Weird News

Pair seeking leniency allegedly drunk before judge

NEW HOLLAND, Pa.-- A southeastern Pennsylvania man and woman seeking leniency on public drunkenness fines he hasn't paid have now been cited for public drunkenness in the judge's office. The pair visited District Judge Rodney Hartman's office in New Holland on Wednesday. They were responding to a warrant notice over fines the man owes for an October public drunkenness conviction. He said he didn't have money to pay.

Someone noticed that the two appeared drunk at the judge's office. Police gave Breathalyzer tests and say the two had blood-alcohol levels far above the legal limits for driving.

The boyfriend and girlfriend both pleaded guilty to new charges of public drunkenness. They were released in custody of a relative.
 
Unreturned library book leads to woman's arrest

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa -- An Iowa woman has been arrested because she failed to return a library book.

Thirty-nine-year-old Shelly Koontz was arrested Thursday night on a fifth-degree theft charge. She is accused of keeping "The Freedom Writers Diary," which she checked out from the public library in nearby Jesup in April. Police say the book - which is about a high school teacher's effort to inspire students to write - is valued at $13.95.

Court records show library employees tried repeatedly to contact Koontz by phone and mail. A police officer even visited her home last September. Officials at the Buchanan County jail say Koontz was released after posting $250 bond. No telephone listing for Koontz could be found in the Independence area.
 
Yeah, I saw a bunch of videos with jet engines - not pulse but regular I guess. Like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8176C-2JdQ8&feature=related
Problem is, the engines are expensive and I'm not sure but I think they might be finicky and might need constant tweaking. Not sure about what fuel they use either.

This looks WAY insanely sweet too:
http://www.marineturbine.com/motorcycles.asp

It's a jet turbine motorcycle. Problem is it melts the hoods of cars behind you at a spotlight (I read on a review somewhere a while ago) :-D
 
Plumber finds woman's diamond in the rough

Just a case of plumb luck. It took a plumber to retrieve a woman's 7-carat diamond ring after city workers failed in efforts to flush the gem out of the pipes of a restaurant toilet. The $78,000 engagement ring fell from Allison Berry's hand when she flushed the toilet in the restroom of the Black Bear Diner on Jan. 14. The ring plopped in and the water whisked it away, said Elena Castelar, the restaurant's shift manager.

City workers opened a pipe outside the restaurant and continuously flushed the toilet, hoping to push the ring out to the opening. When that didn't work, the city called the office in suburban Tempe of Mr. Rooter, a plumbing services franchise based in Waco, Texas.

"This is going to be like dredging for a treasure chest in the ocean," Mike Roberts, general manager of Mr. Rooter, said at the time. Roberts guided a tiny video camera into the pipe with an infrared light attached. He eventually spotted the ring just 3 feet down and 5 feet over from where it was flushed.

Then it took an hour-and-a-half of jackhammering and pipe removal before Roberts and a technician could recover the ring, eight hours after it fell in the toilet.

"They always say diamonds are a girl's best friend. In this case, a plumber is a girl's best friend," Roberts said. "She was just so excited, she had tears in her eyes. She gave us a hug and said 'Thank you so much.'"
The Mr. Rooter bill came to $5,200 and the city's bill was $1,000. Berry, of Eureka, Calif., and her fiance also tipped Roberts and the technician $400 each and gave $200 to a diner employee for staying late
 
I love the plumber one.. that's just great :D.
 
In reply to your library post, the county I work for goes so far as to issue arrest warrants for "theft of county property" and levels a $500.00 fine on top of the missing materials. One thing is for sure. When they see that letter from the county the materials show up pretty damn quick. 017
 
New Zealand reptile becomes dad at 111 years old

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- A captive reptile in New Zealand has unexpectedly become a father at the ripe old age of 111 after receiving treatment for a cancer that made him hostile toward prospective mates. The centenarian tuatara, named Henry, was thought well past the mating game until he was caught canoodling with a female named Mildred last March - a consummation that resulted in 11 babies being hatched on Monday.

Tuatara are indigenous New Zealand creatures that resemble lizards but descend from a distinct lineage of reptile that walked the earth with the dinosaurs 225 million years ago, zoologists say.

An endangered species, the hatchlings born at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery will provide a badly needed boost to the tuatara's genetic diversity, said the gallery's tuatara curator, Lindsay Hazley.

Henry was at least 70 years old when he arrived at the museum, "a grumpy old man" who attacked other reptiles, including females, until a cancerous tumor was removed from his genitals in 2002, said Hazley.

"I went off the idea he was good for breeding," Hazley told The Associated Press, but once the tumor was removed, "he was no longer aggressive." The museum now has 72 of the reptiles after 42 hatchings in the past two years.

Hazley hopes to use Henry regularly in the breeding program that is helping expand tuatara numbers after they had been savaged by predators. Tuatara are estimated to number about 50,000, most of them living in predator-free sanctuaries, including offshore islands. A male Tuatara takes 70 years to fully mature but reaches sexual maturity about age 20.

While there's no scientific data on the life span of the ancient reptiles, "they go beyond 100 well and truly," Hazley said. "They can be around for 150 to 250 years."
 
Boy, 14, dupes police, patrols Chicago for 5 hours

CHICAGO -- A 14-year-old aspiring police officer donned a uniform, walked into a Chicago police station and managed to get an assignment - patroling in a squad car for five hours before he was detected, police said Sunday.

The boy did not have a gun, never issued any tickets and didn't drive the squad car, Deputy Superintendent Daniel Dugan said.

Assistant Superintendent James Jackson said the ruse was discovered only after the boy's patrol with an actual officer ended Saturday. Officers noticed his uniform lacked a star that is part of the regulation uniform.

Police said they were investigating how the deception went undetected for so long in what they described as a serious security breach. Police said disciplinary steps are possible pending the outcome of the investigation.

Police didn't identify the boy because of his age. He has been charged as a juvenile with impersonating an officer.

Dugan said the boy looks older than 14 and was motivated by a desire to be an officer, not malice or "ill intent."

The boy once took part in a Chicago program for youth interested in policing, so he would have been familiar with some procedures, perhaps helping him blend in, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said.
 
Litigant rapper gets poetic justice in Wis. court

MADISON, Wis. -- Justice might be blind, but apparently it likes good rhythm. A Wisconsin appellate court ruled in favor of a trombone player who filed his legal brief partially written in the form of a rap to argue he shouldn't have to pay $3,750 in fees.

Gregory Royal, 47, is not an attorney but represented himself in a dispute with La Crosse County officials stemming from his divorce. He filed a federal lawsuit against county officials who recommended their two children spend most of their time with his ex-wife, but the case was thrown out because the federal courts do not intervene in such domestic disputes.

A county lawyer then asked a circuit court judge to order Royal to pay fees for bringing the case, which the judge later found frivolous. But Royal, who lived in Wisconsin and now resides in Washington, said he wanted to convince the appeals court in a creative way that he was being treated unfairly.

"Imagine a real attorney who can actually capitalize and perfect that expression and throw some heavy stuff in there," he said. "It's like Einstein's theory of relativity. It's so short but so perfect there's nothing you can say about it." Among several lines of lyrics in the six-page brief, Royal wrote: "A domestic relations exception, I was supposed to know. Appellee would know too, so why did he spend so much doe?"

The District 4 Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 13 that the judge did not have the authority to order Royal to pay fees, thereby allowing Royal to now seek costs from the lawyer who brought the lawsuit. Royal said he has already asked for $800. The court did not mention Royal's lyrics in its decision but he said he believed they helped him win.

He said he may repeat the technique in another lawsuit, which claims a Canadian rock band improperly interfered with a contract to air a television show that his employer helped produce on the Oxygen cable network. "I'm thinking about a rap scenario there," he said.
 
Supper club employees, patron subdue robber wearing helmet with large serving spoon

MUSKEGO, Wis. ? Two supper club employees and a patron subdued a robber with their might ? and a spoon. Joey Geraci, 39, was charged Monday with felony armed robbery. Geraci was accused of entering Williams Supper Club through a kitchen door, grabbing a teenage female employee and demanding money at about 10 p.m. Friday.

Lt. Andrew Kraus said Geraci wore a motorcycle helmet and claimed he had a weapon. Kraus said the chef then hit Geraci in the helmet with a large serving spoon and put him in a headlock. The three held the man on the ground. Police eventually had to shock him with a Taser.

Geraci is also charged with possessing drug paraphernalia. Attorney Brad Christensen said he hadn't seen the criminal complaint and had no comment.
 
Florida woman arrested after allegedly teaching children how to shoplift

LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. ? Lee County authorities say a 24-year-old Lehigh Acres woman taught children how shoplift then abandoned them when the group was stopped. The woman was jailed on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, child cruelty and larceny petit theft. An investigator said the woman walked into a Lehigh Acres store with four children and showed a 12-year-old how to hide clothes underneath the other youngsters. The woman fled the scene when the investigator confronted the children. She was later arrested.

A Department of Children and Families spokeswoman said her agency will also investigate.
 
Police find more than 100 feral animals, including some in the cupboards, at man's mobile home

TEMECULA, Calif. ? More than 100 feral cats and dogs were euthanized after authorities found them living among the remains of hundreds of other dead animals that had been dumped in trash bags at a man's rented property. Temecula police on Friday arrested a 67-year-old man on suspicion of animal cruelty after officers responded to a call that two vicious dogs were running loose at his address, Riverside County sheriff's spokesman Javier Rodriguez said.

The man had let animals breed and roam freely on his property, Rodriguez said, and the creatures had completely taken over his mobile home. Officers even found animals hiding in cupboards. "The smell, I can't tell you how bad the smell was," said Willa Bagwell, executive director of Animal Friends of the Valleys, which provides animal control services for Temecula.

When animal control officers arrived, packs of dogs were attacking each other and killing one of their own, Bagwell said. About 70 dogs circled officers and threatened to attack, forcing authorities to euthanize them. "They were just wild animals. They had never been touched," she told The Press-Enterprise of Riverside. "I've never seen this many animals and animals this feral."

Nine puppies and one dog were saved but authorities had to remove the bodies of 318 cats and dogs, Bagwell said. Outside the mobile home, more than 100 plastic trash bags were filled with animal feces and animal corpses. Margaret Sturgeon, 82, said she sometimes talked briefly to the man and he seemed normal.

"He said he had three dogs," she said. "He never acted as if anything was wrong."
 
Suspected prowler finally gives up after 3 bites from police dog, 2 zaps with stun gun

ELKO, Nev. ? A 19-year-old suspect in northeast Nevada may not be a very good prowler but there's no denying he's one tough cookie. Elko County sheriff's deputies said the man had to be zapped with a Taser twice and bitten by a police dog three times before he stopped struggling with officers during a recent arrest.

Lt. Doug Gailey said officers were responding to a report of a prowler at 3 a.m. on Sunday when they spotted some footprints in the snow by the home's doors, windows and even on the top of an air conditioning unit. He said they called in the police dog named "Besmo," which caught a scent and led them to the man who was sitting in his vehicle on a neighboring parkway and appeared to be intoxicated.

He said the man refused to remove his hands from his sweat shirt pocket and exit the vehicle, so the dog was ordered to jump through an open window and help extract him. Deputies pulled him to the ground but he still wouldn't comply so the dog was ordered to bite him again.

Still unfazed, Gailey said the suspect was zapped with a Taser but still wouldn't give in. A third attack by the dog and another blast from the stun gun finally did the trick. He's been charged with attempted burglary, obstructing an officer and destruction of private property.
 
Florida firefighter charged with theft after taking man's severed foot from a crash scene

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. ? Authorities said the St. Lucie County firefighter who took a man's severed foot from an Interstate 95 crash scene last year has been charged with misdemeanor theft. The firefighter told the Florida Highway Patrol after the Sept. 19 crash that she took the remains to help train her cadaver dog. She eventually resigned from the St. Lucie County Fire District. She was arrested Monday.

FHP Lt. Tim Frith said the severity of a theft charge is usually determined by the value of what is stolen. Since there's no law specifically dealing with the theft of a body part, he said it was difficult to determine the monetary value of the foot.

The firefighter was released from jail on her own recognizance Monday afternoon.
 
Maine woman taking driving test runs red stop sign and crashes into another vehicle

BELFAST, Maine ? A Maine woman who was getting her driver's license recertified will have to try again after running a stop sign and crashing into another vehicle during her road test. Officials said the woman was driving a car with a Maine Department of Motor Vehicle inspector in the passenger seat Monday morning when she failed to stop at a stop sign at an intersection and crashed into the side of an SUV.

Officer Howard Daken said he was unsure of the disposition of the woman's license. Damage to the two vehicles topped $8,000 and the vehicle the woman was driving had to be towed.
 
Woman sues saying she was denied job as bikini-clad barmaid because of 'Latin accent'

NEW YORK ? A woman who wanted a job as a bikini-clad barmaid at a New York City eatery says managers rejected her because she has a "Latin accent." Melody Morales has sued seeking unspecified damages and saying she applied 15 times for a job at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone restaurant and bar. She says managers always denied there were any openings even though other employees said there were.

Her lawsuit says one manager told her her "Latin accent" would ruin his business. She says another told her "You don't speak white." Morales says she was born in New York to Dominican and Puerto Rican parents. And she says she looks good in a bikini. A Hawaiian Tropic Zone spokesman, Patrick M. Smith, issued a statement saying Morales' lawsuit was baseless.
 
South Dakota man indicted on charges he allegedly mailed animal feces to court

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. ? Federal grand jurors in Sioux Falls have indicted a man on a charge he sent a package containing animal feces in the mail. The man, 44, pleaded not guilty to a count of mailing injurious articles, which has a maximum punishment of a year in prison and a fine.

According to the indictment, he mailed a letter to the Minnehaha County Clerk of Courts on July 21 that contained the excrement.
 
Mexican soccer fans turning to voodoo to beat US

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican soccer fans are turning to voodoo to beat the United States, with help from an American electronics company. The teams meet Feb. 11 in Columbus, Ohio, in the first game of the final round of regional qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. Mexico has not won in the U.S. in 10 years.

An advertisement in the sports newspaper Record on Tuesday invited fans to clip coupons and redeem them at a local Radio Shack store for a voodoo-doll likeness of a U.S. player. The hope was that a little black magic might help Mexico break its decade of futility.

The newspaper's marketing manager says it was a lighthearted attempt to make the rivalry game more enjoyable for fans. Radio Shack's Mexico office confirmed the company's participation.
 
Governors look to tax golf, auto repairs

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Governors across the country are trying to come up with creative ways to keep the treasury full at a time when tax revenues are falling. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to help close a nearly $42 billion budget deficit by taxing things like rounds of golf, auto repairs, veterinary care, and amusement park and sporting event admissions.

New York Gov. David Paterson is proposing levies on MP3 downloads, taxi rides, movies, concerts and more. Pet groomers, pool cleanings, and even dating and diaper services could be taxed in other states. The proposals have several services and industries being targeted complaining about those that aren't. And critics say actual revenues won't match expectations, and will instead lead to layoffs and fewer customers.
 
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