FLORIDA — A man demonstrated a significant lack of judgment when robbing a gas station this past Sunday morning.

David Eric Hampton, 23, held up a gas station in Cape Haze with a bowie knife and then fled the scene. However, he forgot to fill his tank while at the gas station, and consequentially ran out of fuel not far from the scene of the crime. Police were informed by a newspaper deliverer that a car matching the description of the suspect’s vehicle was parked nearby.

Hampton was arrested a few hours later after police identified the suspect from the car’s license plates and was charged with robbery with a weapon, loitering and prowling. He was released on bail Monday.

WREXHAM, WALES — A florist was nearly forced to abandon her livelihood after developing life-threatening allergies to flowers.

After 12 years working as a florist, Jan Wass was diagnosed with the potentially fatal allergies. After fumigating her shop, Wass reopened a new store specializing in balloons, silk flowers and gifts. The new allergy-free gift shop, called Free Spirit, won the Welsh business network’s ‘Most Creative Business in Wrexham’ award.

ARKANSAS — Police arrested an unidentified 35-year-old motorcyclist after chasing him for miles through a blizzard. The man would accelerate and then brake to allow the state troopers to catch up with him before speeding off again.

The chase was initiated when the troopers noticed the man was riding completely naked.

He was arrested after the police hit his bike when the motorcyclist slowed down for too long.

He was charged with indecent exposure, fleeing and failure to produce a vehicle license.

NEW ZEALAND — A meat worker ran into complications during a surgery to reattach his hand because the same hand had previously been reattached.

Bryan Speers nearly cut his left hand completely off while cutting meat with a band saw at Crusader Meats in Benneydale on New Zealand’s North Island. Colleagues taped his hand back on and took him to the hospital.

Surgeons were confronted with a challenge, as there was still significant scarring from his previous injury, where the same hand had been cut off two inches higher. The scars made it difficult to perform the surgery, but the surgery was successful.

Speers’ rehabilitation is expected to take months.

SOUTH AFRICA — Technical assistants of South Africa’s ETV news will no longer use real sentences for test banners after accidentally announcing the death of former President Bush.

The phrase “George Bush is dead” was apparently the mock-up headline for headline tests, but the technical director accidentally pressed the wrong button, and the fake headline aired for approximately three seconds before the error was corrected.

Future test banners will be incoherent characters to prevent similar mishaps from occurring.

Reach columnist Matt Jackson at

news@dailyuw.com.