Main --> Deep Thoughts --> Collections: Crazy News Stories      
In the News...
Revealing human ignorance, heroism, stupidity,
and really bad luck one news story at a time!




 

Pizza Shop Robber Leaves Job Application

Wed Jun 22, 4:11 PM ET
LAS VEGAS - A man accused of holding up a pizza parlor left behind a job application with his real name and address, authorities said. "I would chalk it up to either inexperience or plain stupidity," Clark County prosecutor Frank Coumou told the Las Vegas Review-Journal for a Wednesday report.
Alejandro Martinez, 23, of Las Vegas, was being held Wednesday at the Clark County jail pending a Monday appearance in Clark County District Court. He faces felony burglary and robbery with a weapon charges in the May 25 heist.
Authorities said Martinez ordered a pizza and started filling out the application before displaying a gun and demanding money. The clerk handed over $200.
Outside, a witness wrote down the license plate number of a getaway car, leading police to Martinez' home.
Martinez' lawyer, Deputy Public Defender James Ruggeroli, said authorities have the wrong man. He said said the pizza shop clerk couldn't identify Martinez as the robber, and the job application was not presented as evidence at a preliminary hearing.

Man Charged With Joyriding Plane Drunk

By JIM FITZGERALD, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jun 22, 4:11 PM ET
HARRISON, N.Y. - An intoxicated 20-year-old stole a small plane and took two friends on a three-hour, predawn joyride early Wednesday that ended with a safe landing at a closed airport, authorities said.
A Westchester County Airport security car met the plane at 4:15 a.m., and "a significant number of beer cans" spilled to the ground when the plane doors opened, County Executive Andrew Spano said.
The plane's pilot, Philippe Patricio, of Bethel, Conn., was arrested with a blood alcohol level of 0.15 percent — nearly double the legal limit for driving in New York state, said county Police Commissioner Thomas Belfiore. His two 16-year-old passengers were not charged.
The single-engine, four-seat Cessna had taken off at about 1:30 a.m. from the Danbury (Conn.) Municipal Airport, some 25 to 30 miles from the Westchester airport.
Spano was incensed, saying that the post-Sept. 11 security measures in place at the Westchester airport were not duplicated at Danbury.
"We can only make ourselves safe here (Westchester)," Spano said. "It still leaves us vulnerable to what happened."
Paul Estefan, administrator of Danbury Municipal Airport, rejected the criticism, saying the airport is fenced in and patrolled by police officers.
Patricio was charged with criminal possession of stolen property, reckless endangerment, resisting arrest and driving while intoxicated, Belfiore said. He said the DWI charge accuses Patricio of taxiing through the airport while drunk, since there are no state laws applying to flying while intoxicated.
The plane was nearly out of gas when it landed, and it appeared that Patricio became lost during his time in the air, authorities said. It was unclear how he managed to land safely in his condition, on a small, unlighted taxiway, authorities said.
"There has been some internal talk about that accomplishment," said Belfiore. Spano said Patricio had seven hours of flight instruction but no license.
Arlene Murray, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman, said the agency was investigating.
She identified the owner of the plane as Arrow Aviation of Danbury. A call to Arrow was answered by a man who said the company was not making any statements.
A message was left at the only listed number in Bethel for a person named Patricio; it was not immediately returned.

Man Wakes Up With a Bullet in His Tongue

Wed Jun 22,11:29 AM ET
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Police say a man who woke up with a serious headache walked 12 blocks to a hospital with a swollen lip and powder burns. Doctors discovered the problem. 47-year-old Wendell Coleman had a bullet lodged in his tongue.
Coleman told police that a woman stuck a gun barrel in his mouth during a dispute around 2:30 Tuesday morning and that he heard the gun go off.
Police say Coleman then went home to sleep.
What authorities did with the bullet wasn't clear last night.

Man Falls Asleep During 18th DWI Arrest

Tue Jun 21, 8:19 PM ET
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A man arrested after a traffic stop fell asleep before an officer arrived to administer a field sobriety test. But authorities say James Lovato, 50, had been through it before — it was his 18th arrest on a charge of drunken driving.
The DWI Resource Center, which tracks drunken driving convictions back to 1984, said Lovato has been convicted at least eight times. State records show his first arrest was in 1977. In addition, a criminal complaint against him in the latest arrest said his license has been revoked seven times.
He was charged in Saturday's incident with aggravated driving while intoxicated on a fourth or subsequent offense.
A breath test found his breath-alcohol level was 0.16 percent, twice the state's presumed level of intoxication.
Lovato was driving on a revoked license when police said they clocked him at 77 mph in a 65 mph zone on Interstate 25 north of Albuquerque.
A complaint filed in metropolitan court said police had to force Lovato's car to the side of the road to get him to stop. Police then noticed an open beer bottle near the driver's seat, and said Lovato's eyes were bloodshot and his breath smelled of alcohol.
The complaint said three open containers of beer were found in the car.
Police also said Lovato fell asleep by the time a DWI officer arrived to administer the sobriety test.
Lovato pleaded guilty last year to a charge of fourth or subsequent offense DWI and was sentenced last October to 12 months in a community custody program followed by probation.

Fat Thai Police Ordered to Reduce Weight

Tue Jun 21, 5:57 PM ET
BANGKOK, Thailand - Thai policemen with waistlines larger than 40 inches have been ordered to reduce their weight in order to look good when they direct traffic, the police department announced Tuesday.
Recent medical examinations of 4,150 police officers in Bangkok found that 49 percent have high cholesterol and are overweight, which is "an obstacle" in directing traffic, said a statement from the Metropolitan Police Bureau.
Eighty-eight of the overweight officers whose waistlines ranged between 40 and 49 inches were ordered to join the "Smart Police," a one-month weight-loss program.
Participants will have to eat according to doctors' instructions and meet for daily exercise and evening meals at the Bangkok hospital sponsoring the program.
Those who do not show progress will also undergo acupuncture, a Chinese medical practice believed to help cure many ills, including obesity.
"We hope this will help create a better image of traffic police in the public's eyes," said police Maj. Gen. Montri Chamroon, explaining why the police force wants them to "look smart.
It was not announced what would be done with officers who failed to reduce their girth.

Giant Popsicle Melts, Floods NYC Park

Wed Jun 22,11:42 AM ET
NEW YORK - An attempt to erect the world's largest popsicle in a city square ended with a scene straight out of a disaster film — but much stickier.
The 25-foot-tall, 17 1/2-ton treat of frozen Snapple juice melted faster than expected Tuesday, flooding Union Square in downtown Manhattan with kiwi-strawberry-flavored fluid that sent pedestrians scurrying for higher ground.
Firefighters closed off several streets and used hoses to wash away the sugary goo.
Snapple had been trying to promote a new line of frozen treats by setting a record for the world's largest popsicle, but called off the stunt before it was pulled fully upright by a construction crane. Authorities said they were worried the thing would collapse in the 80-degree, first-day-of-summer heat.
"What was unsettling was that the fluid just kept coming," Stuart Claxton of the Guinness Book of World Records told the Daily News. "It was quite a lot of fluid. On a hot day like this, you have to move fast."
Snapple official Lauren Radcliffe said the company was unlikely to make a second attempt to break the record, set by a 21-foot ice pop in Holland in 1997.
The giant ice pop was supposed to have been able to withstand the heat for some time, and organizers weren't sure why it didn't. It had been made in Edison, N.J., and hauled to New York by freezer truck in the morning.

Grandfather kills leopard with his hands

Wed Jun 22,11:42 AM ET
NAIROBI (Reuters) - A 73-year-old Kenyan grandfather reached into the mouth of an attacking leopard and tore out its tongue to kill it, authorities said Wednesday.
Peasant farmer Daniel M'Mburugu was tending to his potato and bean crops in a rural area near Mount Kenya when the leopard charged out of the long grass and leapt on him.
M'Mburugu had a machete in one hand but dropped that to thrust his fist down the leopard's mouth. He gradually managed to pull out the animal's tongue, leaving it in its death-throes.
"It let out a blood-curdling snarl that made the birds stop chirping," he told the daily Standard newspaper of how the leopard came at him and knocked him over.
The leopard sank its teeth into the farmer's wrist and mauled him with its claws. "A voice, which must have come from God, whispered to me to drop the panga (machete) and thrust my hand in its wide open mouth. I obeyed," M'Mburugu said.
As the leopard was dying, a neighbor heard the screams and arrived to finish it off with a machete.
M'Mburugu was toasted as a hero in his village Kihato after the incident earlier this month. He was also given free hospital treatment by astonished local authorities.
"This guy is very lucky to be alive," Kenya Wildlife Service official Connie Maina told Reuters, confirming details of the incident.

There's no room for cabbage in baseball...

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's baseball players have been banned from putting frozen cabbage leaves under their caps to beat the summer heat.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) took action after Doosan Bears pitcher Park Myung-hwan's cap fell off during a game last weekend, revealing his secret cooling agent.
After an emergency meeting, KBO officials ruled that cabbage leaves are a distraction and cannot be considered part of the baseball uniform.
"Park has been using frozen cabbage to cool down since last summer, but we didn't know until now," KBO chief of referees Heo Koo-youn told Reuters Wednesday.
"We had to act because imagine if it happened in the World Series. If something drops out of the pitcher's cap, it could put the batter off. Does the umpire call strike or ball?"
Park, who twice dropped leaves on the mound during last Sunday's game with the Hanhwa Eagles, said he was disappointed with the ruling but would not appeal.
"I'm sensitive to the heat and my wife recommended I put frozen cabbage leaves under my cap to cool my head," he said.
"I will respect the KBO's decision. Even without the cabbage, my pitching won't be affected."

Marijuana-Flavored Candy Blasted

By DOUG GROSS, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jun 21, 6:40 PM ET
ATLANTA - Marijuana-flavored lollipops with names such as Purple Haze, Acapulco Gold and Rasta are showing up on the shelves of convenience stores around the country, angering anti-drug advocates.
"It's nothing but dope candy, and that's nothing we need to be training our children to do," said Georgia state Sen. Vincent Fort, who has persuaded some convenience stores to stop selling the treats.
The confections are legal, because they are made with hemp oil, a common ingredient in health food, beauty supplies and other household products. The oil imparts a marijuana's grassy taste but not the high.
Merchants call them a harmless novelty for adults and insist they advise stores to sell only to people 18 and older.
"There are more than 70 million people in the United States who smoke marijuana. We're catering to the audience of people who are in that smoking culture," said Rick Watkins, marketing director for Corona, Calif.-based Chronic Candy, which uses the slogan "Every lick is like taking a hit."
An Atlanta company called Hydro Blunts markets a similar product under the name Kronic Kandy, which is made in the Netherlands.
New York City Councilwoman Margarita Lopez introduced a resolution condemning the candies when she saw them at convenience stores near schools in her district. She plans to hold hearings this summer.
At Junkman's Daughter, an Atlanta novelty shop, the suckers are sold near the cash register from a bucket labeled with a marijuana leaf.
"We've got probably every weird kind of candy there is in here," owner Pam Majors said. "If it was anything you could get high off of, we wouldn't carry it, obviously."

Bar of soap sells for 10,000 pounds

By Stella Dawson
Mon Jun 20, 4:13 AM ET
BASEL, Switzerland (Reuters) - Perhaps the oddest piece of work at Art Basel is a bar of soap, displayed on a square of black velvet, purportedly made from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's fat, removed during liposuction.
Gianni Monti's work called 'Clean Hands' -- the title is a play on the name of an anti-Mafia group -- sold in less than an hour for 15,000 euros (10,000 pounds) to a private Swiss collector, according to Monti's Galerie Nicola von Senger of Zurich.
The work from the Swiss-based Italian has shock value with a twist, but Monti is not alone revelling in super-charged sales this week at Art Basel, the world's largest annual art fair where 275 dealers in modern and contemporary art display their wares making it a mecca for over 50,000 collectors and curators.
Prices are soaring for star-quality artists, topping levels charged for the old masters in a market that has an estimated $20 billion annual turnover, making veteran art experts wonder if this feeding frenzy can really last.
Cellphones clamped to their ears, clutching lists, buyers clad in high-fashion gear dash from booth to booth. They exchange prices in the clipped shorthand of a seasoned trader.
"Six-eight for that? Or two at 20?" said one, pointing from a Donald Judd minimalist sculpture to photographs. Nothing sells here with less than three zeros added to the price.
Like Internet stocks, bonds, real estate and commodities before it, contemporary art today is luring the type of glitzy investment where anything that sniffs of a potential blockbuster is flying off the walls.
"People with spare cash don't know where to put their money. When the bond market fizzled earlier this year, I started getting a lot more interest from wealthy clients," said Arthur Solway, director at James Cohan Gallery in New York.
His booth was packed at Art Basel. Filmmaker Wim Wenders' work "The Road to Emmaus near Jerusalem", a giant photograph 176 inches long, richly rendered in the deep browns and ochres like an old oil painting, had sold all three available from its edition of six at $36,000 each two hours after first viewing.
Buyers were lining up for Bill Viola's video wall installation "The Lovers," a balletic embrace of two people clinging for survival in a torrent of water. At $180,000 per piece from an edition of 12, the price is roughly 80 percent higher than Viola's work would fetch four years ago, at a time when he already was a huge art star.
"The avariciousness of buyers and the bidding up of works of art is happening in quite a bizarre way," said Bruce Wolmar, editor of Art and Auction magazine, at a panel discussion.
So hot is the market that investment vehicles, such as The Fine Art Fund in London and American Art Fund, have got into the swing and about six art funds plan to launch this year.
No wonder when super-stars like Jeff Koons, who constructed the gigantic but endearing puppy of flowers that sits outside the Guggenheim in Bilbao, saw a top auction price of $288,500 before 1999. Since then, 15 Koons have been auctioned for over $1 million and one piece for $5.5 million, according to ARTnews magazine.
"Art is probably at the moment in a bubble," agreed Karl Schweizer, managing director of UBS's art banking department and a sponsor of Art Basel.
Unless the stock market crashes and washes out smaller time players, though, he expects demand to remain strong. Schweizer sees a growing elite of wealthy entrepreneurs and corporate executives, particularly from the United States and emerging Asia, who have accumulated fortunes, have few family obligations, have several homes and want to invest in art.
Not only do they buy for pleasure, they buy status.
"Art plays a role of social acceptance. You like it, but you also want to expose your personal environment to others. This creates a situation where there is an ongoing demand for good quality work to fulfil their dreams and their level of social acceptance," said Schweizer, whose bank has seen a steady increase in demand since it began art services in 1998.
The huge prices are making some industry experts nervous.
"A lot of people who are spending a lot of money will be left with a lot of stinkers, unless they flip them very quickly," said Wolmar.
Schweizer said he has advised some UBS clients this year to stay on the sidelines because some prices appear inflated.
For Richard Flood, chief curator of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the frenzy means museums can no longer afford works of living artists.
"When contemporary art is leaping in price over historical materials, you know you have a problem out there," he said.
Still, for an art lover wandering the aisles of Art Basel there is the chance to stumble upon a touchingly intimate 1937 Picasso pen drawing for $42,000, confront the harsh steel bulks of a Richard Serra sculpture and then encounter some whimsical new work from an artist you may never have known before.
This sheer range and quality of work at Art Basel, along with a lively program of lectures, film and performances, provide an antidote for those concerned that the mix of brazen commerce and high culture dilutes quality and meaning of art.
For Hans Ulrich Obrist, curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, it is this very frisson that can be energising.
"Great artists always lead us to extraordinary experiences, and I think that is still what we always have to look for, and it is still happening," said Obrist.

Zookeepers find muskrats delectable

Mon Jun 20,12:32 PM ET
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish zookeepers slaughtered animals in their care, including more than 50 muskrats, and served the meat to unsuspecting friends and family until zoos changed their rules, newspaper Ekstra Bladet reported Friday.
"A single muskrat serves up to four people. You just have to avoid saying what it is before your family has eaten it because it sounds disgusting," elephant keeper Peter Jensen was quoted as saying.
Nobody at Copenhagen Zoo, home to 3,300 animals and 264 species, was available for comment.
The zookeepers also feasted on antelope and gaur, the newspaper said.
"It's always a success when you can serve you friends something special," zookeeper Nikolai Rhod said, adding he had also eaten rabbits, pigs and chicken from the petting zoo.
Zookeepers in Denmark used to slaughter animals for meat until a zoo crackdown last year under which anyone caught doing so would face disciplinary action. Such practices did not break Danish law.

Human cannonball fired -- for his fear of flying

Thu Jun 16, 5:29 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - It might appear to be somewhat of a problem in his chosen occupation, but 'Todd the Human Cannonball' insists a simple fear of flying did not merit his being sacked.
Todd Christian, a 26-year-old daredevil, had no fear of the swift 40-foot (12-metre) flight he took when he was fired by a cannon high above the ring at Britain's Cottle and Austin Circus.
Instead, British papers reported on Thursday, he is claiming unfair dismissal for refusing to fly to Brazil for specialist training after he injured a knee performing his trademark stunt.
"I know it sounds silly because I'm a human cannonball, but I don't like long flights and if I'm on a plane for a long time I start to panic," Christian was quoted as saying by the Times newspaper.
"They sacked me on the spot -- I am devastated," he said.
The product of a circus family who has also been a lion tamer and trapeze artist, Christian had been what was billed as the world's only indoor human cannonball since February.
"The circus has offered me another job but I don't want it. I was employed to get fired out of the cannon and that's what I want to do," he said.
Christian has consulted a lawyer and has been in contact with London-based employment arbitration service Acas, the Times said Thursday.
However, the circus said it was perfectly within its rights to dismiss him for refusing to take the training course in Brazil, which is intended to help the likes of astronauts deal with heavy G-forces.
"The cannon puts a lot of pressure on the leg and the back, so if Todd has had previous knee injuries it is a big problem," said Cottle and Austin's cannon trainer Marnie Dock, once the world's first female human cannonball.
"Without the proper training in Brazil it would be too dangerous for him to continue. We did it for his own safety."
The circus had consulted its own lawyers, and legally speaking, Christian "doesn't have a leg to stand on", she added.

I'm too disabled to work -- but I can wrestle alligators

Thu Jun 16,11:04 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - A British man who claimed he was too disabled to work was jailed for fraud after police found out he had wrestled alligators and trained in martial arts while claiming state benefits.
Martin Crowson, 53, who said he was "virtually unable to walk", was jailed for a year by Manchester Crown Court for falsely claiming 17,000 pounds (25,000 euros, 31,000 dollars) in social security payments.
Despite insisting he was unfit to work, Crowson ran a market stall selling pirate music and DVDs, the court was told on Thursday.
The scam was discovered after investigators searching his home discovered holiday photographs of Crowson wrestling an alligator and riding a camel.
Other papers found at the home also suggested his injuries were not as serious as he claimed, prosecutor Theresa Loftus said.
"A large amount of documentation was found -- a series of certificates showing this defendant's progress from a white belt to a black belt in the sport of ju jitsu," she said.
Sentencing Crowson, judge Vincent Fraser said the "grossly dishonest" fraud meant he had to go to jail, despite a guilty plea.

Paintings by Chimpanzee Outsell Warhol

Monday, June 20, 2005 10:05am
LONDON - Monkey business proved to be lucrative Monday when paintings by Congo the chimpanzee sold at auction for more than $25,000.
The three abstract, tempera paintings were auctioned at Bonhams in London alongside works by impressionist master Renoir and pop art provocateur Andy Warhol.
But while Warhol's and Renoir's work didn't sell, bidders lavished attention on Congo's paintings.
An American bidder named Howard Hong, who described himself as an "enthusiast of modern and contemporary painting," purchased the lot of paintings for $26,352, including a buyer's premium.
The sale price surpassed predictions that priced the paintings between $1,000-$1,500.
"We had no idea what these things were worth," said Howard Rutkowski, director of modern and contemporary art at Bonhams. "We just put them in for our own amusement."
Congo, born in 1954, produced about 400 drawings and paintings between ages 2 and 4. He died in 1964 of tuberculosis.
His artwork provoked reactions ranging from scorn to skepticism among critics of the time, but Pablo Picasso is reported to have hung a Congo painting on his studio wall after receiving it as a gift.
"There's no precedent for things like this having been sold before," Rutkowski said.

Restaurant to Stop Putting Gold in Food

Mon Jun 20, 7:49 AM ET
HANOI, Vietnam - All that glitters is not ... edible ? A restaurant in Vietnam's capital has been ordered to stop putting gold into its meals until authorities test the metal's purity and consult with experts about potential health risks, the official newspaper Vietnam News reported Monday.
Gold isn't on the Health Ministry's list of necessary nutrients, nor is it listed as an approved spice or food additive, the report said.
The Kim Ngan Ngu Thien, or "golden feast," restaurant opened in January, offering dishes mixed with small amounts of gold, which it claimed enhanced the food's nutritional value.
In Asian nations such as India, Japan and China, gold has long been regarded as a restorative or as a treatment for diseases such as smallpox, skin ulcers and measles. In Japan, gold foil is added to tea, sake or food.
However, evidence of the metal's effectiveness is largely anecdotal and official health bodies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration do not support such claims.
Despite the lack of medical proof, owner Nguyen Phuong Anh's restaurant has attracted about 100 diners a day since its opening, the paper said. The sparkly metal isn't gratis, however. Gold comes with a 15 percent surcharge.

Car Lands on Man Sleeping in Bed

Sun Jun 19, 7:45 PM ET
PINE BLUFF, Ark. - A vehicle went airborne Sunday morning after running off Highway 65 and plowed through a house, landing on top of a Pine Bluff man who was asleep in his bed, police said.
"It hit the outside bedroom wall, continued through the bedroom, over the bed and partially exited through the side wall," Pine Bluff Lt. Bob Rawlinson said. "The guy was pinned under the car and rolled up in the mattress."
Devlon Chandler, 34, of Pine Bluff and his wife Arninitra were traveling home from a casino in Greenville, Miss., when he fell asleep at the wheel, police said. The couple's car left the road, traveled over a grassy area, clipped a telephone pole, ruptured a gas main and went airborne before coming to rest in the bedroom of Ricky May, 42, of Pine Bluff.
The bed and other furniture were crushed under the car, Rawlinson said.
"The car was totally inside the house and a little bit sticking out through the other side," Rawlinson said. Two walls were destroyed, he said.
Rescuers were able to free May and he was taken to the Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff, where he was listed in serious but stable condition on Sunday, police said.
May suffered an eye injury and burns from where the vehicle landed on him, authorities said, and he may have to have his right-hand ring finger amputated. The Chandlers also were taken to the hospital, but their injuries were not serious and they were treated and released.
Rawlinson said the Chandlers' vehicle traveled 500 feet from the spot it left Highway 65 until it came to rest in May's bedroom. Devlon Chandler was ticketed for failing to maintain control of a motor vehicle, driving on a suspended license and not having proof of insurance, police said.
The vehicle also ruptured a gas line at May's home, but police said they were able to turn it off. The other gas line break, at the intersection of Highway 65 and Grider Field Road, could not be cut off and authorities said it would require extensive repair work.
"You could hear that gas main roaring hundreds of feet away," Rawlinson said. "It completely tore it out of the ground."
Police said the area is unstable and should be avoided until the gas main is shut off, however no evacuations were ordered.
Rawlinson said alcohol was not a factor in the accident and said that there have been several fatal accidents within the last year at same spot because of a long curve in the highway.

Six-Legged Puppy Found in Malaysia

Sun Jun 19, 4:25 AM ET
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A puppy with six legs and two penises was found sleeping outside a Chinese temple in a Malaysian town, and devotees are treating the freak find as a good omen, a news report said Sunday.
The furry puppy with brown patches was sleeping at the temple entrance on Thursday morning when it was spotted by a temple caretaker, said the Star newspaper, which published the animal's picture clearly showing the extra two legs and the additional organ.
"He (the caretaker) lifted the canine to place it elsewhere and was shocked to see that the puppy had six legs," the Star quoted the Kwang Sung Temple committee member Tee Kim Huat as saying. The temple is in Pandamaran town, south of Kuala Lumpur near Port Klang.
The puppy, believed to have been left there by someone, is being cared for by the temple committee, Tee said. He said devotees feel that the unusual dog is a bearer of good fortune and have named him Ong Fatt, or the Lucky One.
The temple committee has obtained a dog-rearing permit from the Klang Municipal Council to keep the puppy as a pet.

Woman Dumped Into Rear of Garbage Truck

Fri Jun 17, 8:02 PM ET
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. - A woman searching for aluminum cans in a trash bin was dumped into the back of a garbage truck after the driver emptied the bin without realizing the woman was inside, police said.
Wendy Cobb, 38, avoided major injury after a worker installing carpet nearby heard Cobb's screams and alerted the truck driver, who was about to press the compacting button, the MetroWest Daily News of Framingham reported.
Cobb, who said she's unemployed because of a bad back, said she doesn't collect cans unless she needs gas money. The trash bin was nearly empty so Cobb thought there was a low risk it would be emptied, she said.
Cobb was treated for an ankle injury. She also said she lost a cell phone in the fall Tuesday morning.
Framingham Police Lt. Vincent Alfano said the driver would not be cited. Dennis O'Connor, Central Massachusetts district manager for Waste Management, owner of the trash bin, said Cobb was at fault.
"(The bin) is private property. She was trespassing," O'Connor said. "It's kind of ironic, here she is digging for cans in a Dumpster, but yet she has a cell phone."
Cobb said she's angry with Waste Management and plans to talk to an attorney.
"(Waste Management) tried to get me to sign a waiver to say it was not their fault," Cobb said. "I said, 'No way.'"

Cops Raid Wrong Duplex With Noise Device

Fri Jun 17, 8:29 PM ET
NAMPA, Idaho - Police in this southwestern Idaho town raided the wrong duplex, throwing a powerful noisemaking device through the unit's window and standing outside with guns drawn.
John Simpson, convinced he was under attack Wednesday, said he hit the floor of his home, and took his wife down with him.
"I guess we're going to have to seek psychological help, I hate to say that," Simpson said Thursday. "I'm not nuts or anything, but I'm still shaking. Put a shotgun next to your ear and pull the trigger to get an idea of the noise."
A Nampa police officer had confused Simpson's window for that of residents who share a duplex with the 62-year-old Vietnam veteran, Assistant Chief Tim Vincent said. Police had intended to serve a search warrant in the adjacent unit. The officer threw the so-called "flash-bang" device in the window, breaking the glass and setting off a loud noise and light.
Simpson, a house painter, said he picked up the first thing he could find — a vacuum hose — and ran out the duplex's door to defend himself.
The police department quickly fixed the window, Vincent said. The agency also will pay for any other damages, he said. Because the officers were involved in a drug investigation, the raid was considered a high-risk operation, Vincent said.
Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms officials assisted.
Police subsequently arrested Simpson's 20-year-old neighbor. They allege he had 4 ounces of marijuana with the intent to deliver.

Minnesota Mayors to Have Toilet Bowl Race

Fri Jun 17,10:46 PM ET
WAITE PARK, Minn. - Central Minnesota mayors are squaring off in a toilet bowl race during this weekend's Spass Tag festival.
Waite Park Mayor Carla Schaeffer challenged the other mayors to the race, in which toilets are propelled by manual plunger power.
Schaeffer will compete against St. Cloud Mayor John Ellenbecker while Sauk Rapids Mayor Mark Campbell will race St. Joseph's Richard Carlbom. The winners will face off for the championship.
Other events in the annual festival include the Grand Day Parade and a free outdoor concert.

Kangaroo on the Loose Near W. Va. Town

Fri Jun 17,10:29 AM ET
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A kangaroo has been on the loose for the last several months outside Charleston, perplexing authorities who have had problems catching it.
The 3-foot kangaroo, believed to be a male, comes out mostly at night or in the early morning, officials said. He makes appearances in backyards and on the county's rural roads.
"People will call in and say, 'I swear I'm not drunk or on drugs, but I just saw a kangaroo,'" state conservation officer Clyde Armstead said Thursday.
The first person to report seeing the kangaroo called police one week after Christmas, saying the animal was in their yard. "The dispatcher thought someone was celebrating New Year's early," Armstead said.
Some think it may belong to the owners of an exotic animal farm in a nearby town, but the owner hasn't come forward.
Armstead and three police officers tried to catch the kangaroo a few nights ago after it was seen along a road. They managed to corner it, but it was too quick for them and it got away.
"There was no way to catch him, it was like chasing a deer," Armstead said. "And even if we did get him, I don't know what we would have done with our bare hands. They can kick pretty hard."

Town needs 'lifetime' to pay restaurant tab

Fri Jun 17,11:01 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese officials ran up a bill at a rural restaurant so large it will take the cash-strapped local government 36 years to pay it off, the Beijing Evening News reported Monday.
Over four years of frequenting the restaurant in northern Shaanxi province, local officials had paid only a tenth of their 200,000 yuan ($24,000) total tab, the paper said.
"The town government can only pay 5,000 yuan a year and they owe 180,000 yuan, so it will take 36 years to pay back -- that's a lifetime," Wei Zhongqin, the owner of the now bankrupt restaurant, was quoted as saying.
It is common for a rural town in China to be flat broke.
The paper did not say why Wei had let the customers run up such a large bill or why the town was expected to pay for them.

I remember grandpa's smile: he never paid for it

Fri Jun 17,11:01 AM ET
ROME (Reuters) - A lonely Italian pensioner who was "adopted" by a family last year after his pleas for company in classified ads, has absconded leaving behind a big dentist's bill and bounced checks.
Giorgio Angelozzi, 80, skipped out on the family in Bergamo, northern Italy, before a dentist's bill for 2,360 euros ($2,860) arrived. Two checks Angelozzi sent to cover the costs turned out to have been stolen from another family that took him in.
"He wasn't the granddad we wanted. He got on well with mom, but when we talked to him about our stuff, he got bored," said Dagmara Riva of the retired classics teacher her parents gave a home to.
Angelozzi was inundated with offers from as far away as New Zealand, Brazil and the United States before he opted to live with the Riva family.
Police are now hunting for the man who used to live alone with seven cats. The pensioner's story has also caught the eye of a movie producers who have been in touch with the Rivas.

Food firm in a stew over Gandhi curry

By Terry Friel
Fri Jun 17,10:59 AM ET
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Mahatma Gandhi's family is pleading with the Indian government to force an Australian takeaway firm called Handi Ghandi -- "Great Curries...No Worries" -- to stop using the vegetarian pacifist to sell its food.
According to its Web site (www.handighandi.com), the company sells a range of meat and vegetarian curries -- including beef, which is sacred to Hindus and forbidden.
"It's offensive," Tushar Gandhi, the activist's Bombay-based great-grandson and head of the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, told Reuters. "It goes absolutely against all his beliefs. Using his image to sell beef curries and such doesn't gel.
"He was not a foodie."
Although he espoused vegetarianism, Mahatma Gandhi admitted to trying beef at least once to see what it tasted like.
Contacted by telephone in Australia, Handi Ghandi's Troy Lister told Reuters "it's not a good time to chat at the moment" and to call back Monday.
It is not clear if the company's spelling of the name is intentional or not, but "Ghandi" is a common Western misspelling. A handi is also a popular earthen cooking pot.
Handi Ghandi's Web site also features a line-drawing of Gandhi holding what appears to be an American-style Chinese takeout box.
The copyrighted site was only partly working Friday, but Tushar Gandhi said it also included a jingle with a male voice singing, "I am Handi Ghandi, eat my curries."
"They have tried to get somebody to sound like Ben Kingsley," he said, referring to the actor who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Gandhi in the eponymous 1982 box office hit.
Although Gandhi's name and image are protected under India's constitution and national emblems laws -- the same as the national flag -- Tushar said he had no legal recourse in Australia, where the company is legally registered.
"Sitting here in India, I can't do anything about it," he said. "But I can lobby the government of India."
Foreign companies often unintentionally cause a stir among Indians by using images of famous people or Hindu gods
Last month, a U.S.-based Indian lawyer said he would sue a California brewery for $1 billion over a beer label showing the popular Hindu elephant god Ganesh holding a beer in his trunk.

Book offers tips on beating commuter hell

By Elaine Lies
Fri Jun 17,10:57 AM ET
TOKYO (Reuters) - Look for women touching up their makeup. Learn the uniforms of schools along the route. Never stand in front of somebody who's sound asleep.
These are techniques that savvy Tokyo commuters use to get seats on the packed trains they take to work each day -- techniques that have now been codified in a hot-selling book.
Titled "The Art of Grabbing a Seat on Commuter Trains," the 185-page book, which began as an email magazine put out by a 27-year-old office worker using the pen-name Hajime Yorozu, is filled with advice and diagrams detailing the best ways to claim a seat as early in the ride as possible.
"Japan's commuter situation has rightly been called hell," it advises. "So the game of musical chairs becomes a life or death struggle.
"This book was produced with the commuter warrior in mind."
Tokyo's population swells vastly each day as people pour into the city to work from surrounding suburbs, often on trains packed so tightly that taking a deep breath is difficult. Some stations even hire special employees to push people into the carriages.
As a result, being able to sit for all or part of a commute that takes an average of 68 minutes assumes a huge importance.
"I commute for an hour one way," said Koji Shirafuji, 36, who works in an insurance firm in downtown Tokyo. "So every minute longer I can sit really means a lot."
Shirafuji said he tries to stand near seated junior high or high school students, whose tell-tale uniforms are a clear signal they will be on only for short distances and likely to vacate their seats soon, a method the book recommends.
Other techniques include looking at people who are sleeping. Those who sit upright with their eyes lightly closed are more likely to get off early.
"It's time to despair when you see people slumped back in their seats as if fallen there," the book advises. "People with their mouths open uncouthly, snoring, finally even drooling. They will be on until the final stop."
People reading thick hardcover books or fat sheaves of paper have a long commute that they want to use wisely, while women who touch up their makeup are preparing to get off.
Not everything is fair in the daily seat war, however.
Breathing on somebody's neck to get them to move or feigning drunkenness, especially a need to vomit, are forbidden.
"That is not gentlemanly behavior," the book says.
Officials at publisher Kanki Shuppan said they were a little surprised at the success of the book, which has sold 30,000 copies since its March publication.
"This is much better than we expected," said Taro Makimoto, an editor at the firm.
"I think it's a success because it put into words something that everyone thought about before but never expressed."

'Saint Death' booms in border drug war

By Tim Gaynor
Fri Jun 17,10:58 AM ET
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (Reuters) - A death cult that venerates a scythe-wielding skeletal figure is booming in Mexican border cities south of Texas where hundreds have died this year in all-out drug war.
The centuries-old pagan cult of Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, has sprung back up in Mexico in recent years and claims some 2 million faithful, ranging from elite politicians to kidnappers and gangsters.
The revival began in Mexico City. Now, roadside shrines to the ghoulish figure stud highways approaching the U.S. border around the city of Nuevo Laredo, where more than 45 people have been killed in the drug fight so far this year.
Craft stall holders and shops called "hierberias" that sell potions and other esoteric items are stocking up on skeletal talismans and statuettes of Santa Muerte, who resembles a gaudy version of the grim reaper.
Some stalls offer figures made from ground-up ox bones that stand three-feet (one-meter) high. Others sell discreet talismans, candles and amulets, which traders say sell faster than those honoring Mexico's much loved Virgin of Guadalupe.
"We sell more Santa Muerte articles than anything," Guadalupe Merida said at her stall packed with trinkets in the city's sweltering El Mall craft market. "Everyone is buying them."
More than 500 people have been killed in Mexico this year in a drug wars, mostly between smugglers from the western state of Sinaloa and the Gulf cartel, based in Tamaulipas.
Soldiers and federal police took over Nuevo Laredo this week and suspended the allegedly corrupt local police force to try to curb the drug killings.
Experts on the cult say its following on the border is being driven by the spiraling death toll there, as drug hitmen seek Santa Muerte's protection while they kill rivals.
"What better homage to Santa Muerte Could there be than offering her up several people every day?" said Homero Aridjis, a writer whose best-selling book on the cult is now in its fifth edition.
The figure's origins are unclear and although often worshiped like a Christian saint, it is not recognized by the Catholic Church.
SEEKING DARK FAVORS
Violence peaked in Nuevo Laredo last week when suspected cartel hitmen machine gunned the city's new public security chief, Alejandro Dominguez, to death just hours after he was sworn into the job.
At least two more killings have occurred in the city since troops moved in. Many jittery stall holders declined to talk in detail about the death cult.
But Aridjis, who has tracked the cult's growth in Mexico, says drug traffickers seek favors from Santa Muerte they could not ask of saints venerated by the Church in Mexico, the world's second largest Roman Catholic nation.
"They say 'Protect me tonight because I am going to commit a crime. I am going to ambush my enemies, I am going to smuggle drugs to the United States,'" Aridjis said.
Local residents not caught up in crime call on the saint, also known as "La Nina Blanca" or the "White Child," to keep loved ones out of the path of a stray bullet or prevent their children from falling into a life of crime.
But the figure is more often associated with criminals.
"It is becoming a savage, brutal cult," on the border, Aridjis said. "People are living in a psychosis of fear."

Workers keep right to flirt

Thu Jun 16,11:37 AM ET
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A German court has upheld the right of Wal-Mart staff in Germany to flirt at work, a spokesman said Thursday, showing that Germany's restrictive labor laws also have their permissive aspects.
The court rejected parts of Wal-Mart's code of conduct relating to employees' love lives, alcohol and drug use and a requirement for staff to report code violations via a so-called ethics hotline, the spokesman said.
He could not immediately confirm the grounds on which the Wuppertal employment court had ordered the clauses to be removed for German staff, saying the judge's opinion was still in the process of being written.
The Financial Times Deutschland said the court had found the clauses, including one banning "any kind of communication that could be interpreted as sexual," contradicted German labor law, in its ruling on the case brought by Wal-Mart's works council.
Wal-Mart Germany, which is based in Wuppertal and can appeal against the decision, had no immediate comment.
The ruling could have far-reaching effects for U.S. companies with staff in Germany. Such restrictions are increasingly common in U.S. corporate culture as firms seek to prevent scandals that could damage their reputation.
An affair with a female executive led to the downfall of Boeing's chief executive in March. The company fired Harry Stonecipher when the affair came to light, saying his conduct broke company rules and damaged his ability to lead.

I'm off on vacation for 3-5 years...

Thu Jun 16,11:36 AM ET
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Want a tourism experience with a difference? Sri Lanka is converting a historic prison into a hotel so that visitors can enjoy the holiday of their lives -- presumably with time off for good behavior.
The Daily News reported Thursday that Galle prison -- built in a centuries-old fort that is now a United Nations world heritage site -- would be developed into a tourist site.
Quoting Southern Province governor Kingsley T. Wickremaratne, the state-owned paper said guests would have to abandon their holiday finery on check-in and would be issued with prison uniforms for the duration of their stay.
"Unlike the star class hotels, there won't be luxury rooms fitted with hot water taps ... the rooms are none other than the prison cells fitted with iron bars," the governor said.
But the news said a "jailor" would allow guests to keep the keys to their cells and they could move about at will.
Galle Fort dates back to 1663 during the Dutch settler era and contains some of the finest examples of colonial architecture in the region.
Property in Galle fort is among the most expensive in Sri Lanka, and a number of grand old buildings -- which used to house the colonial Dutch and later British administrations, have already been converted into luxury hotels or museums.
A Sri Lankan company converted an old tea factory in the hill district of Nuwara Eliya into a hotel some years ago in its bid to offer tourism with a difference.

'Butchered' waitress turns up alive?

Thu Jun 16,11:33 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - The children of a Chinese butcher executed for murdering a waitress have appealed against his conviction after the "victim" turned up alive, the second such judicial blunder to be made public in recent weeks.
Shi Xiaorong was 18 when she disappeared in 1987 at the same time as six pieces of a woman's body, sliced off "in a professional manner," were found in a river in southern Hunan province, a newspaper said Thursday.
Police arrested Teng Xingshan because he was a butcher by trade and because of rumors he used to go to the hotel where Shi worked to find prostitutes, the Beijing News said.
Hunan Provincial Court sentenced Teng to death for murder despite an appeal and a signature campaign by hundreds of local villagers and officials. He was executed by gunshot in 1989.
"He cried out he was innocent until he was at the execution ground," the newspaper quoted one of Teng's lawyers as saying.
Waitress Shi was later found to be serving a prison sentence with her husband for selling drugs, the newspaper said.
Wrongful convictions are not uncommon in China where a campaign has been launched to clean up the interrogation and trial process.
In April, She Xianglin was freed after serving 11 years of a 15-year jail sentence in central Hubei province for murdering his wife when she turned up not only alive but with another man.

 

Back
       Main --> Deep Thoughts --> Collections: Crazy News Stories