Strange But True Category
Weird, offbeat and bizarre news from around the world. Funny, strange & odd news stories that make you wince, laugh and fear for humanity.
The Only Cake In The Contest Takes Second Prize
“WELL done champ,” says the referee to the boxer, “you came second“:
A grandmother won second prize in a cake-baking contest at a fete, only to discover she was the only entrant.
Jenny Brown, 62, entered her Victoria Sponge into the competition and was initially pleased to have come second.
But she was left shocked when a friend revealed to her that she was the only person to take part.
The contest was organised by the Wimblington Sports Committee and judges marked down the cake because it had indentations from the oven rack.
Of course, third place had no indentations at all. And it’s not the first time:
Julie Dent, from the Wimblington Sports Committee, said: “The judges had an expectation and I suppose they didn’t feel as though it qualified for first place.
“This was the first year but the cake competition will become an annual event.”
She said her own baking was subject to another strange decision.
“About 11 years ago I entered a show with some fruit scones. I was the only entrant but I came third.”
Posted: 5th, July 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comments (7)
Roger Tullgren Is Addicted To Rock
EXPECT screams of “it’s political correctness gone mad” to erupt from the darkest recesses of middle England as news of Roger Tullgren and his apparent disability spreads throughout the country.
The 42-year-old’s addiction to heavy metal music has been categorised as a disability by doctors in Sweden, meaning that the middle-aged rocker will pocket £65 a week from the state top up his job as a restaurant dishwasher.
Rocking Roger has campaigned for a decade to have his metal addiction properly recognised by the painfully understanding Swedish state. And following the ruling, even his boss is letting him play his ear-splitting music at work while also giving him time off to go to concerts.
A delighted Tullgren says: “Some might say I should grow up and learn to listen to other types of music”, missing the point somewhat. “Heavy metal is my lifestyle,” he continues. “The fact that I am into music so much has affected my work situation to the extent that I have had to quit some jobs.”
The Swedish Unemployment Service apparently only intervened after occupational psychologists performed extensive tests before classifying him “disabled”.
Does that mean he can enter the Special Olympics or use a disabled parking space? For those of you about to play the system on, we salute you…
Posted: 21st, June 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comment
American Town Of Potter Outlaws Beer
YOU’LL soon have to drive a long way in Potter, New York, to get yourself a beer.
So far, in fact, that you’ll have to travel outside the town’s 37 square miles where residents passed a law that makes the sale of beer illegal.
Though that’s not the way the residents of Potter wanted it.
In a Homer Simpson-esque attempt to add wine and spirits to the liquor license of one of only a few places in town that sold beer, residents somehow managed to outlaw beer completely. D’oh.
And the good folk of Potter, a mainly agricultural area of New York State, are not amused.
“Why would somebody want to make this a dry community?” Ron Chapin asked the New York Times as he picked up a six-pack of Labatt Ice at the only store in town that still has a license. “It’d be a bummer.”
The trouble started in 2005, when local restaurant, the Hitchin’ Rail, submitted an application to sell wine and beer with meals.
Archaic New York state laws required the town to put the application before the townsfolk in a referendum that town supervisor Leonard Lisenbee told the Times entailed five “stupid questions.”
Questions included: “Shall any person be authorized to sell alcoholic beverages at retail to be consumed on premises licensed pursuant to the provisions of Section 64 of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law?”
And: “Shall any person be authorized to sell alcoholic beverages at retail, not to be consumed on the premises, where sold in the town of Potter?”
Potterites were bemused. So they did whatever any other suspicious person might do when faced with five legally-binding and confusing questions. They voted “no” to them all.
Not only did they refuse the Hitchen Rail’s application. But they accidentally stopped the two stores in town from selling beer when their licenses ran out. The last license runs out in about two weeks.
Dave Spampinato, who lost his liquor license last year, told the Times that revenue dropped by a third: “It really created a lot of hostility in this small town.”
The townsfolk have tried a number of times to reverse their self-imposed ban. They approved a referendum in 2006 for the sale of “hard liquor” (wines and spirits) only to find out that the new law did not apply to a nice, cold bottle of beer.
And they wrote begging letters to the New York State Legislature, which extended the license of Federal Hollow Staples, the only place that sells beer, until December. So at least the hot summer months are covered.
Katie Brown, the manager of Federal Hollow Staples, said the store relies on beer sales for 78 percent of its annual revenue: “We’re a farming town, you know?”
Posted: 19th, June 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comments (7)
All Aboard The X-Coaster
“YOU could tell who got off the (X-Coaster) because their faces were red,” said Angela Salter.
You join us in Springs & Crystal Falls amusement park, Arkansas, where a dozen riders are getting their money’s worth on the big attraction.
Having buckled into their seats, the roller coaster riders are ready to go.
“It was very scary,” says Connie McBride. “I love the amusement park, but I will never get on the X-Coaster again.”
This sounds just great, ideal material for Sky Three to make a programme around, or Five an entire series.
But health and safely may not allow it because the power has just gone off and the riders are hanging upside down150 feet in the air.
“The cause could be a (tree) limb or as simple as an animal (on the lines),” says Mark Hunt, general manager of customer service for Entergy, the power company. “We could find no faults, but we are going to continue to investigate until we find the cause.”
The riders are rescued by ladder.
And the ride is closed. But surely it should go on. In the quest for the biggest fairground thrill, what better than not knowing what will happen?
We say plug the thing back in. And let British train operators maintain the track. The ride leaves early. The ride leaves late. The ride never leaves. The ride arrives. The ride is waylaid by a points failure and replaced by a bus service…
Posted: 11th, June 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comments (3)
Forward With Transition Town Totnes: Devon’s License To Print Money
AH Devon, the picturesque home to Dartmoor, the Jurassic coast, Exeter cathedral and the wilful printing of counterfeit money? Surely not! Well, yes actually. Kind of.
The sleepy Devon town of Totnes has indeed been printing its own money in the form of three hundred £1 notes, according the Mirror. But before you get on the phone to Crimewatch, these notes are nothing more than fake bills which can only be used to buy goods in 18 local shops, rather like book tokens.
The brainchild of the fascistic sounding Transition Town Totnes, a local group set up to nurture a more self-sufficient community, the notes feature a copy of a locally issued note (from 1810) on one side and a list of participating outlets on the other.
The ‘money’ was given away at a public meeting and the experiment has been so successful that plans are afoot to print 3,000 more.
Organiser Marjana Kos is delighted with the results. Says she: “It’s keeping local trade alive and supporting local business.” Local Rob Hopkins adds: “Totnes used to issue its own money. One day in the future the town might have its own currency again.”
The Totnes independence struggle starts here.
Posted: 6th, June 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
Copper Wants £1.5million For Pineapple Abuse
DON’T believe what the experts tell you – fruit isn’t always beneficial to your health. Just ask Tracey Ormsby.
The 36-year-old former police officer is demanding £1.5million in damages after she was hit in the chest with a pineapple.
The fruity attack happened back in 2001 at a protest over plans to close a Glasgow swimming pool.
Ormsby claims that she was pelted with a whole range of foodstuffs by the angry mob, including eggs and potatoes.
The ex-WPC takes up the harrowing story: “I felt a sharp blow to my chest and stumbled back. I’d been struck on the chest with a pineapple. I never saw it coming. I was instantly winded.”
As well as the pineapple attack, she also suffered kicks and punches as unhelpful senior officers refused to issue riot shields and banned officers from arresting the troublemakers.
In response to her allegations, Strathclyde Police are insisting that their response was “proper and proportionate”.
However, Ormsby, who left the force in 2004 on medical grounds, remains deeply upset and claims that she developed “a phobic reaction towards the police”.
Join the club. Pineapples on request…
Posted: 6th, June 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comments (11)
Ginger Ail: Redhead Chapmans Forced To Leave Home
“HOUNDED OUT OF THREE HOMES FOR BEING GINGER.”
Welcome to Anorak’s ginger focus group. Kevin and Barbara Chapman and their four children are stood at the centre of the circle of trust telling us how they are gingers and how so being has affected their lives.
Dad Kevin tells us: “Families seem to recognise us. Wherever we move, there will be a relation in that estate who knows who we are and then it all starts again. Eggs are thrown at us and the kids get beaten up.”
Barbara adds: “Wherever the kids go they get called ‘ginger nut’ or ‘ginger b*****d’.”
Kevin senior goes on: “It started more than three years ago, when the kids started getting bullied by lads over the colour of their hair. Since then they’ve been punched and kicked and thrown over a hedge.
“Every time they go out these gangs have got to them. The abuse we endure is disgusting. I mean, if you have ginger hair you expect people to have a bit of fun – but this is just unbelievable. I brought the kids up to be proud. There’s nothing wrong with the way they look.”
Indeed not. Gingers should be proud and walk tall. We recall notable gingers thought ages: Erasure’s Andy Bell, T-Pau’s Carol Decker, Mick Hucknall, 80s warbler Sonia, Chris Evans and Pricne Harry, leader of the ‘Ronald McDonald Army’ in Iraq.
The family talk of their windows being out in, the children’s difficulty in making friends, the “Gingers are gay” graffiti and depression.
Newcastle City Council is “discussing the situation”. Kevin has discussed changing the children’s hair colour with one of the officers. A spokesman says: “He suggested he was going to dye his hair.”
That it should some to this! For shame…
Posted: 2nd, June 2007 | In: Strange But True, Tabloids | Comments (12)
Dominican Republic Wedding Turns Into Nightmare
FOR newly-weds Mike Goodhall and Heidi Loader, the devil was definitely in the detail as a simple spelling mistake turned their £4,000 dream Caribbean beach wedding into a nightmare.
Returning home from a romantic wedding, the couple looked forward to years of wedded bliss but instead discovered that the clerk in the Dominican Republic had misspelt Mr Goodhall’s name as ‘Goodhael’ on the wedding certificate, thus rendering the union null and void.
Goodhall or ‘Goodhael’ even, returned the document to Thomas Cook, the travel company who had arranged the holiday and wedding. But they proceeded to lose the original certificate and now, six months on, the unfortunate lovebirds still can’t officially use their married names to open joint bank accounts, apply for passports or get a joint mortgage.
Mr Goodhall is understandably rather unhappy. Says he: “It’s a kick in the teeth – and it’s all over a missing letter L. Thomas Cook gave us a letter saying we’re married, but no banks will accept it.”
The couple paid £2,600 for the wedding and another £1,500 for Thomas Cook to organise the legalities of registering the marriage and getting the certificate sent to England.
Money back? No. The travel company have so far only offered £50 in compensation.
Meanwhile, the clerk is believed to be working as a supply English teacher in a London school.
Posted: 1st, June 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comments (4)
Paramedic Jailed For Robbing From The Dead
WHICH is worse – stealing from the living or stealing from the dead? Whatever the answer, one doubts whether paramedic David Wright was embroiled in an internal ethical debate when he rifled though the wallet of a corpse.
Before sentencing him to 12 months in prison, Derby Crown Court heard how the 50-year-old ambulance man nicked three cards and a pin number from the body of 66-year-old David Denbow after being called out on an emergency on June 5 2005.
Wright then proceeded to withdraw £500 from the dead man’s account that day, while still dressed in his paramedic uniform. Unfortunately for the experienced East Midlands Ambulance Serviceman, his illicit ATM shenanigans were caught on CCTV.
The prosecution’s Dominic Shelley, using all his skill and years of legal training, surmised that “Of course, there’s no way Mr Denbow could have made these withdrawals because he had been dead for at least two hours”.
Move over Quincy…
Posted: 30th, May 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Innocent Warren Blackwell Charged For Prison Bed And Board
THERE are plenty of things you’d expect to have after three years wrongful imprisonment – an overpowering sense of injustice, a class A drug addiction and maybe a predilection for large men called ‘Tiny’.
But you would not expect a £7,000 bill for board and lodging?
But Warren Blackwell, the victim of an appalling miscarriage of justice, got exactly that.
The 37-year-old was originally banged up in 1999 for rape on the evidence of a woman who had a history of making false claims against innocent men. Blackwell was only cleared last year at the Appeal Court.
Now the innocent man is to be charged almost £7,000 for his prison sentence, which will be deducted from whatever compensation he receives.
The flummoxed Blackwell says: “I can’t believe it, they’ve got to be joking. They are going to charge me for my porridge! I’ve had a letter stating that they have accepted my claim for compensation, and that the actual amount is to be decided by an assessor. But they are going to deduct £6,800 for living expenses incurred during my three years and four months behind bars.”
Blackwell, not surprisingly, is considering an appeal. However, with the Lords upholding the principle of charging “bed and breakfast” last year, he may have to turn to the European Court Of Human Rights for any justice.
Although £7,000 for three years in a B&B? Sounds reasonable to me.
Posted: 28th, May 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comments (4)
The Raymond Crockford Files
WITH more and more school-leavers being encouraged to eschew academia and opt for a more practical and lucrative trade, scaffolder Raymond Crockford’s ‘bling bling’ lifestyle will have ambitious kids practising their construction techniques up and down the country.
However, for 63-year-old Crockford, his modest scaffolding income was rather well supplemented by the far more lucrative and totally tax free shoplifting business.
The ducker and, indeed, diver had been living large for 27 years, chilling in his £500,000 five bedroom Dorset home with landscaped gardens, electric gates and a 50 inch plasma screen.
Crockford also had a second home in Spain, two Mercedes, a BMW and, wait for it, 80 suits.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 25th, May 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
Mark McGowan Eats Queen Elizabeth’s Dog
“I’M raising awareness at the inability of the RSPCA to prosecute Prince Philip and his friends for shooting a fox this year. It was left to fight for life for five minutes then beaten to death.”
The words of Mark McGowan, animal rights campaigner, swan eater (it was performance art, dear), peanut pusher (with his nose from Peckham to Downing Street) and now would-be corgi eater.
Yes, gentle reader, to avenge Philip’s heinous act, McGowan will eat a corgi dog, of a type favoured by Philip’s wife The Queen.
And this eating will occur live on London’s 104.4 Resonance FM on May 29.
Before we go on, we reveal that Mr McGowan is not Malaysian by birth or design. The eating is not part of travelogue for Malaysian TV. The dog was not delivered ready stuffed from a Christmas meal.
But it is dead. The Sun says the corgi died at a breeding farm last week. We imagine it is being hung and by the time of its eating it will be higher than Pete Doherty at a royal garden party.
The Queen is unavailable for comment. And Prince Philip is thought to be delighted and laughing very, very hard…
Posted: 23rd, May 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comments (4)
Wardrobe Of Court: Crime In Jean Hutchinson’s Bedroom
LIKE the magical entrance to Narnia, the wardrobe in Jean Hutchinson’s bedroom was the gateway to a weird, wonderful and, in her case, illegal world.
The Telegraph reports that 65 year-old Hutchinson is facing years in jail after her massive £1.8 million fraud racket was uncovererd by police.
The old age pensioner, who worked from an office hidden behind her bedroom only accessible through a wardrobe, targeted people who had recently emigrated, hijacking their identities and claiming benefits in their name.
Ironically, Hutchison’s office was situated above a charity shop in north London but now the fraudster, who invested her ill-gotten gains in a string of properties, is set to be sentenced along with her partner in crime, her 64-year old mute cousin Ralph Dale.
No need to help these ageds. Not when they help themselves…
Posted: 16th, May 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
Salad Days: Preserving Wildlife In A Bag
EVER year brings news of foreign bodies eating or destroying the habitats of our native British species.
This year horror is steatoda nobilis, the false black widow. Stuart Hine, an insect expert at the Natural History Museum, tells us: “They can hide in gardening gloves and will bite when you put your hand in. We would urge gardeners to be on their guard in the future.”
And not to bother with gloves.
But now we sense a new development. As the Mail reports, Jessanne De’Ath, 23, of Huntingdon, Cambs, has stumbled upon a way of preserving wildlife and keeping the people safe.
Mrs De-Ath has been to Sainsbury’s. She is returned home with the shopping.
Says she: “I just saw something brown with red spots moving among the lettuce leaves and it made me jump up with fright. I really couldn’t believe that there something alive and jumping about inside my salad.”
Sainsbury’s says: “We set extremely high standards for our salads and hand inspect every lettuce at the point of harvest and then a proportion again at packing.”
Sainsbury’s clearly takes the utmost care with its produce. Which leaves us to wonder if the toad was placed among the bag of herb salad deliberately, in the spirit of conservation?
The Mail says the 2ins natterjack is thought to have travelled here from Portugal. But toads already live here. And they are wanted – the BBC says, they have also been introduced to Hampshire and Surrey. And Dorset.
But more are needed. Natterjack toads eat spiders…
Posted: 14th, May 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comment
The Bird Man Of Portaloise: A Budgie In The Bush
A SEARCH is underway at Portaloise maximum security prison, Ireland.
Responding to the orders of Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, guards are looking into this and that.
McDowell is on the case. No stone will be left unturned. No bed and stick of furniture left unmolested. No cavity too dark or nasty to gaze within.
McDowell will get his man. He might ever get the inmate who called RTÉ radio’s Liveline programme from his smuggled mobile phone last week.
McDowell says someone would be held accountable if there has been “any laxity” at the prison.
Officers are at work. The find eight mobile phones, three SIM cards, around 150 tablets, including ecstasy, a “significant quantity” of powdered drugs, a large amount of hooch, and 30 syringes.
And a budgie.
This is not slang for a new derivative of crack cocaine. This is melopsittacus undulates.
The typical budgerigar is 18 cm long and weigh 30-40 grams. With a beak.
Sources tell us that breeding takes place generally between June and September in the North. A nesting budgie will lay 4-6 eggs. These are incubated for 17-19 days. Budgerigars can sing.
Know that this budgie, yer honour, is believed to have been smuggled into the jail by a female visitor who concealed the bird internally in her body.
Reports are that the budgerigar was not being fatted up for the pot but kept as a companion by a prisoner serving a long-term jail sentence. The bird fancier’s sexual orientation is not stated.
Budgerigars are said to like chewing wood.
Posted: 10th, May 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Fire And Bullets At Robbs Department Store
“FIRE!” There’s a fire at Robbs store, in the Northumberland market town of Hexham.
The fire alarm is ringing. No time to waste. Shut the till and save yourselves. The well-trained staff know the drill.
They assemble outside the premises. They are in the car park. They stand in line. They are safe. For now.
The management appears. There is to be “an announcement”. The 100,000ft department store in business for nearly 190 years is in trouble. The store is to close within a fortnight.
The fire means “You’re Fired!”
Staff douse the non-existent fire with tears.
“It was a desperate situation that must have needed desperate measures. I gather the alarm was set off to gather staff in one place, but it is a brutal end to a long history,” says local Conservative MP Peter Atkinson.
“It came as a complete shock to everyone. It’s a rather brutal way of doing things, especially when you consider that many of the staff have given many years of loyal service to the store.”
“Rather brutal” indeed.
A spokeswoman for the store tells us: “It is at the discretion of the store management how the staff are given the news. The fire alarm was set off to clear the store of members of the public and gather staff together at a designated area.”
Where they were given the bullet.
Posted: 5th, May 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Getting Their Heads Down: Polish Workers Sleep In Toilets
“PEOPLE are turning up with rucksacks and sleeping bags and they get nice accommodation fully maintained and with a bathroom for just 20p a night.”
So says Martin Edwards, manager of the Keycut Services shop by the octagon block of toilets in Hackney, East London.
We do not know where Mr Edwards resides and how he came to consider a toilet block a compact and bijou central London address. We only observe the London borough’s sink estates and sick buildings. And look at the newly built toilets,
The building is, as the Mail reports, worth £246,000 – which is just about the going rate in London for a 2ft 6in by 3ft 10in room.
But not everyone is able to make use of this pod hotel, with its central heating, secure locks, hot and cold running effluent and complimentary snacks shaped like little blue bricks.
The place has, apparently, been taken over by Polish immigrants.
Each night, Polish labourers arrive at the bogtel and settle down for the night. But not all is harmonious and fighting break our between they who seek the larger disabled suites (6ft 8in by 4ft 10in).
Anh Luong, of the nearby Lisa Star Nails shop, says: “Sometimes people who want to use the loos are so intimidated they ask to use the one in my shop instead.”
Does Lisa let them? Again, the Mail does not supply the full picture. But in our experience asking to use the toilet in a London shop is often met with a firm “No!” and some industrial language.
So the toilets are now beds. And as a Hackney Council spokesman says: “We do not see this as a problem.”
The Mail’s view seems out of kilter with official opinion. And out of touch with the role of the public convenience in modern life – Men’s toilets are routinely offered as places for men to get their heads down…
Posted: 4th, May 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comments (3)
Con Fare: Teenaged Grifter Uses Limos In £250,000 Scam
HAVE you ever met a “smooth-talking” 13-year old? What about one passing himself off as a “high-flying tycoon”.
No small news on the Mirror’s front page that all teenagers are not stoned monosyllabic goons going about in hoods, extracting pension books with menaces.
Granted, they will steal your money and skin your first born but they will do it with charm and guile. All hail the “£215,000 CONMAN AGED 13”.
Travelling about London and the environs in a chauffeur-driven limousine, his adolescent frame clad in a designer suit, the boy, now aged 16, sets about his con.
Things begin when his mum dies. Our hero, sorry, villain, uses part of his £16,000 legacy to buy crime books. And, “The ‘CATCH ME IF YOU CAN’ KID” watches the film Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo di Caprio as a teenage con artist.
He creates a website offering non-existent plasma televisions at a cheap price.
The money begins to pour in. He stops going to school. This scam is now a fulltime job.
He rents offices in London. He hires a man in is 50s and a woman in her 20s. He leaves the offices owing £8,0000 in rent. He pays no wages.
He moves into another office and hires new staff. And again he pays no rent.
Police are called. He is traced to new premises in Richmond, London. He sees the law approach and flees.
He is finally arrested in October 2004. He is bailed.
He opens a bank account in the name Gemma. He runs up a £7,293 bill with Beverley Hills Cars. He opens up four accounts and big unpaid debts at Radio Cars, including one in the name Ellen.
He sets up another company, offering discount office supplies online. He hires a PA and a vice president.
A man turns up at his home asking for his money back. The boy threatens to tell the police the customer has “fiddled” with him. “You can’t touch me, I’m a minor,” he tells others.
And now the boy has admitted to 16 charges of fraud totalling £50,000. And 105 more charges worth around £135,000 have been taken into account. Police believe the real sum is closer to £250,000.
The boy has also run a modelling website and a dating agency. And is now employed running an online lingerie service. All above board and strictly kosher, says his nine-year-old brief, available from Discount-Law.com…
Posted: 3rd, May 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comments (6)
Wife Spices Husband’s Curry With Something Special
HOW’S the curry? Has it not a certain piquancy?
Indeed, good wife, says the husband. It has what may be termed a ‘je ne sais quoi’, my sweet.
The wife laughs. “Oh no,” she says. “I know what’s in it. It’s dog excrement.”
You join us at Paisley Sheriff Court, Scotland, where Jill Martin, 47, is pleading guilty to culpable and reckless conduct against husband Donald Martin.
Depute Fiscal Margaret Dunnipace tells the court that on 13 March, Martin placed a meal before husband Donald.
She looked on as he dug the fork into the mixture. She watched as he began to eat. And she sniggered.
Donald was curious.
“Why, dearest, whatever is it?” he asked, or words to that effect. “Arsenic,” replies Jill. Donald gulps. “Not really,” he sys with a lilting chortle. “Just dog shit.”
Following her arrest for this gastronomic foray, Martin is now banned from going anywhere near her husband or the matrimonial home in Langrig Road, Newton Mearns.
The couple intend to divorce…
Posted: 2nd, May 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
The Japanese Woman Who Mistook Her Sheep For a Poodle:
NEW poodle won’t bark?
It’s a common enough problem among Japan’s well-heeled. You buy the poodle over the internet. You take the poode home. The poodle refuses to bark or eat dog food.
And then the poodle thinks it’s a sheep. It begins to baa like a sheep. Its fur starts to resemble wool. When you wear that merino sweater, it follows you around.
Maiko Kawakami, a Japanese movie star, has such a pet. She went on TV and complained about it. She produced photos of the animal. And she was told that her poodle was a sheep. A sheep dog? No. A sheep.
Kawakami’s shock discovery triggered hundreds of other Japanese women to contact the police. They had been duped. They too had bought a wolly poodle from Poodles As Pets.
These imported British and Australian poodles would make ideal pets. And for £630 a head – less than half the usual price – the poodles were a bargain.
Says a spokesman for the Japanese police: “Sadly, we think there is more than one company operating this way.”
So if you have a poodle that refuses to roll over, beg and guard the family business with the required level of menace, a minature golden whale that won’t playfully spray you with its water spout or a rare underground pink snake, do not depair.
You are not alone. You are just one of the herd…
Spotter: The Sun
Posted: 26th, April 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comments (21)
Armless Fun – Crocodile Bites Man’s Funny Bone
FOR those Sun readers tired of pictures of topless stunnas and tales of Faye Turney’s knickers, a lovely story of how a “monster crocodile” bit off a vet’s arm.
“ARM STARVING” says the headline, the paper finding, as ever, humour to be the best medicine.
How “hapless” Chang Po-yu must have smiled. “Does it hurt?” asks the medic at Shaoshan Zoo in Southen Taiwan. “Only when I laugh,” replies Po-yu on cue.
Funny name, funny bone.
The good news is that Chang and his left arm have been reunited. They can now form a double act to have them – get this – in stitches!
Posted: 13th, April 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Guilty Or Not?
MEET Michael Edward Thompson. As reported, Thompson was arrested by South Carolina police and charged with inhaling toxic vapors. As the police notes state, at the time of his arrest, Thompson was in possession of a can of spray paint and a plastic bag. Guilty or, er, not?
Posted: 5th, April 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comments (8)
Heather Mills’ Disability Benefit Dance
HAS Heather Mills gone too far on Dancing With The Stars?
We ask in light of the story that Brian Callaghan, 60, has been asked to show proof of his disability while boarding a bus. For the record, Brian has no legs. He does not go about like a Toulouse Lautrec impersonator, his knees tucked into his shoes. Brian sits in a wheelchair. He wears short trousers.
“Have you got a pass, mate,” asks the bus driver of the No. 17 to Middleton. Brian – irony of ironies – a former bus driver, replies: “But I’ve got no legs – surely you don’t need to see it?”
He does. The bus will not move until Brian produces his papers. A rummage. A search. And the pass is found.
“I couldn’t figure out why he would be so pedantic – it was like he thought I was trying to pull the wool over his eyes,” says Brain.
But let us now be too harsh on the driver. As Heather Mills is proving, one leg is no impediment to cartwheels and back flips. Brian might not be dancing the jive, but in light of Heather’s endeavours, he could at last try…
Posted: 4th, April 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Black From White
A Hispanic woman and her white husband are suing a Manhattan fertility clinic after they had a black baby.
An obstetrician at the clinic first told the couple that their baby would get whiter as it grew older.
But DNA test confirmed the couple’s fears – the clinic had mistakenly impregnated the woman with another man’s sperm.
The couple now worry the baby’s real father may come forward claiming rights to the girl…
Posted: 22nd, March 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
ID Cards – Tony Blair’s Big Debate
TONY Blair’s ID cards. Discuss.
And while you’re at it, discuss show big they will be.
The size of a credit card? Bigger?
What about as big as a postcard? A picture on the back could represent a scene of your home town, a little individuality in the uniforming process.
Or what about something big? Something big enough to incorporate your big nose, big ears and big hair? The bigger the face, the bigger the card, it’s only fair.
Just get a load of Miss Anna Clifford.
Pictured in the Mail, Miss Clifford has been arrested for drink driving.
Miss Clifford, 25, was stopped for erratic driving after a night out with friends in Memphis, Tennessee. She attracted still more interest by driving with the sunroof open to accommodate her hair.
As reported, a breathalyzer test showed her blood alcohol content to be .10, above the state maximum of .08.
Miss Clifford and her big hair were taken to the cells. And to have her mugshot taken.
Says police spokesman Sergeant Vince Higgins: “We have to take the mugshot picture as the person looks at the time of the arrest, so we need to make sure we got all her hair in.”
It is only right and proper that it should. And while we wonder what size the photo ID card should be, we also wonder about the nature of the image it contains.
Should the portrait be a frontal shot? From the side? Or from the back, most useful when it comes to picking out a suspect seen walking or running away?
And should the expression be one of pure hate as the arrest is made? A look of complete innocence? Or the picture of stoned-out stupidity?
We should aim to make the official’s job as simple as possible.
All ideas are good ideas, as the Government tells us. Tell us what you think…
Posted: 14th, March 2007 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
