Lost Man Drives 400 Miles to Get Newspaper

Eighty-one-year-old Eric Steward of Yass, New South Wales, Australia went out to get a morning paper on Wednesday. He took a wrong turn onto a highway and drove for nine hours before stopping to ask for directions! Steward ended up in Geelong, Victoria, 400 miles from home. A policeman called Steward’s wife, and sent him in the right direction for home.

“I just went out on the road to have a drive, a nice peaceful drive,” he told reporters, adding he did not need a satellite navigation device as he’d only been lost once.

The Hamster Hotel

The Hamster Hotel is now open in Nantes, France. No, it’s not just a clever name. Frederic Tabary and Yann Falquerho converted a room in an old building to a human-sized hamster cage complete with a running wheel and hay to sleep on. Guests will live like a hamster, to the point of even having grain offered for meals. The price for the room is currently 99 euros for a night, but the price will go up when Wifi and a TV screen are installed.

Dad Spoke Only Klingon to Child for Three Years

Minnesota linguist d’Armond Speers has a doctorate in computational linguistics. He says he isn’t much of a Star Trek fan. But he spent the first three years of his son’s life speaking to him only in the Klingon language!

“I was interested in the question of whether my son, going through his first language acquisition process, would acquire it like any human language,” Speers said. “He was definitely starting to learn it.”

Speers helped develop a digital dictionary in Klingon for Mac, Windows, and iPhone for the software company Ultralingua. Speer’s son is now 15 years old and doesn’t speak a word of Klingon.

Trimming a Hedge with a Crane

Two men in Cambridge, in the Waikato region of New Zealand have a different idea of how to trim an unruly hedge. They were spotted mowing the hedge with a riding lawnmower hoisted above the foliage by a crane! The two men, who wished to remain unnamed, joked that they might go into business with their unusual trimming method. After a scheduled hedge-trimming service didn’t show up, they came up with the stunt in order to make a video and hoped it would be popular on the internet. The friends managed to get a crane and a lawnmower, but had no video camera. The mower operator broke a hand during the stunt in a fall from the crane. However, passers-found the sight quite entertaining.

North Pole Mail Program Dropped

The 2,100 citizens of North Pole, Alaska take Christmas very seriously. Since 1954, they’ve volunteered for Operation Santa, a program of the US Postal Service which answers letters to Santa Claus. The program has volunteers all over the country, and many letters are routed through Alaska to get the special North Pole postmark. However, the USPS is discontinuing the practice of sending letters to the town of North Pole. New security restrictions on letter-writer’s identities are not feasible in the small Alaskan town. Children can still write letters to Santa Claus and get an answer, but they won’t go to North Pole.

Lion Opens Car Door with Teeth

Lion Safari Park in Johannesburg, South Africa allows cars to drive through the lion enclosure so people can see the animals up close. A family in a white Toyota drove through with the doors closed, but apparently failed to lock at least one back door. A 300-pound lion deftly reached over and opened the back door with his teeth. The family remained still for several seconds, supposedly in shock, before driving off as quickly as possible. The lion chased the car to a gate, where a park attendant held it back by throwing stones. Richard Holden was in a car behind the Toyota took pictures of the incident.

Students Arrested for Not Paying Tip

College students Leslie Pope and John Wagner and four of their friends went to the Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The bill came to $73, which Pope and Wagner paid, but they refused to pay the mandatory $16.35 tip, because they said the service was lousy. So they were arrested.

The pub, which was very busy that night, took the $73, but then called the cops, who treated the matter as a theft.

The menu clearly states, “18 percent gratuity added to check of parties of 6 of more,” and a similar message is printed on receipts, a pub employee said this morning.

The students will be in court over the matter next month.

Alfie the Canine Arsonist

A hungry dog in Llanfairfechan, Wales set fire to a home and caused £6,000 in damage. Paul Gregson, his wife, and two sons escaped the burning house just after midnight Tuesday. Alfie apparently was looking for something to eat when he jumped on the stove and turned on a burner. A chip fryer on top heated up and started the fire. Smoke alarms woke the family up and they were able to evacuate the home. Three-year-old Alfie is a flat-coated retriever, a breed Gregson says is “slow to mature”.

Thief Takes Van with Lion Inside

A thief in Wuppertal, Germany made off with a Mercedes Transporter owned by Circus Probst, apparently unaware that a lion was in the back. The van was recovered Wednesday morning with Caesar still inside. It is not yet known whether the presence of the lion led to vehicle being crashed and abandoned. It was found with the motor still running. Police who had the van towed away were also unaware of the lion in the back. Caesar was finally returned to the circus about twelve hours after the theft, and is reported to be fine.

25 Middle-school Students Arrested in Food Fight

A food fight broke out last Thursday at the Calumet middle school campus of Perspectives Charter Schools in Chicago. A campus police officer called for backup and Chicago police responded. By the end of the day, 25 students aged 11 to 15 were arrested and taken to jail for reckless conduct. The students were released to their parents and suspended from school for two days. Parents are questioning the decision to arrest the children. Erica Russell, the mother of two girls who were arrested, said:

“I was all for some other kind of punishment, but not jail. Who hasn’t had a food fight?”

Shark Gives Shark Caesarean Section

A shark at Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World in New Zealand was carrying four baby sharks when she was bitten into by another shark. The young were released into the water from the hole in her abdomen. Staff at the aquarium had no idea the shark was pregnant, and said the attack probably saved the baby sharks’ lives. If they had been born naturally in the same tank, stingrays and other adult sharks would have most likely eaten the babies. In this case, the newborns were quickly captured and isolated. They will eventually be released into the wild. The mother shark survived the incident.

Burglar Falls Asleep While Picking Lock

An unnamed 35-year-old man was found sound asleep at the entrance to a shopping center in Perth, Australia. He had a lock-breaking wire in his hand. Keys found on the man fit a nearby car that contained drugs stolen from a pharmacy. Samuel Dinnison of the Perth police department said he apparently fell asleep while picking the lock.

“He obviously had a long night, whatever he was doing, and that got the better of him,” Dinnison said.

Grizzly Bear Eats Airplane

An unnamed Alaskan bush pilot went on a fishing trip and neglected to wash down his plane afterward. The 1958 Piper Cub was just too much temptation for a passing grizzly bear to bear. The bear tore apart the wood-and-fabric plane looking for the fish he smelled, to the point of chewing on the tires! When the pilot returned to find the plane in tatters, he radioed for supplies to repair the plane: duct tape, cellophane, and two tires. He wrapped the plane in duct tape and flew home. The story includes a picture of the plane after repair.

Wedding Ring Found in Ten Tons of Trash

Bridget Pericolo put her wedding ring in a disposable cup, which no one should ever do. Her husband Angelo threw the cup in the trash. By the time the couple realized their mistake, the trash had been picked up by the Parsippany, New Jersey sanitation crew. The Pericolos, who have been married for 55 years, contacted the supervisor, who told them to go to the dump. Three sanitation workers sifted through garbage estimated to weigh about ten tons until they found the Pericolo’s trash bag, with the ring inside.

Woman Reports Herself Driving Drunk

Mary Strey called police in Clark County, Wisconsin to report a drunk driver. What made this call so unusual was that she was reporting on herself! She told the dispatcher that someone was driving drunk on Granton Road. When asked if she was following that person, she admitted it was herself. Strey pulled over and waited for the responding officer, who gave her a Breathalyzer test which showed her blood alcohol level was .19. Strey is due in court over the matter in December. http://www.wtsp.com/news/watercooler/story.aspx?storyid=116662&catid=58

Fast Cat for the Fastest Man

Usain Bolt, who holds the world record for both the 100- and 200-meter sprint, adopted a cheetah named Lightning Bolt. But he isn’t going to make the cheetah into a house cat. Bolt paid $13,700 for adoption rights, and has pledged $3,000 a year for the cat’s upkeep at a wildlife center in Nairobi. The money helps to support the Kenyan Wildlife Services and their efforts to protect endangered species.

Father Reports Eagle Crime to Police

A sea eagle swooped down on the island of Väddö in Sweden and snatched a little girl’s pet rabbit on the night of October 24th. The girl was so inconsolable that her father phoned the local police department to report the crime.

The police however have decided not to launch a preliminary investigation as they were unable to find anything in the law books allowing for the indictment of large birds.

Calf Gets Prosthetic Legs

Nancy Dickenson of Ocate, New Mexico and her stepdaughter Martha found an 11-month-old calf on a neighbor’s ranch that was suffering from severe frostbite. The black angus heifer had lost the use of her back legs and hooves. What to do? Obviously, the answer is to give her prosthetic legs! Dickenson found the calf’s owner and bought her, then talked to veterinarians from Colorado State University, who agreed to help the calf they now called Meadow. Doctors and students at the veterinary school amputated Meadow’s back legs and fitted her with artificial limbs. Dickenson said her family will take on the costs, estimated to be thousands of dollars, because Meadow is now a pet. She is in no danger of becoming beef.

Man Shows Up at His Funeral

The family of 59-year-old Ademir Jorge Goncalves of Santo Antonio da Platina, Brazil identified his body after a fatal traffic accident. The funeral was held the next day, which is customary in Brazil. Imagine their shock when Goncalves himself appeared at the funeral service! Goncalves had spent the night drinking at a truck stop. A police spokesman said the body was disfigured and the family was upset, which may explain the misidentification. The victim has since been identified and the remains sent to the correct family.

Bird Drops Bread, LHC Shuts Down

You can’t make stuff like this up. A piece of a baguette dropped by a passing bird caused a shutdown at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The bread fell on some exposed machinery, which led to overheating in parts of the accelerator. The temperature spike would have caused the LHC to automatically shut down if it had been in operation at the time. The collider is scheduled to be reactivated later this month. The bread incident won’t affect those plans.

Woman Robbed by Tinky Winky

A man dressed as a purple Teletubby pulled a gun on a woman on the streets of London, Ontario just after midnight on Halloween. He made off with an undisclosed amount of cash.

The woman wasn’t injured but her misfortune wasn’t hers alone. A second man dressed in costume was later stopped in the area by police and questioned — but police had the wrong teletubby.

“He was deemed not to be the teletubby we were looking for,” Const. Kevin Lui said. “Unfortunately, Halloween provides (robbers) more cover than any other night.”

Lost Luggage

Dave Carroll of the band Sons of Maxwell who wrote the popular internet song United Breaks Guitars has become a spokesman of a sort for beleaguered airline passengers. Carroll flew United Airlines again on Sunday on his way to speak to a group of customer service executives. Then he spent an hour at the baggage claim because United lost his luggage! Carroll was told by a United employee that he had to stay in baggage claim, and a customs official told him he had to leave. The bag didn’t show up until Wednesday. Carroll said United was the only airline he could fly from Saskatchewan to Colorado Springs. The luggage was returned to him on Wednesday.

The Silverware Swallower

A Dutch medical magazine asked its readers to send in their stories of strange medical cases. One respondent told the tale of Margaret Daalman, who came in to the hospital 30 years ago complaining of a stomach ache. An x-ray found 78 forks and spoons inside her! It wasn’t the first time Daalman had been treated for her habit of eating cutlery. The photos and x-rays were not made public until now. Daalman went into therapy after the surgery and is said to be doing well today.

Murder Mystery Guests Fail to Spot Actual Crime

A church group staged a murder mystery dinner theater in Yeovil, England on Saturday night. They spent the evening looking for crime clues, but failed to notice that thieves had taken a large TV, laptop computer and the contents of a safe the night before. Elim Pentecostal Church was the victim of a break-in Friday that went unnoticed until Sunday, despite the crime-solving party. The crime was finally noticed by Reverend Howard Davenport, whose car had been vandalized at the church earlier in the week.

Revd Howard Davenport said: “In situations like this you have to laugh really!

“We were obviously disappointed that the church had been targeted twice in a week, but when I heard that it hadn’t even been noticed I had to smile.

“You’d have thought that eight wannabe detectives might have noticed a real crime a few metres from them only hours earlier!”

10-foot Shark Nearly Bitten in Half by 20-foot Shark

A 10-foot Great White Shark had been hooked already by a baited drum line off the coast of Queensland, Australia when it was attacked and bitten by a much bigger fish. Based on the bite marks, the attacker is presumed to be a 20-foot long Great White shark. Swimmers were warned away from the area of Stradbroke Island.

One-legged Man Held After One Shoe Goes Missing

A clerk at a shoe store in Maldegem, Belgium discovered that a single shoe was missing on Monday. A suspect came immediately to mind -a one-legged man who had been in the shop. Police were alerted and quickly apprehended an amputee who fit the store employees’ description. The shoe was recovered, and the suspect, a Russian asylum-seeker, was handed over to authorities.

Chihuahua Smuggled in Luggage

Customs officials at the Dublin Airport at first thought the x-ray showed a toy dog in the suitcase, but they opened it up and out popped a live puppy! A Bulgarian man on a flight from Madrid was trying to smuggle the young chihuahua. Bring a chihuahua into Ireland is not illegal, but imported animals must have a health certificate and paperwork to travel internationally. The puppy was handed over to officials and was placed in quarantine. The man was not detained, but a file is being compiled on the case.

Cop Allegedly Pulls Gun At Haunted House

36-year Baltimore police sergeant Eric Janik took a tour of a staged haunted house with his 9-year-old daughter and three other people. At the end of the tour, Michael Morrison, who was working in character at the attraction, jumped out at Janik to scare him with a chainsaw, Michael Meyers-style. Janik allegedly drew his service revolver and pointed it at Morrison’s chest. Morrison dropped the chainsaw, which had no chain. Janik later denied the incident, saying he pointed the gun at the ground. Witnesses say Janik had been drinking.

“Callers said he seemed to be very intoxicated. In fact, the people inside the House of Screams noted that. When he was being processed, two of the officers noticed his speech was slurred and there was a moderate odor of alcohol coming from his breath. He didn’t seem to be taking this quite as seriously as he should have been,” said Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey.

Janik has been suspended from duty with pay while awaiting a hearing.

Man in  La-Z-Boy Charged with Drunk Driving

61-year-old Dennis LeRoy Anderson of Proctor, Minnesota pleaded guilty to leaving a bar and crashing his vehicle. The vehicle was a converted La-Z-Boy recliner with a lawn mower engine, decked out with cup holders and a stereo, which he drove into another vehicle in the parking lot. Anderson’s blood-alcohol level was measured at .29 percent at the time of the crash. Anderson’s lisence had been revoked due to an earlier drunk driving charge. The La-Z-Boy was impounded and is scheduled to to sold at auction.

Cat in a Freezer for 19 Hours

A cat named Krillen survived 19 hours in a freezer in Te Kuiti, New Zealand. Sarah Crombie heard a faint meow when she approached the freezer, which hadn’t been used since her partner Sid Sisson shut it the night before. He didn’t realize that Krillen had jumped inside. The freezer was set to -18C, the coldest possible setting. Krillen attempted to jump out but was so cold he just rolled over into the bottom of the chest freezer. Sisson put the cold kitty under his shirt and climbed into bed. It took three hours under the covers for the cat to stop shaking. Krillen appears to have recovered without frostbite.

Coyote Struck, Travels to California

Daniel East and his sister, Tevyn were traveling on Interstate 80 near the Utah-Nevada border when a coyote ran in front of the car. They hit the animal, but kept driving as they assumed it was dead. Eight to ten hours later, they stopped in California and noticed the coyote was stuck in the car’s grill! They called the Wildlife Rehabilitation and Release office in Penn Valley, which sent a volunteer.

Jan Crowell, a rehabilitation center volunteer, said she brought a catch pole, an animal carrier, gloves and blankets.

When she arrived, East and his sister were taking the screws out of the car’s grill in an effort to get the animal out. Once the grill was pulled forward, the coyote poked its head out.

“No broken bones, no internal injuries — nothing,” Daniel East said, adding that the animal only had a few scrapes on one of his paws.

The coyote was kept at the center until it escaped on its own.

Leech Convicts Australian Robber

Police found a leech at the scene of a robbery in Tasmania eight years ago. They took a sample of the blood the leech had consumed and kept it for evidence. In 2008, Peter Alec Cannon was arrested on an unrelated drug charge. The DNA from his blood matched the blood from the leech! Cannon would have gotten away with the crime if he had not been arrested for the later crime and voluntarily given a DNA sample. A police spokesman said this kind of case validates the use of DNA technology for crime fighting.

XXXXXXX Vanity Plate Spells Trouble

Scottie Roberson went by the name Racer X when he built custom cars in Alabama. So when he got license plates for his everyday car, he bought vanity plates with seven Xs. That led to $19,000 in traffic tickets. It turns out that when Birmingham police ticket a car that has no license plates, they enter seven Xs for the plate number. The tickets have been racking up for Roberson for over a year. A city spokeswoman said officials are aware of the problem, and that Roberson will not be charged. She also said police are looking into changing the system to keep him from receiving more tickets.

Car Thief is a Real Bear

A couple on the outskirts of Florissant, Colorado hard their car alarm go off and called police, after seeing someone moving in the car. Sheriff’s deputies instead found a bear in the car! The animal had opened the car door, but once inside, the door shut and it couldn’t get out. When officers opened the vehicle door, the bear left in a hurry. There was extensive damage to the car’s interior. Mikel Baker of the local sheriff’s office said that bears are very hungry in the fall as they prepare for hibernation and will enter any vehicle that smells of food.

Moscow Mayor Promises No Snow

Yury Luzhkov, the mayor of Moscow, has hatched a plan to keep the city snow-free this winter. Usually snow is a problem from November to March. Luzhkov proposes to pay the Russian Air Force to seed clouds before they bring snowstorms to Moscow. That plan is used already to keep rain away from Victory Day and City Day celebrations. The cost of the scheme will be around $6 million, but that’s half of what the city usually pays to clear snow from the streets in winter. The Moscow City Council has already approved the idea.

Fugitive Busted After Making Cop His Facebook Friend

Max Sopo was a fugitive from Seattle wanted on fraud charges. He was missing for several months when a Secret Service agent found he had a Facebook page! The page was private, but the investigation found that Sopo had a Facebook friend listed who was a former Justice Department official. The official didn’t know Sopo’s background, but was able to help agents access the account and trace him to Cancun, Mexico. Sopo was arrested and is awaiting extradition.

Escaped Balloon Did Not Carry Boy

Thursday afternoon, an experimental homemade weather balloon slipped from its tethers in Colorado. Authorities and news media chased the the balloon as it drifted for two hours, thinking that 6-year-old Falcon Heene was carried away with it. When the balloon landed 90 miles away, there was no child aboard. Falcon was later found hiding in his home. The family, who once appeared on the TV show Wife Swap, later appeared on Larry King Live. When asked why he didn’t respond when he heard people calling his name, Falcon replied, “You guys said we did this for the show.”

Man Gets Probation for Stabbing Fish

Donald Earl Fite III of Portland, Oregon was sentenced for an incident of domestic violence. He had approached Sarah Harris about their recent breakup, but she refused to take him back. Fite became violent with Harris, who escaped her apartment and called 911. When she returned with police, she found Fite had impaled her purple betta fish with a knife and left it sticking to the floor.

Fite admitted to police that he killed the betta, saying, “If she can’t have me, then she can’t have the fish.”

Fite was sentenced to two years probation and a psychiatric evaluation.

Rare Goat-Sheep Rustled

The rare Schwarzhalsziegen goat looks like the front half of a goat and the back half of a sheep. There are only a few hundred in existence. An undisclosed number of goats were stolen in Dillenburg, Germany by someone in a Volkswagen hatchback. A police spokesman said,
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“They will find them almost impossible to sell on because every single one of them is accounted for around the world.”

Toddler Escapes from Toddler Escape

18-month-old Carter Powell walked out of a daycare center in Billings, Montana, and was rescued from traffic by a passing motorist. Police contacted his mother, Julie Powell, who became angry that she was not contacted by the drop-in daycare center. Police checked the facility out and concluded it was safe and that the incident was a fluke. The name of the daycare center is Toddler Escape Drop-In Child Care. Despite the name, the president of the business said this had never happened before.

Champion with a Popeye Forearm

22-year-old Matthias Schlitte has been a competitive arm-wrestler since he was 16. He has won a string of competitions in his native Germany, including the Iron Curtain Armwars in Blackburn and the German Championships in Haltern. A closer look makes it clear that Schlitte only wrestles with his right arm, which is twice the size of his left arm! His Popeye-like right arm measures almost 18 inches around.

No One Wanted to Claim Rocket Launcher

Jarrette Schule found a missilie launcher in his backyard in rural Comal County, Texas on Tuesday. He took it in his house, then began calling authorities to report it. He called the FBI, the sheriff’s department, military police, and Homeland Security. Schule said no one wanted to take responsibility for the weapon. Nineteen hours later, a criminal investigator from the Army arrived. Three hours after that, an Army ordinance disposal team retrieved the weapon. There is still no word on how it got to Schule’s yard.

Man Shot for Using Boss’ Toilet

Rajabu Hasani of Durban, South Africa, had no idea that the toilet inside the store he worked for was only for the boss’ use. After using the bathroom, the unnamed manager of the store confronted Hasani, whose defense was that he had only worked there three weeks and didn’t yet know all the rules. The manager then shot Hasani in the knee! An ambulance took him to the hospital, where the bullet was removed. Hasani contacted police, who are investigating, but no arrested have been made. Hasani had not returned to work at the store.

Edgar Allan Poe’s Funeral

Edgar Allan Poe died 160 years ago, but did not have a proper funeral, especially for such a respected author. Sunday, this will be rectified with two services at Poe’s grave site in Baltimore. Actors will portray Poe’s contemporaries and eulogies will be read based on real writings about the author. Instead of digging up and reburying Poe, a mockup was constructed and will lie in state for visitation and a wake before the funeral. Advance tickets are sold out. Baltimore has many Poe events scheduled for this year, the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Bag of Cocaine ‘Shot Out’ of Suspect’s Body

St. Lucie County, Florida police received a tip about a man transporting cocaine Thursday. They found a car fitting the description at a gas station. The driver, Warren Leonard Wiley drew the attention of a drug-sniffing dog.

“Wiley was then escorted to the men’s room for a more detailed search,” the affidavit states. “While being escorted, Wiley dropped his shorts in the middle of the store stating, ‘I don’t have nothing.’ ”

Wiley’s backside appeared “clenched tight” as if he was hiding something. While walking, his backside relaxed and a clear bag with about 22 grams of cocaine in it “shot out” onto the store’s floor.

Officers arrested Wiley on a variety of charges.

Plumber’s Arm Left Askew

50-year-old Torron Eeles of Welham Green, Hertfordshire, England fell down a fight of stairs in December and broke his upper arm. Ten months later, he still hasn’t received an operation to straighten it out. Eeles claims that the surgery has been postponed four times. An authority with the National Health Service claims there have been two postponements due to concerns over Eeles health, once when his blood pressure was too high and once when it was found he failed to quit smoking under a doctor’s intruction. Eeles’ incapacity benefits were discontinued recently when a doctor evaluated him and said he could work.

Crocodile Thrown in Jail for Loitering

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Woman Tries to Steal Puppy at Gunpoint

24-year-old Ashleigh Johnson of Kellyville, Australia placed an ad to sell a Chihuahua puppy. An unnamed 26-year-old woman who responded to the ad went to Johnson’s home and met the puppy named Diego. While the woman was holding the dog, she pulled a gun and said she “needed love” and was taking the puppy without paying the $1500 price. Johnson’s father, a security guard, grabbed the gun. Johnson’s brother, a police officer, helped to restrain the woman until she could be arrested. Diego was not harmed and is still for sale.

Rescuing a Parrot with a Cherry Picker

A 13-year-old macaw flew 50 feet up into a tree and was too scared to fly down. Emma Hooper of Botley, England believes that Cleo flew away because she was distressed at moving to a new home. When the RSPCA refused to come, Hooper called to rent a hydraulic lift, but was told it wouldn’t be available until the next day. Hooper stayed by the tree all night long. The cherry picker arrived at 7:30 AM, and Cleo was finally brought down. She had spent 16 hours on the same branch.

“Hitler’s Skull” Belongs to Woman

Recent DNA tests show that the skull purported to belong to Adolf Hitler is not his. Hitler committed suicide in 1945. His remains were burned the next day by the Russian Army. One year later, bone fragments were recovered from the site and kept by Russian authorities until they were cremated in 1970, with the exception of a piece of the skull, which showed a bullet hole. American scientists who examined the bone found it to be suspiciously small. DNA tests revealed that the skull is from a woman. It is not believed to belong to Hitler’s wife Eva Braun because there was no evidence that she was shot.

Fat Skunk Put on Diet

A skunk named Mr. Bumble was turned over to the RSPCA when his owners could no longer handle him. The skunk weighed in at 14 pounds! It is thought that his love, described as an “addiction,” to bacon sandwiches is to blame. Mr. Bumble is now at Tropiquaria Animal Park in Watchet, England and is on a vegetarian diet. The regimen includes long walks as well.

It Pays to Dress Nicely for Court

Robbery suspect Ronald Tackman walked out of a Manhattan courthouse before his hearing Wednesday morning. He hasn’t been seen since. He had left a holding area and went behind a courtroom. A security guard saw him in his business suit and let him out, assuming he was a lawyer. The 54-year-old Tackman had escaped jail once before, in the 1980s.

Dwarf Village is a Theme Park

120 little people live in a village near Kunming, China. The village was set up to protect the dwarves from discrimination. You can’t live there if you are over 4 feet 3 inches tall.
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Now the group has turned itself into a tourist attraction by building mushroom houses and living and dressing like fairy tale characters.
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“As small people we are used to being pushed around and exploited by big people. But here there aren’t any big people and everything we do is for us,” said spokesman Fu Tien.

Sports Announcer’s Goofy Prediction Comes True

Seattle Mariners color commentator Mike Blowers was asked to make a prediction about the Mariners matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays. Blowers got very specific and said that 1. rookie Matt Tuiasosopo would hit his first home run since joining the majors, 2. the hit would come in a 3-1 count, 3. off a fastball 4. in the second inning, and that 5. the ball would land in the second deck. Four of the five predictions came true! The ball barely missed the second deck.

470 Feet of Extension Cord Leads to Arrest

23-year-old Asher Woodworth was arrested in Bennington, Vermont while trying to steal the giant pepper off the roof of the local Chili’s Restaurant. Three women who were acting as lookouts were also arrested. Police seized a hacksaw, power drill, and 470 feet of extension cords that were stretched over a parking lot, across the street, and plugged in at a Home Depot store. The four had been at the job for hours, and had once left to go get more extension cords. Apparently the group was not familiar with cordless power tools.

Snake with a Foot Found

A 16-inch snake was killed at a home in China and then found to have a foot growing out of its body! 66-year-old Dean Qiongxiu said she awoke to find the reptile clinging to a wall in her bedroom. She killed the snake with a shoe and when she saw the clawed foot, she put the body in alcohol to preserve it. It was taken to the Life Sciences Department at China’s West Normal University in Nanchang for study.

They Removed the Scar Tissue and Read “Hamburger”

John Manley of Wilmington, North Carolina suffered frequent pneumonia and coughing spells for over a year before the real culprit was found. There was a jagged inch-long piece of plastic lodged in his left lung. It turned out to be part of a utensil from Wendy’s Hamburgers. Manley was referred to a specialist at Duke University Medical Center for removal of the object, which was difficult because of the scar tissue that had formed around it. As the team worked, they uncovered letters that spelled out “hamburger”.  Manley thinks he probably inhaled the plastic when he gulped a drink. He now drinks with a straw.

First Clown in Space

Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte is paying $35 million to catch a ride to the International Space Station on a Russian spacecraft later this month. Cirque du Soleil founder Laliberte calls himself “the first clown in space.” He plans to brings red noses for everyone on the space station and says he will wake the astronauts by tickling them.  Laliberte will also use his trip to raise awareness of world drinking water issues.

107-Year-Old Woman is Looking for 23rd Husband

107-year-old Wok Kundor has been married to her 22nd husband for years, but is now afraid he might leave her. 37-year-old Mohammed Boor Che Musa is currently in a drug rehabilitation program in Kuala Lumpur. Kundor is afraid he may be able to ind a younger wife and not come back to their small village in the Terengganu state of Malaysia.

If so, Wok has her eyes set on a 50-year-old man, but hopes it does not come to that.

“I realize that I am an aged woman. I don’t have the body nor am I a young woman who can attract anyone,” she told the newspaper.

Her current husband, however, told a newspaper that he still loves her.

New World Record Tallest Man

The Guinness Book of World Records has certified that 27-year-old Sultan Kosen from Turkey is the world’s tallest man. Kosen is eight feet and one inch tall! His height is due to pituitary gigantism caused by a tumor on the pituitary gland. What does Kosen want to do with his new fame? First, he wants to find a car he can fit into, and he wants to get married if he can find the right girl.

Dog Crashes Car into Cafe

A dog named Wilco was left in a car in Cromwell, New Zealand while his owner went into a liquor store to pick up some beer. The unnamed man left the motor running, and Wilco jumped on the gear shift, which sent the vehicle crashing through the window of the nearby Fusee Rouge cafe.

“A lady from Mitre 10 ran through the doors and said ‘did you know that your dog’s just driven through the cafe doors’. So yeah, we popped out there and it was definitely right, it was sitting in the driver’s seat,” says Terry Fox, store manager.

Wilco and his owner were let go with a warning.

Child Held for Ransom Over Pizza

Lisa Paardekooper of Darwin, Australia ordered a pizza to be delivered last Saturday, but refused to pay full price when the pizza arrived an hour late. She was on the phone with the pizza parlor trying to negotiate a discount when the pizza deliverer allegedly grabbed her four-year-old son as ransom.

Lisa Paardekooper claims the driver held Cain for 40 seconds, demanding cash. ”He said give me the pizza back or the money,” she said. ”He stuck his hand through the gate and grabbed Cain around the wrist. I raised my fist to him … when I raised my hand he let go of him.”

The deliverer was given the pizza and left. Paardekooper immediately called the police, who are investigating the incident.

Thief Caught On Film Stealing Camera

A man in Manchester, England climbed the wall at a shopping center and removed a £1,000 security camera. He apparently did not realize that the recorded images were not stored on the camera itself, but were sent to the security control room. The camera is gone, but police have footage of the theft. The video has been released to the public in hopes that someone will recognize the perpetrator, who is missing his front teeth.

Saddam’s Military Planes Found Twenty Years Later

Iraq’s missing Air Force jets have been traced to Serbia, where they are mostly in pieces. They have been cannibalized, parted out, or left to deteriorate over he past twenty years. In 1989, the planes were sent to Zagreb, Yugoslavia for maintenance. The planes were parted out and sent to Serbia in 1999, during the Croatian war for independence. Zagreb is now in Croatia. A delegation from Iraq will go to Belgrade to negotiate the return of the jets, but they are unlikely to help Iraq rebuild its air defenses. The Iraqi Air Force currently has no jets.

Celebrity Bird Attacks Police Officer

A 3-foot-tall macaw named Chip is in a bit of trouble over a traffic stop. The bird, who starred in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, attacked a policeman in the course of his duties in Dover, England. The officer arrested the unnamed owner of the bird on suspicion of driving while banned. As the officer was driving the car to the impound lot, the loose bird pecked at his arms and fingers the entire journey. Chip was not arrested, but is being held by the RSPCA until his owner is released.

Too Drunk to Fly

A 65-year-old amateur pilot was arrested for flying drunk after a rescue helicopter had to guide him to the airfield in Schoengleida, Germany. He had drunk wine and beer before taking off, and continued to drink while flying.

”Come on, I know you’re down there,” he radioed. ”Where the bloody hell have you hidden yourself?”

Control tower staff say he also sang a few songs, cracked a mother-in-law joke and told them to ”pull their fingers out as I’ve got a party to go to”.

The airfield personnel sent a rescue helicopter to lead the pilot to the runway. The unnamed man was able to land the Cessna, and “wobbled” to his car. Airfield authorities called police, who arrested the man on his way home. He tested four times over the legal limit for driving.

One Fast Cat

Sarah, a cheetah at the Cincinnati Zoo, set a world record for the 100 meter dash Wednesday by covering the distance in 6.13 seconds. The event was held at Mast Farm, the zoo’s cheetah breeding facility. The race is a remote contest between Sarah and Zaza, a cheetah at Cheetah Outreach in South Africa. Zaza is expected to run her race later this month. To compare, the human world record is 9.58 seconds, held by Usain Bolt.

Groom Fixes Teeth to Marry Dentist’s Daughter

32-year-old Gordon Taylor proposed to 26-year-old Sarah Lewis and got an ultimatum. She would marry him if he got his teeth fixed! Lewis’ father is a dentist, and her mother works with him. Both her parents were horrified to see the state of Taylor’s teeth when he began to date their daughter. But Taylor agreed to the procedures. He wore snap-on prosthetic teeth for the wedding on the Isle of Wight, and will undergo fillings, straightening, and bleaching next.