EARLY, SAD SIGNS OF DOOMSDAY CRAZINESS

January 8

Walkerton, Indiana

Adam Mann, 23, Mann arrived at a railroad intersection on State Road 23 when the arms were down and a train was rumbling by. Stopping in the wrong lane, Mann leaped out of his car with a baseball bat and began screaming and swinging at people. He smashed the windows of his Honda Civic and then, when the train was gone, drove around the still lowered crossing arms and sped away.

A patrolman arrived to find the broken glass on the highway and several excited witnesses explain Mann’s strange behavior. The patrolman took up the pursuit with lights and siren and caught up with Mann just as the Honda Civic veered off the road, up an embankment and, without ever hitting the brakes, directly into the front window of a bank. The car ended up completely inside the building. Fortunately, it was Sunday and the bank was closed.

Man was hospitalized for a wrist injury and then turned over to police. He was booked on multiple charges.

Witness said Mann was screaming about the end of the world.

January 9

Maricopa County, Arizona

Drew Ryan Mara, 30, died in a shootout with Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies, but not before killing William Coleman, a 20-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office.

Responding to a burglary report, a group of deputy sheriffs arrived at a medical office. Coleman approached a minivan in which Mara was sleeping. When the deputy tapped on the window with his flashlight, Maras shot him with a rifle. Another deputy returned fire, fatally wounding Maras.

A former Marine, Mara became convinced that the “world was racing toward an apocalypse foretold by ancient civilizations,” according to the Arizona Republic. Based on Mara’s own writings, he believed the government was covering up UFO activities and the pending end of the world, slated for December 21, 2012.

In 2010, Maras was interview by an Internet radio program in which he explained his end of the world beliefs:

“There is a very good reason why UFO and UFO activity has spiked in recent years. It’s because Mother Earth herself is in trouble. She is about to have a temper tantrum. Something has stirred the hive and that something is the once-every-25,800-year great galactic alignment set to commence on December 21, 2012, otherwise known as the end of time as we know it.”