A person in a chicken costume ruffled the feathers of Durango's city council as its members discussed rules for backyard fowl. At a council meeting Tuesday, someone in a chicken costume quietly entered the council chambers just as the mayor was discussing a recently-passed backyard hen ordinance. The costumed chicken took a few turns, flapped its arms, then took a seat in the nearly empty gallery.

A town on New York's Long Island is hoping for better attendance at its 16th annual holiday boat parade this year by restoring "Christmas" to the event's name.

Moldova's army is feeding its soldiers onions and garlic to help them ward off swine flu.

A suburban Philadelphia police chief says two teenagers are being held after officers arrested them and found video recordings they made of themselves burglarizing homes.

The case of one of four teens who were cited after rapping their order at a McDonald's in Utah appears headed for trial.

Officials said an elaborate marijuana growing site was found in an industrial building 25 feet from the back door of the Topanga police station in Los Angeles, and three people are under arrest. Officer Karen Rayner said the pot was discovered Wednesday when a search warrant was served at an address adjacent to the station in Canoga Park.

A 2-year-old in north Mississippi has done something few toddlers can: He helped his mother give birth to his brother. Bobbye Favazza told The Commercial Appeal she went into labor this past Friday and gave birth on the family's living room couch in Olive Branch. She said her toddler, Jeremiha Taylor, got her a towel and caught the baby before firefighters arrived to cut the umbilical cord.

Police in Marion and postal authorities are investigating the case of a mail carrier who was allegedly found drunk inside a residence while on the job. Police said the postal worker, 46, was charged with public intoxication Nov. 3 after she was found sitting on the kitchen floor of 95-year-old woman's house, eating leftover noodles from her refrigerator.

A man and woman who reported to police that robbers stole their marijuana are now facing charges themselves. The 32-year-old man and 29-year-old woman told police five armed men came to their Wichita apartment late Monday night and took marijuana.

A wild turkey that's taken up residence at a New Jersey tollbooth and spends its days scooting around 18-wheelers won't have to dodge Thanksgiving traffic. State Fish and Wildlife officials netted the bird Wednesday after failed attempts during the weekend.

A basketball-sized chunk of ice crashed through the roof of a family's Colorado home after apparently falling from an airplane passing overhead. Danelle Hagan and her 9-year-old daughter were at home in Brush on Saturday when they heard the kitchen ceiling come crashing down. They were not injured.

A woman quietly left $40,000 worth of rare U.S. coins near a Catholic shrine for safekeeping so the Virgin Mary could watch over her life savings while she was out of town, and apparently it worked: The money was returned to her when she got back a week later.

A tortoise's zookeepers in Cleveland are the ones feeling slow because after more than 50 years, they've discovered "Mary" is actually a male. Officials at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo say it can be tough to establish the sex of a giant Aldabra tortoise because the reproductive organs normally aren't visible. But Mary's maleness was unexpectedly revealed earlier this month during a routine exam.

A Michigan man has won the world Rock Paper Scissors championship in Toronto. Tim Conrad clinched the title after five hours of play and nine matches at the Steam Whistle Brewery on Saturday night.

Call it udder shock. A South Carolina woman who heard a giant splash in her backyard discovered a 650-pound cow had fallen into her swimming pool. WSPA-TV reports that the cow fell into Kathy Wydareny's covered pool on Monday night. The Anderson resident says the cow belonged to her neighbor.

Authorities in Colorado say a homeowner who was selling his house returned to the property to find a 24-year-old squatter wearing only underwear.

Authorities in Colorado say a homeowner who was selling his house returned to the property to find a 24-year-old squatter wearing only underwear. Police in Golden say the homeowner found someone's car in the garage of the home when he arrived Nov. 9. They say the unidentified homeowner then discovered Timothy P. Gonzales in the house, where he had been showering, doing laundry and putting food in the fridge.

FBI officials say an elderly, thin, gray-haired man nicknamed the "Geezer Bandit" is responsible for holding up five San Diego-area banks since summer.

A 19-year-old Brownsville man is jailed on a drug charge after he allegedly went door-to-door trying to sell marijuana. A Brownsville police spokesman says Anthony Carrazco's alleged scheme went awry when he knocked on a police officer's apartment door.

A black cat showed affection by crawling up and down a Texas police officer in a friendly display captured on the patrol car's dashcam. Taylor police Officer Keith Urban was seen being patient with the cat, whose image was captured during a recent traffic stop, then finally gently booting the kitty away.

A father and son have an extraterrestrial explanation for the strange rock that recently landed in their backyard in southwest Kansas. They are convinced it's a meteorite.

A northern New York man is recovering after being attacked by a 10-point buck while he was loading firewood. Authorities said Gerald Dabiew, 56, was cut and bruised from head-to-toe by the buck outside his house in Moira, 200 miles north of Albany.

What possesses a man to steal his ex-employer's bus, take it for a three-state joy ride and then post a video of the lark on YouTube?

No one is complaining about a $100,000 mistake made by a southern New Jersey store clerk.

Seattle police say a man who thought he was ninja was impaled on a metal fence when he tried to leap over it. An officer who was looking for an assault victim nearby Monday night heard the man screaming for help. Police supported him to prevent further injuries until medics arrived and took him to a hospital, where he was in serious condition in intensive care on Tuesday.

The recession is downsizing everything - even South Carolina's Statehouse Christmas tree.

Authorities in Florida are searching for an alleged bank robber with "notably bad breath" who asked a teller to fill an orange Halloween bag with cash. The Broward County sheriff's office says the man wore sunglasses when he held up the TD Bank branch in South Florida on Monday morning.

Hundreds of rotting deer carcasses in a southwestern Pennsylvania yard are causing a stink among the neighbors. Randy Good of North Buffalo Township has a contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to remove the animal carcasses from roads in five counties.

What word sums up 2009? How about unfriend?

A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica's ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whisky that has been on the rocks since a century ago.

Authorities say they have arrested five people who allegedly tried to rob a Nevada bank by presenting a false federal search warrant which demanded all of the money in the vault. The FBI says that when the Wells Fargo bank manager refused to comply Friday, he was handcuffed and threatened in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson.

An Ohio man was accused of striking a repo man with his car when he tried to take it back after it was repossessed. Police said 41-year-old Charles Alexander was arrested late Saturday near his home in the small town of Silverton, near Cincinnati. He was held without bond Monday on a felony charge of attempted vehicular assault.

Police said a Long Island man upset about a speeding ticket tried to get even with a state trooper by making a prank phone call to his mother. Authorities said Lawrence Demaio, of Carle Place, called the woman about a month after the ticket was issued and told her her son had been badly hurt in a car accident.

An 11-year-old boy shot a black bear on his family's front porch after he said it wouldn't leave. The boy was at his home near Driggs, just west of the Idaho-Wyoming border, with his younger sisters last Wednesday when the bear showed up. The youngster said he couldn't shoo it away, so he went and got his gun and shot it.

Sue Stenhouse spends her days figuring out how Rhode Island officials should calmly deal with disaster. But when a rat scurried through her office, her natural response was to jump on a chair, snap it with rubber bands and threaten to spritz it with Obsession.

A traveler who arrived at Miami International Airport earlier this month must pay a $300 penalty for trying to smuggle fresh sweet potatoes from Bolivia into the United States by disguising the vegetables as a candy. According to a news release, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists discovered the 18 small sweet potatoes in early November.

Authorities have stopped trying to capture a wild turkey that calls Interchange 14B on the New Jersey Turnpike home. The bird has been causing havoc for toll collectors and motorists as it runs across toll booths, plays in traffic, and sits atop toll collectors' parked cars.

A high school librarian in Phoenix says a former student at the school returned two overdue books checked out 51 years ago along with a $1,000 money order to cover the fines. Camelback High School librarian Georgette Bordine said the two Audubon Society books checked out in 1959 and the money order were sent by someone who wanted to remain anonymous.

Police have arrested a man after he allegedly stole a pencil from a Bellingham store even though he was carrying $600 in cash. The man, 44, was booked into the Whatcom County Jail after police learned he had an outstanding warrant from Everett.

An Ohio jeweler says thieves who smashed their way into his store and got away with rings are in for a surprise when they try to sell them. Henry Triplett of Henry's Jewelers in Toledo says what appeared to be thousands of dollars in gold rings in his display cases were actually rings made of brass and worth barely 25 cents apiece.