BUTLER, Mo. -- Those purchasing a vehicle at Max Motors in Missouri will receive an AK-47 assault rifle with their purchase during the month of August.This is the second consecutive year the dealership has given away vouchers for a firearm as part of a sales promotion.The logo at Mark Muller's dealership is a nod to his feelings about guns - with an old west caricature pointing two pistols at those who pass by. He said it's a nod to what he calls "big city" ways."We really are different than the big city dealers," Muller said.Looks like I need to go get a new truck!
The actual promotion gives those who buy a vehicle a voucher redeemable at a gun shop for the $450 dollars it costs to get an AK-47."That way it separates you from anything bad that could happen," Muller said. "We'll put it in the hands of professionals who do this every day."The AK-47 ups the ante on a promotion Muller did last year, giving away vouchers for the price of the Caltec pistol. Muller proudly shows off the same pistol he carries in his pocket."We already did handguns," Muller said. "Let's do something more fun -- AKs. You ever shot an AK? Oh, they're a blast."
Friday, July 17, 2009
Car Dealer Offers AK-47 With Purchase
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tractor Parades Legalized in Missouri
Phew! At least they got this important issue taken care of. Now I can sleep at night.
JEFFERSON CITY — Sitting beside an antique John Deere tractor on the Missouri Capitol's south lawn, Gov. Jay Nixon signed legislation Friday that allows tractor parades on state roads.
Nixon held the signing ceremony just a few hours after the formal end of the 2009 legislative session, when lawmakers gave his office the bills approved by the House and Senate before they adjourned May 15.
The tractor parade measure took effect immediately, clearing the way for an event scheduled Sunday in the central Missouri town of Vichy. Until now, farm tractors were allowed on state roads only when they were being driven between fields.
"Agriculture has been the backbone of Missouri's economy ever since statehood, and it's a rich part of our heritage," Nixon said.
He later added that tractor parades give Missourians a chance to see the machines that help make Missouri an "agriculture powerhouse."
Missourians have held tractor parades in the past despite questions about their legality. Last year, an event in Montgomery County was canceled over such concerns.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Stolen Cessna's Pilot Captured After Landing on Highway in Missouri:
A pilot who allegedly stole a Cessna plane from a Canadian flight school and was pursued for hours across the Midwest by fighter jets, was taken into custody after he landed on a Missouri highway late today and took off running, an FBI spokesman said.The pilot landed the single engine Cessna 172 on U.S. Highway 60 in Ellsinore, Mo., at approximately 9:50 p.m. ET, and was caught by Missouri State Highway Patrol officers, FBI spokesman Rich Kolko said.
The pilot was identified as Yavuz Berke, formerly known as Adam Leon, a 31-year-old naturalized Canadian citizen who was born in Turkey, Kolko said.
The plane had been escorted by two F-16 fighter jets since shortly after it crossed into U.S. airspace from Canada, and the pilot did not respond to multiple requests that he establish communications with ground controllers.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Festus Man Hopes To Save His Cave House
FESTUS — Inside the cave, the phone won't stop ringing.
"The story has gone viral," Curt Sleeper said. "I've got friends in Paris calling me. ... It's in Australia and New Zealand."
He just turned down an interview with CNN. The network, he said, insisted on having a tour on Wednesday. But his wife had a baby last week, and he didn't want any visitors for a few days.
Sleeper, 46, expects five satellite trucks to pull up in his driveway today.
"CBS, ABC, FOX, the BBC — I've lost track of them," he said.
In the age of foreclosures, it's a novel approach to saving your home: create a massive media campaign.
Of course, it helps if your home is a 17,000-square-foot cave.
Sleeper found the cave on eBay roughly five years ago and immediately fell in love with it. Where others saw an old, worthless hole blasted into sandstone, he envisioned a home.
Some days he would sit in the cave with his friends, dreaming of the place he would build. He moved his wife and two kids into the cave and pitched tents, living there while he worked on the place.
It took four years to build the three-story structure and seal off the front with wood and panels of windows. He got his occupancy permit from the city of Festus last May.
Now the home is back on eBay. The starting bid is $300,000.
'IT'S HIS LIFE'
The cave is a far cry from the 800-square-foot bungalow in Sunset Hills where the Sleeper family used to live.
Sleeper wound up selling that place to a developer. He used the $83,000 he made on the sale to cover a 50 percent down payment on the sandstone mining cave. The rest was financed through the seller on a five-year balloon note. The note is due in May, and Sleeper needs a lender.
Sleeper's credit scores range from 650 to 710, he said, but because he is self-employed as a website designer and software consultant, he can't get a conventional loan for the cave home.
Banks "want me to be employed by some blue-chip company," he said.
It's also difficult to determine the worth of a home when there are no comparable sales. The Jefferson County Assessor's Office values the property at $160,600, but that doesn't include the improvements made to the cave. The site will be reassessed this year.
Rob Wren, an investor who sold the cave to Sleeper, said he has been talking to him about his financing for the past few months. He has never planned to foreclose on the home.
"It's his life," Wren said. "There is no way we are going to take this away from him."
Since he posted the eBay listing on Feb. 9, Sleeper has received more than 3,000 inquiries, and more than 50,000 people are watching the auction.
Sleeper says he's received a cash offer for $450,000, and on his website (caveland.ning.com), one person posted a $210,000 offer. Someone else offered to trade their home in Utah for the cave dwelling.
Sleeper, however, isn't interested in trading the home or selling it. He's hoping that a private lender will step forward and finance the home, and he says more than 1,000 people have offered some form of financing. Still, he wants to make sure he has a deal in hand before relaxing.
Even though the house is on eBay, Sleeper says he's not legally bound to sell it because he must preapprove all bidders.
"The move for sale was just to protect my equity," he said. "This was my savings. This was my 401(k)."
CONCERT HALL, RINK
The cave used to be a roller skating rink, and for a while, it served as a concert venue — Bob Seger and Ted Nugent played there.
It consists of three chambers divided by cinder-block walls. For four years, while the Sleepers built their home in the front chamber, they lived in heated tents. Deborah Sleeper did the family's laundry in buckets.
The home within the cave has running water and a sewer line. The temperature remains steady at 62 degrees, meaning Sleeper doesn't need heat or air conditioning. The entrance is sealed with more than two dozen windows, made from recycled sliding glass doors. He bought 300 of them at $3 each.
The kitchen features granite tile countertops and two ovens. Sleeper estimates he has put roughly $150,000 into the house.
The biggest surprise during construction were the bees.
In January 2005, he put the last window in the facade. The next day, the cave started to heat up. Thousands of bees that had been hibernating in crevices thought it was spring and swarmed the home.
"You let them die and sweep them up," he said. "It was all you could do."
On Wednesday, Sleeper sat in the home, reminiscing with a couple of friends.
A commercial-grade dehumidifier hummed nearby. Water from a spring that runs above the cave dripped from the 35-foot ceiling into a small pond filled with goldfish. A thin layer of sand covered the floors and some furniture. The sandstone cave sheds, Sleeper explained.
Wayne Robinson, a friend who helped with the home, said it was one of the most enjoyable projects he's worked on. "This was once in a lifetime," he said.
Sleeper knows many people are worse off than he is. His marketing campaign has put him in touch with them.
"Three-page stories, these people are sharing with me," he said. "Gut-wrenching stories. ... There are people in this country who are really hurting."
Later in the day, Sleeper got a phone call from another national media outlet. They were calling to cancel. They lost interest in the story.
"My 15 minutes of fame," Sleeper said, "is running out."
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
FESTUS — Inside the cave, the phone won't stop ringing.
"The story has gone viral," Curt Sleeper said. "I've got friends in Paris calling me. ... It's in Australia and New Zealand."
He just turned down an interview with CNN. The network, he said, insisted on having a tour on Wednesday. But his wife had a baby last week, and he didn't want any visitors for a few days.
Sleeper, 46, expects five satellite trucks to pull up in his driveway today.
"CBS, ABC, FOX, the BBC — I've lost track of them," he said.
In the age of foreclosures, it's a novel approach to saving your home: create a massive media campaign.
Of course, it helps if your home is a 17,000-square-foot cave.
Sleeper found the cave on eBay roughly five years ago and immediately fell in love with it. Where others saw an old, worthless hole blasted into sandstone, he envisioned a home.
Some days he would sit in the cave with his friends, dreaming of the place he would build. He moved his wife and two kids into the cave and pitched tents, living there while he worked on the place.
It took four years to build the three-story structure and seal off the front with wood and panels of windows. He got his occupancy permit from the city of Festus last May.
Now the home is back on eBay. The starting bid is $300,000.
'IT'S HIS LIFE'
The cave is a far cry from the 800-square-foot bungalow in Sunset Hills where the Sleeper family used to live.
Sleeper wound up selling that place to a developer. He used the $83,000 he made on the sale to cover a 50 percent down payment on the sandstone mining cave. The rest was financed through the seller on a five-year balloon note. The note is due in May, and Sleeper needs a lender.
Sleeper's credit scores range from 650 to 710, he said, but because he is self-employed as a website designer and software consultant, he can't get a conventional loan for the cave home.
Banks "want me to be employed by some blue-chip company," he said.
It's also difficult to determine the worth of a home when there are no comparable sales. The Jefferson County Assessor's Office values the property at $160,600, but that doesn't include the improvements made to the cave. The site will be reassessed this year.
Rob Wren, an investor who sold the cave to Sleeper, said he has been talking to him about his financing for the past few months. He has never planned to foreclose on the home.
"It's his life," Wren said. "There is no way we are going to take this away from him."
Since he posted the eBay listing on Feb. 9, Sleeper has received more than 3,000 inquiries, and more than 50,000 people are watching the auction.
Sleeper says he's received a cash offer for $450,000, and on his website (caveland.ning.com), one person posted a $210,000 offer. Someone else offered to trade their home in Utah for the cave dwelling.
Sleeper, however, isn't interested in trading the home or selling it. He's hoping that a private lender will step forward and finance the home, and he says more than 1,000 people have offered some form of financing. Still, he wants to make sure he has a deal in hand before relaxing.
Even though the house is on eBay, Sleeper says he's not legally bound to sell it because he must preapprove all bidders.
"The move for sale was just to protect my equity," he said. "This was my savings. This was my 401(k)."
CONCERT HALL, RINK
The cave used to be a roller skating rink, and for a while, it served as a concert venue — Bob Seger and Ted Nugent played there.
It consists of three chambers divided by cinder-block walls. For four years, while the Sleepers built their home in the front chamber, they lived in heated tents. Deborah Sleeper did the family's laundry in buckets.
The home within the cave has running water and a sewer line. The temperature remains steady at 62 degrees, meaning Sleeper doesn't need heat or air conditioning. The entrance is sealed with more than two dozen windows, made from recycled sliding glass doors. He bought 300 of them at $3 each.
The kitchen features granite tile countertops and two ovens. Sleeper estimates he has put roughly $150,000 into the house.
The biggest surprise during construction were the bees.
In January 2005, he put the last window in the facade. The next day, the cave started to heat up. Thousands of bees that had been hibernating in crevices thought it was spring and swarmed the home.
"You let them die and sweep them up," he said. "It was all you could do."
On Wednesday, Sleeper sat in the home, reminiscing with a couple of friends.
A commercial-grade dehumidifier hummed nearby. Water from a spring that runs above the cave dripped from the 35-foot ceiling into a small pond filled with goldfish. A thin layer of sand covered the floors and some furniture. The sandstone cave sheds, Sleeper explained.
Wayne Robinson, a friend who helped with the home, said it was one of the most enjoyable projects he's worked on. "This was once in a lifetime," he said.
Sleeper knows many people are worse off than he is. His marketing campaign has put him in touch with them.
"Three-page stories, these people are sharing with me," he said. "Gut-wrenching stories. ... There are people in this country who are really hurting."
Later in the day, Sleeper got a phone call from another national media outlet. They were calling to cancel. They lost interest in the story.
"My 15 minutes of fame," Sleeper said, "is running out."
Bong Blamed For Fire at MU Fraternity House
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Fire investigators are blaming an unattended bong for a fire at the Sigma Chi fraternity at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
No one was hurt. But Sunday night's fire occurred on the same floor where a student died in a 1999 blaze.
Fire officials said the blaze could have been worse. A student used a fire extinguisher to knock back the flames in the third-floor bedroom before firefighters arrived and finished extinguishing some still-smoldering debris.
Damage from the fire is estimated to total around $5,000.
Battalion Fire Chief Steve Sapp says police confiscated the bong and took samples to determine whether it was used for drugs.
Fraternity president Daniel Patterson says a small piece of charcoal left on a windowsill, not a bong, started the fire.
He says the fraternity has a no smoking and drug policy in effect.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Fire investigators are blaming an unattended bong for a fire at the Sigma Chi fraternity at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
No one was hurt. But Sunday night's fire occurred on the same floor where a student died in a 1999 blaze.
Fire officials said the blaze could have been worse. A student used a fire extinguisher to knock back the flames in the third-floor bedroom before firefighters arrived and finished extinguishing some still-smoldering debris.
Damage from the fire is estimated to total around $5,000.
Battalion Fire Chief Steve Sapp says police confiscated the bong and took samples to determine whether it was used for drugs.
Fraternity president Daniel Patterson says a small piece of charcoal left on a windowsill, not a bong, started the fire.
He says the fraternity has a no smoking and drug policy in effect.
Hello and welcome to my new blog! I am constantly amazed at the crazy things that continually occur in my home state, so I have decided to collect the best stories here for everyone to enjoy. And also to show what a special place Missouri really is!
First off, perhaps the inspirational story for my blog:
Woman OK after bullet ends up in her hair weave
First off, perhaps the inspirational story for my blog:
Woman OK after bullet ends up in her hair weave
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Other than having a bit of a headache, a Kansas City woman was uninjured after a bullet fired at her ended up tangled in her hair weave. Police said the 20-year-old woman was in a convenience store parking lot late Wednesday when a man flagged her down and told her that her ex-boyfriend still loved her.
She replied, "Well I dont love him," then heard gunshots. She said she looked behind the vehicle and saw her ex-boyfriend firing a handgun at her. She stomped her accelerator and fled, then turned into another parking lot and called police.
She told officers she recently had ended an eight-month relationship with the suspect.
Police arrested the ex-boyfriend and his friend in a car.
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