December 26, 2006 > Pigs flew, toilets flamed

by Kathy Hanrahan

JACKSON, Miss. (AP), Dec 22 _ In Mississippi, 2006 will be known as the year pigs flew.

A Cedar Bluff man was fined $279 in early December for throwing a 60-pound pig over a counter at a Holiday Inn Express in West Point.

Kevin Pugh, 20, pleaded guilty to a charge of disturbing the peace in the Nov. 12 incident. Neither man nor beast was hurt.

Pugh was also accused in another animal-throwing incident at a Hardee's restaurant in West Point. Police say four other animal-tossing incidents occurred around the same time, with two pigs and two possums going air-born.

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In December, a Greenwood man was hospitalized after being shot several times in an apparent dispute over two bags of groceries. Walter Moore, 50, was charged with aggravated assault in the shooting of Timothy Robinson, 29.

Police say Moore went to Robinson's home to collect two bags of groceries Robinson was keeping for him. The victim's fiance said the men argued because Robinson thought Moore should pay him for baby-sitting the groceries. No word on what was in the bags.

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Heck, yeah, there's still moonshine in Mississippi. The Alcoholic Beverage Control made one of the largest whiskey still discoveries in recent history on Dec. 11 in Hancock County.

At a rundown tin shack near Rocky Hill Road, ABC agents said they recovered whiskey that was between 90 and 100 proof, selling for about $20 a gallon. Agents arrested 63-year-old Willie ``Junior'' Necaise on felony charges of possession of an illicit distillery and possession of nontax-paid whiskey.

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Mississippi Highway Patrol Sgt. Barry Jamison helped deliver a baby June 21 morning in a pickup truck on the side of Interstate 20 near Brandon.

The 19-year patrol veteran helped with the delivery after he attempted to pull over a pickup truck that was speeding. The truck eventually pulled over.

Jamison said he held the woman's legs while the father caught the baby.

``It was coming out. It just, woo, there it was,'' Jamison, 43, said a few hours later.

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An Amory man used French fry grease to power his Volkswagen Beetle.

Robert Tomey, owner of four McDonald's restaurants, converted his car and the company's pickup truck to run on vegetable oil drained from his fryers.

The grease smells a bit like popcorn when leaving the exhaust system, but it powers his vehicles the same as regular diesel. Tomey once spent more than $350 a week for diesel; he now spends next to nothing.