2008 Woodie Awards
News From Around the States
Christian Savage
Issue date: 4/6/05 Section: News
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On Tuesday 29 March in Kettering, Ohio, Debbie Coleman suddenly pulled over at a gas station in suburban Dayton just after midnight in order to give birth.
Station co-owner Lloyd Goff, who was apparently alerted to the emergency at pump No. 7 by a fellow customer, said Coleman "threw her leg over the steering wheel, groaned once, and the rest of the baby came out after I asked if she needed help, and she just leaned back in the seat, hollered a little, and I looked down and there was the baby's head." Goff concluded that "she caught that baby, put it to her chest, gave me a look, like, 'I gotta go,' closed the door, put the van in gear and away she went."
Although a customer at the gas station tried-in good faith-to give police a heads-up about Coleman's situation, confusion arose involving the license plate number, leading police to assume the van was stolen. Police officers began searching for a woman naked below the waist with a baby's body in her arms and his umbilical cord still attached. Though Coleman was heading to the hospital, she commented, "I kept pulling over, making sure he (the baby) was all right, breathing."
Police straightened out the license plate debacle, but in another bizarre twist of the night another caller inaccurately reported that someone was trying to throw a baby from a van, so they had to order her to get out of vehicle at gunpoint.
In her defense to police, Coleman said that she noticed several cruisers following her before one cut her off, and she simply "opened the door and said, 'I just had a baby' and let them see everything." Officers then sent her on her way and she was eventually discharged from the hospital the following Wednesday, but her 6-pound 8-ounce son, Richard Lee Coleman Jr., remained in intensive care.
Source: CNN
A NAME WORTH $15,199?
As reported on Thursday (March 31st, 2005) in Seymour, Tennessee, a mother of five apparently sold her birthright to the highest bidder on eBay. The woman, Terri Iligan, will now be officially known as "goldenpalace.com"- for the Internet site, Golden Palace Casino - once the legal work is finished.
Iligan, who is being paid $15,199 to change her name, said she came up with the idea when she found out how much it would cost to send one of her youngsters to a golf school attended by the current golf legend, Tiger Woods.
Source: Marsha Kranes, New York Post Wire Services
VAN HITS KIDS IN BROOKLYN
As reported on Thursday March 31 in Brooklyn, NY, two children were hit by a minivan on Wednesday, March 30th as they were crossing the street at Caton and Ocean Avenues just before 4:00 P.M.
Witness Louis Cintron said, "The truck hit both of them...they were crossing on a red light." Both a boy and a girl were struck by the van, and although the girl suffered a miniscule, superficial injury, the boy was treated for a catastrophic blow to the head, officials said.
Source: NY Post