Chupacabra!

In Blanco this time!

Or, maybe not.

“Different, that’s for sure, very interesting,” said Blanco taxidermist Jerry Ayer with Blanco Taxidermy School.

Ayer is preserving the frozen carcass that was found by one of his former students in Rosenberg, Texas, located about 40 miles southwest of Houston. The animal looks gray with leathery skin, unlike anything that is native to Texas.

“It got into his cousin's barn and they thought maybe it was a rodent tearing things up, and they had no idea since they’ve never seen it,” said Ayer. “He got out some poison, and this is what they got the very next day.”

Ayer has been in the taxidermy business for 10 years and said he’s never seen anything like it. He points out the unusual features that are commonly associated with the mythical beast known as the chupacabra.

(from KSAT-12) (KSAT video here)

Or with a mangy coyote, perhaps.



UPDATE: The story goes national on the Yahoo Buzz Log.

Jerry Ayer, owner of Blanco Taxidermy School, has possession of the mythical beast's body. According to CNN, the animal was discovered by one of Ayer's students. The student had "placed poison...to catch an unidentified animal that had gotten into a family member's barn." Little did the student know the animal in question was (maybe) the chupacabra.

In the video from CNN (which is pretty gross, so beware), Ayer shows off some of the unusual features of the animal, including abnormally long legs and teeth. It looks a bit like the world's ugliest (and meanest) dog.

Yes, just a bit.

Letter box

This was an odd little letter box seen out and about.



It's obviously an older box that's been reinstalled on a refurbished building. I have no idea if it is still being used for its original purpose, but it does seem to date from the days when mailmen brought your mail to you on your front porch while giving you a hearty "howdy-do."

P.S.: You can call me strange if you like, but doesn't it look like the lady of the house is offering a fine beverage to her friendly mailman?

A Spur with a spa

Did you know Bruce Bowen went into business with his wife? To run a spa?

He did. And evidently he's quite passionate about the endeavor and suspicious of the competition.

SAN ANTONIO -- Former San Antonio Spur Bruce Bowen and his wife were involved in a confrontation at a local spa Tuesday.

The incident happened around 11:00 a.m. at the Oasis Salon and Spa at the corner of Loop 1604 and Huebner on the Far North Side. Sources say Bruce Bowen and his wife showed up at the salon and confronted two former employees over a client list the Bowens claim was stolen from their spa, Yardley's Salon & Spa. The two employees quit Yardley's and then leased space at the Oasis.

A customer, who was an eyewitness but didn't want to be identified, told News 4 WOAI once the Bowens were inside the salon, Bruce was cussing, and his wife was making threats, saying she was going to harass clients every day.

(from WOAI-TV)

Gettin' western at the town hall

We've all seen the reports of disruptions at town halls across the nation. Now a bit of that madness has hit San Antonio.

As people began to file out of the Schertz Civic Center, two people on opposite sides of the health care issue got into a shoving match that police were forced to break up. According to police, a man that had disrupted the meeting by shouting at people opposed to the health care plan was push [sic] from behind; when he turned to push back he ended up shoving a woman, which is when someone punched him in the head.

Police investigated the incident, but did not make any arrests, instead escorting the man out through a side door.

(from KENS-5)

Who you gonna call?

When you have an electrical problem, I suppose you could do worse.



Make no mistake, no job is too small, and full service is included. What more could you want?

"Bee swat leads to cement truck rollover"

Bees are dangerous, but so is trying to kill one while driving a cement truck.

Police say the cement truck driver was traveling westbound on Loop 1604 near Green Mountain Road around 10:00 a.m., when a bee flew into the cab of the truck. The driver of the truck was swatting at the bee when he sideswiped a car. The cement truck rolled over on the highway, blocking traffic all the way back to Lookout Road.

The driver of the truck was taken to North Central Baptist Hospital with a cut on his forehead. The bee is expected to be okay.

(from WOAI-TV)

Rootin' for the Spurs

Want to show the city your Spurs spirit, but you just can't lay your hands on one of those fancy window decals? No problem.

Just get peel-and-stick letters and numbers.

Dissin' the Alamo

Oh, Yahoo, you hurt me.

Playing with your food

Have you ever felt the urge to make a chicken into a pet?

And then, did you love this yardbird so much that you allowed it to roam loose in your kitchen and even onto the table?

Someone in this town has.



(Picture featured in a KSAT-12 slideshow)

Perhaps they know this guy.

"Cross-dressing robbery suspect arrested"

This was a good disguise, but, eventually, not good enough.

There was something familiar about Quincy Jack after San Antonio police booked him in a July 28 holdup at a North Side credit union, police said. After sifting through old surveillance photos of other robberies, detectives found a photo of what appeared to be a female suspect wearing a dress, according to an affidavit for arrest warrant.
A closer look at the “woman” involved in the March 13, 2008, heist at the Wells Fargo bank in the 100 block of Northeast Loop 410 showed a striking resemblance to 22-year-old Jack.
After detectives returned to the Wells Fargo recently, employees there said they recalled that the woman who held them up in 2008 had an “Adam's apple.”
Bank employees picked Jack out of a photo lineup.

(from the Express-News)

Remembering Sanford and Son

This truck near downtown helped jog my memories.



You remember, don't you?

One reason to keep your house neat

That's so firefighters can find you if your house is burning.

The fire happened around 5:00 a.m at a duplex off of Walters street on the East Side.

When firefighters arrived at the home, there were already flames coming out the rooftop. Crews did a quick search inside but couldn't find anyone.

...

Firefighters said there were stacked newspapers, trash, and debris everywhere inside the home.

"It makes it difficult for us to rescue you," explained SAFD Batallion Chief Connie Hall. "It makes it difficult for you to rescue yourself."

The obstacles combined with flames, thick smoke and darkness, greatly hindered the firefighters' efforts.

(from WOAI-TV)

Avoiding bills

If you're going to lie to avoid paying bills, you should probably not make up a spectacular story. And you shouldn't say it took place where you can reasonably expect video cameras will be there to capture (or not) the supposed event.

Basheeruddin Mohammad, 38 said he was doing some grocery shopping Wednesday in the 7000 block of South Zarzamora when he was held up at gunpoint. He said the robber took $4,500 in cash.

...

Investigators reviewing the store security video said the robbery did not take place.

During questioning, Basheeruddin Mohammad admitted that he had not been robbed at all.

He said he made up the story to delay paying some bills.

(from KENS-5)

"55-gallon barrel of glue spills across San Pedro"

Oops.

SAN ANTONIO - It’s something you don't see every day: glue spilled onto San Pedro after a 55-gallon barrel fell off a truck near Jackson Keller. A HAZMAT crew put sand down and closed off the lane, so the glue would eventually dry.

(from WOAI-TV)

HAZMAT? What's hazardous about glue? Sometimes I think our city officials get a little overcautious when dealing with spills. I'm not saying they need to start acting cavalier about such things, but a HAZMAT team for glue? It's overkill.

That reminds me of the time about ten years ago when officials shut down a good chunk of the city because of an acid spill at the Finesilver curve.



I can understand evacuating people within a certain radius of the spill, but they had everything shut down all the way up to Hildebrand on that day. Granted, I am not a hazardous materials expert, but that seemed like a bit much to me.


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A lawman who should have thought a little more

Sometimes, it's just better to stay home after drinking rather than trying to impress your friends with your job.

Arthur Todd MacCubbin is a Bexar County deputy constable from Precinct 2 and has been employed there for five years. MacCubbin was pulled over by a San Antonio police officer at Loop 1604 and Culebra on the far northwest side of San Antonio around 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning.

MacCubbin had three passengers in his patrol car. Officers said he was driving recklessly with his emergency lights on and trying to pull cars over.

"He was an on-call officer, and a county car was available for his official use," Precinct Two's Assistant Chief, Wendell Tomlin, explained.

San Antonio Police officers say MacCubbin was driving so dangerously he caused one of their officers to crash during a chase. The arresting officers said once they finally pulled over MacCubbin, the deputy constable and his three friends had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, reeked of alcohol, and could hardly stand up. [emphasis added]

(from WOAI-TV)

Did he not think his flashing lights would get somebody else's attention (like the police)? And how does an officer "try" to pull someone over? Did the citizens not respond to him, or did they actually pull over and he just blew past them (probably laughing with his buddies the whole way)?

Inquiring minds want to know.

A bird-killin' river

Do you remember the recent reports about a large presence of algae in the newly-opened northern reach of the River Walk? It turns out the algae may not be just unsightly. It's deadly, too. At least to birds further up the river.

SAN ANTONIO -- At least 40 egrets were seen Sunday afternoon in distress, bogged down in the San Antonio River at Brackenridge Park.

Philip Bell and Dan Chatfield said they tried to rescue as many as possible, and with the help of San Antonio Park Police they were able to take 20 to the Humane Society, but 15 others were dead in the water.

“They’re falling out of the trees. They’re all stuck in the muck in here because of the filth in the river,” said Bell. “And, there’s all these dead carcasses in the water, and there’s all these baby birds struggling to get out.”

The white feathered birds with their long necks could be seen trapped in a blanket of thick algae and other vegetation that San Antonio River Authority crews have been trying to clear away, but they said it’s been flourishing in the extreme heat.

(from KSAT-12)

They think the egrets escaped from the zoo next door. In any case, such a sight must not be encouraging to any picnickers that decide to brave the heat and do a little grillin' next to the river in Brackenridge Park. Matter of fact, it's probably downright disturbing.


UPDATE: The zoo says the algae is not to blame. In fact, it may be helping the birds a bit.

SAN ANTONIO -- Instead of being bogged down in the thick blanket of vegetation in the San Antonio River, Ryan Gulker, the living collections manager at the San Antonio Zoo, said it’s actually helping young egrets stay afloat, although many die when they cannot be rescued.

“They land on top of the algae. They don’t necessarily get stuck in it,” said Gulker. “They’re actually floating on top of it. They just can’t get out because of the walls at the edge of the river.”

...

Gulker said there are so many egrets in the trees with so many young at one time, “they start to get aggressive with each other and the young, weak ones get pushed out of the tree.”

...

“These kinds of things happen in the wild every day,” said Gulker. “We just don’t get to see them.”

Gulker also said the egrets did not escape from the zoo. They simply migrated in and found a good spot to roost. It just happened to be next to the zoo hatchery.