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An unarmed 37-year-old optometrist suspected of taking illegal sports bets was accidentally shot and killed in Fairfax, Virginia, in January when a SWAT unit descended on his house to execute a search warrant with guns drawn. Also in January prosecutors in Palmer Lake, Colorado (population 2,200), dropped charges against the last of 22 people who’d been arrested the previous April when a 52-officer SWAT team burst into a local restaurant to break up a poker game.
The Sunday Times of London reported in January that according to recently released government files from the mid-1980s, British officials of that time were concerned about the possibility of poachers killing the Loch Ness monster and seriously discussed the potential need for a new protective statute; ultimately they concluded that the monster was sufficiently protected by the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act. The deliberation apparently followed a request for advice from the Swedish government, which was then considering its options for safeguarding Sweden’s legendary Storsjo monster.
Donald E. Neff, 38, of Pleasant Township, Ohio, ran his 27-foot boat aground in November while trying to take it along the Portage River to Lake Erie; the coast guard showed up to rescue him. Despite warnings to wait for higher water, Neff borrowed another boat the next day and set out to retrieve the first boat; motor trouble stranded him and he had to call again for the coast guard. Three days later he persuaded some friends to take him back out after the first two boats; they ran aground. An onlooker called the coast guard, who this time sent a helicopter. County officials charged Neff with seven misdemeanors.
