CLEARFIELD, Pa. – It took Brad Sciullo four hours and 39 minutes to finish a marathon. A meat marathon, that is.

The 5-foot-11, 180-pound western Pennsylvania chef is the first person to eat a monstrosity called the Beer Barrel Belly Bruiser: a 15-pound burger with toppings and a bun that brought the total weight to 20.2 pounds. The mountain of beef is the product of Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub, about 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh in Clearfield.

Sciullo, 21, of Uniontown, said he was surprised he finished the sandwich on Monday. “About three hours into it, things got tough,” he said.

When asked what possessed him to eat a burger that big, Sciullo said: “I wanted to see if I could.”

For completing the challenge in the under-five-hour time limit, Sciullo won $400, three T-shirts, a certificate “and a burger hangover, as I call it,” pub owner Dennis Liegey said.

Company says utility bill for 6 figures was mistake

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The head of a computer networking company got a shock when DTE Energy sent him a gas and electric bill for $136,524.40.

The utility says the bill sent to Dominant Systems was a mistake, and it’s rescinding a shut-off notice accompanying a separate bill for $36,275.

Company president Terry Weadock told The Ann Arbor News that the problem started when numerous power outages prompted him to move 40 computer systems out of Dominant Systems’ Ann Arbor facility last year.

Weadock told Detroit’s WDIV-TV that electricity use dropped by two-thirds, alerting DTE’s fraud department, which said it believed the meter was faulty, and it was back-billing him $7,193.

He was disputing that charge when the $136,524 bill arrived, followed by the demand for $36,275 and the shutoff notice. DTE spokesman John Austerberry says the utility will review Weadock’s claims.

From Associated Press reports