German woman mistakes stuffed toy for masked crook | Oddly Enough | Reuters
BERLIN (Reuters) - Armed police went into action in the German city of Wuppertal after a woman reported seeing a masked criminal — but having rushed to the scene, they were surprised to find not a crook, but a large stuffed toy.

The woman was returning late at night to her car in an indoor car park when she saw the suspected brigand through the window of a parked van, police said on Thursday.

Though she later admitted to only catching a glimpse in the darkness, she was sufficiently alarmed to alert the authorities.

Armed officers arrived in three cars and surrounded the van. What they found was a large toy beaver, strapped into the passenger seat.

A police spokesman said he struggled to see how the toy, which has two oversized front teeth, could have been mistaken for a person.

Wedding guest turns up a year early | Oddly Enough | Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - Teacher Dave Barclay flew thousands of miles across the Atlantic to Wales to attend his friend’s wedding, only to discover he was a year early.

Barclay, 34, was told about the wedding earlier in the year and assumed it was to take place in 2007.

It was only when he had flown into Cardiff from Toronto, Canada, and rang the bridegroom seeking details of the venue that he discovered the wedding was in 2008.

“I am a year early — yeah, my mates are loving it, aren’t they,” he told BBC Radio Wales.

The groom, Dave Best, had emailed his friend at the start of the year.

“He just said July the 6th and I assumed it was this year because if you tell the guy July 6th, they’re going to think it’s this year,” Barclay said.

Barclay, who has been teaching in Toronto for three years spent 500 pounds on his premature flight.

“At least it’s assured me a mention in the speech next year,” he added.

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Where’s the party?!?

Drunk takes a free bike ride on car roof | Oddly Enough | Reuters
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Police officers in the Dutch city of Alkmaar were surprised to see a car passing by with a man sitting on a bicycle on its roof.

The driver and his wife, when stopped by the police, said they heard a noise while waiting at a traffic light, but did not realize they were taking on an extra passenger.

The 26 year-old man who took the free ride was fined for public drunkenness, not carrying an identity card and providing a false identity to the police.

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I don’t know about you but when I’m drunk I can’t drive a car straight let alone balance a bike on the top of a moving car.

German muggers leave their own pictures behind | Oddly Enough | Reuters
BERLIN (Reuters) - Two German teenagers robbed a girl but accidentally left their own pictures behind for police on a discarded mobile phone.

After stealing a 15-year-old’s shoes, money and mobile phone, the two older girls gave her an old mobile phone, police in the western city of Bochum said on Wednesday.

But the two 17-year-olds had forgotten the phone had their own photos, striking smiley poses, which police published online on Tuesday in an effort to find the culprits.

The two muggers turned themselves in almost simultaneously when the pictures appeared on the evening news.

“One girl was brought down by her father after he saw her on the television,” said police spokesman Frank Plewka. “Today the pictures were in the papers, so the father’s phone has been ringing all day, because everyone recognised them.”

Neither of the two had been in trouble with the law before.

Filipino thief asks for time out in police chase | Oddly Enough | Reuters
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 metre 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.

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Well with the size and weight of today’s police force I would think a “Time Out” would be helpful to both sides?

Woman loses in court after losing lottery | Oddly Enough | Reuters
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch woman has lost her compensation claim for mental distress she suffered from missing out when her neighbours won a lottery windfall.

Prize winners are chosen by postal code and Helene de Gier would have shared in the 14 million euros (9.4 million pounds) if she had bought an 8.50 euro ticket — as her seven neighbours in the town of Heusden did.

She had accused the organisers of “emotional blackmail” and demanded compensation, but court documents showed on Thursday that she had lost.

The judgement said lottery organisers cannot be held responsible for those who fail to take part and later regret it.

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Should-of, would-of, could-of.

Alaskan man pleads guilty to sale of seal penises | Oddly Enough | Reuters
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - An Alaska man has pleaded guilty to selling more than 100 fur seal “oosiks” — or penises — to a local gift shop that intended to sell the items as an aphrodisiac.

Michael Richard Zacharof, an Aleut and former tribal president from the Bering Sea village of St. Paul, pleaded guilty this week to one count of violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Federal law forbids the sale of any raw marine mammal parts unless they have been crafted into pieces of Alaska Native artwork.

In Zacharof’s case, the former tribal leader sold the raw seal penises to a gift shop catering to customers from Asia. The shop then sold the items for about $100 each, according to the Justice Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Steward said seal penis bones, also known as seal sticks, are believed to have properties similar to erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra.

Zacharof faces a possible one-year prison term and a $20,000 fine, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

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I guess the long arm of the law got to him finally.  Wouldn’t it be easier to buy a bottle of Viagra (not that I would know)?

U.S. border police rescue thirsty migrant from well | Oddly Enough | Reuters
PHOENIX (Reuters) - U.S. border police rescued a woman who clambered down a well after running short of water on a trek across the blistering Sonora Desert from Mexico and became trapped, authorities said on Wednesday.

After rescuing her on Tuesday, the U.S. Border Patrol arrested the Mexican woman and four other people travelling with her for illegally crossing into the United States.

The woman had slid down a pipe into the 30-foot (10-metre) deep well on an American Indian reservation southwest of Tucson to fetch water for two children aged 6 and 9, the Border Patrol said.

“Once she got down there she found that she didn’t have the strength to pull herself out,” Ron Bellavia, a commander with the Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue team in Tucson, told Reuters by telephone.

Bellavia said the woman clung to a narrow ledge in the well for three hours until she was rescued. Rescuers treated her for dehydration and bee stings.

Last year some 1.1 million undocumented immigrants were arrested crossing the deserts and rivers of from Mexico, more than a third of them through southern Arizona.

Each year several hundred people die attempting the journey across the deserts and rivers of the border, most from heat related causes.

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What is a woman with a 6 and 9 year old doing in the middle of a desert with no water?  Where’s the Fence?

China gives fashion instructions to police | Oddly Enough | Reuters
BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s police have been given new orders — no strangely dyed hair, no beards, no sideburns; and leave your scarfs and jewellery at home.

The Ministry of Public Security has issued the order to “establish a good image for the people’s police”, domestic media said on Thursday.

“When police are in uniform on duty, they are not allowed to wear scarfs or jewellery, paint their nails, or have colourfully dyed hair,” the Beijing News said, citing the new rules.

“Male police officers cannot have long or curly hair, sideburns, shave their hair bald or have beards,” it said, adding female police officers cannot have hair longer than shoulder length.

“Unless there is a specific job need or illness of the eye, police cannot wear coloured glasses,” it added.

The police are also banned from smoking in public and entering places of entertainment such as bars, unless for work, while in uniform, according to the regulations which take effect this month.

Those who violate the rules will be given a warning or may be sacked, it said.

It is not the first time the government has given fashion tips.

In April, Beijing prohibited female taxi drivers from dying their hair bright red or yellow and from wearing chunky earrings, hoping to improve the city’s image ahead of next year’s Olympics.

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I guess Singapore rules are getting adopted by the Chinese now…

Mugger, from robber to robbed | Oddly Enough | Reuters
BERLIN (Reuters) - A would-be German thief went from predator to victim when he tried to mug a taxi driver but ended up having his own wallet snatched instead.

After the 20-year-old stole the driver’s wallet, a scuffle broke out between the two, in which the cabbie not only recovered his property but also took his attacker’s wallet, police in the western town of Aldenhoven said on Tuesday.

The driver then locked himself in his taxi and called the police, who were amazed to find the mugger waiting patiently for them on the kerb next to the vehicle when they arrived.

“He wanted his wallet back,” a police spokesman said.

After taking the man in for questioning, police released him and returned his wallet. He faces charges for attempted robbery.

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Serves him right. Don’t be messing with our cabbies…they are the horses to our buggies.