The Daily O’Collegian

TULSA — A section of a “water roller coaster” at the Big Splash water park collapsed June 8, according to the Tulsa World.

The 11-year-old girl on the section when it collapsed was jolted but not seriously injured.

The roughly 20-foot-high section of the Master Blaster water slide fell about two feet onto another section of the same slide.

TULSA — After spending the first 50 years of its life in the ground, a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere was unearthed June 15 in Tulsa.

About 7,000 spectators watched in the Tulsa Convention Center as the Belvedere’s cover was removed to reveal faded paint, a lot of rust and flat tires.

The car was buried in 1957 with a time capsule holding a 48-star American flag, a Tulsa Public Schools student-parent handbook and a bumper sticker reading “Made in Oklahoma by an Indian,” according to the Tulsa World.

The entries for a contest to guess Tulsa’s population in 2007 was also in the capsule.

The winner — Raymond Humbertson, who guessed 384,743 — won the car. But Humbertson died in 1979 and his wife, Margaret, died in 1988. The couple had no children.

A nephew worked out an agreement with a New Jersey firm to treat the car with its rust-removing products, according to the Tulsa World.

TAHLEQUAH — Because of a lot of talk about a possible beer ban, the number of river outfitters decreased dramatically, with business falling off 30 percent to 50 percent, according to the Tulsa World.

Despite rumors, the Illinois River regulations have not changed.

MCALESTER — An inmate terminally ill from cancer was executed June 26 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

Jimmy Dale Bland, 49, was put to death for killing Doyle Windle Rains, of Tillman County.

MIAMI — Hundreds were left homeless after flood waters poured into the city July 4.

About 130 families are in need of housing with damage estimated at $6 million thus far, not including damage to public utilities.

Damage to parks, roads and utilities is estimated at $5.8 million.

About 570 structures have been assessed for flood damage.

FEMA reports that 807 households in Ottawa County have registered for assistance, 789 of them in Miami.

From Tulsa World and The Associated Press

ENID — Her worst nightmare over, Sheila Wells of Enid still wonders why someone would sneak into her house while she was asleep and snatch her 1-year-old son.

“I didn’t even know he was gone,” Wells said July 6, a day after her son, Brandon, was kidnapped for a half-hour.

The suspects are a 12-year-old girl and her 10-year-old sister, who lived about a block away.

Wells described the 10-year-old as “a really nice girl” who got along with her other children when she came to the house to play.

Both girls remained in a juvenile detention facility July 6, but they had not yet been charged. They were arrested on complaints of kidnapping for extortion and first-degree burglary and taken to the Police Department’s Community Intervention Center for juveniles.

Police say the crime ranks among the most unusual they’ve worked in the northwestern Oklahoma community of 47,000 people.

Source: The Associated Press

NOBLE — A Noble police officer was trying to shoot what he thought was a rattlesnake in a birdhouse near a home on Aug. 3 when a bullet accidently hit 5-year-old Austin Gabriel Haley as he stood on a pond dock in a wooded area near the house, City Manager Bob Wade said.

Two other officers, including a sergeant, were there at the time of the shooting of what turned out to be a harmless black rat snake that is sometimes mistaken for a dangerous snake, Wade said. A .40-caliber handgun was used in the shooting.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is looking into whether any crime was committed, and the Noble Police Department is conducting an internal investigation.

Source: The Associated Press

TULSA — Tiger Woods took the 2007 PGA Championship Wanamaker trophy at Southern Hills on Aug. 13 for his 13th major title, according to The Tulsa World.

Woods finished 8-under-par, two strokes ahead of runner-up Woody Austin.