9/26/09: 3-42
10/3/09: 3-30

Missing Snakes on Plane Ground Qantas Flight

A Qantas airliner was grounded after four snakes went missing from the cargo hold on a passenger flight from Alice Springs to Melbourne, according to officials.
-Yahoo! (4/17/2009)

as we walked out of banana republic at stonestown galleria, we noticed an unusual number of people gathered along the glass railing around the central atrium.  when we reached the railing, we noticed that everyone's attention was directed towards the escalator on the south end.  it was not moving.  in addition, a crowd had gathered at the top of the escalator and mall security was running up and down the stopped escalator.

what was going on?  did somebody fall?

after a few seconds, we saw movement.  it was a little dog.  we assumed that it's leash got stuck and returned to our shopping.  we headed south along the railing.  as we got closer to the top of the south escalator, we decided to take another look.  as we watched, somebody decided to run the escalator in reverse to try to free the dog.  security ran the escalator in reverse.  the dog was still stuck.  they ran it a second time.  this time, the dog became free.

unfortunately, our assumption was wrong.  the cause was not a stuck leash.  when security ran the escalator in reverse the first time, we saw blood.  when they ran it the second time, the dog became free, but we didn't see any loose body parts.  as a result, we think the dog got its tail stuck.  since all was relatively well, we returned to our shopping.