2 Headed Girls Driving….

Woman’s Bra Saves Her From Bullet

One woman discovered on New Year’s Eve that her bra could do more than lift and support when a falling bullet was halted by the bra strap on her left shoulder.

Debbie Bingham, 46, an Atlanta resident visiting family in St. Petersburg, said her gold bra slowed the falling bullet during the holiday celebrations.

Her injuries may have been much more severe had it not been for her bra strap, said George Kajtsa, spokesman for the St. Petersburg Police Department.

Bingham says she was outside with her daughter and son, ringing in the New Year and viewing the local fireworks display when she felt a sharp pain in her left shoulder at 11:40 p.m.

It was Bingham’s daughter, Solanda Bingham, 30, who first noticed the blood seeping through her mother’s white shirt.

“We were sitting at the picnic table and listening to music and my mom said, ‘Ow,’” the daughter said.

The daughter said she looked over and saw the blood and shouted “My mother’s been shot. My mother’s been shot.”

The bullet was halfway inside of Bingham’s bra, and the other half barely breaking the skin, Bingham later told WTSP-TV.

Someone had fired a gun into the air and as the .45-caliber bullet fell back to earth, Bingham was struck. Kajtsa described the wound as a “big scratch with bruising.”

Bingham was taken to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg where she was given five stitches. The bullet was lodged into the bra tap was only removed when doctors intervened and cut the bullet from the strap.

St. Petersburg police are still searching for the shooter to determine if Bingham was the target of the gunfire or if she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, Kajtsa said.

Shooting a weapon inside the city limits is a misdemeanor with a maximum fine of $1,000 and up to one year in jail, Kajtsa said.

As for Bingham, she said she is just thankful for her bra.

“It was a very cheap bra. It wasn’t very expensive, and I’d love to have a couple more of those bras,” she told WTSP.

Vintage photo of dead horse raises questions

First of all, what’s the deal with the top hat?

A vintage Sheboygan photo, taken before the turn of the 20th century, has sparked some conversation in the community since its inclusion in The Sheboygan Press’ 2007 calendar.

The photo, which is inside the calendar’s front cover, shows a scene at Eighth Street and Indiana Avenue, looking north toward the Eighth Street bridge.

In the photo, a dead horse lies in the street, roped off with string tied to stakes in the dirt road. A man in a top hat, bow tie and jacket sits on top of the horse, and people in the background are standing still, looking toward the camera.

“I always just assumed it was taken as a joke or something like that,” said Bill Wangemann, Sheboygan city historian. “I was never able to find out anything about it. What the story behind that (picture) is, I don’t have the foggiest notion.”

Past attempts by reporters at The Sheboygan Press to find out the circumstances of the photo were unsuccessful, and even local experts at the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center came up empty-handed when they looked for information.

A print of the photo was submitted to the Historical Research Center several years ago, said Kathy Jeske, but there was very little information attached.

“I don’t think we have any idea,” Jeske said. “There’s no name on it, nothing.”

The photo does say, on the back, that it was taken at Eighth Street and Indiana Avenue, and that it’s of a man sitting on a dead horse.

That last part might be redundant, but the photo clearly shows the entry to the Eighth Street Bridge and what is probably the Evergreen City Hotel and Saloon on the northeast corner of the intersection, near where the C. Reiss Coal building is now.

In the background is a brick and lime business and other unidentified buildings on the banks of the Sheboygan River.

Wangemann said he guesses the photo was taken between 1890 and 1900, judging by how the men are dressed and the dirt street.

Roger Prescher, 73, owner of the Charcoal Inn South, liked the photo so much he hung a framed copy in his restaurant several years ago, along with other photos of historic Sheboygan.

“We just wanted a little nostalgia,” Prescher said. “I think it’s kind of funny.”

It’s Boobie Time

NTSB Report

The National Transportation Safety Board recently divulged they had covertly funded a multi-state project with auto makers where black box voice recorders were installed in 4-wheel drive pickup trucks and SUV’s in an effort to understand the last 15 seconds of a fatal accident.

The Board was surprised to find the recorded last words of drivers in 48 of the 50 states were all the same: “Oh, SHIT!”

Only the states of Montana and North Dakota were different, where the final words were: “Hold my beer, I’m gonna try somethin’.