Rocky, an enterprising 7-month-old border collie in Devon, England, herded nine sheep into his owner’s kitchen. “I was in the kitchen and heard a noise,” Rocky’s owner, Rosalyn Edwards, told the BBC. “I turned around and the sheep were just standing there. It was funny at the time. But then there was quite a lot of wee, poo and mud everywhere.” The sheep stood around for a few minutes, then allowed themselves to be shown out the front door.
What To Do With The Empty Pizza Box
The Hopkinton, Mass., Police Department cited an unnamed driver of a Buick Century for making his own license plate out of a pizza box and markers. The plate, which read “MASS” at the top and sported a six-digit number, resulted in charges including operating an uninsured and unregistered vehicle and attaching “fake homemade” plates.
First, Check The Place Where You Parked The Car
An unnamed man in Frankfurt, Germany, called police 20 years ago to report his Volkswagen Passat missing, believing it had been stolen. In November, the car was found just where the driver had left it — in a parking garage that is now scheduled to be demolished. Police drove the 76-year-old to the garage to be reunited with his car, which is unfit to drive, before they sent it off to the scrap heap.
No Imaginary Bagpipes In The Car
Dunedin, New Zealand, police Sgt. Bryce Johnson recently pulled over a driver whom he thought was playing bagpipes while driving. “His fingers were going a million miles an hour,” Johnson said. The driver, who admitted to being a bagpipe player, said he was only doing “air bagpipe.” A search of the car did not turn up the instrument. He was released with a warning. Johnson urged other drivers to keep both hands on the wheel at all times.
The Hardware Diet
A 35-year-old Indian man employed a unique method for dealing with his depression: swallowing metal. Maksud Khan was rushed to surgery at Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Satna, Madhya Pradesh, India, after developing severe abdominal pains. An endoscopy showed that Khan had “coins, nails and nut-bolts in his stomach,” said Priyank Sharma, who led the surgical team. In late November, surgeons removed 263 coins, 100 nails and other metal items, including razor blades and dog chains, from Khan’s stomach. His family had no idea he had been ingesting metal. Khan promised doctors he would never eat metal again.
Flying Solo
Office workers at Cambridge Research Park in Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, England, feared the worst as they rushed outside on Nov. 13 after watching a hot air balloon crash into a fence in their parking lot. No one was in the basket of the balloon, although the gas canister was still running. Eyewitness Jack Langley told Metro News: “Either they had bailed out and jumped out before crashing or the balloon escaped from its mooring lines.” Cambridgeshire Police later discovered the balloon had taken off when the pilot got out of the basket to secure it to the ground.
Undercover Rumble
The Detroit Police Dept. got a little carried away while trying to address a persistent drug problem on the city’s east side. Two undercover special ops officers from the 12th Precinct were posing as drug dealers on a street corner when undercover officers from the 11th Precinct arrived and, not recognizing their colleagues, ordered the 12th Precinct officers to the ground. Shortly, more 12th Precinct officers showed up and the action moved to a house where, as Fox 2 News described it, a turf war broke out as officers from the two precincts engaged in fistfights with each other. An internal investigation is underway, and the police department has declined comment.
Is Someone Stomping On The Roof?
A family in Vero Beach, Fla., were rudely awakened early on Nov. 11 when Jacob Johnson Futch, 31, climbed onto their roof. He later told authorities he did this to carry out a meeting with an agent of the Drug Enforcement Agency. The family, who didn’t know Futch, called Indian River Sheriff’s deputies to say that someone was stomping on their roof, yelling and howling. Futch admitted he had injected methamphetamines earlier that morning. He was charged with trespassing and held in the Indian River jail.
Ticket Factory
Montreal pulled over 38-year-old Taoufik Moalla as he drove to buy a bottle of water in Saint-Laurent. Moalla was enthusiastically singing along to C+C Music Factory’s song “Gonna Make You Sweat” when a patrol car pulled behind him with lights and sirens blaring. Officers directed him to pull over, and four officers surrounded Moalla’s car. “They asked me if I screamed,” Moalla told CTV News. “I said, ‘No, I was just singing.’” Then he was issued a $149 ticket for screaming in public, a violation of “peace and tranquility.” “I understand if they are doing their job, they are allowed to check if everything’s OK,” said a “very shocked” Moalla, “but I would never expect they would give me a ticket for that.” His wife, however, said she wasn’t surprised and would have given him a ticket for $300.
You Can Take Sandwiches With You
On Oct. 10, Richard Lussi, 76, of Plains Township, Penn., succumbed to heart disease. But before he died, he made sure his family knew there was one thing he wanted to take with him: a cheesesteak from Pat’s King of Steaks in Philadelphia. “No onions because they’ll come back to haunt me!” Lussi told his family. So the day before Lussi’s funeral, his son, John, grandson, Dominic, and two friends drove to Philly, where they ate cheesesteaks and bought two extra for Lussi’s casket. John told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the funeral director advised not putting the sandwiches in the coffin until after the viewing, “because people would take them.” Pat’s owner Frank Olivieri Jr. said he was flattered and proud that his cheesesteaks were held “so dear” by someone.
Eyebrow Shave — $12
Chengdu, China, street barber Xiong Gaowu offers an unusual service at his roadside location in Sichuan Province. For $12, Xiong will scrape the inside of his customers’ eyelids using a straight razor. Xiong says he is, “gentle; very, very gentle” when performing eyelid shaving, or “blade wash eyes,” as the technique is known in Mandarin. A Chengdu ophthalmologist, Qu Chao, says shaving may unblock moisturizing sebaceous glands along the rim of the eyelid, leading to a more comfortable and refreshed feeling. “If he can properly sterilize the tools that he uses, I can see there is still a space for this technique,” Qu said.
Irony
As elder members of the First United Methodist Church in Tellico Plains, Tenn., gathered to discuss the church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, one of those present asked if anyone had brought a gun to church. One man spoke up and said he carries a gun everywhere. He then produced the gun, emptying the chambers before passing the weapon around. When the owner got the gun back, he replaced the magazine and recharged the chamber — accidentally squeezing the trigger and shooting himself in the hand and his wife in the abdomen. Both victims were taken by helicopter to the University of Tennessee Medical Center for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.
I Am The King!
Indian computer coder Suyash Dixit drove six hours through terrorist-infested territory to plant his flag and declare himself king in the last remaining unclaimed habitable place on Earth — Bir Tawil, a border area between Sudan and Egypt. “I am the king! This is no joke, I own a country now! Time to write an email to U.N.,” he told The Telegraph. King Dixit has created a website for his new nation, and is encouraging people to apply for citizenship. However, Anthony Arend, an international law and politics scholar, claims that “under international law, only states can assert sovereignty over territory.”
Undignified Death
Linda Bringman, 64, of the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, died after being found unresponsive with her head stuck between two posts of a wrought iron fence. Paramedics were called to a PNC Bank branch where the fence was located, and Bringman was taken to the Illinois Masonic Medical Center in critical condition, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Chicago Police could not provide an explanation for her being stuck in the fence, but they did not believe criminal activity was involved.
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