Fickle Finger of Fate

Police in National City, Calif., say Victor Arreola stopped a van and tried to carjack it. That’s when the driver, still sitting in his seat and fearing for his wife and three children inside, slammed the door so hard that it severed Arreola’s middle finger. Officers caught up with him at a local hospital, where they asked him to identify the detached digit. “Yeah, that’s my finger,” Arreola said. An officer replied, “You’re under arrest for carjacking.” Arreola thought about that for a minute, and said, “That’s not my finger.” Meanwhile, a Japanese man has confessed that he staged his own kidnaping. Toru Odajima, 39, who was being investigated in a fraud case, disappeared two months ago. His wife received a ransom note — and Odajima’s little finger. Police found him in a Tokyo hotel after learning he had gone to a hospital for pain medication — he could no longer take the ache in his hand from the amputation. Police said Odajima admitted cutting off his own finger and sending it as “proof” of his kidnap, adding he got the idea from a movie. (Reuters, UPI) ...Good thing he wasn’t watching The Addams Family.