Grilled cheese

collection grows

INDIANAPOLIS — A cane that belonged to a 6-year-old boy’s grandfather soon will have a new home — and, Collin Anderson hopes, so will his grandfather’s ghost.

GoldenPalace.com will add the ‘‘ghost cane’’ to a collection that already includes a grilled cheese sandwich said to bear the image of the Virgin Mary. The Antigua-based casino paid $28,000 last month for the sandwich, which it bought — like the cane — on eBay.

‘‘It’s just the new Americana thing,’’ said Monty Kerr, a spokesman for the online casino that on Monday offered Mary Anderson $65,000 for her father’s metal walking cane.

Kerr said the cane — which Anderson auctioned to ease her son Collin’s fears that his grandfather’s ghost was haunting their home in Hobart — likely will go on tour like the famous sandwich.

The cane — and the story behind it — attracted 132 bids, dozens of imitators and landed the Andersons on NBC’s ‘‘Today’’ show Monday.

Maybe they can

do dental records?

NANAIMO, British Columbia — A bus passenger checking an unattended purse for identification found a human skull inside, Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

A woman spotted the purse on a bench at a bus stop a few blocks from the downtown area in this Vancouver Island town and immediately brought it to police, shaken by the discovery, Constable Jack Eubank said Monday.

‘‘She was headed to the ferry, just carrying on normal business, and then found this thing,’’ Eubank said.

After the woman brought it to police Nov. 30, the skull was sent to Simon Fraser University in Burnaby for analysis by a forensic anthropologist. Another couple of weeks of testing is needed to answer such questions as gender and approximate time of death, Eubank said.

The skull is not a new specimen and could have been found and kept by someone, he added.

‘‘In my experience on the West Coast, there’s a number of ancient aboriginal burial sites around, and every now and then they get disturbed,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ve seen it many times.’’

Eubank described the handbag as dark brown with wavy black horizontal lines, somewhat like a tiger skin pattern.

‘‘We want to see if it jogs anybody’s memory, or if somebody had a valid reason to be carrying this around and then inadvertently left it,’’ he said. ‘‘We don’t know.’’

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CALEDONIA, Wis. (AP) — After four days on the lam, a wayward steer that had been spotted on front yards and near a golf course found its way back to its own barn and avoided a possible death penalty.

Police had standing orders to shoot the 700-pound animal because of the danger it could pose if it strayed into traffic on nearby state Highway 38.

Kelly Welter and her children joined the search with her 17-year-old nephew, who owns the animal and plans to show it at the Racine County Fair next year, after the steer broke through an electric fence and a stock gate last Wednesday.

Welter said something, possibly a coyote, spooked the animal.

The family members organized an intensified search early Sunday, but when Welter drove up to her sister-in-law’s farm, she got a surprise.

‘‘He was right in the barn,’’ she said. ‘‘I just about died, I didn’t know what to do.’’

She worried her truck would scare the steer away, but it didn’t budge as she drove into position to block the barn door.

‘‘I opened the gate (to the pasture) and he ran right in,’’ she said.

The steer had lost 30-50 pounds but was otherwise was fine, she said.

‘‘We’re just so happy he didn’t hurt anybody,’’ Welter said. ‘‘Nobody got hurt. There was no accident. We’re happy he didn’t have to be destroyed.’’

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MELBOURNE, Fla. (AP) — All over one suburban subdivision, wild pigs have left their mark.

There was a dead cat. Ruth Strahosky’s lawn was shredded when she was on vacation. Trespassing swine have been spotted along Wright Avenue and Corbusier Drive, congregating in rummaging hordes of up to 20 animals.

The animals come from the adjacent, unfenced land owned by the Melbourne Airport Authority.

After a rash of complaints from the Fountainhead Homeowners Association, the airport authority agreed to a one-year contract with two licensed trappers to try to thwart the hog onslaught.

Since mid-November, James Dean and Chad Penright have caged and bow-shot 23 feral pigs, including a 380-pound brute.

Resident Jim Hood surprised a 200-pound hog in his side yard after midnight last month. The burrowing beast scooted past him about 15 feet away.

‘‘I was glad I was on the inside of the fence and it was outside the fence, because I know how dangerous they are,’’ Hood said.