My car has been in the shop and a few things needed replacing. My mechanic (who is awesome btw) gave me a rough estimate of about $350. All said and done final cost was $527.

I went to pick up the car, and was handed the invoice.

Balance due?

ZERO!!!!!

He smiled and said, "Pay it forward."

I was in SHOCK.

He told me it was covered anonymously and no I couldn't ask questions!!

Before I could speak, he smiled and handed me the key and said, "Have an awesome day!"

I burst into tears. I went around the counter and gave him a HUGE hug!!!

Never in my life would I have expected this.

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Random-act-of-kindness-covers-woman-s-entire-527-6469945.php

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

Source: cbs local

Alex Gomez, 36, spotted the four-foot rattler in a field by his family’s ranch on Cielito Drive, shortly before he made the potentially deadly mistake.

“I’m shocked that he would have that things around his neck,” Alex’s mother Deborah said. “It could’ve bit his neck, and that would have been it. That’s just being a fool.”

Alex’s nephew, Ronnie, was with him when the snake was discovered, and says the reptile gave plenty of warning.

“It was really think and had ten rattles on it, it was rattling,” Ronnie said. “It was pretty mad.”

Upon being bitten, Gomez, who is a father a three, was experiencing excruciating pain as he was taken to a local hospital. His hand swelled up and his body started to tingle. His neighbor, Byron Bonilla, called 9-1-1 immediately.



Read more: http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/08/25/lake-elsinore-man-may-lose-hand-after-attempting-to-take-selfie-with-rattlesnake/#comments

http://blog.sfgate.com/getlost/2015/08/26/disappointed-visitors-ask-yellowstone-to-train-your-bears-better/

An elephant used as a tourist attraction in Thailand reportedly “went berserk” on Wednesday, goring his keeper to death before running into the jungle with three Chinese tourists on his back. The incident happened on a jungle tour in the Chiang Mai province, a popular tourist destination where guests can ride on the backs of Thailand’s national symbol, the elephant. The controversial practice is opposed by many animals right groups who argue that the elephants or overworked and under-cared for.

Edwin Wiek, a campaigner from Wildlife Friends of Thailand spoke with AFP. “Elephants work every day, of every month, basically 365 days per year,” he said “If you had to do the same, you would get stressed. It is the same for elephants. At some point they become crazy and we can’t control them.”

According to reports, the elephant and his keeper (or mahout) with unfamiliar with one another. After suddenly turning on the mahout, the elephant took off with the family of three on his back. Staff quickly rushed to their aid and the tourists returned on the back of the elephant shaken but unharmed.
http://blog.sfgate.com/hottopics/2015/08/26/elephant-bolts-into-jungle-with-terrified-tourists-after-killing-handler/

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2015/08/911_dust_lady_marcy_borders_dies_after_battle_with.html#incart_2box_nj-homepage-featured

St. Louis Police Try a Strange Old Tactic
Officers tried to subdue a crowd of protesters by banging their batons on the ground in unison. Does that work?

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One aspect of the police’s response was distinctly unfamiliar, though. According to local black newspaper the St. Louis American, around 8 p.m. a line of police officers began “moving towards the crowd and started beating their batons on the ground” in unison. The paper reported that as the officers “advanced down the street,” the synchronous taps “seemed to further enrage the individuals who had temporarily formed pockets on the side street.” According to the paper, demonstrators seemed to take “the batons hitting the ground as taunts.”

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So what was the eerie-sounding baton-thumping tactic that police used on Wednesday evening? How was it meant to work, and what was it supposed to accomplish?

None of the experts on crowd control I reached on Thursday could give me a name for what the maneuver is called. They did recognize it, however, and told me that it dates back as far as the 1960s, though it is not often used today, at least not in the United States. (I reached out to the St. Louis Police Department for comment but did not hear back. I will update this post if I get a response.)

“While this is somewhat common in Europe, it is pretty rare in [the] US,” wrote Alex Vitale, a sociologist at Brooklyn College who has studied police tactics for crowd control. “The idea is a kind of ‘shock and awe’ effect. It represents a concrete threat that the police are prepared to use force to disperse people. On the one hand it is an organized, measured, and intentional show of force. On the other hand it can be very provocative, inviting additional throwing of rocks and bottles.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2015/08/mansur_ball_bey_death_st_louis_police_use_strange_new_tactic_of_baton_banging.html

From comments
Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD officer, echoed that explanation: “Think of the Roman soldiers banging on their shields to instill fear in the opponent,” he wrote to me. “It's all about a psychological advantage.”

But how can a tactic that is now uncommon, and somewhat inscrutable, send a clear message? According to Doug Wyllie, editor in chief of the law enforcement news and commentary website PoliceOne, that’s sort of the point. “It really is just a matter of doing something that’s completely nonviolent,” he said. “The intent is to get people to think, ‘This is gonna get weird in a minute.’ ”

Cop Threatens to 'Drag' Teens Out of Car for Smiling and Not Taking Him Seriously Enough
When one of the young men asks the officer “What did I do?” the officer responds by saying, “I don’t know. I just don’t like you, I just don’t like you."

-!!!




Plano, TX — Police officer Jeff Willis is facing disciplinary action after a video surfaced of him violently threatening teenagers because they were smiling at him and not taking him seriously enough. Luckily, one of the passengers in the car was able to get some video footage of the encounter to expose how completely ridiculous officer Willis was acting.

The teenagers were at a car meet near the Dallas North Tollway and Spring Creek Parkway when Willis pulled them over because one of the passengers allegedly flipped him the middle fighter from the window.

The video begins with officer Willis yelling at the teenagers to stop smiling and then threatened to “drag” the young men out of the vehicle if they did not take the situation, and his authority, more seriously.

---!-!-!



That is when Willis became more aggressive, and made physical threats against the teens, saying “Keep going. Say something else and I’ll drag you out of the car.”

Before finally allowing the teens to leave, Willis shouted “Asshole!” and made more threats, but once one of the young men mentioned that he had been recording the whole time, the officer backed off and let them go on their way
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/cop-threatens-drag-teens-out-car-smiling-and-not-taking-him-seriously-enough

Cops Raid Wrong Address, Abuse Naked Woman, Kids
"Stop f*cking crying!" Massachusetts SWAT cops berated their victim. "We treated you with respect," they tried to tell her later.


Marianne Diaz said she was awakened about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday by SWAT officers knocking down the door to her Worcester, Massachusetts, apartment as officers wearing helmets and shields burst inside and pointed “big guns” at her head, reported the Telegram & Gazette.

“Stop f*cking crying and take care of your f*cking kids,” one officer commanded, Diaz said.


Diaz said her 7-year-old daughter was shaking in terror as she held her 18-month-old daughter in her lap, and she said officers would not allow her to cover up for about 10 minutes — after a woman officer frisked her nude body.

“It was terrorizing, and the worst thing I’ve ever been through in my life,” Diaz told WBZ-TV. “They were loud, vulgar and disgusting in behavior.”

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After officers failed to turn up any drugs, weapons or the target of their warrant, Diaz said they started murmuring to one another.

“Oh sh*t, the snake got away,” one officer said, according to Diaz.

Diaz has asked the city and police department to investigate why the raid was permitted in the first place, but prosecutors have already said it “was executed in the manner it was for the safety of all involved.”

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/cops-raid-wrong-address-abuse-naked-woman-kids