Motel owner finds unwelcome guests

NORWAY, Maine — Inn Town Motel manager Andrew Coombs wanted to collect payment from one of his motel customers. But when he entered the room July 11, he found 53 spiders in plastic cases.

The Advertiser Democrat reported Coombs said the arachnids where arranged throughout the room on stands and tables.

Coombs called police.

“The guy had been here about 10 days,” Coombs said. “Turns out he gave me a bogus number and address when he checked in. He said he was from Waterford, but I don’t even know where he’s really from.”

Norway’s Animal Control Officer Robert Larrabee responded to Coombs’ call and referred the case to the Maine Warden Service.

Warden Tim Coombs cited Sean Schoomaker for possessing three tarantulas that are illegal to have in Maine, according to the Advertiser Democrat. The other 50 arachnids were confiscated and transported to a facility for exotic animals in Lewiston for further identification.

“We’re a family-run business,” Andrew Coombs said. “We won’t put up with that kind of customer.”

Man gets prison for tying to steal copy of Magna Carta

LONDON — Mark Royden of Canterbury, Kent, is going to prison for four years after he tried a smash-and-grab of an original copy of the Magna Carta.

The Associated Press reported Salisbury Crown Court Judge Richard Parkes recently sentenced Royden for using a hammer to try to smash the security case holding the document at Salisbury Cathedral in England on Oct. 25, 2018. The Magna Carta is the founding document of English law and civil liberties.

Royden failed to break the protective glass, and moments later tourists and cathedral staff tackled him to the ground.

“Magna Carta is a document of huge importance to our country and many other countries that share our democratic traditions,” Judge Richard Parkes said in passing the sentence. “This was a determined attempt on a document of huge historical importance.”

Salisbury Cathedral’s Magna Carta is one of the four surviving specimens of the 1215 charter that established the principle that the king is subject to the law.

Firefighter pushes for burpee record

RALEIGH — A North Carolina firefighter unofficially broke a Guinness World Record when he recently completed 5,297 burpees in 12 hours.

United Press International reported Nick Christopoulos, 30, said he trained for his record attempt by doing 100 burpees — squat thrusts with a stand in between repetitions — for every call that came in at his firehouse.

“The day I started, I did 1,300 in one day,” he said.

He said the record was broken twice while he was training, adding more than 600 reps to his goal.

“It was pretty devastating, but it made me train even harder.”

Christopoulos ended his attempt with 5,297. He said he was submitting video evidence and paperwork to Guinness to verify and recognize his record.