Strange but True

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Claudio Paulo Pinto is looking to break an eye-popping record. Literally.

Pinto can pop his eyeballs at least 7 millimeters (0.3 inches) out of their sockets, a national record for eye-popping, according to RankBrasil, an organization modeled after the Guinness Book of World Records that lists Brazilian records.

A former driver, Pinto got a job scaring visitors in a commercial haunted house in Belo Horizonte, 210 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. But he recently was laid off and now seeks international recognition for his ability.

"I was measured by an ophthalmologist on television in January. I could pop my eyes out 7 millimeters,” Pinto said by telephone Saturday. "Since then, my capacities have improved over 50 percent.”

That could put Pinto close to the world record. The title of "furthest eyeball popper” in the Guinness Book of World Records belongs to Kim Goodman, of Chicago, who can pop her eyeballs 11 milimeters (0.43 inches) out of her sockets.

Pinto’s ability is called "globe luxation.” Doctors say it can strain blood vessels and nerves between the eyes and the head and feels unpleasant but usually doesn’t cause lasting damage.

Pinto says he’s been luxating his globes since he was 9 years old and "it doesn’t hurt a bit.”

Undeliverance

ASHLAND, Ky. — It was neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night that kept Charles Fred Miller from his appointed rounds.

Miller, a one-time mail carrier in the eastern Kentucky city of Grayson, said it was simply laziness.

The 32 year-old pleaded guilty Friday to a federal charge related to undelivered mail. He told U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning that he stuffed more than 500 items of undelivered mail into garbage bags in a storage shed behind his house.

"I just got lazy,” Miller said.

A federal grand jury indicted Miller in July on felony counts of stealing mail, possessing stolen mail and obstructing correspondence, along with a misdemeanor charge of deserting the mail.

Three charges were dropped as part of a plea agreement, and Miller admitted to one count of obstructing correspondence. Sentencing was set for Dec. 4.

Big win

FRIANT, Calif. — A man who claims he hit a $737,203 jackpot on a nickel slot machine has hired an attorney after the club claimed the big win was a huge mistake.

Sornpaserd Unkeowannulack, 31, was playing the nickel slots at the Table Mountain Casino on Friday when the "Deep Pockets” machine announced he hit the jackpot. But when Unkeowannulack began celebrating, officials at the Indian gaming club said the machine was broken and he wasn’t eligible for any prize.

"They immediately said there was a malfunction,” said Unkeowannulack, a self-described professional gambler who lives in Clovis.

Unkeowannulack took a picture of the machine with his cell phone, and his friend called attorney Scott Kinney.

"The CEO came out and said the symbols on the screen weren’t a winning configuration, but he couldn’t show what the winning symbols would look like,” Kinney told The Fresno Bee.

John Mayewski, Table Mountain Casino chief executive officer, said there was no winning combination of symbols on the screen signifying a jackpot. He said the maximum prize for that particular machine was $2,500. The maximum progressive prize for the entire group of machines where Unkeowannulack was playing was $10,000 or a motorcycle.

Mayewski said the casino is investigating what caused the malfunction.

"It’s like going to an ATM where the maximum withdrawal is $300 and having the machine spit out $30,000,” said Dan Casas, Table Mountain’s tribal attorney. "Is that money really yours?”<