Strange but True

SAN ANTONIO — All it takes is one illegally parked troublemaker to tie up freeway traffic — especially if it’s an 8-foot alligator sprawled across the pavement.

"I don’t remember any of this in the academy,” police Officer Albert Silva said of the traffic jam early Sunday. "As far as I know, there’s no procedure on this other than: ’Don’t get bit.”’

Police car sirens didn’t persuade the big reptile to budge off Loop 410.

Police threw orange traffic cones at the gator, but it just snapped at the cones and flung them away.

The gator even assaulted a police car, biting a chunk out of its bumper.

Officers finally used a lasso and metal poles to coax the alligator into a drainage ditch leading to a lake.

State game warden David Chavez couldn’t explain why a gator would take up residence on a busy highway.

"They keep to themselves,” he said. "They don’t go out looking for trouble.”

New York City tries to crack down on unwanted menus, circulars left on people’s doorsteps

NEW YORK — You’ve heard of e-mail spam — now a New York City councilman wants to do something about menu spam, the unwanted menus and circulars that have a way of appearing on city doorsteps and under doors.

Simcha Felder has introduced legislation that would make it illegal to distribute menus, circulars and fliers to homes and apartment buildings that display a sign indicating promotional materials are unwanted.

Felder’s bill calls for a fine of at least $50 for distributors that leave them anyway.

"This drives people out of their minds,” said Felder, a Democrat who represents sections of Brooklyn. "You have no control over it. People are livid. If I’m responsible for the cleanliness of my property I should also have the authority to decide whether I receive the junk or not. You shouldn’t have to be responsible for cleaning up someone else’s garbage.”

Felder said the accumulation forces property owners to clean it up or risk getting a summons from the Department of Sanitation, such as the $100 ticket his mother received this year.