Around the weird:news of the bizarre

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MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine police chased down an unfit thief on Tuesday after he ran out of breath and asked his pursuers for a "time out."

"He was panting and gasping for air when we caught up with him after a 500 meter sprint," Erwin Buenceso, one of the arresting officers, told local radio station dzBB.

Buenceso said the man and an accomplice broke into a house in the Philippine capital and stole two expensive mobile phones. Screams from the residence alerted a local police patrol, which gave chase.

The robber asked for a "time out" using hand signals.

After he regained his composure, police seized the two stolen phones and brought him to a station for questioning.
 
BUZZ LITES

Nothing can ruin a soccer game in the suberbs of Melbourne, Australiz, quite like an airplane door falling from the sky. An emergency exit door from a small plane managed to crash just 10-feet from spectators in the middle of a soccer field. Luckily, the pilot landed the plance without incident!

A man from Bundaberg, Australia, was assaulted with a fish during the recent invasion of his home. Two attackers used a swordfish, which cut up the man's arms, back and hands. Police are searching for the criminals! [good luck] bizzare :confused:

Ken White.. The Buzz..LVRJ
 
A peacock that roamed into a fast-food restaurant parking lot was attacked by man who vilified the bird as a vampire, animal-control authorities said.

Beaten so fiercely that most of his tail feathers fell out, the bird was euthanized, said Richard Gentles, a spokesman for the city's Center for Animal Care and Control.

"It's just unbelievable that someone would do something to a poor, defenseless animal and do it in such a cruel fashion," he said.

The peacock, a male several years old, wandered into a Staten Island Burger King parking lot and perched on a car hood Thursday morning. Charmed employees had been feeding him bread when the man appeared.

He seized the iridescent bird by the neck, hurled it to the ground and started kicking and stomping the creature, said worker Felicia Finnegan, 19.

"He was going crazy," she said.

Asked what he was doing, she said, the attacker explained, "'I'm killing a vampire!'"

Employees called police, but the man ran when he saw them. Authorities were looking for the attacker, described as being in his teens or early 20s.

It was not clear how the bird made his way to the Burger King, but a Staten Island resident who raises peacocks said he had given some to a person who lives near the restaurant.
 
Mr. Grissom, did you lose a package?

Thai Police Confiscate Dried Beetles
Jul 2, 3:19 PM (ET)

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - A France-bound parcel filled with hundreds of dried beetles and spiders - including endangered species - was confiscated Monday at Thailand's main international airport, police said.

The box, destined for a collector, contained 1,500 beetles including 17 dried Long-arm Chafer beetles and 15 Ground Beetles, which are protected species under Thai law, Police Lt. Col. Thanayot Kengkasikit said. Some 240 spiders, including Tarantulas, were included in the shipment, Thanayot said.

Thanayot said he believes police have exposed an insect smuggling ring operating between the two countries. "If this continues, it will be a great danger for the endangered insects," he said.

The bust is part of a stepped-up campaign by regional authorities to crack down on the trafficking of endangered wildlife, plants and insects.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed in 2005 to form the Wildlife Enforcement Network to combat a black-market trade that generates $10 billion in revenue each year - third behind illicit dealings in weapons and drugs.

Thailand has since made a number of seizures, confiscating everything from 2,500 dried sea horses to 800 endangered birds. Most of the illegal wildlife is either sold to pet markets in Japan, Europe and the United States or traditional medicine markets in China and other parts of Asia.
 
REALLY, where's Gris? so gross, and so bizzare :(

WOMAN ENTERS PLEA IN DOG VOTING FLAP

A gramdmother who registered her dog to vote, pleaded not guilty last week, to making false statements on a voter registration form. Jane Balogh, who says it's too easy for a voter to register illegally, sought to prove her point by registering one of her dogs, Duncan McDonald as a King County absentee voter. She put her phone in Duncan's name, and that apparently sufficed. Although the Australian shepard-terrrier mix signed each ballot envelope with his paw print, he didn't really vote, the register wrote 'void' The King County prosecutor's office charged Balogh 66, with making false or misleading statements to a public servant, a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to a 90-days in jail and or a $1,000 fine. Balogh last week said she planned to plead guilty [DUH], but then changed her mind, because elections officials were using Duncan's canine outing as proof that the system worked!

THE SEATTLE PRESS
 
No-Bayashi _ Hot Dog Champ Loses
Jul 4, 3:31 PM (ET)
By LARRY McSHANE

NEW YORK (AP) - In a gut-busting showdown that combined drama, daring and indigestion, Joey Chestnut emerged Wednesday as the world's hot dog eating champion, knocking off six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi in a rousing yet repulsive triumph.

Chestnut, the great red, white and blue hope in the annual Fourth of July competition, broke his own world record by inhaling 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes - a staggering one every 10.9 seconds before a screaming crowd in Coney Island.

"If I needed to eat another one right now, I could," the 23-year-old Californian said after receiving the mustard yellow belt emblematic of hot dog eating supremacy.

Kobayashi, the Japanese eating machine, recently had a wisdom tooth extracted and received chiropractic treatment due to a sore jaw. But the winner of every Nathan's hot dog competition from 2001 to 2006 showed no ill effects as he stayed with Chestnut frank-for-frank until the very end of the 12-minute competition.

Kobayashi finished with 63 HDBs - hot dogs and buns eaten - in his best performance ever. His previous high in the annual competition was 53 1/2. The all-time record before Wednesday's remarkable contest was Chestnut's 59 1/2, set just last month.

The two gustatory gladiators quickly distanced themselves from the rest of the 17 competitors, processing more beef than a slaughterhouse within the first few minutes. The two had each downed 60 hot dogs with 60 seconds to go when Chestnut - the veins on his forehead extended - put away the final franks to end Kobayashi's reign.

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Spanish Hotel Lets Guests Smash Stress
Jul 3, 10:50 PM (ET)
By HAROLD HECKLE

MADRID, Spain (AP) - A few lucky people in need of a break from their stress got a chance at some unconventional therapy. A Spanish hotel chain planning renovations at one of its Madrid locations offered 30 "highly stressed out people" - selected by a team of psychologists - the chance to take up sledge hammers and battering rams and smash through its rooms Tuesday.

Rampage they did.

Wearing protective dust masks, goggles, white overalls, helmets and gloves, the amateur demolition crew swung hammers into television sets and bedroom walls and tossed beds and desks like hard-partying rock stars.

The NH Alcala hotel, part of a chain of 335 hotels on three continents, said it decided to forgo hiring professional demolition companies and let selected customers start its facelift as a way to generate some headline-making publicity.

"Who hasn't dreamed, in the middle of a stress attack, of breaking everything around them?" NH hotels said in a statement.

Psychologist Laura Garcia Agustin explained, "After a few blows comes exhaustion and with it the release of pain-relieving endorphins which make us feel much better."

Those picked for the stress-relieving smash-up will be invited back to admire the hotel's new interior in September, the chain said.

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N.C. Fisherman Reels in a Piranha
Jul 3, 7:11 PM (ET)

MOUNT HOLLY, N.C. (AP) - A fisherman looking to catch a catfish for dinner instead reeled in a fish that flashed its teeth and bit his knife. Jerry Melton, 46, was fishing in the Catawba River last week when he caught what state wildlife officials later identified as a piranha, a South American carnivorous fish that lives in freshwater.

"When I got it on the bank I didn't really know what it was; I hadn't seen anything like it before," Melton said.

When Melton opened the fish's mouth with a pocketknife, he said the fish bit down and left an impression on the blade.

Wildlife officials told Melton on Saturday that he caught a 1 pound, 4 ounce piranha that was probably dumped in the river. Melton was fishing in Mount Holly, a town northwest of Charlotte.

The catch highlights the growing problem of people keeping exotic animals and fish as pets and later dumping them into local waters, said Paul Barrington, an ichthyologist with the Fort Fisher Aquarium. Earlier this year, another fisherman caught a snakehead fish - also a nonnative fish - in Lake Wylie near Charlotte.

"Releasing nonnative fish in our native waters is highly irresponsible because it could have a very adverse affect on the fish in that ecosystem," Barrington said. "Piranha and the snakehead fish have no predators in our waters."

Jacob Rash, a North Carolina Wildlife Resources biologist, said he believes the piranha was the first caught in the Catawba River and possibly the first in the region.

Melton, who is keeping the piranha in his freezer until he can have it mounted, said the experience will keep him out of the river's water.

"I've been fishing there my whole life," he said. "Catching something like that is definitely going to make me think twice about what's in that water."
 
Virginia is for lovers, or so the state slogan has declared since 1969. Starting Sunday, Virginia also will be the home of the $3,000 traffic ticket.
In an effort to raise money for road projects, the state will start hitting residents who commit serious traffic offenses with huge civil penalties.

The new civil charges will range from $750 to $3,000 and be added to existing fines and court costs. The civil penalty for going 20 mph over the speed limit will be $1,050, plus $61 in court costs and a fine that is typically about $200.

Virginia's traffic law is one of several thousand new state laws that take effect Sunday. Jan. 1 and July 1 are the most popular dates for state laws to become official.

July 1 is especially popular for new taxes and fees because it's the start of the budget year in 46 states. For example, Arkansas will cut its sales tax on groceries from 6% to 3% Sunday.

Virginia's new traffic penalties are expected to raise $65 million a year and are part of an effort to improve the state's roads without raising taxes.

A first-time drunken driver will face a $2,250 civil penalty, plus fines and court costs that typically run about $500 or more. Driving without a license? That's a mandatory $900 civil penalty, in addition to the ordinary $100 for a fine and court costs.

"It's outrageous," says traffic court attorney Thaddeus Furlong of Springfield, Va. "When Mr. and Mrs. Middle Class find out what they have to pay, there's going to be a backlash like you've never seen."

Some other states impose extra civil penalties for traffic offenses, but the cost is usually $100 or $200, Furlong says. "What sets this apart is the Draconian size of the civil penalties," he says.

Another difference: The civil penalties apply only to Virginia residents, not out-of-state drivers. Virginians must pay in three installments over 26 months or lose their licenses. The state Legislature didn't think it could enforce the extra penalties in other states.

Motorist club AAA Mid-Atlantic supports the new penalties.

"These penalties are harsh, but normal fines haven't gotten people to drive sanely. Maybe this will," says Lon Anderson, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.

He says the new law will help reduce the nearly 1,000 traffic deaths the state records annually.

"We wish motorists didn't have to pay more, but the fact is Virginia's transportation trust fund is broke," Anderson says
 
BUZZ BRIEFS

A man in Orlando, FLA, is hopping mad after he was robbed and beaten over the head with a prosthetic leg. Antonio Jennings was approached by two men, one of whom was in a wheelchair, when he was suddenly hit on the head with a fake limb. The thieves ran away with his wallet and a beer he had been drinking, and it is still unknown whose leg was used in the attack!

A sword fight was just the beginning of a Cape Coral, Fla. man's troubles. Alberto Ortega was robbed by 3 men, one of whom chased Ortega with a sword and stabbed him in the butt. To make matters worse, police arrested Ortega when they discovered 75 marijuana plants growing in his backyard! [talk about bad luck, and bad karma]

The Buzz..Ken White..LVRJ
 
China Public Restroom Has 1,000 Stalls
Jul 6, 2:30 PM (ET)

BEIJING (AP) - They're flush with pride in a southwestern Chinese city where a recently-opened porcelain palace features an Egyptian facade, soothing music and more than 1,000 toilets spread out over 32,290 square feet.

Officials in Chongqing are preparing to submit an application to Guinness World Records to have the free four-story public bathroom listed as the world's largest, the state-run China Central Television reported Friday.

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This Golf Course Hazard Tops Them All
Jul 6, 5:49 PM (ET)

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) - There's sand, water and the rough to give golfers fits. So, it wasn't that big a hazard when a grass fire broke out between the sixth and seventh holes of the Centennial Golf Course.

Smoke was visible for miles as firefighters fought the blaze Thursday, but golfers still buzzed around in their carts or focused on their putts.

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Ice Cream Vendor Accused of Selling Pot
Jul 6, 5:40 AM (ET)

BENTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Southwestern Michigan authorities say they arrested an ice cream truck operator who was selling marijuana along with his frozen desserts.

After authorities got tips about the alleged pot-peddler, a deputy "heard jingling bells" about 2 p.m. Thursday and saw the ice cream truck entering a mobile home park, Berrien County sheriff's Lt. Keith Hafer said in a written statement.

Deputy John Hopkins stopped the truck, spoke with the driver and "detected the odor of marijuana coming from the truck (along with tutti-frutti and a couple other flavors)," Hafer wrote.

Authorities searched the van and found several packages of marijuana under the dashboard, the statement said.
 
I dont usually post here but I found this online...

Inexplicable
In May, a curious Joe Heckel of Cincinnati and his son took apart the heavy punching bag Joe had bought for their boxing practice and to their surprise found it full of, not sand or plastic pellets, but men's and women's underwear (some used). According to a May report on WLWT-TV, the manufacturer, Technical Knockout Inc., eventually contacted the Heckels and admitted that it had experienced a "quality" problem and that the people who had thought up the bag-stuffing idea had been fired. -News Of The Weird
 
POOL DRAIN'S SUCTION INJURES GIRL....this is freaky and unbeliveable :eek:

Minneapolis, MN.. A 6-yr.old girl who sat on an open drain in a wading pool lost part of her intestinal tract to the drain's powerful suction, her family said. Abigail Taylor was injured on June 29. Her father Scott Taylor, said the suction cause a 2-inch tear in her tiny rectum and sucked out most of her small intestines. Doctors had to remove the part of her intestines that remained. Abigail remained in intensive care at Childrens Hospital, but appeared to be improving. The general mgr. of the club where it happened said he didn't know anything was wrong with the pool. He referred all questions to his lawyer, who as of now have declined to comment!

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
EXCATLY, public pools :mad:.. AHHH, when I hit the 'big one' a pool is first on my list, oh, after meeting Billy Petersen :D

MAN SOUGHT AFTER FATAL ATTACK ON PEACOCK and grissoms_gurl how about the crow that flew in your window :eek:

New York... A peacock that roamed into the parking lot of a fast-food restuarant was attacked by a man who vilified the bird as a vampire, said animal control authorties. Beaten so fiercely that most of his tail feathers fell out, the bird was euthanized, a spokesman for the city's Center for Animal Care and Control. Authorities were looking for the attacker, described as in his teens or ealy 20's. It was not clear how the bird made his way to the area, but a Staten Island resident who raises peacocks said he had given one to a person who lived nearby!

ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
Robber disguised as tree hits N.H. bank

Leaf it to New Hampshire, where a bank branch was held up by a man disguised as a tree.

Just as the Citizen Bank branch opened Saturday morning, a man walked in with leafy boughs duct-taped to his head and torso, and robbed the place.

"He really went out on a limb," police Sgt. Ernie Goodno said Sunday.

Police said the leafy man didn't saying anything about having a weapon, just demanded cash, and was given an undisclosed amount.

Although the branches and leaves obscured much of the man's face, someone who saw images from the bank's security camera recognized the robber and called police.

Officers said James Coldwell, 49, was arrested early Sunday at his Manchester home and charged with robbery. Arraignment was not expected until Monday.
 
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