Archive of Weird, Bizarre and Unusual

Jagdish Desai was charged in a Singapore court with indecent exposure. But the judge found him innocent after he explained he had accidentally stepping on an ant hill just before entering the subway station where he was arrested totally nude. And, he explained, that's where he was forced to strip naked to get rid of the ravenous black ants, which had immediately attacked his private parts; adding, when the female witness against him screamed "Pervert", he tried to explain his predicament by pointing to the red whelps on his groin, which seemed to only upset her more.

Arkansas State Health Director for the U.S. Senate, surgeon Ray Boozeman, campaigned unsuccessfully after stating in a speech that fear during "real" rape would automatically cause natural hormones to block conception, making it impossible for an "unwilling" woman to get pregnant. These statements caused the highest per capita turnout of female voters in Arkansas history.

Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird reports New York mayoral candidate C. Virginia Fields apologized for telling a reporter, when she was arrested in the South in 1963, police took her away in a "paddy wagon." She'd feared that verbal term may have offended some Irish-Americans.

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), inventor of the first digital calculator.

Rupert Brooke (1867-1931) was both a very tender poet and an extremely handsome young man, who wrote: "If I should die, think this only of me;/That there's some corner of a foreign field/That is forever England." Turns out, he died from an untreated infected mosquito bite on his way to fight the Dardanelles campaign, and never made it back to the U.K.

During an AIDS-awareness Champaign in South Africa, thousands of government-issued safe "sex packs" were distributed. They included not only health information necessary for the practicing of safe sex, but also included condoms. And, to keep the literature and condoms from being separated, both were connected with a staple gun, which punctured holes in basically each and every prophylactic, making them useless.

Rock legend Elvis Aaron Presley (1935-1977) was prescribed an estimated 20,000 doses of narcotics, anti-depressants, sedatives, and stimulants during the last two years of his life by Doctor George Nichopoulos. "The King" also kept a goodly variety of illegal street drugs for convenient consumption. After autopsy, the pathologist reported he had never examined or heard of another human body with as much and as many drugs as was found in Elvis' corpse.

Ms. Ausrine Burneikiene, of Lithuania (the capitol is Vilnius), finally had enough in 1998. Planning a protest rally, she swore never again to be examined by a gynecologist in order to renew her drivers license. Laws there reflected the past, when women were considered a danger because of their menstrual cycle.

An elderly couple sleeping in their mobile home were awakened by a strange noise outside. Afraid to open the door to investigate in darkness, they waited until early the next morning. That's when they found outside their door an empty gas can and a siphoning hose, its end still dangling from the septic tank storage spout, instead of the gas tank spout next to it. (They also found a trail of vomit leading from their property.)

Orville Stamm was a very sturdy entertainer. While a piano rested on his chest, he would sing "Ireland Must be Heaven because Mother Comes From There", while the piano player jumped up and down on his thighs.

After a book was published about the life of basketball great Charles Barkley of the Phoenix Suns, he claimed he had been misquoted, even though the book about him was his autobiography.

A lesbian deaf couple in Bethesda, Maryland, decided to not only have a child through artificial insemination, but to also use the sperm from a male with a long family history of deafness. That way the newborn child would fit right into their family, where a daughter of one partner is also unable to hear.

Officials in Des Moines, Iowa, were tired of seeing signs on city utility poles offering everything from garage sales to repair services. So, not only did they pass a law forbidding the public display of signs, they had thousands of signs printed to that effect, then hired enough people to tack them on all power poles displaying illegal signs.

Ethem Sahim was laughing and having a great time playing dominos in his local coffee shop, when a cow fell through the roof and knocked him cold. It had happened because that coffee shop sat snug against a mountain, with its flat roof at the exact level of a grass covered plateau behind. This had allowed the cow to wander onto the roof, where it collapsed through the ceiling onto Mr. Sahim's head.

The National Institute of Mental Health funded a $97,000 ethnicity study in the highlands of Peru, where anthropologists observed relationships between Indians and Mestizos in the Peruvian Andes. One scientist, Dr. George Primov, used some of the money (about $50 a night) to study their brothels, using himself as a guinea pig.

A twenty-three-year-old man called the police in Chandler, Arizona, after "accidentally" handcuffing himself, then losing the key. When police arrived at his home, instead of releasing the man, they used his own handcuffs for a trip to jail, where he was kept on an outstanding warrant.

A descendant of Genghis Khan, named Tamburlaine, was the most heartless of all the Mongol leaders. In 1383, he celebrated capturing Sabzawar by having 2,000 prisoners buried alive, then had 5,000 beheaded at Zirth to make a pyramid of human skulls. Tamburlaine had absolutely no sense of humor. Any of his men caught smiling or saying something nice, were immediately put to death.

Clement VI (1291-1352) enjoyed using his position while holding the post of Pope (1342-52). When his confessor warned him he must give up his prostitutes, he explained he had developed the habit of mating young maidens at a very young age, and his doctor had advised him to continue in order to extend his youth and health.

At least ten Chinese men lost their life savings to a matrimonial agency which provided them with new brides. All of which ran away a few days after their weddings, leaving the poor lonely men to spend the rest of their lives alone in their small mud huts in the remote Changsha region of Southern China.

The man who discovered Elvis Presley, Colonel Tom Parker, was already a successful showman with his "Colonel Parker's Dancing Chickens". To make his chickens dance, the Colonel simply turned up the heat on the "stage", which was nothing more than an electric hot plate with its sides covered.

A federal trademark infringement suit against the Chosen Sons of God Motorcycle Club Ministries was won by the Sons of God Motorcycle Club Ministry.

Two Keene State (New Hampshire) College students gave police permission to search their dorm room, where six ounces of marijuana were uncovered. Judge Philip Mangones later ruled the students were too "stoned" to understand the ramifications of their decision, therefore, the search was unconstitutional, so they were released.

Hangman John C. Woods, of San Antonio, Texas, was so well known (he'd hanged 347 men, and one woman) that he was selected to perform the executions of 10 men in the Nuremburg trials (1945-48). His job performance rating suffered greatly, though, when complaints alleged he had not broken some of the necks properly.

A 13-year-old Portland, Oregon, student was "busted" for violating his school's zero-tolerance policy on drinking alcohol. His mistake was rinsing his mouth after lunch with Scope mouthwash, with no place to spit.

Reinaldo de Carvalho (1961-95), known as the "Fat King" of Rio de Janeiro's Carnival, checked into a weight-loss clinic and, after losing 66 pounds in 30 days, dropped dead.

The New York Times reported a professor at Boston University was caught plagiarizing a speech based on an article which itself had been taken in part from a story printed in the Boston Globe. Theme of his speech? Incompetent journalism.

The Dallas Morning News reported in September of 2005 a federal magistrate had ordered two suspected drug peddlers, Nicolas Gonzalez Jr. and Domingo Rios Garcia, remain in custody after 50 pounds of powdered cocaine spilled from their trailer onto a Hunt County highway; causing another 270 pounds to be found inside that trailer, on its way to Chicago.

Katherine Knight, 44, of Sydney, Australia, was a slaughterhouse butcher who put her skills to work after murdering her boyfriend, John Price. Bludgeoning him to death, she then carved the body up and made stew with the head, some body parts and fresh vegetables. While he cooked, she hung his skin in the hall, and placed three plates on the table, each labeled with one of his children's names, for them to enjoy their home cooked dad.

In 1995, after a patient died in Stephen Cobble's dental chair, the Tennessee doctor was charged with incompetence. Other patients said he had sedated them by administering injections to their groins, while one female claimed the doctor had transferred C-section scar tissue from her tummy to treat a jaw disorder.

The Baltimore Orioles were playing the California Angels on April 17, 1993 when, with bases loaded, batter Mike Devereaux hit a ball which looked destined to make a grand slam, four-run hit for the Orioles. But as Jeff Tackett, on 3rd, ran towards home, he was forced back when the ball fell short of the wall and was caught. First thing Tackett noticed back on 3rd was his teammate, Brady Anderson, who had been on 2nd. By then, the runner on 1st, Chito Martinez, had made it to 3rd. Angels catcher John Orton tagged all three out.

Montana rancher John Schuler was awakened in the middle of the night by three black bears killing his sheep. When Mr. Schuler took his gun outside to scare away the bears, another large black came up to attack him from behind, making it necessary to kill it. He told this to the Interior Department, which still sued him using the Endangered Species Act. He lost $4,000 when the agency's administrative law judges ruled he had chosen to place himself in danger.

The Ibo tribe of Nigeria punishes adulterous couples severely. If caught, the errant lovers are tied together so a long pole can be slipped between them. Next they are carried, then dumped into a pool of crocodiles.

A Barcelona soccer fan brought his 11-month-old son along when he visited the teams museum. Hoping to capture a photo they could share years later, the enthusiastic fan sat his child down inside a replica of the European Cup, only to realize a few seconds later the kid was stuck. Police and firemen took over twenty minutes freeing the child.

The Dallas Morning News reported in late September 2005, Dallas County probation officials had suspended a program which allowed some offenders to report to a machine, instead of a human probation officer; yet tax dollars would continue to pay, contractually, $2,500 a month rental for each of these ATM-like machines, while offenders go back to being supervised by human officers, which were themselves already monitoring 140 offenders each, on average.

From a New Jersey prison, a convicted bank robber sued the bank teller who testified against him for $1.2 million, because she testified he threatened to shoot her. The defendant turned accuser said he was deeply hurt by her slanderous words, and demanded compensation for the indignity.

Normally Fijian cannibals ate only with their fingers and hands, unless human flesh was served. Out of respect for the dead, during those meals, they would use ritual wooden forks.

Tennis was once considered a civilized sport, played by ladies and gentlemen. But that's not always true in modern times. A few years back, after fellow Zambian tennis player Musumba Bwayla beat Lighton Ndefwayl, Ndefwayl had this to say, "Musumba Bwayla is a stupid, hopeless player. He is cross-eyed, with a huge nose. Women hate him. He only beat me because my jockstrap was too tight, and he serves with farts, which ruins my concentration, for which I am famous in Zambia."

Claiming she only wished to raise awareness of animal cruelty, Catherine Gregory exhibited in Scarborough, England, a dismembered dog cut in nine pieces and suspended from the ceiling; also, sixty crushed mice mounted in plastic, as well as the chopped up remains of three rabbits.

The U.S. General Accounting Office found nothing wrong with the Food and Drug Administration inspecting only frozen cheese pizzas, while the Department of Agriculture inspected pizzas with meat toppings. (But would Canadian bacon need a passport?)

Police officer Ray Peterson was standing on a Vancouver, Canada, street when he was surprised to look down and see a duck pulling on his pant's cuff. That duck was a mother insisting he follow her a few feet to a sewer grating, where her young ducklings had fallen through. She needed help, and apparently knew where to get it. Officer Peterson immediately requested a tow truck to raise the heavy grate, and eight small ducklings were scooped to safety.

Twelve-million-dollars was provided by the Agency for International Development to educate students from Tunisia in the United States so they could return home and improve conditions in their country. But at least 70% who earned doctorate degrees remained in the U.S., where the money was.

A Scranton, Pennsylvania, roadside billboard bragged, "Bring in this ad and you'll get a free pair of shoes." This caused three men to tear down the fourteen-by-forty-eight foot sign and take it to the Shoestrings boutique, where the owner did accept the huge coupon in exchange for, not one, but three pairs of new shoes.

The morning after their wedding night in 1903, George Albert Crossman and his new bride, Ellen Sampson, had an argument, causing George to bash-in Ellen's skull. He then hid her body in a metal box inside their upstairs home in Kensal Rise, London. Afterwards, he spent most of his time with another woman, Edith Thompson. That is, until his neighbor William Dell called authorities to investigate the smell of rotting flesh. But Crossman was ready. When police went to arrest him, he slit his own throat.

"We talk now to Joan Hanover. She and her husband, George, were visitors with us. They are near retirement....retiring.....in the process of retiring, meaning they are very smart, active, capable people who are retirement age and are retiring." Quote of George W. Bush, Alexandria, Virginia, February 12, 2003.

Geologist John Shroder, an expert on Afghanistan, says the Pentagon has developed a Remote-Sensing Gas-Detection Device which is so sensitive, it can detect different ethnic groups by faint aromas released when they breathe, perspire or flatulate.

In September of 2005 the Dominion Post of Wellington, New Zealand, reported an arrest at the Porirua Royal New Zealand Police College. One young recruit ran his own fingerprints and was arrested when the results turned up an outstanding warrant for assault.

The Star, a Johannesburg, South Africa, newspaper, reported a social group called Die Afrikaner Klub was having a braais (i.e. barbecue)...................using a 2,800-pound giraffe, brought to juicy tenderness over a pit 18-feet long.

Arkansas Secretary of State Bill McCuen challenged election results, after losing his bid for re-election, by filing a lawsuit claiming voting irregularities. But since vote administration in Arkansas is under the control of the secretary of state's office, Mr. McCuen ended up suing himself.

According to Reuters, Triumph International, a Japanese lingerie firm, is celebrating Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's bicentenary year by offering musical bras and panties studded with small flashing lights. A computer chip completes the ensemble with music from his master works.

In Pakistan a "most beautiful" sheep contest is held yearly. Jetti, a ewe from Dhakoo village in Chakwal district, celebrated her victory by dancing to traditional Pakistani music, according to the PPI news agency. She also greeted and pleased admirers by putting her front leg to her forehead as a gesture of Salaam (greeting), said the source. The winner the year before, Sohni, was not even in the running. "After giving birth to several offspring, she had lost her beauty and charm," they added.

Corpo Nova, a fashion house in Florence, Italy, says they've developed a shirt which rolls up its own sleeves. It's made with a mix of fibers including titanium and other metals. According to the maker, the shirts will shrink from wrist to elbow when the comfort index (i.e. temperature and moisture level/ratio) is higher, then return to their original shape and length when those numbers reverse.

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (1883-1945), fascist leader of Italy (1922-1943), often invited guests for lavish dinners. As host of these meals, he would ceremoniously break bread with his bare hands for everyone at the table. He was also infested with giant roundworms in his gut. (Roundworms begin life in defecation exposed to open air. After the eggs are hatched in the soil, they move into warm bodies that don't wash their hands before touching food.)

Radio personality John Lander of station WEGX-FM in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, offered $1,000 to the first listener who mailed him an egg in an envelope which arrived unbroken. One listener's egg finally did arrive whole, but Bala Cynwyd Postmaster Mark Glenn said, "We had a lot of messy mail. But it is our job to deliver it."

Hoping to build a stronger team spirit, Burger King management sent more than one-hundred employees to an exercise, walking over a bed of hot coals bare footed. This caused twelve participants to be taken to hospital, where they were treated for first and second-degree burns to the soles of their feet. Some required wheelchairs until they were able to walk again.

Long time Oklahoma office holder Judge Frank M. Ogden III won 91 percent of the vote even though he died just a few days before the election. His only opponent, Josh L. Evans, then filed suit claiming it was impossible to elect a dead man. But the Supreme Court later ruled, "It is beyond doubt that the will of the electorate was to cast votes for Judge Ogden and against candidate Evans." (The governor then appointed a replacement.)

(1) In 1909 Prince George of Serbia, oldest son of King Peter I, was removed from the line of succession to the throne after stomping his valet to death. (2) When Lord Byron was 25-years-old he got Augusta, his half-sister, pregnant. (3) In 211 AD Roman emperor Heliogabalus enjoyed two of his dinner guests company so much he had them suffocated in rose petals just for laughs.

Two hunters outside Milledgeville, Georgia, chased a raccoon up a tree, but neither could see it, so one climbed up and shot it dead. Then, while the men were still giving each other thumbs up, the animal released its death-grip on the limb and fell sixty feet, landing on the hunter below. This knocked him unconscious, breaking three vertebrae.

In August of 2005, minutes after attorney Curtis Holmes defended a client against charges of child abuse in a Pocatello, Idaho, court, that state's bar association suspended his license for taking nude photos of a previous female client in exchange for his legal fees.

A woman in Nice, France, was severely injured driving her car off a thirty-foot cliff. At the time, she'd been rushing home to give her family the good news of being hired as a driving instructor.

After reporting his car stolen in Nottingham, England, Mr. Richard Weston, 23, stepped out of the police station to see his own car stopped at a red light across the street. Enraged, Weston stormed forward, demanding the thief stop immediately! That's how Mr. Weston ended up in a hospital, run over by his own car.

A 57-year-old man in Temuco, Chili, ate a large meal and drank a bottle of wine in a local restaurant before sneaking out without paying his bill........or leaving a tip. His waiter, enraged at getting shafted, completed his shift, then tracked down the non-paying patron and stabbed him to death.

The end of World War II was a very prosperous time for con artist William Johnson, a semi-literate miner living in Kentucky. His con was to launch a public appeal for donations, saying he was Adolph Hitler. He and his Nazi chiefs of staff had escaped, and now they planned to take over the U.S. Government. This caused American and German fascist to respond generously, allowing Mr. Johnson to live very comfortably.

Russian czar Peter the Great (1672-1725) collected unusual "mistakes" of nature by pickling them in jars of alcohol. In his Museum of Curiosities he displayed such oddities as: A five-footed sheep, the organs of a hermaphrodite, a two-headed child and the corpses of Siamese twins. Even the museum's curator was a badly deformed dwarf. So naturally, after dying, he was also pickled and put on display.

English eccentric William Buckland bragged he had eaten the heart of King Louis XIV of France. He claimed it was stolen from the corpse's chest in its grave during the French Revolution, and later he received it from the Archbishop of York. Then, regardless of its shriveled, rotted state, he ate it heartily.

During the 2005 Texas State Fair in Dallas, in the Hall of State building, Bud Glass proudly displayed a shirt worn in the 1970s by Elvis Presley, given to him by Elvis' nurse. Unfortunately, while his back was turned, Elvis' shirt, valued at $10,000, was stolen, along with it the only reason Mr. Glass rented that booth. But, fortunately, after the media picked up on his sadness, the thief called to say he was mailing it back.

An apartment owner in Cologne, Germany, sued a couple living in his building for reducing their rent payment 25%. The couple in turn sued the owner claiming they could not sleep because of loud moans, groans, squeals and screams coming from an apartment next door, caused by lovemaking. The judge withheld his decision until the bailiff could hear, then report back as to the volume of the supposed erotica.

In September of 2005 the Dominion Post of Wellington, New Zealand, reported an arrest at the Porirua Royal New Zealand Police College. One young recruit ran his own fingerprints and was arrested when the results turned up an outstanding warrant for assault.

The Star, a Johannesburg, South Africa, newspaper, reported a social group called Die Afrikaner Klub was having a braais (i.e. barbecue)...................using a 2,800-pound giraffe, brought to juicy tenderness over a pit 18-feet long.

Arkansas Secretary of State Bill McCuen challenged election results, after losing his bid for re-election, by filing a lawsuit claiming voting irregularities. But since vote administration in Arkansas is under the control of the secretary of state's office, Mr. McCuen ended up suing himself.

The Action Mobility store in Lake Worth, Florida, was sued by a crippled woman because they had no labeled handicapped parking spaces. The handicapped couple who owned Action Mobility explained to the judge all their business did was sell and service wheelchairs, so virtually all their customers were handicapped. (How about a couple of "non-handicapped parking" signs?)

In 1990, Cuban born Julio Gonzalez saw his girlfriend having a hot time with other men at the Bronx's Happy Land Social Club. This caused him to purchase a can of gasoline, pour it around the building, then strike a match to burn 87 people to death.

A seventy-nine year old heart patient grew tired of being treated at an Amsterdam, Holland, hospital and jumped from a third floor window. Fortunately/unfortunately he crashed through a tile roof, breaking his fall, leaving him virtually unharmed. (He was then returned to his hospital bed.)

A small New York city newspaper, the Manhattan Pennysaver, asked readers to send in any comments they wish they'd said to people who offended them. In other words, they were letting their readers "get it off their chests." One picked by the editor as best put-down came from a woman named Janet: "Dear Jake. Thanks for the wonderful dinner. After eating with your fingers, belching and passing gas all evening long, I say, 'Find somebody else to date that's your own species.'"

Under pressure from parents, the New York City school system stopped sending children to Spanish-language programs automatically if they fell below the fortieth percentile on a standard English exam, whether they spoke Spanish not.

A safe container law in California makes it necessary to put warning labels on all packages containing lead. That's why boxes of bullets (which contain lead) carry this warning label: THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS LEAD AND MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH.

Some years ago a prisoner, serving forty-five years in a Maryland prison for kidnapping, filed a lawsuit in the amount of $29,000 against the makers of his typewriter's ribbon. Had it not broken, he claimed, he would have completed typing his briefs before facing the parole board the next morning, and would already be a free man.

Adolph Hitler (1889-1945), supreme leader of Germany (1933-1945) ordered the deaths of millions of people, and changed the course of history. One internal problem, however, Fuhrer Hitler could not control. And this problem was so far out of control, the most hated man of the twentieth century drank motor oil. And what was his problem? Flatulence. The man who had the power to kill millions could not stop his embarrassment of breaking-wind (i.e. cutting-the-cheese, farting) in public, often leaving those he met to snicker behind his back.

During a soccer match in the small mining town of Hartbeesfontein, about a hundred miles outside Johannesburg, South Africa, referee Petrus Mokgethi was arrested for shooting to death player Isaac Mkhwetha, while fans looked on. The official claimed Mkhwetha had pulled a knife on him first. (And you thought American football was rough.)

ABC's Paul Harvey News reported in October of 2005 that E-bay had dropped all offerings on its site from a Chinese supplier because of the sensitivity of its products, namely human babies under the age of 100 days old. For those wannabe parents who could afford one, male Chinese infants were available for only $3,500. And, for the more budget minded, an infant Chinese girl was obtainable for only $1,800.

Living 60 miles outside Bangkok in Angthong, Thailand, Yooket Paen, 57, was crossing her cow lot when she accidentally slipped in muddy dung. This caused her to reach out and grab a naked electrical wire, which electrocuted her. The Thai Daily News then reported an even more unusual event. Soon after Paen's funeral, her sister, Yooket Pan, 52, was showing her neighbors how her sister had died, when she slipped herself, reached for the wire, and died instantly also.

Back in September 1996, Sidney Ambose of Clacton, England, required medical treatment for both of his hand's palms after clapping them together too hard for too long at a Beverly Sisters concert.

Tourists who miss their dogs back home, who happen to be vacationing in Wengen, Switzerland, may rent General Sam Houston, Jr., a shaggy two-year-old mix-breed pooch, that just seems to naturally like any, all and everybody. Christian Straessle, manager of his family's four-star hotel in Wengen, offers "Housty", as the dog is known, claiming he will respond to commands given in German, French, English, and Spanish.

The South Gloucestershire, England, city council was ready to announce the grand opening of their new $2.5 million library, when the building was finished, but then realized no one remembered to order any books to fill its shelves. And a good thing, too. Nobody had remembered to order shelves, either.

Avant-garde artist Damien Hirst won the Turner prize in 1994 for his exhibit at the Serpentine Gallery in London, for what he'd titled Away from the Flock, which consisted of a lamb embalmed inside a glass case. One of his previous works, Mother and Child Divided, was a dead cow and her newly born calf bisected in formaldehyde. Another, untitled work, a freshly killed cow's head being devoured by maggots, had to be replaced on average each 36 hours because purification would release all flesh from the animal's skull by then.

La Paz, Bolivia, the highest above sea level capital city in the world (11,910 ft.), pumps its city's water supply through an old abandoned mine which contaminates each drop with harmful iron and cadmium particles. To correct this problem, filters made from a local byproduct, llama dung, are used. Scientists say the droppings are the perfect home for those bacteria which absorb the metal toxins.

Famous duelist Brian Maguire had a son named George who died at age 12, five years before his own death. During those 5 years, Maguire worshipped his dead child by personally embalming him, placing him in a glass case, then carrying it each and every place he went until the last minute of his life.

At Oakland International Airport in California, authorities arrested a Mexican National for using a passport issued originally to another man. Reason he was caught immediately, the identity he had stolen was from a fugitive wanted for felony burglary and carrying concealed weapons. (First question that should've been asked of the Mexican upon arrest, "What were you thinking?")

Police setting up a sting operation in Beckley, West Virginia, used unclaimed property from earlier crimes. And it worked. In fact, the first man they caught for breaking into their camera-rigged car was a thief they had arrested before. Even more strange, when both the suspect and the items he attempted to steal were taken back to the station, by pure chance, what he'd stolen was exactly the same pieces of property he had been arrested for stealing two years earlier.

A well mannered gang of robbers robbed a supermarket in Bassano del Grappa, Italy. While a few members of the gang enjoyed coffee and pleasant conversations with employees, the rest ransacked the entire store, taking goods and cash worth around $468,000. After about an hour, when the robbery was completed, the friendly thieves apologized and left behind a $900 tip for the employees.

(1) Henry Ford I, founder of Ford Motor Company, always washed his hair in water containing rusty razor blades, apparently hoping the rust would stop hair loss? (2) In England in the 1600s, before wigs were worn by both sexes, bald men sewed clumps of phony hair inside the rims of their hats.

Police in Brooklyn, New York, became suspicious of two ice cream truck vendors because all they ever saw around their trucks were adults. And they were right. The brightly colored trucks playing children's music were only fronts for marijuana sales.

When authorities raided a drug den in 1993 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, they seized and removed two African lions, which were being trained to eat policeman.

When Roger Morse of Winnipeg, Canada, was robbed of his wallet containing $20 back in 1993, he asked the gunman for his wallet back. After the thief complied and left, Mr. Morse found the crook had mistakenly left his own wallet instead...... containing $240.

Leon Gunning made a big mistake when he decided to mug Jonquil Nahir in a park in Oldham, England. Ms. Nahir may have been a small woman, but her teeth were very sharp. That's why she was able to bite off her assailant's finger tip, which she gave police, who soon arrested the man in the ER at a nearby hospital.

A forty-year-old man in Muskegon, Michigan, shut himself in his bedroom with a twenty-pound cylinder of propane gas, to get himself high on the fumes. But to get even higher at the same time, he made the mistake of lighting a marijuana cigarette. The resulting explosion destroyed his home and part of his neighbor's.

Hoping to get a husband using the Internet, Kay Hammond, a twenty-four-year-old living in Birmingham, England, placed herself on eBay, for a minimum bid of $395,000, with the stipulation any buyer must be between the ages of twenty-four and thirty-six. The highest bid offer, $15.8 million, turned out to be a hoax. (If she found a mate, it was not reported.)

The Dallas Morning News reported on November 26, 2005, testimony had begun in the trial of Behrouz Nahidmobarekeh, a 49-year-old cabdriver, who faced charges of tampering with consumer products. He was accused, according to the News, of sprinkling his own dried, ground feces on pastries at a Fiesta grocery store over an extended period of time. For months, prosecutor Taly Haffar told jurors, customers had complained to employees that the store's freshly baked cookies "smelled and tasted like manure."

By city code, all Taxis in Newcastle, England, must be totally black. So Khalid Hussain's was surprised when he applied for a permit, but was rejected because his black Vauxhall Vectra was the wrong color. The council official sent to inspect the vehicle claimed he could see a "hint" of gray in the car's finish, so it was denied.

Before he was caught in October 1995, Norwegian con artist Arne Aavold had survived by selling splinters from wooden garden fences to U.S. tourists, guaranteeing each piece came from a Viking ship that sailed to America long before Columbus.

Jason Laberge was on the antidepressant drug Prozac when he opened a cage at a Toronto zoo to set six pink flamingos free. When they refused to leave, Mr. Laberge crawled inside their enclosure and beat all six to death with a broom handle.

Back in 1982 police, investigating a burglary at an attorney's office in Southampton, England, were surprised to find almost nothing missing. Typewriters, tape recorders, even the petty cash drawer was untouched. What the thieves did take was an expensive burglar alarm system, which was scheduled for installation the next morning.

Margaret Velma Barfield, a 52-year-old grandmother, convicted of mass-murder with poison, was put to death by lethal injection, at Central Prison, North Carolina in 1962. For her last meal she consumed Cheez Doodles and Coca-Cola.

Jim Huza and his wife Sharon say they've developed a cushion which muffles flatulence and absorbs the smell. From their home in Greenville, North Carolina, they offer on the Internet GasBGon fart cushions, guaranteed to absorb all foul odor and sound, or your money back.

In case of disaster, the state of Oregon paid $124,700 to a Virginia computer company to make sure that state's lotto system would continue to spit-out tickets, no matter the magnitude of an earthquake.

Diego de Carli, a motorist in Trento, Italy, went to his town's traffic warden's office and paid a parking ticket. Returning to his car, he found another parking ticket waiting. After going inside to pay it, he returned to his car to find another....

In February of 1987 two men on their way to a debate were practicing loudly while walking along a street in Bergen, Norway, one dressed as Jesus, the other as the Devil. Their verbal rehearsal caused a citizen to call police and, even though the Devil was arrested and fined, Jesus was allowed to go free. In court the Devil refused to pay on the grounds he was discriminated against.

The family of Obaid Mubarak bin Suwaidan Bal-Jafah of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will never know for sure what caused him to die only three days after seeing a doctor for the first time. Could it have been just a coincidence? After all, he was over 100 years old.

A truck carrying a large tank of construction glue between the cities of Milan and Pavia, Italy, struck a tree and its sticky cargo spilled, coating the Bressana bridge. The first car attempting to cross became stuck almost immediately. The driver exited his vehicle, only to become stuck himself, in his shoes. Standing helpless, he used his cell phone to call for help. Rescue workers dissolved the glue, and eventually everything and everyone became unstuck.

In Foggia, Italy, in 1972, policeman Antonio Demma was so determined to impress his superiors he wrote bogus traffic tickets and paid them himself. That caused him to receive a six-month suspended sentence.

Svein Ludvigen, Norway's Fisheries minister, argued for a proposal that tourists be issued licenses to club baby seals to death along the coastline to control over population, adding the wildlife department issues licenses to kill moose, so why not baby seals?

Actual final notation on the chart of a man who died: "Patient failed to fulfill his wellness potential".

(1) Broadcast commentator during golf tournament: "Arnie Palmer, usually a great putter, seems to be having trouble with his long putts. However, he has no trouble dropping his shorts". (2) Torrin Polk, University of Houston receiver concerning his coach John Jenkins: "He treats us like men. He lets us wear earrings". (3) Metro Radio sports commentary: "Julian Dicks is everywhere! It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field".

When convicted murderer Allen Kinsella appeared in court charged with escaping from a Canadian prison in October 1994, he filed a countersuit against the prison for aiding and abetting his escape by allowing a ladder to remain in the yard, which he used to scale the wall.

Pope Anacletus (1130-8) had a really big problem with moral limitations. Other than having a prostitute for a mistress, his "all in the family" attitude allowed incest with his sister and several other family members to be great fun. Of course, he also considered raping nuns a fair sport.

In July of 1994 jewelry store owner David Shidler of Des Moines, Iowa, had his identification taken without knowing because his birth certificate and social security number were stolen from a storage shed he had rented. Shidler found out when a customer, later identified as David Cox, picked out $3,000 worth of jewelry, then handed over a credit card with Dave Shidler's own name on it.

In 1994 California artist Ronnie Nicolino created a two-mile long sand sculpture of 21,000 size 34c breasts. The artist said he was planning a new and much larger display, of enough bras tied together to reach across the Grand Canyon. He also claimed not to be obsessed with female breasts.

To demonstrate how easily a person can be accused of "assault", then sued, University of Virginia law professor Kenneth Abraham slightly tapped the shoulder of student Marta Sanchez. Unknown to the professor, Ms. Sanchez had recently been raped. In court she claimed Abraham's tap on her shoulder triggered fear and vulnerability. She was awarded $35,000.

On the last day of October 2005, The Dallas Morning News reported Reverend Kyle Lake, 33, of University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, had been electrocuted while performing a Baptism. Wishing to share the moment with his audience of over eight-hundred, Reverend Lake had taken the microphone shoulder-deep into the Baptismal. He leaves behind a wife and three children under age six.

Back in January of 1991 in Hartford, Connecticut, a couple of would-be burglars were very surprised when they kicked in the door of an apartment to find the police already there, who immediately arrested them both. By coincidence, these soon to be jailbirds had kicked in the door to an apartment rented by two Hartford police officers.

(1) "One of the causes of the Revolutionary War was the English put tacks in their tea." (2) "Gravity was invented by Isaac Newton. It is chiefly noticeable in the Autumn, when the apples are falling off the trees."

Sequoia Hospital in Silicon Valley, California, announced a new service in technology. Each baby born in that hospital will have an e-mail address in place the instant it clears its mother's birth canal. (Possible addresses: bloodyawfultrip.com, alldownhillfromhere.com, killthatbigsnake.com)

In May of 1995 a security van in Arlington, Texas, was robbed of $16,000. At the same time, in the same parking lot, 23 non-English speaking Japanese tourists were snapping photos of the whole event, including 39 photos of the getaway car's license plates. Police soon made arrests.

During the cultural revolution of the 1960s-70s in China, under rule of Mao Tse-Tung, his Red Guard troops ate the flesh of their enemies to prove they were fully class-conscious.

On November 2, 2005, The Dallas Morning News reported 41-year-old Evangeline Gonzalez had failed 2,953 times to pay fees to enter or leave DFW toll roads over a 20-month period. Had she paid the 40-to-75-cents each time she entered or exited at a toll booth, it would have cost her less than $1,900. But, with added fees, she owed the North Texas Turnpike Authority a whopping $76,039.

Stuck between floors on an elevator in a New Plymouth tax office on New Zealand's North Island, Bonnie Johnson used the emergency phone to call for help. But because of a thunderstorm, instead of her call going directly to the building's management or the local fire department, it was routed 500 miles to the South Island, where Joan Prankhurst, manager of the Southland Times, called authorities back on North Island to help the stranded woman.

Peruvian police arrested a gang of "poultry suppliers" attempting to smuggle ten kilos (22 pounds) of cocaine into prison inside 200 plucked chickens.

A farmer in India told his neighbor how he was almost killed when debris from Skylab fell near him in his field in 1979. To prove his point, he produced a chunk of charred metal. His neighbor, envisioning an obvious profit, paid the farmer the equivalent of about $100 US for the "evidence". Before long, others visited and paid the farmer for burned chunks of metal,......until one finally figured out he'd bought a piece of an old iron cook stove.

"Warden, I'd like a little bicarb because I'm afraid I'm going to get gas on my stomach right now." These were the last words of murderer Charles de la Roi strapped inside a California gas chamber in 1946.

A 33-year-old man, walking along a canal in Solihull, England, in February of 1995, was assaulted and thrown into the drink by three men who stole his back pack. To their surprise, when they later opened the pack it was full of rocks. The victim of their crime had been using them as training weights.

Les Price, 350 pounds, flew from Wales to Ireland to support his rugby team, but got squashed so badly trying to occupy one airline seat flying over, for his return trip he paid double fare to get two seats. After boarding his plane, however, he discovered his two consecutive numbers were on separate sides of the isle.

On a dark night in October 1978, burglars broke into a warehouse in Durban, South Africa. Apparently not knowing what the building contained, one of the two men struck a match. Soon following was a fireworks explosion which burned to death one of the intruders, badly burning the other.

The Raja of Akalkot (1896-1923) was able to hide his insanity until the British Council learned he had taken a sword during a whim and lopped off both ears and nose of a courtier.

In February 1996, 55-year-old laborer Maphupu Molatudi was sleeping in a hostel north of Johannesburg, South Africa, when he was awakened by a thief attempting to pry open his mouth to steal his false teeth. When Mr. Molatudi protested, the thief beat his face, jerked open his mouth, removed his teeth, then disappeared.

Robert McFarland and his horse, Charley Boy, were offering buggy rides to tourists in Skipton, a market town in England, when the 4-legged half of the partnership received a parking ticket. Under "description of vehicle", the policeman had written "brown horse."

Rock guitarist Jimmy Hendrix choked to death on his own vomit. Rock singer Janis Joplin choked to death on her own vomit. Lead singer of The Doors Jim Morrison choked to death on his own vomit. Obese lead singer for The Mamas and The Papas - Mama Cass Elliot - choked to death on a chicken sandwich.

On Christmas Eve 1993, inside a 7-Eleven in Denver, Colorado, a young man tried drying his small stash of marijuana in the store's microwave oven. Problem was, he placed his "pot" on a foil-covered lottery ticket to heat it, which caused the oven to short out, starting a small fire. He got away, but the store's security camera got his photo, and the store manager had to get a new microwave.

St. Nicholas is the patron saint of Russia, pawnbrokers, unmarried girls, children and sailors. In the 4th century he was bishop in southwestern Turkey. And, as a baby (it was claimed) he always abstained from his mother's breast on Wednesdays and Fridays.

When a shoplifter was caught stealing a shirt in the city of Szczecin, Poland, a special enforcement staff was called to punish the lawbreaker. "The staff" loaded the offender into a car and drove to the center of the city. There the thief was kicked from the vehicle, totally naked, with the words "I am a thief" painted on both his chest and back.

At his trial in February 1992 the Milwaukee cannibal, Jeffrey Dahmer, confessed to killing and eating 17 people. Evidence found in his apartment included several heads found in his refrigerator, skulls stored in a filing cabinet and body parts in a cooking pot. When a human heart was found frozen in the deep freeze, Dahmer explained, "I was saving it for later."

Near the Somali border in northern Kenya, a public brawl occurred in March 1996 when a twenty-year-old man was accused of raping a camel. Seems the man's relatives, and friends of the camel's owner, took up opposite sides.

A Louisiana dog owner, Chaddrick Dickson, decided to make his animal meaner by adding gun powder to his dog food. But while trying to pound the powder out of a .22-caliber bullet, Mr. Dickson caused the shell to explode, injuring himself.

Thieves confronted Giuseppe Tomasello and a fellow worker leaving an office building in Milan, Italy, with their company's bank deposit. When told to surrender the money at gunpoint, Mr. Tomasello immediately collapsed to the ground with a heart attack. That's when one of the robbers fell to his knees and instantly began giving CPR. And would not stop, or leave the ill man, until sure he could breathe unaided. Then, and only then, they took the 40 million lira (about $20,000) and ran.

For an anti-drugs talk at Ilfracombe Community College in Devon, England, a drug sniffing dog was brought along to demonstrate its ability to sniff-out evidence. A sample brought along by police for the dog to "find" was not necessary, however. Not long after entering the building, the well trained dog sniffed out a large stash of marijuana, and four students were arrested.

More than a decade ago, for absolutely no reason yet discovered, someone shot and killed seventy-three protected Kittiwakes nesting in cliffs in Marsden Bay, Tyneside, England. Even more strange, all seventy-three dead birds were gathered and used to spell out the word "DEATH" on a pub parking lot at the bottom of the cliffs.

In 1968 a young man applied for a government job in West Bengal, but received no reply................for thirty-four years, until 2002, when he was fifty-two, and too old for the job he had applied for. Labor Minister Mohammed Anum, denying any problem with communications, stated it often "takes a long time for a person to be called for scarce government jobs ".

Daniel Pouchin, a purse snatcher, ended up in a hospital with broken ribs in Nice, France, in August of 1993, after he made the mistake of trying to rob two women who turned out to be very tough transvestites. (Ouch!)

The Dallas Morning News reported in November of 2005 that religious broadcaster Pat Robertson had warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania community that disaster might strike their little town because they had voted out eight school board members who voted not to teach students "intelligent design," which favors an orderly god over the random selection of the Darwin Theory. He had also stated feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." ( Become lesbians? Question: Did Pat Robinson choose before birth to be heterosexual?)