PARRISH, Fla. Authorities say a Florida man who lives with his parents has been charged with attacking his father with a Christmas tree and its metal stand.

BOZEMAN, Mont. A cat lost in Yellowstone National Park in August has been returned to her family in Houston with the help of some West Yellowstone residents. Philip Wattenbarger and his family were camping in a trailer in the West Yellowstone area when their long-haired tabby, Fluffy, went missing on Aug. 1.

RENO, Nev. The Nevada Highway Patrol says a drunken driving suspect in Reno was gassed in more ways than one. A 40-year-old Reno woman was arrested early Tuesday after an ambulance crew saw her driving on U.S. Highway 395 with a fuel hose and nozzle sticking out of her gas tank.

PARRISH, Fla. Authorities say a west Florida man who lives with his parents has been arrested on a felony assault charge after he used a Christmas tree as a weapon to attack his father.

TULSA, Okla. A man who saw his pickup truck being stolen jumped into the bed of the moving vehicle, kicked out the back window and crawled into the cab to stop the thief. Police said the woman who stole the truck then jumped out and hopped into her boyfriend's car, which the truck owner chased until officers intervened.

MANCHESTER, Md. A woman was facing misdemeanor theft charges for allegedly swiping Christmas decorations from her neighbor's lawns. The county sheriff's office said a 51-year-old woman was found Monday in her Manchester home with decorations from at least three area homes.

NORTH HALEDON, N.J. A message in a bottle tossed into the ocean off Barnegat Bay has turned up in North Carolina - 39 years later. The note was sealed in a Schaefer beer bottle. It was dated Aug. 17, 1969 and read: "If found notify the North Haledon Fire Co. 2."

LEDYARD, Conn. Police arrested a 44-year-old man who lit a small charcoal grill inside his apartment, endangering his neighbors. Police charged him with second-degree reckless endangerment after two people became ill.

EAST MEADOW, N.Y. Police on Long Island say they've pulled two drunken drivers from one car.

NAPLES, Fla. An X-ray marked the spot for southwest Florida police who say a teenager swallowed a $16 pair of earrings after taking them from a JCPenney store at a mall.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. Arkansas sheriff's deputies said they arrested a man needing a little bit more of a boost to go with his morning coffee. Deputies said the man parked next to their unmarked cruiser Tuesday outside of a Starbucks in Bentonville.

NEW ULM, Minn. Hobart Anderson of New Ulm turned 80 recently and with his birthday came a surprise. He got a birthday card signed by Collette Hartung. She was his teacher - 70 years ago. He says he was very, very surprised.

TOPEKA, Kan. Police are looking for a woman who used what's believed to have been hairspray as a weapon in a botched purse-snatching in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

SEDALIA, Mo. A hunter bagged a big buck on the second day of firearms season, but the kill caused him a lot of pain. Randy Goodman, 49, said he thought two well-placed shots with his .270-caliber rifle had killed the buck on Nov. 19. Goodman said the deer looked dead to him, but seconds later the nine-point, 240-pound animal came to life.

SAN ANTONIO A man who rammed his truck into a woman's vehicle on a highway early Friday told authorities he crashed into her while going more than 100 mph because God told him "she needed to be taken off the road."

COLUMBUS, Ohio An Ohio State University academic adviser and a real estate agent held a $10-a-ticket raffle that offered an evening with a prostitute who is also a child sex-abuse caseworker, police said.

GREAT NECK, N.Y. A Long Island Democratic supporter says he's been driven to hide his OBAMA vanity license plates inside his car because people kept trying to steal them.

GREAT NECK, N.Y. A Long Island Democratic supporter says he's been driven to hide his OBAMA vanity license plates inside his car because people kept trying to steal them.

ROCKLAND, Mass. Lifelong Red Sox fans can now take their love of the team to the next level - eternity. A Massachusetts funeral home recently took delivery of the first Red Sox casket, which features the team logo on the exterior as well as the inside.

BERWICK, Pa. Fans of Penn State can smell like the school for just $60. A fragrance developer says it has made a perfume and a cologne inspired by Pennsylvania State University's blue and white colors and its campus vegetation.

NEW YORK People late for school or work because of New York City subway delays can get notes from the transit agency to give to their teachers or bosses.

MADISON, Wis. A Wisconsin radio station had to make two contestants an offer they couldn't refuse in order to get them to quit a game to win a new car.

OREGON, Wis. A Wisconsin family found it hard to be thankful after a thief made off with their turkey dinner.

CHICAGO Won't kiss on the first date? How about waiting until marriage?

NEW YORK One customer's favorite purple velvet chair at a Starbucks in a New York suburb has become a memorial.

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. What is the sound that a falling pumpkin makes when it hits the ground?

MADISON, Wis. A Wisconsin radio station had to make two contestants an offer they couldn't refuse in order to get them to quit a game to win a new car.

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. The Christmas ornaments for sale at the Miller Park Zoo's gift shop are partly manufactured by reindeer. Honest!

MONTGOMERY TOWNSHIP, N.J. A standoff at a New Jersey bank is over after police learned a "person" seen inside was actually a full-size cardboard figure.

SANTA ANA, Calif. California authorities got a shock of their own when they discovered that a drunken driving suspect they had just stunned with a Taser was completely naked.

DETROIT A federal judge says a Detroit city employee can proceed with a civil suit claiming she couldn't work because of a co-worker's strong perfume.

FORREST CITY, Ark. A man reportedly caught trying to scratch out a judicial decision sending him to jail faces a new charge. Police said the 25-year-old man received a four-day jail sentence along with a $650 fine Monday from St. Francis County District Judge Steve Routon for driving on a suspended license and hazardous driving.

LEWISTON, Maine For the second time in less than a month, Zachary Duprey was the victim of a stabbing in downtown Lewiston. Police said the 21-year-old man was stabbed twice in the back early Tuesday at Del's Bar & Grille.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. Police said a thief used a Vaseline-like lubricant to swipe an expensive ring off an elderly woman's hand in broad daylight. Authorities said two men bumped 80-year-old Helen Artim's car, then asked her to open her trunk to check for damage.

MINNEAPOLIS While the Hawkeyes were stomping the Gophers on the Metrodome field last weekend, police said two Iowa fans were having a romp of a different kind in a restroom. Both events, police say, had their share of cheering fans.

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. A woman wearing a cast on her foot has been charged with assault for allegedly kicking an 8-year-old girl and police officers. City police say they found the 32-year-old woman hiding under a bed in an apartment as they investigated a neighbor's complaint about a child being assaulted Monday.

TOKYO Puzzled Japanese zookeepers have cleared up a mystery over a lack of chemistry between a couple of polar bears as both turn out to be female, a Japanese zoo said Wednesday. Tsuyoshi, a four-year-old "male" polar bear, and his 11-year-old female partner, Kurumi, have been living together since June at the Kushiro Municipal Zoo in Hokkaido, northern Japan.

APPLETON, Wis. An 84-year-old man hit with a $3,000 quarterly water bill for leaky pipes won't have to pay a dime, thanks to the generosity of others.

SANTA FE, N.M. A 21-year-old man was accused of driving drunk and leading police on a chase that finally ended with him running over himself. The man was treated for minor injuries at a Santa Fe hospital and booked in to the Sandoval County detention center on charges of aggravated driving while intoxicated, fleeing a police officer, careless driving and two other outstanding traffic warrants.

GRAHAM, N.C. Authorities say a North Carolina man used a Social Security number belonging to a 3-year-old girl to sign up for telephone and natural gas service. The News and Record of Greensboro reported Tuesday that 44-year-old Michael John Maris of Mebane was charged with one count of identity theft and two counts of obtaining property by false pretense.

DAYTON, Ohio A man was accused of breaking into a Dayton preschool and making off with the teachers' frozen lunch entrees. Police said an officer who responded to a burglar alarm at a Miami Valley Child Development location last Saturday noticed a 51-year-old man walking away from the building.

HARRISBURG, Pa. A volunteer ringing the bell at a Salvation Army kettle in south-central Pennsylvania got an unusual donation: a diamond ring. The ring was handed to August Memmi, who volunteered for the Salvation Army in Harrisburg during his lunch hour Tuesday.

TRENTON, N.J. New Jersey corrections officials have a new way of detecting certain contraband in prisons: cell phone-sniffing dogs. The Corrections Department's Canine Unit has trained several dogs to detect cell phones, even when they are turned off.

SPARTA, Wis. Two men are accused of outfitting a 1997 Lincoln with red and blue flashing lights, using it to make fake traffic stops - and then posting video of themselves doing it on YouTube.

VALENTINE, Neb. Ten misdemeanor counts have been filed against a man Cherry County authorities believe is the vandal some townspeople have dubbed the "Butt Bandit."

DAYTON, Ohio Authorities said a police dog bit and helped apprehend a Dayton man wanted on dogfighting charges. Dayton police Lt. Patrick Welsh said a 31-year-old man fled on foot Sunday as officers were responding to a call.

RALEIGH, N.C. A former North Carolina mailman who admitted keeping people's junk mail in his garage or buried in his backyard has been sentenced to probation. Steven Padgett pleaded guilty in federal court on Aug. 18 to delaying the mail. He received three years' probation during a hearing Wednesday. He faced up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

TAYLOR, Mich. An 89-year-old woman has avoided fines for complaints about her bird collection but must cut the size of her flock. Margaret Molnar must reduce her stock of chickens, quail, roosters and pheasants to 16 from about 80 within 30 days under an agreement reached last week.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. There will be no Who-ville in Louisville this Christmas.

SANSOM PARK, Texas Some police officers in a North Texas suburb are playing Santa Claus with naughty drivers.