N.C. campus police arrest 1 during snowball melee

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Authorities at a North Carolina college say a huge snowball fight got out of control, forcing campus police to use pepper spray on some students to contain the rowdy crowd.

Police were called to a dormitory at East Carolina University three times Tuesday as hundreds of students pelted each other with snow, The Daily Reflector of Greenville reported. The college is in a part of the state which doesn’t get snow often, but a rare storm dropped several inches on campus that day.

Police said some students were getting too aggressive and an officer used pepper spray on a group that rushed officers trying to make an arrest.

Junior Brandon Davis said “it all started in good nature, but then people were throwing them as hard as they could at each other.” Junior Matt Lunchick said an officer chased and arrested a student after being hit in the back with a snowball.

Pa. man considered bank error ‘a gift from God’

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BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – A Pennsylvania man says he considered it divine providence when a bank error put more than $175,000 in his and his wife’s account.

Fifty-year-old Randy Pratt and 36-year-old Melissa Pratt face trial in Columbia County Court on felony theft and conspiracy charges. They waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

The trouble started when a $1,772.50 deposit to the Pratts’ FNB Bank account showed up as $177,250 last summer. Police say that instead of telling the bank, they withdrew the money, quit their jobs and moved to Florida.

Randy Pratt tells the Bloomsburg Press Enterprise he did attempt to ask the bank what happened, but was ignored. He said he considered the money “a gift from God.”

He says the couple gave away thousands of dollars, including $25,000 to a Florida church shelter for the homeless.

Randy Pratt is in county prison. A judge denied a request to lower his $100,000 bail. Melissa Pratt, who told the court she is estranged from her husband, is free on unsecured bail.

Compiled from Associated Press reports