| Hundreds of curious spectators lined the deli case of Ray's Sentry in Bandon, Oregon Friday after a local resident claimed he saw the face of Elvis Presley on piece of barbecued chicken he bought there. However, the man, Bernard DalMazzo, a Port of Bandon employee, could not produce the said "bizarre phenomenon" because he ate the evidence. "I was hungry," the amazed DalMazzo said, "but I swear it was Elvis -- he looked a lot older and wrinkled, but it was him, I'm sure of it." Da/Mazzo said he bought the chicken thigh along with 10 other pieces to bring back to fellow port employees. "Yeah, we sent Bernie to pick up some chicken for lunch," Harbor Master Wayne Strong said. "He came back all excited, waving a piece of | chicken in his hand and yelling something about Elvis, but when he showed us the thigh, it had a huge bite right out of the middle of it. "I could just barely make out what seemed half a nose and some black sideburus," Strong added. Strong said the other pieces "appeared normal." "It's a miracle," DalMazzo said, "and no one will believe me. I'm sure it's a sign—Elvis is alive and living on a chicken ranch somewhere, and I'm going to find him, if it takes the rest of my life." Meanwhile, Sentry employees stopped cooking chicken because of the unruly crowds it attracted to the deli case. "Thighs were going like hotcakes," Manager Robin Davis said. "But we had to stop cooking them because | people were getting violent and grabbing chicken pieces from helpless children and blind senior citizens. It was hell." Friends are questioning DalMazzo's sanity, while others say he Just needs a rest. "Bernie's always been so sensible," Port Manager Alex Linke said. "This is unlike him, and it worries me. I think he needs some time off." "Bernie's always been strange," DalMazzo's girlfriend Pam disagreed. "Just last week he saw Jesus' face on a piece of T-bone steak. He doesn't need a rest — he needs a lobotomy." DalMazzo sticks to his story, though, and says this is not the last of signs from Elvis. • "He'll make another appearance soon -- maybe at McKays," he said. |
