Navy Swimmer Survives 200-Foot Leap

NEW YORK - A man who once swam for the U.S. Naval Academy’s water-polo team has survived a terrifying leap from the George Washington Bridge. Authorities say 28-year-old Adrian Rawn stopped his car on the lower level of the bridge connecting Manhattan to New Jersey then walked to the rail and jumped. When the fall of more than 200 feet didn’t kill him, he made the long swim to the New Jersey shore....More

Man survives crash, is killed walking away

JEROMESVILLE, Ohio - Authorities in Ohio say a man survived crashing his car into a house but was killed walking away from the accident when he was struck by a pickup truck. The State Highway Patrol says 38-year-old Michael Bigley of Jeromesville ran his car off a road and into a living room in the north-central Ohio community. Troopers say Bigley was struck minutes later by the pickup while walking in a road...More

Elderly man survives 4 days trapped in well

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) – An 84-year-old man escaped with only minor injuries after he spent four days trapped in a well shaft on his remote property on Canada's Pacific Coast, police said.

A search dog located Bob Bennett on Wednesday after a friend of the elderly man became concerned that he had not heard from him in several days.

Bennett, who lives alone at a former mine site at Benson Lake, British Columbia, on northern Vancouver Island, had entered the eight-foot (2.4 meter) deep well shaft while searching for a water source and got trapped, Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

"Mr Bennett, at 84 years old, shows age means nothing when you have the will to survive," said RCMP Corporal Michelle LeBrun.

Incredible-Wis. man survives 6-story fall from bank building

Wis. man survives 6-story fall from bank building

MILWAUKEE – A window washer survived a six-story fall from a bank building with one thought in mind — when was his safety rope going to catch?

It never did.

"I kept falling," 21-year-old Alex Clay said in a phone interview Tuesday night from Luther Hospital in Eau Claire. "It all happened so fast. I kept waiting. When's it going to catch?

"There's a little roof over the entryway. I bounced off of that and then hit the pavement."

Authorities in Eau Claire, located in west-central Wisconsin about 70 miles east of Minneapolis-St. Paul, said equipment apparently helped break the man's fall from the U.S. Bank building just after 3 p.m. Tuesday.

But Clay said it didn't slow him down much.

Still, he said doctors determined his main injury was a shattered bone on the arch side of his left foot. He said he also had six staples in his leg because he cut it on something as he fell.

"I remember the entire fall all the way down," he said.

He said the problem developed when he noticed a clip on his gear for rappelling wasn't fastened.

"But I was trying not to panic because I had my safety line connected on the back of my harness," he said.

A maintenance man and his co-worker tried to pull him back up, but he was too sweaty and tired to make it, he said.

"I was hanging on for dear life at that time, even though I had the safety line on."

That's when he let go.

He said he had worked for Bob Smith Window Cleaning about four months, but he doesn't plan on working high buildings again for some time.

His mother, Susan Frederick, said she'll object if he tries.

"It's just so amazing — and then to find out that he's going to be OK is just so fantastic," she said from the hospital.

Odd News-Cat survives 70-mile trip under owner's truck

Odd News-Cat survives 70-mile trip under owner's truck

GILBERT, Ariz. - A cat survived a 2 1/2-hour trip on a spare tire under her owner's truck. Gil Smith recently drove from his Gilbert home 70 miles away for a business meeting in Kearny. When he got out of the truck, he heard a cat in distress and realized it was his.

Smith said the cat, Bella, was hysterical, shaky and tired, but was smart enough to know not to jump off the tire as the truck was moving.

Smith and his wife have adopted three indoor cats, three goats and three chickens. But Smith said Bella, an outdoor cat the couple adopted years ago, has a special place in his wife's heart.

Smith said he canceled his meeting with a state Department of Economic Security official who had driven 50 miles to get to Kearny so he could get Bella home.

It was either that, or, he jokes, get a divorce.

Information from: East Valley Tribune/Scottsdale Tribune,