Weird but True - Part II

[SleepyHead]

A radio talk show in San Antonio, Texas, asked callers to
describe the "biggest lie" they've ever told. "John" called in to
describe how he defrauded his insurance company by arranging to have
his pickup truck stolen, netting him $7,000 cash and a new truck. The
show was more popular than "John" realized: an FBI agent was
listening
to the details he gave, including when the scheme went down. The
agent
searched theft reports filed with the local police and quickly
narrowed
"John's" identity to Humberto Perez, 31. Perez faces up to five years
in federal prison if he's convicted of two felony fraud charges. (San
Antonio Express-News)

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Our Lady's Psalter (http://ourladyspsalter.50megs.com)
Bearkat77's Beatlemaniac Page (http://bearkat77.www9.50megs.com)
Bearkat77's Tribute to John Lennon (http://bearkatjl.50megs.com)
Bearkat77's Tribute to Ringo Starr (http://bearkatrs.50megs.com)

[SleepyHead]

The Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia, was robbed of "a
substantial six-figure sum." Not only did security cameras record the
whole thing, but the man robbed a cashier in a special room that was
only open to members who have passed a 100-point identity check and
use
a personal key card to enter. Casino officials turned his membership
info over to the police. "We're not dealing with Albert Einstein," a
casino spokesman said. (The Melbourne Age)

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In Memory Of Robby (http://inmemoryofrobby.50megs.com)
Our Lady's Psalter (http://ourladyspsalter.50megs.com)
Bearkat77's Beatlemaniac Page (http://bearkat77.www9.50megs.com)
Bearkat77's Tribute to John Lennon (http://bearkatjl.50megs.com)
Bearkat77's Tribute to Ringo Starr (http://bearkatrs.50megs.com)

[SleepyHead]

Rolf Eden, 72, a disco owner in Berlin, Germany, has offered
to
leave his 250,000 Euro (US$244,000) estate to the last woman that has
sex with him. "I put it all in my last will and testament: the last
woman who sleeps with me gets all the money," he says. "First a lot
of
fun with a beautiful woman, then wild sex, a final orgasm -- and it
will all end with a heart attack and then I'm gone." He says
"applicants" should hurry up because of his advanced age. "It could
end
very soon. Maybe even tomorrow." (Reuters) ...Proof that money
doesn't
necessarily buy a guy a better come-on line.

------------------
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In Memory Of Robby (http://inmemoryofrobby.50megs.com)
Our Lady's Psalter (http://ourladyspsalter.50megs.com)
Bearkat77's Beatlemaniac Page (http://bearkat77.www9.50megs.com)
Bearkat77's Tribute to John Lennon (http://bearkatjl.50megs.com)
Bearkat77's Tribute to Ringo Starr (http://bearkatrs.50megs.com)

[SleepyHead]

When new management took over at the Howmet Corp.
jet
engine part factory in Whitehall, Mich., they instituted a no-shorts
dress code for the factory, which doesn't have air conditioning. The
men pointed out female workers were allowed to wear skirts, but the
company wouldn't budge -- so several men now wear skirts. "It's very
hot and the skirts are cooler," says Ron Buckhalter, 55, a 33-year
company veteran. The biggest problem seems to be that "We're getting
a
lot of flack from the girls for not being color coordinated," says
Ron
Bailey, 49. Well, that and "We try not to stop off anywhere after
work," Buckhalter says. "We've gotten strange looks." (Muskegon
Chronicle)

------------------
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In Memory Of Robby (http://inmemoryofrobby.50megs.com)
Our Lady's Psalter (http://ourladyspsalter.50megs.com)
Bearkat77's Beatlemaniac Page (http://bearkat77.www9.50megs.com)
Bearkat77's Tribute to John Lennon (http://bearkatjl.50megs.com)
Bearkat77's Tribute to Ringo Starr (http://bearkatrs.50megs.com)

[SleepyHead]

A policeman arriving at a minor traffic accident in
Fitchburg, Mass., was surprised when one of the drivers involved
allegedly punched the other driver in the nose, then sped off after
trying to run the officer down and smashing his patrol car. He chased
after the man in his damaged cruiser. When finally stopped, Anthony
J.
Bernier, 24, of Rhode Island told officers he "wanted to try and
outrun
the cops like on the TV shows. I have a new car and those cruisers
are
old. I figured I could outrun them." Hewas charged with assault and
battery with a dangerous weapon (the car), failure to stop for a
police
officer, driving to endanger, leaving the scene of an accident, and
assault and battery on the other motorist. (Worcester Telegram &
Gazette)

[SleepyHead]

Witnesses in Green Bay, Wisc., reported an apparently drunk man backed into another car in a bar's parking lot and then drove away. Officers quickly caught up with the suspect -- he was only going 20 miles per hour -- but he refused to pull over. The low-speed chase ended at the county jail, where the man parked in the lot, had a cigarette, then submitted to arrest. Robert Younger, 22, told the arresting officers he was "f---ed up and I knew I was going to jail, so I drove myself out here." (Green Bay Press-Gazette)

[SleepyHead]

Colorado Governor Bill Owens is running for re-election
against
Democrat Rollie Heath. On Halloween, Heath enjoyed giving candy bars
to
trick-or-treaters -- Heath bars, of course. Over at the Governor's
Mansion in Denver, Owens' wife was also handing out candy bars. Heath
bars. "It looks like both the governor and Rollie agree that Heath is
the best," Heath's gleeful spokesman said. (Denver Rocky Mountain
News)
...The headline: "Governor's Wife Gives Out Heaths, But Governor Gets
Snickers".

[SleepyHead]

Upset volunteers at a breast cancer awareness event at
the Market Place Shopping Centre in Burgess Hill, Sussex, England,
called police to report that someone had stolen a bra from their
display. Security cameras showed a local youth had swiped it, and
officers went to his house to confront him. As PC Jon Lelliott
approached his open door, "I was amazed to see the youth stripped to
the waist and parading round in this pink bra, having a laugh with
his
mates," he says. The teen-aged boy "had his back to the door where I
was standing but, most embarrassingly, all his mates could see me. He
was speechless when he turned round to see us there. I could barely
keep a straight face." The officer let him off with a warning.
(Brighton Evening Argus) ...Maybe, but his mates won't.

[SleepyHead]

Harold Cunningham, 31, was working alone at an appliance store
in
Oklahoma City, Okla., when he reached up to get a TV off the rack.
The
whole rack of sets fell. "Three or four very large televisions fell
on
him," said a spokesman for the Emergency Medical Services Authority.
Cunningham thinks he was trapped for about 15 minutes before a
customer
finally came in and called for help. (The Oklahoman) ...Usually the
"new fall TV season" causes a different kind of pain.

[SleepyHead]

"I said, 'OK, man, you're being stupid, put it away'," says
Jim
Roban, 39. Matt George, 21, was showing off his new pet rattlesnake
to
friends at his Yacolt, Wash., home. George had taken the snake out of
its cage to give it a kiss. "He said, 'It's OK, I do it all the
time'."
Maybe so, but this time the snake bit him firmly on the upper lip.
When
George dropped the snake, Roban killed it. "I thought his head was
going to blow up, he was just swelling and swelling," Roban said.
Doctors say George should survive. (Vancouver Columbian)

[SleepyHead]

Eliane Yvonne Marcele Aguillaume, 56, of Antibes
Juan-les-Pins, France, was in Evansville, Ind., to attend a wedding.
On
her way back home, she was stopped by Evansville airport security for
a
search. When a handheld metal detector beeped and the security
screener
started to pat her down, Aguillaume became angry and stripped off her
sweater, blouse and bra, then resisted when police officers
surrounded
her. She was charged with disorderly conduct at an airport, a felony,
and misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and public indecency --
all
punishable by up to three years in prison. Prosecutors dropped the
felony charge and she pleaded guilty to the other two. She was fined
$1
for each and released. (Evansville Courier & Press)

[SleepyHead]

"Crazy Eric", 31, doesn't like being caught without
a
tool he needs. Any tool. He has thus created a special set of clothes
that houses every tool he thinks he will ever need. Eric, an
electrician who won't tell his last name, lives in Lyon, France, says
it "began very gradually about 10 years ago. First of all it was a
screwdriver, then a pair of scissors, then some snack-bars and a
torch." Shaving and first aid kits. A saw, an inflatable mattress, a
water filter. A soldering iron. An umbrella. A paint brush. About
1300
items in all, including perhaps the most practical: a change of
clothes. (AFP)

[SleepyHead]

While sitting in a Utah jail awaiting sentencing after his
conviction for manufacturing drugs, Kent Coulson wrote a letter to
U.S.
District Judge David Sam. "Hey Baby, how is my little thing?" he
wrote.
"Can you believe my father plays golf with Sam, the crusty old
judge...? Ha! Not only that, but the old [expletive] lives up here
and
the church people who come every Sunday morning happen to know him.
So
it all looks good for me. Ha! Ha! ... I have to write a suck-up
letter
to the Honorable [expletive] and it should all be great for me. Your
big guy, Kent." Coulson apparently put the "suck-up" letter meant for
the judge in the envelope to his girlfriend. Since he sent the letter
meant for his girlfriend to the judge, it was entered as an official
court document. Coulson's attorney tried to convince the judge that
another inmate wrote the letter as a practical joke. (Salt Lake
Tribune)

[SleepyHead]

A woman at a Rolling Stones concert in Detroit, Mich.,
recognized
someone in the audience -- District Judge Thomas Gilbert of Traverse
City -- and reported him to authorities because of what he was doing
there. "She was concerned about it because she saw a judge smoking a
joint," said Chief District Judge Michael Haley. Gilbert admitted to
the act. "He's full of shame and regret" and is on "indefinite
voluntary leave" from the bench, Haley says. (Traverse City Record-
Eagle)

[SleepyHead]

Two 15-year-old boys were arrested on vandalism charges in
Grand Island, Neb., after they allegedly drove a pickup truck through
the yards of multiple houses. It didn't take Hall County Sheriff's
Department too long to crack the case. "The truck had the name of the
business on the side," a department spokesman said. "It makes it a
little easier to solve the crime when they do that." The truck, and
business, is owned by one of the suspect's fathers, and the boys
targeted the houses of schoolmates, which made it easy for the
victims
to remember the name on the truck. Because of the extent of damage
they
caused, the boys may face felony charges. They also caused $3,000 in
damage to the truck. (Grand Island Independent) ...Which is what
happens when schools teach kids how to pass standardized tests,
rather
than how to think.

[SleepyHead]

Police in Lantana, Fla., have arrested James
F.
Welles, 61, after he allegedly made a date over the Internet to have
sex with a 15-year-old girl -- who was actually a 40-year-old Lantana
Police Department detective. "We can't be lovey-dovey in public,"
police say Welles explained online, because "Bottom line, I'm
committing a crime." Welles is the author of the books "The Story of
Stupidity" and "Understanding Stupidity". In the books Welles
explains
that "the arrogance inherent in [our] 'We can do anything' attitude
came to characterize the general stupidity of our age and contributed
to the monumental problems we have created for ourselves." (Palm
Beach
Post) ...Ya think?

[SleepyHead]

"Miss America Contestant Quits after Confessing to Being
Canadian" -- PA headline

[SleepyHead]

The town council in Warringah, NSW, Australia, was upset
that they could not block a cell phone company from putting an
antenna
on the top of a new lighting pole in a council-controlled park. After
a
legal challenge was denied, the council changed their tactics: hours
before the scheduled installation they sent a man out with a chainsaw
to cut it down. (Sydney Morning Herald)

[SleepyHead]

The town council in Warringah, NSW, Australia, was upset
that they could not block a cell phone company from putting an
antenna
on the top of a new lighting pole in a council-controlled park. After
a
legal challenge was denied, the council changed their tactics: hours
before the scheduled installation they sent a man out with a chainsaw
to cut it down. (Sydney Morning Herald)

[SleepyHead]

"Mooning" is a Constitutional right, says attorney
Eugene O'Sullivan. His client, James Albert Ernest Togo, 20, pled not
guilty of dropping his pants to expose his buttocks to police
officers
in Coolangatta, Qld., Australia. "The larrikin moon is of a political
nature when it is directed at an authority figure," O'Sullivan argued
in court. "It's a youth thing." Magistrate Sheryl Cornack postponed
her
decision until she could poll federal and state prosecutors for their
opinion on the matter. (Melbourne Herald Sun) ...Most will probably
just crack jokes.

[SleepyHead]

Keith Ellis, 41, was hunting in a wooded part of
Augusta, Ga., and was being careful: he was wearing a bright orange
suit. But he was still shot, Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department
investigators say, by another hunter -- a 13-year-old boy on a tree
stand. "I looked down and saw a hole through five layers of clothing
and my knife split in two," Ellis says. The knife, in a sheath on his
belt, deflected the bullet and, he thinks, saved his life. "I owe it
all to someone above." (AP)

[SleepyHead]

"Pole Sets World Record for Pole-Sitting" -- AP
headline

[SleepyHead]

When Jimmy Batten, 56,
arrived at his home in Brooksville, Fla., after being out for the
evening, he found an intruder in his living room. He confronted the
man, later identified as Sean Todd Duval, 26, who was allegedly
trying
to steal some guns Batten had in the house -- a rifle was lying on
the
floor. That's when he noticed that Duval was missing a toe on one
foot
after accidentally shooting himself with the rifle. "Finish me off,"
Duval begged him. "Go ahead and blow my brains out." Batten called
for
police and an ambulance instead. "I guess I had all the right in the
world to shoot the boy," Batten said. "But I didn't." (St. Petersburg
Times)

[SleepyHead]

Rep. Bob Schaffer of Ft. Collins, Colo., decided to name a
post office for someone who is developmentally disabled. He sponsored
a
bill to honor Barney Apodaca, 60, a local man who lives on his own,
works two jobs and raises money for charity. After sailing through
Congress and being signed into law by President Bush, the Barney
Apodaca Post Office in Ft. Collins was christened. Apodaca was
surprised by the gesture. Very surprised. "No one asked me if I
wanted
this, and if they did I would have said 'No!'," he said when he found
out later. "I don't want my name on the post office. I don't work
over
there. I never go to the post office." Schaffer has asked postal
officials to abort their plans to put up signs and have a party to
celebrate the new name. (Denver Post)

[SleepyHead]

Aaron Bell, 19, has been convicted of robbery
after a particularly lame effort on his part: Bell decided to hit the
KFC store in West Philadelphia, Penn., during the hours the safe's
timelock wouldn't open. He should have known that -- he had worked as
a
cook at the very KFC he was robbing for 2-1/2 years. He wasn't
wearing
a mask or disguise, and all the employees knew who it was that was
robbing them. Bell left empty-handed ...and showed up at the store to
work his next-scheduled shift three days later. "He was acting like
nothing had happened," said the prosecutor in the case. Employees
called the police while Bell was in the men's room, changing into his
uniform. (Philadelphia Daily News)

[SleepyHead]

Amanda Webster, 34, of London, England, couldn't get her car to
start. "I noticed that part of the key was missing," said Keith
Scott,
who was dispatched by the auto club to help. He figured out that the
missing bit was the transponder -- a security device that won't let
the
car start unless it's detected near the keyhole. Webster's toddler,
Oscar, had been playing with the keys. "Mrs. Webster told me that he
had been sucking the key and we realized he might have swallowed part
of it." Scott had her hold the baby up to the steering wheel to get
the transponder near the detector and the car started right up. The
transponder was "recovered" later. (London Telegraph)