fine of $25 to $500 if she doesn’t comply by June 15. Asmus, though, said she will not remove what she calls her “art pieces.” She said each toilet planter cost about $100 to make and holds an assortment of daisies, angel’s breath, lilies and other flowers.

June 10, 2009 12:52 pm

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Mid-Daily Items; ‘Piece be with you’

When Pastor Ken Pagano tells his congregation “Piece be with you,” he means it. The Louisville, Ky., pastor is inviting his flock to bring guns to church to celebrate the Fourth of July and the Second Amendment. New Bethel Church is welcoming “responsible handgun owners” to wear their firearms inside the church June 27, a Saturday. An ad says there will be a handgun raffle, patriotic music and information on gun safety. “We’re just going to celebrate the upcoming theme of the birth of our nation,” said Pagano. “And we’re not ashamed to say that there was a strong belief in God and firearms — without that this country wouldn’t be here.” The guns must be unloaded and private security will check visitors at the door, Pagano said.

— If you lose your driver’s license and run out of beer don’t think you can go get more beer on a riding lawn mower. That is if you are drunk. A Maine man has been charged with operating under the influence after he and a friend made a beer run on a riding lawn mower. Police say 51-year-old Danforth Ross of Vassalboro was charged May 29. Trooper Joe Chretien had been flagged down by several motorists warning of a wayward mower and made the arrest after Ross and his friend emerged from a variety store with two cases of beer. Ross’ driver’s license had been revoked, so the pair opted for the lawn mower. Ross couldn’t be reached for comment

— When teaching your child to drive, you better sit in the car with them. Police said a 17-year-old girl who was practicing how to drive broke her mother’s legs after stepping on the gas pedal instead of the brake. Sgt. Thomas Long said the mother was sitting on a fence when she was struck Saturday morning at a movie theater parking lot. The woman was taken to Baystate (Mass.) Medical Center for treatment. Authorities cited the girl’s 39-year-old father, for allowing an unlicensed driver to operate the vehicle.

— Robert and Catharine Pierce, of Boulder, Colo., have been accused by their landlord of being a nuisance by gardening wearing only thong underwear, plus pasties for Catharine Pierce. Neighbors complained to police about the Pierces’ scanty clothing. But police say the Pierces are not violating the law as long as their genitals are covered. But their landlord, Boulder Housing Partners, has sent the Pierces a letter saying they could face eviction if they don’t cover up. The Pierces say the threat of eviction amounts to discrimination. “We want our freedom,” said Robert Pierce, 58. Betsy Martens, executive director of the Boulder Housing Partners, which administers Boulder’s affordable housing program, told the Daily Camera newspaper that defining the word nuisance is difficult. Ultimately, if the Pierces continue their near-naked gardening, Boulder Housing Partners can choose to evict them. If the couple fought the eviction, the municipal court would be left to decide whether their behavior constitutes a nuisance.

June 09, 2009 10:28 am

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Mid-Daily Items: Fire destroys topless coffee shop

Donald Crabtree, of Vassalboro, Maine, went to local official last Wednesday about making his coffee shop more like a strip club. A deliberately set fire destroyed his home and business — a topless coffee shop — just hours after he made his pitch to the local officials. He hopes to rebuild but until he does he is going to have clothed waitresses collect donation in the parking lot. Under town zoning rules, Crabtree would need a new permit to start operating his business from a trailer or other structure on the property in Vassalboro, just north of Augusta. Crabtree tells the Kennebec Journal newspaper he’s going to set up a tent instead and have employees hand out free doughnuts and coffee next to a collection jar.

— If you plan on robbing a bank make sure your getaway car has enough gas. Authorities say they’ve arrested two suspected bank robbers after their getaway vehicle ran out of gas. Daytona Beach (Fla.) police say 38-year-old Randall Fredric Walker went into the Riverside National Bank last week and demanded money from a teller. After leaving the bank with the money, authorities say Walker jumped into a Jeep Cherokee driven by 35-year-old Jason Warren Dietrich. The two didn’t get far before the vehicle ran out of gas. The men got out of the sport utility vehicle and left the area separately. But police found the abandoned SUV and traced it back to Dietrich, the registered owner. Both men face bank robbery charges. They were being held on $50,000 bail.

— Moms if you don’t want your daughter dating someone try to be tactful about it. Authorities in Adelanto, Calif., arrested a woman for allegedly trying to kidnap her daughter’s boyfriend and haul him away to Northern California. A sheriff’s spokeswoman said that two women went to the young man’s home and tried to tie him up with duct tape. The victim told authorities the women said they were taking him to get him away from one of the women’s 21-year-old daughter. Authorities said both women were arrested on suspicion of attempted kidnapping. Officials said the girlfriend was later arrested for investigation of dissuading a witness and extortion for allegedly trying to get her boyfriend to recant his statements on the kidnapping to authorities.

— It is never to late to graduate. A 90-year-old suburban Chicago woman who dropped out of school to help her family during the Great Depression now has her high school diploma. Eleanor Benz left Chicago Public Schools’ Lake View High in 1936 during her senior year to take a job. Over the following decades she moved to the suburb of Gurnee and had 15 children, 54 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren. Benz attended night school for typing and bookkeeping, but she recently told one of her daughters that never completing high school was one of her greatest disappointments. Her children contacted Lake View, and the school approved Benz’s diploma. Last week, at her 90th birthday party, Benz’s family presented her with the diploma and a 2009 gown and cap with a 1936 tassel. Congratulations Eleanor.

June 08, 2009 10:46 am

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Mid-Daily Items: 'Look at my new toy Mommy'

A New Zealand mom made some online bids on toys before napping. Then her 3-year-old daughter took over and bought a bigger plaything than expected — a huge earth-moving digger for a cool $12,300.
Pipi Quinlan made the winning $12,300 bid on the Kobelco digger with a few mouse clicks at the auction site TradeMe while her parents slept, the Rodney Times newspaper reported in northern New Zealand.
"The first I knew about it was when I came down and opened up the computer," said Pipi's mother, Sarah Quinlan.
"I saw an e-mail from TradeMe saying I had won an auction and another e-mail from the seller saying something like 'I think you'll love this digger,'" she was quoted as saying in the paper.
Quinlan said she had made auction bids on several toy sets and assumed she had bought a toy digger.
"It wasn't until I went back and reread the e-mails that I saw $20,000 — and got the shock of my life."
She immediately called the auction site and the seller to explain what happened.
TradeMe reimbursed the seller's costs for the auction and the digger was relisted.

A teacher who became notorious in the 1990s for having an affair with a sixth-grader is hosting a "Hot for Teacher" night at a Seattle bar — along with the former student, now her husband.
Bar owner Mike Morris says Mary Kay Letourneau has served her sentence and it's OK for the couple to have some fun.
The 47-year-old Letourneau served seven years in prison after pleading guilty in 1997 to raping Vili Fualaau, now 26. They met when Fualaau was in second grade and began their affair when he was 12 and she was a 34-year-old married mother of four. They were married in 2005 and have two daughters together.
Morris says Saturday's event at Fuel Sports Eats & Beats will be their third "Hot for Teacher" night. She greets people and he DJs.

The sheriff in Saginaw County, Mich., hopes a stuffed elk, wolf and coyote can help his department go to the dogs.
Taxidermy items seized in a drug raid last year are being auctioned online. Proceeds from the sale may go to establish a K-9 unit.
Other items for sale by the department on eBay include a 1965 Chevrolet Nova with a car trailer and a snowmobile.
Sheriff William Federspiel says it's hard to gauge the value of a stuffed animal, but he's confident that one man's taxidermy could be another's treasure.
The city of Saginaw collected $40,000 a year ago selling items from a closed water park.

And this news today from Fond du Lac, Wis., where police continue a fruitless search for a man wearing an ape costume who has attempted to steal foam banana displays from inside local gas stations.
Capt. Steve Klein says Thursday someone donning an ape costume entered two gas stations Wednesday trying to steal the displays and police have received several calls about the suspect hanging around town.
While Klein acknowledges that the action may seem funny, they want to talk to the person behind the ape suit because they aren't sure what the suspect's motives are.

May 22, 2009 11:36 am

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Mid-Daily Items: Snails pace boy toward new world record

Never mind the ick factor, a Utah boy is trying to get into the record books by covering his face with live snails.
Eleven-year-old Fin Keheler, of who lives near Salt Lake City, allowed 43 of the slimy mollusks to be put on his face Saturday.
Yuk!
He's hoping the effort will be verified by the Guinness Book of World Records.
The Guinness web site says the record set in 2007 for snails on the face for 10 seconds is eight. The boy says he has since learned the record was 36.
Keheler made three attempts on Saturday to break the record. Sitting back in a reclining chair, snails gathered from neighbors' gardens were carefully placed on his face. A tin foil pan taped to his neck caught those that fell. Those that remained for at least 10 seconds were counted.
His family is sending witness statements, video and media coverage to Guinness this week.

- There is a really brave teacher working near Augusta, Georgia.
Garrett Elementary School teacher Dave Smith told students they could shave his head if they passed all sections of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests. Smith will go under the razor Thursday afternoon at the hands of 165 first- through fifth-graders at the Augusta school.
Principal Paula Kaminski said about 95 percent of the students who took the tests passed every section.
In Georgia, students in first through eighth grade take the CRCT each year in English language arts, reading, math, science and social studies. The tests are among the measurements Georgia uses to meet federal No Child Left Behind standards.

- Take a note: horse medicines are for horses
Sheriff's deputies say a Fort Smith, Ark., man used horse tranquilizers to try to drift off into sleep at a Batesville motel.
Deputies say William C. Wilson, 30, was taken to the hospital around 6 p.m. Tuesday. Inside his room, deputies say they found syringes and three bottles of horse tranquilizers.
Deputy Anthony Carter says Wilson told him he used the drugs as many as five times that day to help him go to sleep.
Veterinarian Mark Williams told the Batesville Daily Guard that the drugs Wilson likely used are dangerous and tightly controlled. Williams says Wilson is "lucky to be alive."

- We’re not sure if the “Born to be Wild,” label would apply here, but a Methodist pastor in central Pennsylvania wants to bless those who share his passion for motorcycles.
The Rev. Al Kimmel says he's holding a first-ever "Blessing of the Bikes" on Sunday at his Grace United Methodist Church in Punxsutawney, Pa. Kimmel is hoping to fill the church's parking lot with motorcyclists and their bikes while he preaches from the roof of the church's carport.
Kimmel says he picked the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend because it's the unofficial start of summer and often marks the beginning of riding season for motorcyclists.

May 21, 2009 10:39 am

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Mid-Daily Items: Snake in a barbershop triggers gun shots

Two Memphis men who took their snake to a salon didn't get haircuts, but they had a close shave.
Police said a man at the house where 26-year-old Dion Gayden and 20-year-old Tavoris Jackson went to get haircuts on Monday didn't like the looks of their pet and the men argued.
Police Lt. Jerry Gwyn said the man fired shots, which struck Gayden in an arm and Jackson in a hand. Neither was seriously hurt.
The snake apparently wasn't hit.
Gwyn told The Commercial Appeal he thinks Gayden and Jackson were running when they were shot and they apparently took their snake home.
The 29-year-old suspect was in police custody Monday night, but wasn't immediately charged.

- NASA officials say it wasn't an alien spacecraft people in Arizona and New Mexico spotted floating far above them in the clear blue sky, just a giant research balloon.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says he got calls about the object all afternoon Monday, according to the Arizona Republic newspaper.
Bill Stepp of NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, says the mysterious flying orb was a 4,000-pound (1,814-kilogram) NASA research balloon used to measure gamma ray emissions.
Stepp says the balloon usually floats at 130,000 feet (nearly 40,000 meters) and can be seen for many miles (kilometers) on a clear day.

- Well, voters in Murray, Utah had their say, and the mayor of the Salt Lake City suburb had his nearly foot-long handlebar whiskers clipped short for charity.
Dan Snarr's wife did the honors, leaving him with a short mustache after a clipping ceremony Saturday at a local Costco.
Residents voted 1,254 to 966 in favor of the mayor clipping the pointy ends of his waxed mustache.
The St. Louis-based American Mustache Institute posted a tongue-in-cheek eulogy for the mayor's 'stache on its Web site.
The organization contends that every time a mustache is shaved, an angel falls from heaven.
Residents had to pay $1 for each vote, and some contributed extra.
That means Snarr raised at least $2,220 for the Children's Miracle Network, which supports children's hospitals.

- And finally, we found a news video about our friend who put a busty mannequin on the porch of his Cincinnati area barbecue joint.
As we reported last week right here in Mid-Daily Items, the mannequin can stay, but local officials want her to cover up a bit more.
To see the video, Click Here

May 19, 2009 10:18 am

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Mid-Daily Items: Messy bedroom triggers '911 emergency'

An Ohio man who argued with his grown son over a messy bedroom says he overreacted when he called 911.
Andrew Mizsak called authorities Thursday after his 28-year-old son threw a plate of food across the kitchen table and made a fist at him.
His son, also named Andrew, lives with his parents and has a room in the basement.
The father declined to press charges and told police he doesn't want to ruin his son's political career. The younger Mizsak works as a political consultant and is a school board member in Bedford, a Cleveland suburb.
The son says he and his father love each very much and that he's lucky to be living in the house rent free. He also promises to keep his room clean.

- The principal of middle school in West Haven, Utah, has been asked to apologize for forcing a kilt-wearing Scottish-American student to change his clothes.
Weber School District spokesman Nate Taggart says Craig Jessop has been asked to extend an apology to 14-year-old student Gavin McFarland of Hooper after the school official's comments Wednesday.
Gavin says he wore the kilt twice in the past two weeks to Rocky Mountain Junior High as a prop for an art project. Jessop told the boy that the outfit could be misconstrued as cross-dressing.
Taggart says the district recognizes the kilt as an expression of the boy's Scottish heritage and that the kilt was not inappropriate. Kilts are traditional Scottish apparel generally worn by men for formal or special occasions.

- A Chicago police dog named Bear who is apparently a scaredy cat when it comes to thunder is back home after going AWOL during a storm.
Authorities say Bear, who went missing several days ago, was found safe, but dirty, Sunday morning by a man walking to a hardware store.
The man says he saw the dog at a cemetery and flagged down Officer Ann Jaros, who says Bear recognized her squad car and "jumped right in."
A microchip in the dog's neck confirmed it was Bear.
The black and tan German shepherd scaled a wooden fence and disappeared Wednesday night after roaring thunder apparently frightened him.
He was in the yard of Officer Rick King's home at the time. King says he's slept little since Bear's disappearance, hoping the dog was OK.
King has said Bear's always been afraid of thunder.

- And, here is a different kind of long-distance relationship.
A British couple has traveled nearly 4,000 miles from London to Michigan to adopt a kitten they found on a pet adoption Web site.
Rose and Chris Rasmussen arrived Tuesday in Harrison, Mich., to adopt Sparky the cat from the Clare County Animal Shelter.
They say they wanted to experience the adventure of traveling to fetch the cat in person. Their other option was to ship him to London.
Clare County Animal Control Director Dave Gendregske says Sparky's worth the trip because of his "dynamic personality."
The cat will have to be quarantined for six months once he gets to London.
Chris Rasmussen says that even if Sparky doesn't turn out to be the cat's meow, "there's no turning back."