Miscellaneous

Says he's got a new job and is trying to stay out of trouble – 12/03/2009
By Associated Press

SHIRLEY, N.Y. - A Long Island convenience store owner who showed mercy to a would-be robber said he's received an apology note and $50 in the mail.The unsigned note said it was from the man who tried to rob Mohammad Sohail. It said the would-be robber has a new job, a new child, and is staying out of trouble.Sohail is saving the $50 for charity.The bat-wielding man tearfully told Sohail in May that he was trying to feed his family. The rifle-toting businessman gave him $40 and bread, and made hi...
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Survives with only two cans of Mountain Dew and a bottle of water – 08/19/2009
By Associated Press

IOWA CITY, Iowa - A 63-year-old woman trapped on a small raft caught in tangled river brush could hear passing cars and people talking but wasn't discovered until a fisherman on his way to his favorite hole spotted her five days later, the woman's son said Tuesday.Jeanne Schnepp's odyssey began last week with a fishing trip on a tiny inflatable raft along the Wapsipinicon River. But when the Iowa woman found herself on raging waters that nearly flooded the banks, she partially deflated the raft ...
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Convoy plows path in whiteout conditions for man who needed new liver – 04/07/2009
By Associated Press

CASPER, Wyo. - Chuck Forbes has battled liver disease for half of his 59 years. When the time finally came for a transplant, a blizzard blocked his route to the hospital — until a corps of snowplow drivers saved the day.Forbes was recovering after undergoing transplant surgery Sunday at the University of Colorado Hospital in Denver. He and his wife, Ruth, made it there from their home in northwest Wyoming despite the storm that closed roads Saturday in the southeastern part of the state.&q...
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2 men hailed as ‘heroes’ for preventing 18-month-old from hitting ground – 03/30/2009
By msnbc.com staff and news service reports

LAWRENCE, Mass. - Two men were being hailed as heroes by police on Monday for catching a toddler who fell 40 feet from a home's third-story window.Robert Lemire told the North-Andover (Mass.) Eagle-Tribune newspaper that he was talking on his cell phone Sunday evening outside a pizza shop in Lawrence, about 25 miles north of Boston, when he saw the toddler dangling from a window across the street.The 45-year-old father of two bolted across a busy street, where he met 23-year-old Alex Day, who ha...
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Despite horrific injuries, he dialed 911: ‘I wanted to see my babies grow up’ – 09/22/2008
By Mike Celizic, TODAYShow.com contributor

For more than two years after he was cut in half by a train, Truman Duncan avoided media requests for interviews as he recovered from his injuries and went back to a full and productive life. Now, he’s speaking out to let others, including soldiers who have suffered traumatic injuries like his, know that life is still very much worth living.“Life is good,” Duncan told TODAY’s Matt Lauer Monday in New York. “Life goes on.”The 38-year-old from Cleburne, Texas, p...
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‘One shot at this and one shot only,’ he says before boring into lad's head – 05/20/2009
By Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Australia - A doctor in rurall Australia used a household drill to bore a hole into the skull of a boy with a severe head injury, saving his life.Nicholas Rossi fell off his bike on Friday in the small Victoria state city of Maryborough, hitting his head on the pavement, his family told The Australian newspaper in a story published Wednesday. By the time Rossi got to the hospital, he was slipping in and out of consciousness.The doctor on duty, Rob Carson, quickly recognized the 13-yea...
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Jacob Poehls overcoming learning disability by writing to Marine in Iraq – 02/12/2009
By Mike Celizic, TODAYShow.com contributor

The 8-year-old boy had never been to New York City before, and he looked as if he wasn’t sure why he was sitting in a television studio with his mom talking to a nice lady who wanted to know about his Marine pen pal in Iraq.So Jacob Poehls let his mom, Nora Hall, do the talking while he sat quietly wearing the camo hat and scarf Sgt. Balthazar Pineda had sent him from Iraq. Hall was telling TODAY’s Meredith Vieira that her special needs son had slept with the scarf and hat for a week...
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Student worried about parents' money problems finds 10-month-old winner – 05/28/2009
By Associated Press

PERTH, Australia - An Australian student worried about her parents' money problems rifled through a pile of her lottery tickets Thursday and discovered that she had won $10 million 10 months ago, a state lottery agency said.The student, living in the west coast city of Perth, received the winning ticket for a draw on July 22 last year as a gift from her father, Western Australia state agency Lotterywest said.She had been unaware that it would have expired after 12 months, it said in a statement....
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'I need help ... We're in trouble,' he radios during Fla. ordeal – 04/13/2009
By Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. - Doug White and his family had just enjoyed a smooth takeoff and were ascending through the clouds when the pilot guiding their twin-engine plane tilted his head back and made a guttural sound.The retired jet pilot, Joe Cabuk, was unconscious. And though White had his pilot's license, he had never flown a plane as large as this."I need help. I need a King Air pilot to talk to. We're in trouble," he radioed. Then he turned to his wife and two daughters, ages 16 and 18: &quo...
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