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.


View Larger Map

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.

Too hot for Big Brother

The San Antonio Police Department tried out surveillance cameras that were meant to keep an eye on hot spots in downtown. While the cameras could be seen as a Big Brotherish move by the city, it turns out that our brutal, scorching summers are just a bit too warm for the eye in the sky.

Even though a 90-day trial period for the San Antonio Police Department's downtown cameras is ending this month, authorities acknowledge the cameras aren't working properly, while at least one has been removed.

Administrators cite extreme heat and slow Internet connections — among other issues — as the cause of the malfunctions.

What's more, many downtown officers have stopped watching surveillance footage, and the task of keeping an eye on the monitors has been assigned to a desk officer who watches sparingly.

(from the Express-News)

That's OK with me. Given the choice of having cameras watching public streets or of putting officers out on patrol in full view of the public, give me the man on the beat any day.

They don't condone the words ...

... but they don't seem to condemn them, either.

This story is out of Austin, but, hey, we vote for the governor in San Antonio as well, so this is equally strange here.

AUSTIN, Texas - A Web site for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison contained hidden phrases including "rick perry gay."

...

Hutchison spokesman Jeff Sadosky said Hutchison's campaign was not condoning those words and did not know thousands of people would be searching for them. He said they would be removed from the site.

Campaign officials said they bought a tool that generates the phrases to find out the most frequent Web searches using the two gubernatorial candidates' names.

(from the Austin American-Statesman via KENS-5) (AAS story here)

Here are the hidden phrases that were on Hutchison's website. Looks like a pretty thorough job of including just about every conceivable search string that might be related to the gubernatorial race. In fact, here's one grouping that seems focused on including just about every Texan alive:

Anderson County Andrews County Angelina County Aransas County Archer County Armstrong County Atascosa County Austin County Bailey County Bandera County Bastrop County Baylor County Bee County Bell County Bexar County Blanco County Borden County Bosque County Bowie County Brazoria County Brazos County Brewster County Briscoe County Brooks County Brown County Burleson County Burnet County Caldwell County Calhoun County Callahan County Cameron County Camp County Carson County Cass County Castro County Chambers County Cherokee County Childress County Clay County Cochran County Coke County Coleman County Collin County Collingsworth County Colorado County Comal County Comanche County Concho County Cooke County Coryell County Cottle County Crane County Crockett County Crosby County Culberson County Dallam County Dallas County Dawson County Deaf Smith County Delta County Denton County DeWitt County Dickens County Dimmit County Donley County Duval County Eastland County Ector County Edwards County Ellis County El Paso County Erath County Falls County Fannin County Fayette County Fisher County Floyd County Foard County Fort Bend County Franklin County Freestone County Frio County Gaines County Galveston County Garza County Gillespie County Glasscock County Goliad County Gonzales County Gray County Grayson County Gregg County Grimes County Guadalupe County Hale County Hall County Hamilton County Hansford County Hardeman County Hardin County Harris County Harrison County Hartley County Haskell County Hays County Hemphill County Henderson County Hidalgo County Hill County Hockley County Hood County Hopkins County Houston County Howard County Hudspeth County Hunt County Hutchinson County Irion County Jack County Jackson County Jasper County Jeff Davis County Jefferson County Jim Hogg County Jim Wells County Johnson County Jones County Karnes County Kaufman County Kendall County Kenedy County Kent County Kerr County Kimble County King County Kinney County Kleberg County Knox County Lamar County Lamb County Lampasas County La Salle County Lavaca County Lee County Leon County Liberty County Limestone County Lipscomb County Live Oak County Llano County Loving County Lubbock County Lynn County McCulloch County McLennan County McMullen County Madison County Marion County Martin County Mason County Matagorda County Maverick County Medina County Menard County Midland County Milam County Mills County Mitchell County Montague County Montgomery County Moore County Morris County Motley County Nacogdoches County Navarro County Newton County Nolan County Nueces County Ochiltree County Oldham County Orange County Palo Pinto County Panola County Parker County Parmer County Pecos County Polk County Potter County Presidio County Rains County Randall County Reagan County Real County Red River County Reeves County Refugio County Roberts County Robertson County Rockwall County Runnels County Rusk County Sabine County San Augustine County San Jacinto County San Patricio County San Saba County Schleicher County Scurry County Shackelford County Shelby County Sherman County Smith County Somervell County Starr County Stephens County Sterling County Stonewall County Sutton County Swisher County Tarrant County Taylor County Terrell County Terry County Throckmorton County Titus County Tom Green County Travis County Trinity County Tyler County Upshur County Upton County Uvalde County Val Verde County Van Zandt County Victoria County Walker County Waller County Ward County Washington County Webb County Wharton County Wheeler County Wichita County Wilbarger County Willacy County Williamson County Wilson County Winkler County Wise County Wood County Yoakum County Young County Zapata County Zavala County

"Stranded Boaters Rescued "

On Braunig Lake.

SAN ANTONIO -- A woman and two of her nephews were rescued early Wednesday after being stranded on Braunig Lake for six hours.

Gilda Valdez and her 7- and 27-year-old nephews launched from the Braunig Lake boat dock for a night of fishing around 10 p.m. when their boat's battery died in the middle of the lake.

Valdez then called 311 for help, but assistance never arrived due to a miscommunication between 311 dispatchers and 911 dispatchers who never sent rescue crews, Valdez said.

"It was a very, very long time," Valdez said. "I was more concerned about them."

Around 4 a.m., Valdez called 911 again, and this time, rescue crews were dispatched to the lake and got the boaters safely to land.

(from KSAT-12)

Perhaps this would be a good time to buy a couple of paddles, and then learn how to use them. Or at least teach your 27-year-old nephew how. Braunig Lake isn't that big.

A lot of pot

How do you fit $2 million worth of marijuana plants inside one house?

This way:

SAN ANTONIO -- Police seized 350 high-grade marijuana plants that were growing inside a home Monday night on the city's west side.

The plants, which ranged from 2 feet to 7 feet tall and worth an estimated $2 million, were being grown with a hydroponic lab at a home in the 9200 block of Adams Hill, police said. A lighting system, a ventilation system, carbon dioxide and other chemicals were found in the second story of the home.

"I've been told this appears to be the largest hydroponic seizure in San Antonio history," said Sgt. Chris Benavides of the San Antonio Police Department.

(from KSAT-12)

With that much pot, he probably had a hydroponic vegetable garden that was just as big. In case he got hungry.