VIRGINIA, Minn. (AP)

"I was the first one into work that morning and the first one out," said Shannon Bergman, an off-road tire salesman. "I walked in, and in the waiting area I saw this big rat, and I took off."

Mayhem ensued. After scampering out the front door, Bergman called a buddy and told him to bring a rifle to dispatch the critter.

On edge, employees stalked the "rat," entering the office where it was hold up.

"We're looking around in the office and a box falls, and I must have jumped a foot," said Bob Dethloff, a brawny alignment specialist and stock car racer. "I thought it was going to attack me from behind."

Dethloff's son, Ryan, a mechanic at the shop, was armed with a broomstick. All of a sudden, he spotted the "rat."

"Ryan comes out of the office screaming, and he says, 'It's huge!'" Bergman said. "It was the size of a cat."

"I guess he jumped on top of a desk and screamed like a girl who had seen a mouse," Starr said of Ryan Dethloff.

In the end, an employee shot and killed what turned out to be a muskrat.

Man Wins $25,000 in Lottery 2 Days in a Row

Feb 16, 3:59 PM (ET)
MAPLEWOOD, Minn. (AP) - An airline pilot from Maplewood won a $25,000 lottery jackpot - two days in a row. Raymond Snouffer Jr. matched the winning numbers 11-14-23-26-31 to win Saturday's Northstar Cash drawing with odds of about 170,000 to 1, Minnesota Lottery officials said.

On Sunday, Snouffer stuck with 11 and switched to 3-7-19-28 - and won again. Lottery officials said such a sequence was so farfetched that the odds against it were "virtually incalculable."

A Good Use for Snow

Feb 16, 4:53 PM (ET)
SHELTON, Conn. (AP) - A volunteer firefighter who was the first to arrive at the scene of a Shelton house fire used snow from the lawn to put out most of the flames. On Thursday afternoon, Dave VanWart, a firefighter with the Echo Hose Hook and Ladder Company, was the first firefighter to respond to a blaze that broke out in a two-family house on Murphy Lane.

VanWart, a 25-year-old landscaper, grabbed a shovel from the bed of his truck and ran to the first-floor apartment. Fire officials said that VanWart managed to put out most of the flames by shoveling snow from the lawn. Assistant Fire Chief Mike Ulrich said using snow created steam and steam puts fire out fast.

After VanWart doused most of the fire, other firefighters arrived and finished off the flames, which had climbed into the wall cavity.

Dog Swallows Turtle and Both Live

Feb 15, 10:51 PM (ET)
BRANDON, Fla. (AP) - A palm-sized pet turtle and the golden retriever that gobbled it up survived the misadventure thanks to the quick actions of a 12-year-old girl, a veterinarian said.

The saga of Pepper the red-eared slider turtle and Bella the golden retriever started last week. Shelby Terihay, 12, moved her pet pond turtles indoors to protect them from a cold snap - a plan that worked well until Bella found some of the turtles in a bathtub, The Tampa Tribune reported.

A quick headcount confirmed Bella had swallowed one of the turtles. Shelby insisted on a rescue mission and, on the advice of a vet, her parents made Bella vomit. Out came Pepper, still alive despite a shattered shell and an estimated 10 minutes inside Bella's belly.

"This was definitely a first for me," veterinarian David Thomassy said. Thomassy patched up Pepper's shell and credited Shelby with saving Bella, too. "The turtle would definitely have caused an obstruction," Thomassy said. "Without cutting it out directly, it eventually would have killed the dog."

Cat Adopts Rottweiler

MERIDEN, Conn. (AP) - Who says cats and dogs don't get along? Workers at the Meriden Humane Society are marveling at a short-haired mother cat that has adopted a 6-day-old Rottweiler puppy that was rejected by its mother.

The tiny pup, named Charlie by Humane Society volunteers, nurses alongside a jumble of black and gray kittens recently born to Satin, who was taken to the shelter by an owner unable to care for her.

Charlie's mother was found by the side of the road in Meriden a couple of months ago. She gave birth to two puppies, but one was stillborn. As sometimes happens with a stillborn in the litter, the mother refused to accept Charlie.

Volunteers bottle-fed him every two hours, but the effort was exhausting for them and insufficient for the puppy, volunteer Chris Chorney said.

Research indicated that a suitable substitute could be Satin, who had given birth to four kittens that have quickly warmed to Charlie.

"The kittens scrum up with him and the kittens treat him like one of their own," Chorney said. "There's a certain social benefit of small animals being with each other."

Such relationships are not all that unusual in certain circumstances, said Deirdre Chiaramonte, a veterinarian at the Animal Medical Center, a specialty teaching hospital in New York. The cozy arrangement between Charlie, Satin and the kittens will likely changes as the pup grows. Full-grown male Rottweilers commonly weigh 100 pounds.

Volunteers are hoping that dog owners will volunteer their puppies to be Charlie's playmates. "Dogs need to be with a litter of puppies, to learn to play with other dogs," Chorney said. "He has to learn to be a well-socialized dog."

Mayor Charged With DUI and Resisting Arrest

COLUMBUS GROVE, OHIO — The mayor of the village was arrested, handcuffed and hauled to jail early Saturday during a drunken-driving stop in which he fought with a state trooper.

Michael Bogart, 50, is charged with drunken driving, driving outside his lane and resisting arrest. He was stopped at 2:37 a.m. Saturday in front of his home at 303 Taft St., said Sgt. Mike Marchek of the Lima post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Bogart refused to take a breath test to obtain his blood-alcohol concentration level but was arrested on the drunken-driving charge based on factors such as driving outside his lane, his lack of coordination, slurred speech and an odor of alcohol on him, Marchek said.

Bogart could not be reached for comment Monday. Bogart pleaded not guilty to all charges against him, a prosecutor said.

Columbus Grove Administrator Jeff Vance said he didn’t know about the arrest and would not comment on the village’s policy on employees facing criminal charges.

“I would have to review the policy,” Vance said. “There is [a policy] as far as work time” violations.

Vance said the issue probably would not come up at Columbus Grove’s Village Council meeting Monday because it was not on the agenda.

Bad Cop Gets Bad Sentence

OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND – A New Jersey police officer arrested last July for reportedly coercing a 15-year-old juvenile female to perform oral sex on him on the beach near the Boardwalk downtown pleaded guilty this week to an amended count of second-degree assault and was sentenced to 10 days in jail.

On July 29, 2006, resort police arrested Cesar Manuel Moyano, 25, of North Arlington, N.J., and charged him with an open container violation, perverted practice and third- and fourth-degree sex offenses after a routine check on the beach near the Boardwalk in the early morning hours revealed the Bergen County, N.J. sheriff’s officer in a compromising position on the beach with a juvenile and beer and liquor containers strewn about.

Moyano, a Bergen County corrections officer on vacation in Ocean City, was discovered with the juvenile on the beach at 22nd Street about 25 feet from the Boardwalk.

Officer Earl Campbell was patrolling the Boardwalk when he was approached by a couple that pointed out Moyano and the juvenile a few blocks away. According to police reports, a handful of witnesses were close by and observed the scene. Campbell interrupted the sex act and began to question Moyano and the juvenile. He also noticed an open bottle of beer and a bottle of Jagermeister not far from the couple.

While speaking with the couple, Campbell was able to determine the female juvenile was just 15 years old. Moyano, however, told the officer he believed she was 20 years old. The female victim became angry and said Moyano told her it would be acceptable for her to have sex with him on the beach because he was a sheriff’s deputy. It was then Campbell learned Moyano was a law enforcement officer.

Campbell interviewed the juvenile victim, who told the officer she had gotten separated from her friends and Moyano, who she had met earlier in the evening, agreed to help her find them. As the night wore on, the victim said Moyano asked her to “go out on the beach and fool around,” according to police reports. The victim told police she felt pressured into the situation but was not physically coerced.

It is uncertain what the conviction means for Moyano in terms of his law enforcement career, but he was suspended without pay pending the outcome of the case shortly after the incident and the Bergen County Sheriff said in August he would be dismissed immediately if a guilty verdict came in.