Odds and Ends

FLORISSANT, Colo. -- No elephants need apply.

This unincorporated area on Saturday re-elected Paco Bell, a donkey, as its mayor, and that wasn't even close. Two of the four candidates didn't show up.

It's all part of the 15th annual Heritage Days in the town between Divide and Lake George on Colorado Highway 24. Residents like to poke fun at the political process, and they do it by electing a donkey as mayor. Paco Bell won re-election against two no shows and a white donkey named Birdie.

"We had one who was colicky, so he couldn't make it, and another one's trailer broke down, so he couldn't come either," said organizer Tracie Bennitt.

Volunteers the Pikes Peak Historical Society stuffed Paco Bell's ballot box with donations - ensuring him a second term.

Dagney Hales, 8, and Sam Easto, 7, fed the mayor wild goldenrod, green stalks with little yellow flowers, and Teller County Sheriff Kevin Dougherty swore in the incumbent.

"This is good and rural," Dougherty said. "We love doing this kind of stuff."

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DES MOINES, Iowa -- Imagine finding $20,000. Now imagine not keeping it.

That's the story of Tim Titterington and his son, Dylan.

It happened after the Fourth of July weekend as Titterington, 48, and Dylan, 16, were headed to their farm outside Milford.

"A semi drove past, and it looked like confetti flying around," Titterington said.

It was $20 bills and receipts from the wallet of Jody Gardner, 54, of Omaha, Neb.

Gardner and her sisters had just closed their dead father's bank accounts. Gardner's share totaled about $20,000 in cashier's checks and $1,000 in cash and coins. She stuffed it all in her billfold.

On the trip back to the family home on Lake Okoboji, Gardner stopped to buy groceries in Milford. She drove off with the billfold on the roof of the van.

"I can't believe I did it, but I did it," she said.

Titterington and his son said they spent about an hour tracking down checks, cash and everything else that had flown out of Gardner's billfold.

Back home, Dylan Titterington found an emergency contact number among the contents. The Titteringtons reached a friend of Gardner's, who gave them directions to the lake home.

Dylan found Gardner on a dock behind the house. He asked her if she'd lost her billfold.

"I had no idea," she said. "It was an absolute miracle for me."

She offered the Titteringtons a $100 reward; they refused.

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FARGO, N.D. -- When a 3-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever named Maddy got tangled in a 10-foot rope securing a trampoline floating on a lake, owner Matt Tollefson didn't think twice. Tollefson dove in after her.

When he dragged the dog's lifeless body out, Tollefson again didn't hesitate.

Her eyes were open and her tongue hung to the side of her mouth. Tollefson performed CPR.

"She's part of the family," Tollefson said. "If she's going to go, she wasn't going to go like that."

Tollefson alternated compressions on Maddy's chest and blowing air in through her snout.

"Instincts just took over at that point."

Tollefson said he took a first responders course in college but is not sure how he knew to blow air through her nose. He said he may have seen it on TV.

Two minutes into it last Monday, Maddy showed signs of life.

A veterinarian the next day diagnosed Maddy with aspiration pneumonia and a chip fracture in her shoulder from the compressions.

The dog is a little swollen and is taking two steam baths a day to help her recovery. She also is on antibiotics.

"Maybe she doesn't, but it seems like she looks at me differently," Tollefson said. "She's still the same dog. There's just more of a bond now."

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OVIEDO, Fla. -- Janice Gentry is not to be trifled with.

When four suspected burglars tried to make off with her belongings, Gentry and her sons outfoxed them by fashioning a tripwire out of a fishing line and blocking the suspects until authorities arrived and arrested them, deputies said.

Burglars struck Gentry's Oviedo home Saturday afternoon, loading her belongings into her Ford Explorer and searching for another vehicle when it didn't all fit in the SUV, according to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office. They tried to steal the neighbor's van but were scared off, deputies said.

Officials say the burglars left, intending to return later that night.

Gentry returned home, found her things loaded in her Explorer and alerted the sheriff's office.

The burglars returned about 3 a.m. Sunday and tried to drive off in the Explorer.

By then, Gentry and her two sons had tied a fishing line from her bumper to a bicycle in the garage, and the bicycle came crashing down and alerted Gentry and her sons.

The woman and her sons blocked the driveway with their cars to prevent any escape, said Steve Olson, spokesman for the sheriff's office.

Suspects Whitney D. Davis, 24, Reginald M. Hudson, 19, Patrick Doreus, 19, and Geraldo Rivera, 16, were charged with burglary, larceny, loitering and prowling. Davis was charged with car burglary and petty theft.