| * |
In Shawnee, Kan., a robber painstakingly placed
tape over a convenience store's security camera but apparently forgot it was transparent
tape. |
| * |
Near Glenwood Springs, Colo., two men became so
unnerved by a large black bear that suddenly emerged from some bushes to approach them
that one knew they were in major trouble and immediately proceeded to throw his gun at the
bear. |
| * |
In Nashua, N.H., a man on trial for murder took
the stand in his own defense and testified he could not have possibly killed the man
because at the alleged time he was actually trying to kill another man in nearby Lowell,
Mass. Police later acknowledged they were looking for a suspect in that case. |
| * |
At a bowling alley in Milwaukee, a man became
angered at a 12-year-old's playing of a song on the jukebox, at which point he chased him
down, choked him into near unconsciousness and rammed his head into the pool table because
he thought such music was corrupting youth. |
| * |
In Noblesville, Ind., a man who thought it really
was the Hamilton County sheriff's police calling to report they had seen the 8-foot-tall
marijuana plant in his home and asking that he turn it in then was surprised to discover,
after cutting down the plant and personally taking it to police, they actually knew
nothing about it and he had been the victim of an apparent prank. He now awaits
sentencing. |
| * |
At an airport in Greece, airline passengers
angered that a flight had been canceled literally circled the jet on the runway as it
tried to leave for its next scheduled flight and "hijacked" it to its original
destination. |
| * |
In Fordyce, Ark., an inmate unaware he was going
to be released escaped on that day and then was captured, earning one more year of jail
time after having none left. |
| * |
At Razorback Stadium in Fayette-ville, Ark., a
new video scoreboard designed to show replays of touchdowns was activated and
unfortunately began sending out an emergency signal indicating that a plane was down. |
| * |
In San Jose, Calif., the cleaning lady for Oracle
computer software multibillionaire Larry Ellison explained to police the reason she stole
his Rolex watch and other items from his home was because she was only trying to make her
own $4,000-a-month mortgage payments. |
| * |
At a National Pen Corp. plant in San Diego where
more than two dozen employees passed out from an overbearing odor, officials later traced
the problem to the janitors who put too many urinal cakes in the men's room. |
| * |
In Toronto, a man explained to police the reason
he became so angry with his wife was because he had called a sex line and, in the midst of
a conversation in which he was paying $3.95 a minute, realized it was his wife with whom
he was talking. |
| * |
While the stock market remained stale with a
return of only 4.1%, a fourth-grade class at a Charlotte, N.C., school reported a whopping
109% return after class members invested actual money in the market as a class assignment.
They invested most of their money in bicycle and scooter company stocks. |
| * |
In Detroit, police investigated the whereabouts
of a person who used a radio-frequency remote control that allowed him to intercept TV
frequencies and send personal messages across the bottoms of TV viewers' screens, such as,
"Hey, Barb -- I can see up your dress." |
| * |
A man's bid to become a police officer in New
London, Conn., was squelched after he scored too high on an intelligence test and the city
rejected him, saying he would be too bored with police work. |
| * |
In Golden, Colo., an employee of Coors Brewing
Co. unfortunately flipped the wrong switch, sending more than 78,000 gallons of beer into
a nearby creek, and thousands of fish reportedly died from drunkenness. |
| * |
An appeals court in New Hampshire ruled that,
under the protection of his First Amendment rights, an independent presidential candidate
could, in fact, campaign dressed as a 6-foot penis. |
| * |
Along Interstate 95 near Jarratt, Va., three
monkeys that had escaped from a circus were taken into police custody after they were
found hiding in a grove of trees just off the expressway, hurling crab apples and bananas
at passing cars. |