MAN CRAWLED INTO SUNKEN CAR, SAVED BABY: PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A Maine logger helped save an infant from drowning when he crawled into a car that was upside-down in water and used a knife to cut the straps off her car seat and pull her out, police said.
The baby wasn’t breathing and another bystander performed CPR, reviving the girl, police said.
Leo Moody, 44, of Kingman, was driving home from work Monday when he saw a flipped SUV in a culvert in Kossuth Township, about 175 miles northeast of Portland. Moody said he called 911 and rushed to the vehicle.
Moody said one of the SUV’s passengers told him her baby was in the back seat, and he swam to the vehicle and cut through seatbelts to free the child seat. He said he then took the 3-month-old to the banks of the culvert and handed the baby and seat to another passer-by, Wade Shorey of Greenbush. Shorey, 32, performed CPR on the child, resuscitating her, Moody said.
Moody said it was cold and his hands were chilled to the point where he couldn’t feel them while he was cutting the straps, and he “kept telling myself, don’t drop the knife.” He said he always carries the knife — usually for peeling an apple or whittling a piece of alder.
“They come in handy, I guess. Monday night really proved it,” Moody said.
Police confirmed that Moody crawled into the SUV and freed the baby and that Shorey performed CPR. The infant was submerged for a short time and initially was not breathing and was unresponsive, police said. After being resuscitated, the girl was crying and alert. She was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor for observation, police said.
Shorey, a forester, said he took a refresher course in CPR this past spring. He said resuscitating the baby took about one or two minutes.
MAN CHARGED IN NYC SUBWAY SHOVE HELD WITHOUT BAIL: NEW YORK (AP) — A man accused of shoving a stranger in front of a New York City subway train, killing him, has appeared before a judge who ordered him held without bail.
Kevin Darden did not enter a plea during a hearing Wednesday evening in Bronx Criminal Court.
Police say 61-year-old Wai Kuen Kwok was standing with his wife on a Bronx subway platform on Sunday when Darden pushed him in front of an approaching train. The 34-year-old Darden was picked up Tuesday evening and charged with second-degree murder.
12 DRONES, WORTH $600,000, STOLEN IN CORONA: CORONA . (AP) — Authorities in Riverside County say a dozen camera-equipped drones worth about $600,000 have been stolen from a Corona manufacturer.
The Riverside Press-Enterprise says the unmanned aerial vehicles were nabbed before dawn Tuesday by burglars who used a rock to smash the glass front door of PMG Multirotors.
Used for films and aerial photography, the devices are worth $50,000 each.
Surveillance video shows two or three burglars using a wheelbarrow to transport the drones, which weigh up to 75 pounds.
Scot Demmer, a partner in the business, says the burglary was the third in the past six months at PMG. Six months ago, burglars smashed side windows, entered and took cameras and computers. Two weeks ago, stereo equipment was stolen from trucks parked on the premises.
MASSIVE MOVIE POSTER COLLECTION GOING TO AUCTION: NEW YORK (AP) — A massive single-owner collection of vintage movie posters covering nearly the entire history of feature films — from 1907 to the present — is going on the auction block as one lot next month.
It belongs to Morris Everett Jr., who began collecting posters and lobby cards 53 years ago. He’s parting with them on Dec. 17 at Profiles in History auction house in Calabasas, California.
Everett, who lives in Cleveland, Ohio, and owns a New York City movie photo leasing company, said his collecting passion began as a student at the University of Virginia, sparked by a fellow student who had a “fabulous” small photo collection of such Hollywood’s legends as Bette Davis and Myrna Loy. On spring break in 1961, Everett found himself buying two posters at Movie Star News, a New York City landmark of movie stills, posters and negatives that closed its doors two years ago.
He started small, focusing on 20 film stars including his favorite, Natalie Wood. Then he saw an ad in a collectors’ magazine for 6,000 original movie photos from the 1920s and 1930s which he purchased for around $400. He continued to buy at conventions, auctions, from dealers and stores until he amassed a collection totaling 196,000 posters and lobby cards representing 44,000 titles for some of Hollywood’s greatest films.
SAN BERNARDINO TO PAY PENSIONS DESPITE BANKRUPTCY: RIVERSIDE (AP) — The city of San Bernardino has agreed to pay the California Public Employees’ Retirement System all that it owes in bankruptcy proceedings, the second city in recent months to opt to keep pensions intact despite a court ruling that says the benefits can be slashed if the employer is bankrupt.
A filing Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Riverside spelled out a deal in which the city will make up $13.5 million in payments it missed since it declared bankruptcy in 24 equal installments, plus interest and fees, over the next two years, starting in July, the San Bernardino Sun reported Wednesday.
The city and CalPERS announced a tentative deal in June but the details were not revealed at the time. The agreement ends months of impasse between the city and CalPERS, its largest creditor. So far, the city has paid $4.5 million to CalPERS.
With the cost of public pensions rising, the Stockton and San Bernardino bankruptcies were considered important tests of whether cities would opt to curtail benefits to exit bankruptcy.
