NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – A Massachusetts man has been fined $500 for assaulting a Chuck E. Cheese mouse.

Authorities say 34-year-old Trahan Pires thought the perpetually happy mascot had pinned his 11-year-old son against a video game. Pires, of Fairhaven, ripped off the mascot’s head piece, pointed a finger at the man inside and yelled at him.

The 19-year-old man in the mouse suit told police he put his arms out to get through a crowd of children trying to knock him over and never grabbed anyone. A witness agreed with that account.

Pires pleaded guilty Monday. A judge fined him after rejecting the prosecution’s request for a six-month jail sentence.

Pires’ family was at the children’s restaurant in Dartmouth in May to celebrate his son’s birthday.

Arkansas fishermen reel in hunting invitation

JONESBORO, Ark. – When a fisherman reels in a high-caliber catch, should he take up hunting?

Two Arkansas fishermen will have to answer that question after one of them hooked a shotgun while angling on a lake in northeast Arkansas.

Devin Sullivan and his stepfather were fishing on Craighead Forest Lake when Sullivan started to reel in what he thought was a turtle, only to find a Remington 870 shotgun snagged on the end of the line.

The two men took the shotgun to a Jonesboro police station, where the gun has been taken as evidence, Detective Sgt. Todd Nelson told Jonesboro television station KAIT. Its serial number will be checked to see if it has been reported stolen or involved in any crimes.

Nelson offered a lighthearted observation, saying it may have been thrown into the lake by “somebody that’s mad at a spouse about hunting too much.”