Police found stash of women's underwear in man's room

In a strange case, police, following up on an investigation, found 93 pounds of women's underwear at a man's house. A witness found a man taking underwear from a laundry, and based on the photograph from his license, police eventually caught up with the man. When they searched his room, they found 1500 pieces of underwear, enough to fill 5 garbage bags.
The man used to steal the women's underwear from apartment complex laundry rooms, and has now been arrested on charges of theft. One ticklish problem for police; how to return these stolen items back to their neighbours, and whether the owners would actually want them back. Read the CNN article here.

Peeking at roommates through hidden cameras

Technology works in strange ways, it can assist criminal activities by misuse of available technology. For example, the technological drive towards making things smaller makes it far easier to conceal cameras in inconvenient ways. So, camera phones are now banned from a lot of gyms and public swimming pools.
In another incident, a voyeur placed a small camera concealed in a shampoo bottle inside a bathroom used by female roommates so as to be able to take pictures and videos of them when they were undressed. He was caught only when another roommate got curious about the shampoo bottle and noticed wires trailing from the back (does that mean if he used a wireless camera, he would never have been caught ?). When police were called in to investigate, they found the wires eventually leading to another roommates TV.
Now the fellow is sitting in jail with numerous charges on him. However, what he has done will make the other roommates more paranoid, and far less willing to trust someone or share with another person. Such invasion of someone's privacy and betrayal of trust needs to be severly punished.

Cow that relishes chicken

In a rural chicken farm, suddenly chickens started vanishing. Such an occurrence is bound to pinch, although initially the neighbouring dogs were suspected. It was only when a watch was kept that a most incredible sight was seen. A calf was found to be the chicken eater, having devoured 48 chickens.
The family watched at night as the calf went over to the coop and grabbed a chicken with amazing precaution. This is very strange behaviour. In India, Hinduism considers a cow to be holy, and such a behaviour is most unusual.
The local vet thinks that this could be caused by a lack of vitamins in the body, and has asked for further investigation. Read the story here.

Cat injures its owner over jealousy

A cat sent its owner to a hospital for treatment, when threatened by the introduction of another cat in the house. When a neighbour showed up at the door with another cat (thinking it was the house cat), the house cat severly attacked its owner, a lady in her 60's. The injuries were pretty serious, and the lady had to be taken to the hospital with over 20 injuries.
Now, it appears that the cat is going to be sent to a shelter since this was not the first time that such an incident happened. Read the CNN story.

New Mexico to declare Pluto as a planet

Sometimes one reads news that brings a smile to one's face. A few months back, the International Astronomical Union declared that Pluto essentially does not fit the definition of a planet, and hence should no longer be called a planet.

Now, apparently the state of New Mexico in the United States feels that there are not too many pressing things before the legislature, and is going to introduce a bill for reversing this declaration. State lawmakers will vote Tuesday on a bill that proposes "as Pluto passes overhead through New Mexico's excellent night skies, it be declared a planet." Read more about this story here.

One factor that is important for this proposed law is that the discoverer of Pluto hails from New Mexico. One would have expected scientists to react with some humour at this news, but actually they welcome anything that will bring astronomy into the public eye.

A peculiar gift item

What people will do to impress their loved ones ? In an unusual trial, a young New Jersey doctor was accused of cutting a hand from a body that was scheduled for cremation. He wanted it for purely personal reasons. A stripper he had met earlier wanted a hand, and he eagerly complied.
However, it is very clear that you just cannot cut a hand from a dead body, and is illegal. The doctor's defense is that he was immature and did not know that it was illegal. He was sentenced to 15 months probation, which means that if he does this again in the time period of 15 months, he could be sentenced to 5 years in jail. In a slap on the wrist, he was fined $5000. The stripper was also charged with the crime, and was sentenced to counselling. Read the full story.