The handyman lover of a married Queens mom claimed he killed her because he thought she had given him HIV during their two year affair and tossed her laptop into the Hudson river because it had explicit videos.

David Bonola, 44, of Queens, was arraigned on Tuesday on a 13-count indictment for the April 16 murder of Orsolya Gaal, 51, who was stabbed 58 times in her basement and stuffing the body in a duffle bag while her son was upstairs .

According to the court documents, when detectives questions him on April 20, Bonoal allegedly claimed Gaal was cheating on him and that, ‘She gave me HIV,’ the New York Post reported.

‘She lied to me, she used me. She told me that she loved me. She couldn’t be with one person.

‘I took her laptop because she had sex videos on the laptop,’ he added. ‘I threw her laptop in the Hudson River where I used to visit her.’

Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Aloise charged Bonola with two counts of murder in the second degree, two counts of burglary in the first degree, concealment of a human corpse, tampering with physical evidence and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree.

If convicted, the handyman faces up to 25 years-to-life in prison.

David Bonola (above), 44, of Queens, was arranged on Tuesday on a 13-count indictment for the April 16 murder of Orsolya Gaal, 51

Gaal, a mother of two, was found in a duffle bag in the middle of the street in Queens. Police said she had been brutally stabbed nearly 60 times

He allegedly told police that he went to her home on the night of the murder because he believed she had given him HIV during their two-year affair

If convicted, the handyman faces up to 25 years-to-life in prison

Prosecutors said Gaal had returned to her home in Forest Hills on April 16, at around 12:30 am, when Bonola went into the house just a few minutes later.

Bonola, who had worked as Gaal’s handyman for the last two years and had an affair with the mother of two, got into an argument with her and went on to slash her throat while they were in the basement, according to the charges.

NYPD officials said Bonola had gone over to the home in an attempt to resurrect the affair as the relationship had come to ‘the end’.

According to the statements from the April 20 interrogation, Bonola also confronted Gaal about the HIV claim.

‘I told her that I just wanted her to tell me the truth about why she gave me HIV,’ Bonola told police. ‘She said she didn’t have HIV.’

When Gaal told him the affair was over, he said she grabbed a knife and ordered him to leave, but Bonola told the police he refused.

‘I grabbed the knife and cut her from the neck,’ Bonola allegedly told the police. ‘She kept fighting and we fall. She was moving and trying to grab me so I stabbed her in the neck to get her to stop attacking me.’

Prosecutors said he went on to stab her 58 times before grabbing one of her son’s hockey duffle bags and stuffing her body inside. Gaal’s 13-year-old son, Leo, was asleep upstairs when the murder allegedly took place.

Her husband, Howard Klein, and oldest son, Jamie, were out of town looking at colleges.

Video outside the home shows Bonola rolling the bag through the quiet neighborhood before police discovered it near Forest Park at around 8 am

Prosecutors said police were able to trail the blood from the duffle bag to Gaal’s home, where the found the knife hidden in the house as well as Bonola’s jacket.

After he was arrested and questioned, Bonola allegedly admitted to police that he stabbed Gaal and moved her body, according to court records.

He also admitted to going to the hospital for a deep cuts he suffered on his hands.

In a statement following the indictment, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said: ‘This heinous murder left two teenagers without a mother and terrified an entire community.

‘As alleged, this defendant brutally stabbed the victim over 50 times before stuffing her body into a duffel bag – which he then dragged for several blocks in an attempt to dispose of the victim’s remains.

‘The defendant has now been indicted and arraigned on very serious charges and faces a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.’

Bonola had allegedly gone to the home on April 16, just after midnight, to try and rekindle a two-year affair he was having with Gaal

This is believed to be Orsolya Gaal’s killer, dragging her body along the sidewalk after slashing her throat and stabbing her nearly 60 times in her basement

Police found the murder weapon (above) hidden inside Gaal’s house along with Bonola’s jacket

The criminal complaint charging Bonola cites both surveillance video footage and his own ‘statements and admissions’ as evidence in the case against him.

Bonola, who hails from Mexico and had moved to the US more than 20 years ago, was arrested on Thursday.

Police sources who spoke with the New York Post say he spilled his guts in an entirely ‘matter of fact’ manner – and then proceeded to eat a bagel with cream cheese as if nothing had happened.

‘It was very matter of fact, very thorough, he answered every question they had,’ a police source told the newspaper. At no point did he request a lawyer.

Then, as he was put in a police car on Thursday in front of journalists asking why he killed her, he screamed: ‘F**k you motherf****r!’

Bonola and the victim first started seeing each other in 2020 after he worked in the family home where Gaal lived with her 53-year-old husband and two sons. It was an on-off relationship which they rekindled in April, but which had recently ended again.

According to NYPD sources, Bonola had gone over to the home in an attempt to resurrect the affair after it had come to ‘the end’.

‘A heated argument ensues between the two in the basement. A knife is brandished. A violent struggle ensues, resulting in our victim being stabbed ruthlessly and brutally in excess of 55 times, causing her demise,’ NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig explained.

He then retrieved her son’s hockey bag and waited until 4am, then wheeled her body out of the home and dumped it less than half a mile away. He also sent a text to Klein, Gaal’s husband, claiming to have been someone she once sent to jail in a failed attempt to throw police off his scent.

The 51-year-old mother of two allegedly let Bonola inside the home on April 16

Gaal with her sons, 17-year-old Jamie and 13-year-old Leo, and husband Howard Klein on Christmas Eve in 2021. Let was in the home at the time of the murder

Bonola had worked as a handyman in Gaal’s home for two years. He was often seen in his neighborhood riding his bike and playing music

Those living and working near Bonola’s 114th Street home described him as being something of a ‘night owl’.

He was often seen riding his bike and playing music, sometimes carrying a guitar. the man as being a ‘night owl.’

Bonola had been married once before and had two sons of his own with a woman who had later died. A local said that Bonola had also served in the Mexican army.

‘What’s the sense of this? I don’t know the reason why he did it. She’s gone,’ Richie, a worker at 7-11 told Fox News. ‘What did he accomplish?’

A local florist, Martin Calixto, said that Bonola would often stop by and buy a single red rose each and every time. He even recognized Gaal from photos that Bonola had showed him in the past.

‘He was very in love with her. He was talking about her as a very nice girl, very respectful. It’s hard to believe. He was a nice guy, dammit. For me it’s hard to believe,’ he went on.

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A handyman who allegedly stabbed and then cut the throat of a Queens mom, stuffed her body in a hockey duffel bag and then dumped it in a nearby park earlier last year has admitted to the gruesome killing.

David Bonola44, entered a guilty plea for manslaughter in the April slaying of Orsolya Gaalwhose body was found dumped in a sports bag near Forest Park, prosecutors announced Thursday.

Bonola is expected to be sentenced to 25 years in prison, plus an additional five years of probation. As part of his please dealprosecutors agreed to drop the murder charge he’d been facing in the case, according to New York ABC affiliate WABC-TV.

“This heinous killing devastated an entire family, left two boys without a mother and horrified the surrounding community,” Queens District Attorney Melina Katz stated in a press release. “I want to thank my prosecutors for their exhaustive efforts in securing this plea.”

David Bonola a suspect in the gruesome multi stabbing murder of Orsolya Gaal,

David Bonola, 44, a suspect in the gruesome multi stabbing murder of 51yr old Orsolya Gaal, is taken from the NYPD 112th Precinct Station House on Austin Street in Queens on Thursday April 21, 2022. Photo: Getty Images

“In pleading guilty, the defendant has accepted responsibility and is being held fully accountable for his criminal actions,” Katz added We express our sincerest condolences to the victim’s family and hope that today’s plea will allow them to begin to heal.”

On April 16, a man walking his dogs by Forest Park found a “suspicious bag with blood on it,” the New York City Police Department told Oxygen.com at the time. Gaal’s body was found inside, dead of a slashed throat. The New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner confirmed that Gaal died from sharp force injuries to her neck.

RELATED: DNA Ties California Man To 2011 Killings Of Teen And Woman Whose Bodies Were Dumped By LA Freeways

Chilling surveillance footage from a nearby home had captured Gaal’s suspected killer — later identified as Bonola — “wheeling” a hockey duffel bag down a sidewalk near Gaal’s home around dawn. Prosecutors said the bag belonged to Gaal’s son.

Story continues

Investigators found Gaal’s home by tracing a trail of blood from the bag in Forest Park back to her residence.

A personal photo of Orsolya Gaal

Orsolya Gaal Photo: Facebook

Investigators later determined that Bonola had attacked Gaal at her home after the Queens mother returned from an outing shortly after midnight on April 16.

The pair, who had an on-and-off again sexual relationship, argued outside before going into the home’s basement prosecutors said Bonola then stabbed Gaal 55 times.

One of Gaal’s sons was inside the home at the time she was killed, but her husband and the couple’s other son were away at the time of the incident.

Bonola was arrested, but initially pleaded not guilty to a 13-count indictment following his arrest. According to authorities, Bonola had previously been employed to perform handy work at Gaal’s home.

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Gaal’s family said she’ll be remembered as a loving and devoted mother who put her children first.

“She had a passion for making her kids happy,” Gaal’s teenage son Jamie said at a memorial for the slain Queens woman. “Right now that’s what’s important to remember.”

Bonola is set to be sentenced on Nov. 16.

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The loved-up handyman who allegedly stabbed a Queens mother of two to death before stuffing her body in a duffel bag and dumping it along a walking path told investigators he was enraged because he thought she had given him a sexually transmitted disease and cheated on him . “She gave me HIV,” Bonola told detectives last month, according to the New York Post. “She lied to me, she used me. She told me that she loved me. She couldn’t be with one person.” Bonola, 44, was arraigned Tuesday on charges he followed Orsolya Gaal, 51, home on April 16, getting into an argument that would prove fatal when she told him their affair was over. Then, according to police, he grabbed a knife and slashed her neck. Prosecutors said Bonola went on to stab Gaal 58 times in her basement. He allegedly dragged her body out of the house as her 13-year-old son slept upstairs. Bonola, who was arrested on April 21, also told police he had thrown Gaal’s laptop in the Hudson River, believing there to be “sex videos” on the hard drive.

Read it at New York Post

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QUEENS, NY– The suspect in the murder of a New York mother of two whose body was found in a duffel bag made his first court appearance late Thursday night, and more details of the grisly crime emerged.

And while 44-year-old David Bonola is being prosecuted for murder, federal immigration authorities are looking into whether he entered the country illegally from his native Mexico 21 years ago and have filed a detainee with the court.

“ICE focuses its civil immigration enforcement priorities on the apprehension and removal of noncitizens who pose a threat to our national security, public safety, and border security,” an ICE spokesperson said.

Prosecutors say the victim, 51-year-old Orsoyla Gaal, let Bonola inside her Forest Hills home in Queens and that the two had an on-again, off-again affair over the past two years.

The prosecution submitted a transcript of Bonola’s taped statement made to police, during which they say he confessed.

SEE ALSO | Handyman arrested in murder of NYC mom stabbed more than 55 times, stuffed in duffel bag

Gaal let him in “because she knew him,” but he overstayed his welcome, a prosecutor said, stating that Gaal asked Bonola to “leave multiple times” before he stabbed her nearly 60 times.

“The defendant and victim were known to each other,” assistant district attorney Josh Garland said. “Because she knew him, she let him into the house. He then engaged her in a verbal dispute and unfortunately she had to ask him to leave multiple times.”

Prosecutors also revealed Bonola allegedly slashed Gaal’s throat before stuffing her body in a hockey bag and dragging it and dumping it at the end of a long trail of blood that led back to Gaal’s home.

“Two boys are left without a mother and a young teenager faces the added trauma of being home when this heinous murder took place,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “As alleged, the defendant stabbed the victim over 50 times and then attempted to dispose of the body by stuffing it into a duffel bag and dragging it across a quiet residential neighborhood, leaving a trail of blood and a terrified community. The defendant is now in custody and will be held to account for this horrific crime.”

During the investigation, police recovered a bloody jacket and blood-stained tissues from inside Forest Park.

On Wednesday, the defendant offered to speak to police and, during questioning, made incriminating statements, police said.

Bonola allegedly revealed that some time on Saturday he went to a New York City hospital for a cut on his hand. He also told police he and the victim argued, he allegedly confessed to stabbing her and moving her body, according to prosecutors.

“Based upon information provided by persons known to the New York City Police Department and the Queens County District Attorney’s office, recovered video surveillance, and statements and admissions made by the defendant, David Bonola, that, at the above-mentioned date, time, and place of occurrence, the defendant did stab the victim, Orsolya Gaal, numerous times with a knife, thereby causing her death, after which he placed her body in a duffle bag and moved it to the sidewalk at another location,” the criminal complaint said.

Bonola was ordered held without bail on second-degree murder charges and, at the request of defense attorney David Strahan, was placed on suicide watch.

Bonola is due back in court next week. He faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

Copyright © 2022 WABC-TV. All rights reserved.

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The loved-up handyman who allegedly stabbed a Queens mother of two to death before stuffing her body in a duffel bag and dumping it along a walking path told investigators he was enraged because he thought she had given him a sexually transmitted disease and cheated on him . “She gave me HIV,” Bonola told detectives last month, according to the New York Post. “She lied to me, she used me. She told me that she loved me. She couldn’t be with one person.” Bonola, 44, was arraigned Tuesday on charges he followed Orsolya Gaal, 51, home on April 16, getting into an argument that would prove fatal when she told him their affair was over. Then, according to police, he grabbed a knife and slashed her neck. Prosecutors said Bonola went on to stab Gaal 58 times in her basement. He allegedly dragged her body out of the house as her 13-year-old son slept upstairs. Bonola, who was arrested on April 21, also told police he had thrown Gaal’s laptop in the Hudson River, believing there to be “sex videos” on the hard drive.

Read it at New York Post

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And while 44-year-old David Bonola is being prosecuted for murder, federal immigration authorities are looking into whether he entered the country illegally from his native Mexico 21 years ago and have filed a detainee with the court.

“ICE focuses its civil immigration enforcement priorities on the apprehension and removal of noncitizens who pose a threat to our national security, public safety, and border security,” an ICE spokesperson said.

Prosecutors say the victim, 51-year-old Orsoyla Gaal, let Bonola inside her Forest Hills home in Queens and that the two had an on-again, off-again affair over the past two years.

The prosecution submitted a transcript of Bonola’s taped statement made to police, during which they say he confessed.

SEE ALSO | Handyman arrested in murder of NYC mom stabbed more than 55 times, stuffed in duffel bag

Gaal let him in “because she knew him,” but he overstayed his welcome, a prosecutor said, stating that Gaal asked Bonola to “leave multiple times” before he stabbed her nearly 60 times.

“The defendant and victim were known to each other,” assistant district attorney Josh Garland said. “Because she knew him, she let him into the house. He then engaged her in a verbal dispute and unfortunately she had to ask him to leave multiple times.”

Prosecutors also revealed Bonola allegedly slashed Gaal’s throat before stuffing her body in a hockey bag and dragging it and dumping it at the end of a long trail of blood that led back to Gaal’s home.

“Two boys are left without a mother and a young teenager faces the added trauma of being home when this heinous murder took place,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “As alleged, the defendant stabbed the victim over 50 times and then attempted to dispose of the body by stuffing it into a duffel bag and dragging it across a quiet residential neighborhood, leaving a trail of blood and a terrified community. The defendant is now in custody and will be held to account for this horrific crime.”

During the investigation, police recovered a bloody jacket and blood-stained tissues from inside Forest Park.

On Wednesday, the defendant offered to speak to police and, during questioning, made incriminating statements, police said.

Bonola allegedly revealed that some time on Saturday he went to a New York City hospital for a cut on his hand. He also told police he and the victim argued, he allegedly confessed to stabbing her and moving her body, according to prosecutors.

“Based upon information provided by persons known to the New York City Police Department and the Queens County District Attorney’s office, recovered video surveillance, and statements and admissions made by the defendant, David Bonola, that, at the above-mentioned date, time, and place of occurrence, the defendant did stab the victim, Orsolya Gaal, numerous times with a knife, thereby causing her death, after which he placed her body in a duffle bag and moved it to the sidewalk at another location,” the criminal complaint said.

Bonola was ordered held without bail on second-degree murder charges and, at the request of defense attorney David Strahan, was placed on suicide watch.

Bonola is due back in court next week. He faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

Copyright © 2022 WABC-TV. All rights reserved.

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SAN JOSE (KPIX) – A Los Angeles mother claims she was stopped and interrogated for human trafficking after boarding a Southwest Airlines flight with her biracial daughter, and is now demanding that the airline be held accountable for what she calls racial profiling and harassment.

“We wouldn’t have been charged for anything if my daughter were white and blonde,” said Mary MacCarthy.

The Los Angeles-based single mother said she booked a flight on Southwest Airlines with her 10-year-old daughter Moira after learning that her brother had suddenly passed away last month. She was en route to Denver, Colorado on October 22nd with a stop in San Jose.

MacCarthy said as soon as they landed in Denver they were surrounded by two police officers and a Southwest Airlines agent.

“They tried to speak to my daughter individually. I said, ‘No, she’s only 10, you don’t interrogate her alone,'” MacCarthy said. “I got out my cell phone and started recording.”

In the video, she explains that she uses her phone to record their names because she is too nervous to write them down. Her daughter’s sobbing, who cannot be seen in the video, can be heard in the background.

“The flight attendants were only concerned about the behavior when you got on the plane,” the Southwest Airlines crew member told MacCarthy.

MacCarthy told KPIX that they were part of the last group to board because they booked their tickets at the last minute. Southwest Airlines does not have assigned seats. She said she asked flight attendants if they could help her get two seats together so she could be next to her daughter.

But when they told her they couldn’t help, MacCarthy said she asked passengers if they wouldn’t mind pulling for her and Moira. She said several passengers were understanding and moved their seats.

MacCarthy said the flight was uneventful until she and her daughter got off the plane and reached the jet bridge, where officers and crew were waiting for them.

After MacCarthy stated that Moira was their daughter and that they were in Colorado for her brother’s funeral, MacCarthy said the group let her go without further asking.

“I was absolutely sure that we were racially profiled, but I have other worries, I only thought about that a lot 10 days later,” she said.

A few days ago, MacCarthy said she received a call from the human trafficking division of the Denver Police Department.

“She told me that she called on suspicion that I was a trafficker,” she said. “You saw a white mother, you saw a child with a different skin tone and said that it was suspicious, that it could be a crime and that we are going to report it. That is not OK. That’s the United States of America in 2021. “

In addition, MacCarthy said she asked what was on the police report that KPIX had received. According to the report, flight attendants said MacCarthy and her daughter did not speak to each other during the flight and the mother did not allow Moira to speak to the flight crew. Both of these claims, MacCarthy said, were totally wrong.

Police also wrote in the report that MacCarthy told them about their brother’s funeral, that Moira was their daughter and looked tall for her age.

Police reported that the girl started to speak but then stopped and that MacCarthy “did not want to give any information”.

MacCarthy said her cell phone video was telling the truth, however. The recording can be heard telling officials and the airline employee that she works in technology and lives in Los Angeles.

“I’m glad I did because it turned out that the truth that was recorded in my video is different from its official report,” said MacCarthy. “I want you to be held accountable for a straightforward, outrageous case of racist profiling and harassment by myself and a grieving 10-year-old African American girl.”

KPIX has contacted the Denver Police Department and is still waiting for a response.

Southwest Airlines issued a statement to KPIX stating:

“We were discouraged to hear about this mother’s report when she was traveling with her daughter. We are conducting an internal review of the situation and will reach out to the customer to resolve their concerns and apologize for her experience traveling with us. Our employees go through solid training on human trafficking. Most of all, Southwest Airlines prides itself on providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for the millions of customers who travel with us each year. “

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It’s a Saturday afternoon in August, nearly a year after the death of one of the most iconic burlesque performers to grace the stages of San Francisco’s bygone nightclubs. 

A group of former dancers, friends and family members are gathered at the Showgirl Magic Museum in the basement of the Clarion Performing Arts Center in San Francisco’s Chinatown, laughing and sifting through old photo albums as they snack on matcha ice cream and listen to cabaret music on a crackling turntable. 

They’re in the middle of a conversation about Coby Yee.

Arlene Dark, a longtime dancer at the Chinese Sky Room, points to a photograph of her and grins. “I was always doing Coby’s number backstage. She had a very good act, and the crowd just loved her.”

Cynthia Yee, a past nightclub performer crowned Miss Chinatown in 1967, fondly refers to one area of the museum she now helms as “the Coby Corner.” It’s filled with an assortment of glitzy gowns and lavish sequined headdresses that glimmer from the walls, as well as paraphernalia from the club that came to be known as “Coby Yee’s Forbidden City,” including a ’50s-era dinner menu with a filet mignon priced at $5.50, and the tap shoes of popular dancer Tony Wing.

Shari Matsuura, Coby Yee’s daughter, walks down the steps into the museum and takes in the scenery, nodding to herself. 

“It’s the first time I’ve come back to San Francisco without my mom,” she says with tears in her eyes, adding that she flew in from Honolulu just a few days before. “I think she would be so surprised by all of this. But it’s wonderful to be surrounded by all of these people — all of my mom’s friends. This is home to me.” 

Some of the memorabilia on display at the Showgirl Magic Museum in San Francisco on July 29, 2021. The museum is a tribute to San Francisco’s rich mid-20th century nightclub culture.

Mariah Tiffany/Special to SFGATE

Described as “China’s most daring dancing doll” in aging newspaper clippings, Coby Yee’s electrifying stage presence enchanted crowds of hundreds at the peak of the Chinese American nightclub scene in San Francisco, which lasted from the mid-1930s to 1970. Not only was she a headlining act who crafted all of her own costumes, but later in life, she also owned and operated the largest and most famous of the clubs, the Forbidden City on 363 Sutter St., plus a cocktail lounge on Broadway (the Dragon Lady) and her own dance and clothing studio in Waverly Place. 

“You could go to Chinatown, see Coby Yee perform, be seated by her at her own bar, go take a dance class from her and then commission a dress. And then you could pop over to another club and see a show that she created,” said Burlesque Hall of Fame museum curator Darby Fox in an episode of their podcast “Quimm City Presents.”

The Las Vegas-based museum presented Yee with a “Living Legend of Burlesque” award in 2020, though she passed away at the age of 93 on Aug. 14 of that year — one day before she would have received the honor in a virtual ceremony. An exhibit titled “Coby Yee: The Hardest-Working Woman in Chinatown” is currently on display at the Burlesque Hall of Fame, showcasing her legacy and contributions to the art form. 

“I have a lot of admiration for her,” said Fox. “There’s a lot of hardworking women and exotic dancers that came after Coby, and they had a venue and a place to perform because she kept stages like that going in a changing landscape of live entertainment. She was a pioneer and a powerhouse.”

A photo of Coby Yee in the late 1950s. 

Courtesy of Shari Matsuura

The child of two Cantonese immigrants, Yee was born in Columbus, Ohio, on Nov. 2, 1926. Early in life, she demonstrated an affinity for tap dancing, according to Matsuura. She had an uncle who owned a supper club in Washington, D.C., where she performed as a teenager and had her first brush with show business, her daughter said. After World War II, her parents expressed a desire to return to China, and brought Yee and her sister with them to San Francisco to catch a boat and cross the Pacific. When they arrived, Yee refused to leave San Francisco.

“I don’t know how she convinced my grandparents,” said Matsuura, noting that Yee’s sister was already married and not expected to go back. “But she stayed put.” 

Eager to show off her talents, Yee started performing in chorus lines and ensemble acts before becoming a top-billed performer at the Forbidden City, which had been spearheaded by Charlie Low in 1938 following the success of his previous venture, the Chinese Village (known as the first cocktail bar in Chinatown). The popularity of the bar inspired many similar businesses, including Kubla Khan and the Lion’s Den, where Yee also performed. 

It was a time when at least five busloads of people from across the country would descend upon San Francisco every evening for a taste of the nightlife, said Cynthia Yee. They’d make their way from the drag club Finocchio’s on Broadway to Bimbo’s 365 on Columbus before finally arriving at the Chinese Sky Room and the Forbidden City, where a revue combining mime, comedy, live music and scantily clad dancers cycled through three performances a night, which regularly sold out. 

Coby Yee performs in a magic act at the Forbidden City on Sept. 24, 1966.

Courtesy of the Showgirl Magic Museum

Yee was undoubtedly the star and a local celebrity of sorts, with her name splashed across newspaper ads and regularly appearing in nightlife columns. 

“Mona Fong and Coby Yee have made Charlie Low’s show at the Forbidden City the best that Charlie has produced … just what the doctor ordered,” reads an excerpt from a 1959 review penned by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Hal Schaefer.

That same year, Herb Caen detailed how King Baudouin of Belgium came to see her perform while on a visit to the city.

“She curtsied — whereupon he smiled and waved to her,” wrote Caen. “Before she went on, though, she asked Boss Charlie Low nervously: ‘Shall I censor the act?’ Charlie: ‘Heck no, let ‘er rip!’”

Other stories depict her shrewd sense of humor. Once, when interviewed by the San Francisco Examiner after a man had drunkenly wandered into her dressing room, she remarked, “I have never been so embarrassed. He caught me standing there completely clothed!” 

Chinese dancers Mae Tai Sing and Tony Wing perform an elaborate floor show circa 1955 at Forbidden City, a nightclub in Chinatown, San Francisco.

Orlando/Getty Images

That’s not to say clubs like the Forbidden City were universally revered. At first, they drew a mixed response, with some in the Chinese community viewing them as exploitative, not to mention a fetishization of their ethnicity that catered to mostly white tourists. And though the Forbidden City was marketed as an all-Chinese nightclub — a three-page spread in a 1940 issue of Life Magazine hailed it as “the No. 1 all-Chinese nightclub in the U.S.” — apprehension from Chinatown’s residents led to the recruitment of many Japanese, Korean and Filipino performers from around the Bay Area as well, according to Arthur Dong’s book “Forbidden City, U.S.A.”

However, dancers would often subvert the so-called “Orientalist” stereotypes they promoted, playing with the racial expectations of their clientele and ultimately defying societal norms to pursue the performance art they were passionate about. And the truth was their talent couldn’t be ignored.

“Coby really pushed boundaries back then, and encouraged me to continue to explore what it means to be a Chinese American woman, especially in burlesque,” said Frankie Fictitious, an East Bay burlesque performer. “We were raised to keep our heads down and blend in, but [performers like Coby] redefined what it meant to be an Asian American woman or a woman of color, subverting the idea that we are docile and submissive, when we’re women being unapologetically powerful and reclaiming our sexuality.”

A photo of burlesque performer Frankie Fictitious, left, wearing one of Coby Yee’s, right, handcrafted costumes she sewed during the height of her career. 

Courtesy of Frankie Fictitious

If there’s one thing those close to Yee remember her for, it was her ambition. When Low decided to retire and sell the Forbidden City in 1962, Yee took over, owning the club until its eventual closure in 1970, while still going back and forth between multiple venues to perform, often within the same night. 

“I don’t think she realized she was going to become a trailblazer. In her mind, she was just going to work,” said Matsuura. “And to me, it was normal. I had a working mom — a single mom. She did the regular things to get me ready for school. She dropped me off and picked me up. We went to family dinners. There was nothing too out of the ordinary, except my mom worked at night.”

Eventually, a shifting nightlife scene and the rise of clubs featuring go-go dancers and topless acts like Carol Doda at the Condor Club led to the demise of Chinatown’s nightclubs, said Cynthia Yee. The Chinese Sky Room was the last to shutter.

Two chorus girls prepare for their act in the dressing room of the Forbidden City nightclub circa 1955 in Chinatown, San Francisco. 

Orlando/Getty Images

After the Forbidden City days, Coby Yee quietly opted to leave show business. That is, until Cynthia Yee saw her teaching a ballroom dancing class at a senior center in the East Bay about six years ago.

“I asked her to come and do a show with us,” said Cynthia Yee, referring to the Grant Avenue Follies, a touring dance troupe she founded in 2004 with a group of other former Chinatown performers and community members. “She was like, ‘No, no, no. I’m not doing any more of that. Forbidden City is over with.’ And I said, ‘Please. Come down with me to Las Vegas to the Burlesque Hall of Fame. You just have to walk across the stage, that’s all you have to do.’”

Eventually, Coby Yee relented and joined the group in traveling across the world, from Las Vegas to Havana, Cuba, and Shanghai, China. Her last performance was in February 2020 at a show produced by Cynthia Yee at the Clarion Performing Arts Center, just a floor above the museum that now serves as a tribute to her burlesque career. 

Coby Yee dancing in Cuba in 2019.

Courtesy of Patricia Nishimoto

“I remember that day. She was so… tired,” said Fictitious, who also performed at the event. “But then when she got up on stage, she lit up and was the biggest ball of energy. She made everyone in the audience smile. They gave her a standing ovation, but then again, she always gets one. I just remember thinking how happy the stage made her … and I’m so happy that she was able to rediscover her passion for burlesque toward the end of her life.”  

Coby Yee resided at her home in San Pablo for 40 years, where she spent hours behind her sewing machine each day, continuing to create thousands of intricate garments that filled up every corner of her house but never made it to the stage.  

Fictitious wanted to change that. 

With the help of the Bay Area burlesque community, many of Yee’s remaining costumes were donated or sold on a pay-what-you-can basis to local burlesque performers. Some are on display as part of the exhibit at the Burlesque Hall of Fame. Others are still available for purchase through Pistil Dance Studios in Vallejo, with the proceeds going toward the Grant Avenue Follies, the Burlesque Hall of Fame, the Clarion Performing Arts Center, among other organizations that keep the art of burlesque alive.

“I know my mom would be very pleased to see other people wearing her designs, to be enjoying and making use of her work in this way. Tickled, really,” said Matsuura. “Can you imagine?”

Coby Yee and Frankie Fictitious at Yee’s San Pablo home. 

Courtesy of Frankie Fictitious

A photo of Coby Yee, circa 1945. 

Courtesy of Shari Matsuura

From left to right: Patricia Nishimoto (a member of the Grant Avenue Follies), Shari Matsuura (Coby Yee’s daughter) and Coby Yee in Chinatown, taken in 2019. “Coby loved seeing me in her white leather coat,” said Nishimoto.

Courtesy of Patricia Nishimoto

Coby Yee, right, gives one of her handcrafted headdresses to Mimi Chin, a member of the Grant Avenue Follies, at the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.  

Courtesy of Cynthia Yee

The post How a single mother went from dancing in San Francisco nightclubs to proudly owning one appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Being a mom is a tough job, in large part because you just can’t reason with small children. What you can do, however, is lie to them. In honor of Mother’s Day, we asked Atlas Obscura readers to send us the most outlandish white lies their mothers ever told them. As it turns out, moms all over the world are telling some wonderfully inventive lies.

We received over 500 responses, and as uniquely crazy as many of them were, there was also plenty of common ground. Many mothers still tell variations on the classics: If you make a funny face, it will stay that way; if you eat before you swim, you’ll get cramps (or die); moms have eyes in the backs of their heads, and so on.

But then there were the more esoteric fibs, such as the dangers of dragonflies sewing your lips together, that playing in puddles will give you polio, or that a little man lives in your eyes and signals your mom when you aren’t telling the truth.

We couldn’t include all of the fantastic entries we received, but we’ve collected over 100 of our favorites below. Check and see how many of your own mom’s fantastic tales you recognize. Oh, and watch out for the “Lie Man” …

Lies and Cheats

“If you lie to me, I will know because when I ask you to look into a bowl of water, I will be able to see your reflection.” —Patricia Petersen, Vancouver, British Columbia

“In order to keep us kids from stealing pennies from water fountains, my mother told us the water was electrified and we would die.” —G. Johnson, Georgia

“That a little birdie followed me around and flew back and told my mother when I was doing something that wasn’t allowed, like cycling down 11th Avenue, or stealing more than my share of cookies.” —Sherrie, Fredericton, Canada

“Mom always knew when I was fibbing. She said she could tell because I had a black mark on my forehead. My grandma used to say the same thing. I would run to the mirror to see it, but it was never there. They said I couldn’t see it because fibbers eventually go blind! I was scared to death.” —Batzion, Chicago, Illinois

“That she could tell I was lying by looking at my tongue. I lived in fear of her telling me to stick out my tongue.” —Ann Chafin, Oak Hill, West Virginia

“That my eyes would turn yellow if I lied.” —Terry Burd, San Juan Capistrano, California

“I asked my mom about little bumps I would get on my tongue. She told me they were liars bumps.” —Donna, Cheyenne, Wyoming

“That if I ate bread-crusts my hair would get curly.” —Ysabet, Tucson, Arizona Photo Illustration: Aïda Amer; Bread: dmjarvey on VisualHunt.com / CC BY 2.0

Bread (Hair-Related)

“That eating bread crusts would make my hair curly. It never worked on me, because I didn’t want curly hair!” —Emma, Oxford, United Kingdom

“If I ate the crusts of my bread, my hair would get curly (I wanted curly hair)!” —Kate, Des Moines, Iowa

“You won’t have curly hair if you don’t eat your crusts. I’m not sure I wanted curly hair but I must have eaten a lot of crusts.” —Martin, Stourbridge, United Kingdom

“Eating burnt toast at breakfast would take the curls (very unmanly) out of my hair.” —Brent Parks, Radford, Virginia

“When I was very tiny, my mother always told me my pin-straight hair would grow in curly if I ate my all bread crusts.” —Emily, Iowa

“My mother told me that if I ate my sandwich crusts all the time, my hair would curl. I had very straight long black hair as a youth.” —Margie, Oregon

“Eating the crusts of your bread will give you curly hair.” —Rosie, Farnham, United Kingdom

“As a little boy, my husband hated his white blond hair, and although he also didn’t like bread crust, his mother said if he ate it he would get the brown hair he so wanted.” —Jeannie Havnen, Clive, Iowa

“The claim was that my very straight hair would become lovely and curly if l ate all the crusts on bread, instead of just the soft middles. I ate mountains of crusty bread, and my hair is still as straight as a yard of pump water!” —Pam Rankin, Boise, Idaho

“She told me I would get curly hair if I ate the burnt toast. I don’t think I ever really believed her. I’m 81 years old now.” —Patricia King, Ocala, Florida

Bread (Other)

“You had to eat your bread crusts if you wanted to learn how to whistle.” —Rose Bork, Appleton, Wisconsin

“Mom convinced me to eat the crusts of bread by telling me that ‘that’s where all the vitamins are,’ as though vitamins could somehow migrate outward during the baking process. I’m not entirely sure why she imagined that, at age 5 or 6, I’d even care about consuming vitamin-rich foods, but it worked.” —Nicole, Rochester, New York

“Eating end of a bread loaf will help to grow breasts.” —Elina, Latvia

“We were told as children that eating the crust on bread makes your teeth whiter.” —Scott Cooper, North Tazewell, Virginia

“So she wouldn’t have to cut the edges off of my sandwiches, when I was 8, my mom told me eating the bread crusts would make my boobs grow big.” —Sakana, Santa Fe, New Mexico

“Mom told me that if I didn’t eat the crust on the Wonder Bread, it would chase me at night when I was sleeping!” —Sno, Buffalo, New York

“Growing up we always had a toaster that made the bread a little ‘toastier’ than would be desired. Mom told her three daughters that if we all ate burnt toast, we would become opera singers. As you would guess, none of us went into show business.” —Del, South Carolina

“White bread is only for white people. We buy wheat bread, because we’re brown.” —Isa Flores, Austin, Texas

Catching Birds

“If you sprinkle salt on a bird’s tail, it will sit still and you can catch it.” —Frank Hartigan, Springfield, Oregon

“I wanted a pet very badly and my mother told me that if I could put salt on the tail of a bird, I’d be able to catch it. Hours were spent outside with the salt shaker and various homemade traps.” —Anne Falbowski, Colchester, Connecticut

“To catch a bird, sprinkle salt on its tail, and it can’t fly away.” —Pat Benard, Spruce Pine, North Carolina

“She would bring salt shakers to the beach and told us if we were able to get salt on a seagull’s tail feathers it would become our pet. Her way of keeping four kids occupied.” —Charlie, Florida

“If you put salt on a bird’s tail, it will freeze and you can catch it. She would send me out to the backyard with a salt shaker. I would spend hours ‘catching birds.’” —Sharon Arthur, New York City, New York

Body Horror

“My mother and my friend’s mother told us that the the inside of our ears would turn black if we were naughty.” —Úlfhildur, Iceland

“If I didn’t stop crying my head would fall off and laugh at me.” —Amy Garnet, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

“You would get spots like a rotting banana if you didn’t go outside.” —Jay, Newfoundland

“My intestines would rupture if I continued to use my belly as a bongo drum.” —Jen, Colorado

“If you play with fire, you will pee in the bed.” —Sara Klinglesmith, Louisville, Kentucky

“That if you play with fire, you will pee the bed. She also said that if you get a stye in your eye, you had taken a pee along the road. Obviously a urine-centric theme.” —Thomas Lhamon, Traverse City, Michigan

“That when you drive by a field and smell the fertilizer/manure, you should breathe in deeply, that it is good for your lungs.” —Katerina, Czech Republic

“She vehemently denies it now, but I distinctly remember my mom telling me that babies come out of your armpits.” —Nina, New York City

“Not to play in rain puddles. Will get polio.” —Maryann Kelly, Boston, Massachusetts

“My mom told my sister this, but she said that if you keep scratching your booboos and drink water that all the water would start pouring out of your cuts and scrapes.” —Carrie Engerrand, Texas

“She told me that my head would turn around if I would leave the house with my hair wet.” —Luka Bak, Croatia

“Potty training: Mom always reminded my sister and I that if we didn’t wipe front to back we wouldn’t have friends.” —Christy, Georgia

“My mother used to convince me that I was tired by telling me that I had ‘twirlies’ in my eyes that she could see. The more twirlies you had, the sleepier you were. Always sent me running straight to bed.” —Sarah Khalil, Beirut, Lebanon

“Freckles are erased by rubbing cucumbers on them.” —Caitrin McCormick, Minnesota

“My mom told me that if I didn’t wear socks with my tennis shoes, my toes would rot off.” —Taryn Sparacio, Bellevue, Washington

“If you water houseplants while you are menstruating the plants will die.” —Susan, Mesa, Arizona

“I’m gonna unscrew your belly button and your legs will fall off!” —Deborah Riehl, North Creek, Washington

“When you lose a baby tooth, if you don’t put your tongue in the hole where the tooth was, you’ll grow a new gold tooth in that spot. Our mom HAD a gold crown on a molar, so we really believed that we, too, could grow a gold tooth.” —Tracy Monroe, Indiana

“You get canker sores if you pee off a bridge.” —Stacey Henrikson, Rochester Hills, Michigan

“Never cover your belly button when pregnant or your baby can’t breath.” —Linda Lightner, Indiana

“My mother told me if I bit my nails, a hand would grow in my stomach.” —Mary Pagone, Los Angeles, California

“Whenever I was scared to go to sleep in my room as a little kid, she would give me a spray bottle of ‘Monster-be-gone’ and spray it upstairs. It worked pretty well.” —Star, Texas Photo Illustration: Aïda Amer; Spray Bottle: Public Domain

Technology

“If you looked at the microwave while it was in use, you’d go blind.” —Sean, Memphis, Tennessee

“Don’t let your umbrella open inside the house or your mommy is going to die.” —Norton McColl, Sao Paulo, Brazil

“If I touched the basement freezer, I would be sucked inside and no one would be able to hear me scream.” —Niki Cotton, Virginia

“My mom told me that jet streams coming from airplanes were actually toilet paper and that if I fell into the airplane toilet I could get sucked out along with it.” —Keilah Keiser, San Diego, California

“That if I sat too close to the TV my eyes would become square.” —Hayley, California

“She said that if I wore my watch to bed, lint would jam up the gears and break it.” —Molly Pohlig, Brooklyn, New York

Sewing

“She said I should never sew on Sunday, because the Devil would make me rip it out with my nose. I was never a seamstress of any kind, but saw no reason to tempt fate, even when I took up embroidery.” —Kathleen, Indianapolis, Indiana

“If you have your clothes sewn while wearing them, to suck on a piece of thread to avoid losing your mind.” —Eny Steinberg, Mexico City, Mexico

“If you sew on a Sunday, you’ll spend eternity in hell picking out the stitches with your nose.” —Cara, Washington D.C.

Cold Concrete

“If you sat on the cement, you would catch a cold.” —Maria Martinez, Napa, California

“Going out with wet hair, wearing fashionable cropped clothing that didn’t come right down to your bum and sitting down on cold concrete all cause a mysterious illness known as ‘a chill on your kidneys.’ When questioned on the symptoms when I was an adult, mum still said ‘well you’ll know all about it when you catch one.’ It seems to also be caused by inadequate vegetable consumption and staying out late without your good coat.” —Sarah, Manchester, United Kingdom

“If you sit on a cold, concrete wall you’ll get a urinary tract infection.” —Anne, Maryland

Strange Men

“That there was a man that traveled around town and he would chop off your middle finger if you used it to make crude hand gestures.” —G. Johnson, Georgia

“If I don’t behave the chimney sweep will come and take me away.” —Bernie Harshman, Arizona

“It is something that I used to tell my boys when they were little: I used to tell them that there was a tiny Lie Man that lived in their eyes, and if they ever told a lie, that little man would show up in their eyes, and I would see him. From that time on, if they ever tried to tell a lie, they would close their eyes, so I couldn’t see ‘The Lie Man.’” —Heidi Harrison, Beacon, New York

“That a mean old man put gumball machines in stores to make little kids cry when their parents denied them the candy.” —Dana Parsons, Scottsdale, Arizona

“In the pre-internet era, she told me that the mailman could read everything I mailed, and that I should never write anything that I wouldn’t want him to read.” —CLK, Vero Beach, Florida

“If my brother and I didn’t behave, she was going to call Joe Schmoe, the baby cop, who would take us to baby jail.” —Bruce S. Bevitz, Orlando, Florida

“She said that the dust under my bed (if not kept clean) would turn into a man. And I thought about that every night before turning off the light.” —Betty Skalski, Winnetka, Illinois

Fairies, Etc.

“House elves exist and that if I follow them to the fairy ring in the yard then I have to stay with them forever.” —Alexandra Green, Ashland City, Tennessee

“This story isn’t about my mother but rather my grandmother who used to watch my sister and I during the summer time when my parents had to work. She had a pocket door off of her kitchen, and for some reason, I was always playing with the brass latch, probably because of the sound it made. That used to annoy her, so she used to tell me that an evil fairy lived within the latch and if I kept playing with her home, she’d come take me in my sleep.” —Owen McCafferty, Cleveland, Ohio

“If I wore my clothes backwards, the fairies would take me away.” —Beth, Ottawa, Canada

“She told me that my freckles were ‘fairy kisses’ from fairies kissing me while I was asleep. Fortunately, I didn’t think it was a scary thing to have happen.” —Kathryn Adams, Toronto, Canada

“My mom would always tell me that under the little silver drain covers in bathrooms, lived a small city of tiny people. She would mention how they survived by drinking the drain water, and would wait for humans who knew to feed them. I would often feed them my leftover bread, tear my food into small pieces to give to them, and put pennies or dimes down the drains where they would fit.” —Elise B., Pico Rivera, California

“She told me that the sudden appearance of dandelions in the yard was because when a leprechaun drops gold coins they turn into flowers in the sunlight.” —James Mitcham, Baltimore, Maryland

Holidays

“Every Easter my mom would take me to a quiet room away from the kitchen. She would sit me down on a comfortable cushion and very seriously tell me that if I sat quietly and concentrated very hard that I could lay an egg. I would sit there, checking behind me occasionally. Sure enough, after close to an hour, an egg would magically appear. Elated, I would run to my mom and triumphantly hand her my magic egg!” —S.Lan123, California

“The brand names on Christmas toys were the names of the elf who made it.” —Thipu, New York

“To deter my brother and I from eating my mom’s delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies she told us the extra crunch to them were frog legs. Really they were walnuts.” —Jen, California Photo Illustration: Aïda Amer; Cookie: Public Domain

Eating

“If I swallowed orange seeds, trees would grow out of my ears.” —Sharon O’Connor, Texas

“To deter my brother and me from eating my mom’s delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies she told us the extra crunch to them were frog legs. Really they were walnuts.” —Jen, California

“If you don’t eat your green vegetables, you will get yellow jaundice.” —Joel H., New York City, New York

“My eyes would turn blue if I ate lots of carrots!” —Dominique, Mexico City

“If you don’t eat beans you will suffer from something she called, ‘Lack-a-Beany.’” —Joyce Ford, Seattle, Washington

“Never go swimming in the pool/ocean after eating watermelon (common parental lie in Israel).” —Sharon, Israel

“You will grow horns when you have a snack while lying in bed. I was quite intrigued as to where the horns will grow and what they will look like (like a cow or like a reindeer or like a wild buck) so I kept on asking irritating questions, until mom gave up and tried to explain the crumbs will change into rocks, which led to more questions…” —Tessa De Villiers, South Africa

“That the peach pits I found outside were ‘hoppy toad’ eggs.” —Kristine, California

“My mom told me that sugary foods had little bugs on them, and the bugs liked to eat teeth, but if I brushed, then it would take them off.” —Adam Drew, Calgary, Canada

“Everything on the ice cream truck is poison.” —Jon Thierry, Dearborn, Michigan

“Rich people eat shrimp for breakfast.” —Teresa, Chicago, Illinois

“Eating any seeds (watermelon and apple) would cause that fruit to grow in my belly.” —Andrea, Massachusetts

“That if I stretch my arms above my head when I’m eating, the food goes to a ‘donkey stomach’ instead of my own.” —Pia, Houston, Texas

“If you leave your glass of orange juice sitting out too long, all of the vitamins will evaporate from it.” —Mark Schaeffer, Oakland, California

Coffee

“Coffee turns your knees black.” —Ryan Maloney, San Diego, California

“Drinking coffee will make hair grow on your toes.” —Lesley, North Carolina

“As a small child I always wanted to drink coffee like the adults. In order to deter this urge, mother told me that if I drank coffee I would break out in freckles the color of coffee. Not wanting freckles of any kind, I believed her, neglecting to question why none of the adults in the family that drank coffee had freckles!” —Debbie Bruce King, Franklin, Tennessee

“That if I drank coffee I would grow hair on my chest!” —Terra Salazar, California

“My hair would turn red if I would drink coffee (hers was red).” —Suzanne, Netherlands

Dead Pets

“For our first pet, my mom agreed to let my brother and I get a parakeet. Though I have no recollection of it, we picked out a green-and-yellow one. The next morning, my mom found the bird lying dead on the bottom of the cage, so she brought it back to the store to get another one. But there were no more green-and-yellow birds left—only blue ones. My mom begrudgingly exchanged our now-deceased choice for a light blue bird, and when she got home, she told her three- and five-year-olds that the parakeet had simply taken a bath. We must have accepted it right away, because I can’t ever remember a time when our parakeet was yellow and green.” —Madeline Bilis, Boston, Massachusetts

“I was a pre-schooler when my pet turtle died. Mom had been sick and the turtle was neglected. When mom was better, she told me the turtle was hibernating. I was unaware she replaced the turtle, but one day she had me come to see how my turtle had resumed an active life. She told me the truth when I was an adult in my 40s. Not only had the turtle been replaced once, but many times.” —Janet, Ontario, Canada

“When I was three years old I was told the family dog, Inky, died because he fell in the soap bubbles.” —Joe Milici, Mount Joy, Pennsylvania

“My pet chickens and rabbits had gone ‘to the farm’ when in fact my former farmer Dad had turned them into dinner.” — Pat, Arlington Heights, Illinois

Kissing Elbows

“She told us that if you kissed your elbow you would turn into a boy.” —Tara Bryan, Flatrock, Newfoundland

“Because of something my younger sister got to do that I was not allowed to do I told my mother I wanted to be a girl. So she told me if I could kiss the tip of my elbow I would turn into a girl.” —Mark Moore, Knoxville, Tennessee

“If you kiss your elbow, you’ll turn into a princess.” —Peggy Sanchez, St. Paul, Minnesota

“That if I could put my elbow in my ear, I would turn into a boy. I thought that changing sexes could be a super power disguise, so I spent hours trying.” —Jill, Seattle, Washington

“I hated fish so my mom told me tuna wasn’t fish, it was ‘the chicken of the sea.’ I actually believed that for a while!” —Estelle, Québec Photo Illustration: Aïda Amer; Fish and Chicken: Public Domain

Animals

“If a snapping turtle bit you, it would not let loose until it heard thunder.” —J. Bonamour, Louisiana

“For as long as I can remember when we would drive to Rhode Island, she would tell me that the forest rangers used giraffes to prune the trees. I would always be looking in just the wrong direction and miss seeing one as we went by.” —Edward P. Steele, Connecticut

“If you continue to stare into a mirror, a monkey will pop out.” —Joan Henehan, Los Angeles, California

“If you whistle at night, snakes will hear it and come into your bed.” —Vito Delsante, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

“My mother told me the winter sand barrels at the sides of steep parts of mountain highways were for the convenience of traveling cats. I was mad and sad for the cats.” —Thomas Tigaboj, Denver, Colorado

Dragonflies

“I was told that dragonflies will sew your eyelids shut if you were not careful.” — Joe Becker, San Francisco, California

“Playing with my belly button would make my butt fall off. And dragonflies (called darning needles then) would sew the lips together of children who misbehaved.” — Michael Hewins, Washington D.C.

“Dragonflies would sew my mouth shut.” —Meredith Roy, New Jersey

“My mother used to tell us not to eat paper, crayons, or glue, because if we did, it would give us worms, and then worms would grow in our bellies.” —Amanda, Oregon Photo Illustraion: Aïda Amer; Glue: Apfenn1/CC BY-SA 4.0, Worm (all): Brian Gratwicke/Katja Schulz/CC BY 2.0

Worms

“Eating chocolate chip cookie dough would give you worms.” —John, Assonet, Massachusetts

“The bubbles in the icicles hanging from the roof were worm eggs.” —Pete Haerden, Carver, Minnesota

“My mother used to tell us not to eat paper, crayons, or glue, because if we did, it would give us worms, and then worms would grow in our bellies. That was enough to deter me from ever eating any of that stuff.” —Amanda Stanley, Oregon

“If you eat raw cookie dough you’ll get worms.” —Gwen Demombynes, Seattle, Washington

What Happened to the Other Kids

“Sometimes when our house settled it would make little creaking noises that seemed to come from under our home, only accessible by a hatch into the crawl space. When my brother and I asked her what was making the noises under the house she told us that’s where our misbehaving siblings lived and if we didn’t behave that’s where he and I would end up.” — Jen, California

“There was a gravel factory near the town where we lived and my mother told us it was ‘Kids Jail’ and that if we were naughty we would have to go there and bust rocks all day and only eat bread and water. Every time we drove past that place my sisters and I would be absolutely silent in the car so she wouldn’t have a reason to drop us off at the kids jail.” —Whittney Bishop, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

“She told me that the grease spots in the street in front of our house were stains that were left from children being hit by cars who had ventured out into the street.” —Jerrilee, Poseyville, Indiana

“My mom told me that the gum spots on the sidewalk were actually blood from the kids who didn’t look before crossing the road.” —Ava Moody, Fort Worth, Texas

If you have a lie of your own to share, head over to our community forums and tell us about it!

The post The Final Information to Weird Lies Your Mother Advised You appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

VISALIA (AP) – A three-year-old girl has died after her mother left her in a car for several hours while she worked in a marijuana grower in the San Joaquin Valley, police said.

The doors were closed and the windows were up and the outside temperature was around 100 degrees when rescue workers were dispatched to the parked vehicle on Thursday, the Visalia Police Department said in a statement.

Family members as well as a police officer and paramedic attempted to resuscitate Jessica Campos, but she was pronounced dead after she was rushed to the hospital.

Eustajia Mojica. (Police Visalia via KSEE-TV)

Detectives conducted interviews and learned that Eustajia Mojica Dominguez, 28, was handling an illegal marijuana cultivation while her child was in the car for up to 3 hours, police said.

They later searched Mojica Dominguez’s home and found 125 pounds of marijuana plants and approximately 425 pounds of processed marijuana. Four other children, aged 15.11 years and two aged 9 months, who lived in the house, were placed in the care of the youth welfare office, the police said.

RELATED ARTICLE: Heartbroken neighbor after 3 year old died

Four adults in the house were arrested and booked to investigate child risk.

Mojica Dominguez was held in the county jail for negligent homicide. It is not immediately clear whether she has hired a lawyer to speak for her.

© Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

The post Visalia 3-12 months-Outdated Dies in Scorching Automobile After Mother Leaves Her to Have a tendency Pot Develop – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.