Weird news - Broke into a store, ate and then went to sleep

The normal expectation from thieves is that they are very smart, can quickly make their way inside an establishment, break into safes, steal valuables, and leave no traces for the police to find (well, that they are capable of all of this is an exaggeration, but this is what movies tend to portray). However, one would think that there is a reasonable expectation that somebody who has come to steal something is likely to be sharp, not spending any more time than required and be able to quickly be out before somebody can figure out that there is a thief on the premises.
However, in reality, thieves can be blundering folks, leaving clues all over the place, and ensuring that law enforcement can catch and convict many of such people. However, one needs to be special to take steps that all but ensures that the person will be caught easily, without any major effort on the part of the police. What would one say about this thief, who broke into a store, stole some sausages, and then apparently went to sleep there, giving police no effort when they came to arrest him. And what caused all this behavior ? Liquor intoxication happened, ensuring that correct powers of judgment were out of the window (link to article):

The intruder then takes some sausages from the meat-processing business, goes back outside and then returns, grabbing a coat and falling asleep in the back office. Austin police officers woke up Ricardo Cardona, who told police he'd been out drinking, and charged him with criminal trespassing. It wasn't immediately clear whether Cardona has an attorney. The store owner says insurance money paid for a replacement door.

Weird news - Chinese boy unable to afford iPad, sells his kidney

One does not know whether this is weird news or stupid news. In our current modern generation, there is a craze to have the most modern gadgets, and there is a lot of peer pressure dealing with the same issue. So, for example, if somebody got a new phone, there will be a lot of comparison with other people, and you would find that some of the peer group will find themselves under pressure to also get a new phone.
However, this can take a strange and tragic turn when the peer pressure gets to so much that people lose their sense of reasoning, and want to do anything to get hold of such gadgets. For buying a new desired gadget, you can consider pooling up your savings, or even trading in some of the items you already own, but to do something as dangerous and life-threatening as selling one of your kidneys is unheard of, but this boy in China did this, and now his family is desperate to get him some help (link to article):

Zheng found an agent ready to buy his kidney and travelled to Hunan province in central China to undergo surgery in a local hospital. With the 22,000 yuan ($3,900) he was paid, Zheng bought a new iPad 2 and iPhone and then returned home, according to a report on the Dongfang TV channel Thursday.
"Xiao Zheng returned home with a computer and a new Apple phone. We do not have the money for such expensive gadgets. At first, he did not want to tell me where he got that much money from. Later he confessed he had sold his right kidney to buy these things," his mother told the channel.

German man detected stealing electricity using a meat hook, very dangerous

Overhead electricity wires can be very dangerous, since they carry electricity at high voltages, with a very high probability of death or serious injury if people come into contact with these wires. In such cases, if you consider the cases of a person who has been stealing electricity through the use of a meat hook from an overhead wire, then you can consider that the person has been literally dealing with death. And police in Germany found a man doing that for quite some time, having literally used a meat hook with an attached wire to draw electricity and thus steal the power for consumption (link to article):

German police are investigating a man for theft after he siphoned electricity off a high-voltage overhead transmission line for one month with the help of an ordinary meat hook, authorities said on Tuesday.
The 36-year old man from Sibbesse in Lower Saxony concocted the plan to steal electricity after the power company cut him off for failure to pay his bills, police said. The man attached a cable to the meat hook and tossed it onto an overhead power line. He then drew power from the transmission line to his home, located about 150 metres away.

Pamela Anderson bankrupt - blames decision to line pool with platinum

Most of you would have heard of Pamela Anderson, and seen her (she was the most exciting part of Baywatch, the TV series). Her personal life has been a bit erratic, being married and divorced to the same person on a regular basis, but finally left him because of his becoming violent. You would expect such a medium level professionally successful actor to be still rolling in riches, but there is a fact that just because you make money does not mean that you have the brains to keep it. After all, how many of you would have bought some platinum jewelery ? Some of you, right ? It can be expensive. But how many would have thought of tiling a pool with platinum ? Well, Pamela Anderson did, and she claims this made her bankrupt (link to article):

London: `Baywatch` beauty Pamela Anderson has revealed that it was her decision to tile her swimming pool with platinum that led her to bankruptcy. The 42-year-old blonde bombshell has spoken for the first time about the huge debts she has been left with after splurging on a dream home, reported Daily Mail online.
"I`m going to sell it. I hate it. People commit suicide over constructions. Relationships break down over constructions and I can see why. It rips your heart out," said Anderson who shares her trailer with her electrician boyfriend Jamie Padgett, 42, and her two sons Brandon, 13, and Dylan, 11. She reportedly has just USD 4,000 in the bank and needs to spend at least USD 800,000 more to make the house habitable.

Foolhardy: Getting mauled by a lion after climbing into its cage

Wild animals are called wild for a certain reason. Their behavior is unpredictable, they can be aggressive if they feel that they or their young ones are threatened, or if their territory is being encroached upon. Further, for many of them, their nature is such that they can be aggressive; but that does not deter people from trying out some crazy and wild stunts. What would you call a person who gets into a lion cage in a zoo and is then saved from serious damage by the keeper of the cage ? Such a person was inviting trouble, and it is only prompt action that saved him (link to article):

A travel writer was lucky to escape with minor injuries after his venture into a lion's den turned ugly. British journalist Charles Starmer Smith visited the South African wildlife park to "play" with one-year-old lion Mapimpan — whose name translates to "little baby".
Finally the handler was able to corner the cat in the pen's corner, allowing the journalist to calmly make his escape. He could be seen bleeding from his leg through his shredded torn pants and required stitches for his relatively minor injuries.

Mayor of a Romanian town wears Nazi uniform

Given what the Nazis did to Europe before and during the Second World War, and given the genocide they committed towards Jews, Russians, gypsies, Poles, etc., it is absolutely incredibly stupid that a mayor of a town would wear a Nazi uniform to a fashion show. Take a look at this stupid this behavior could be (link to article):

Jewish organizations called for a Romanian official to resign and face a criminal investigation after he wore a Nazi uniform during a fashion show over the weekend. Radu Mazare, the mayor of the town of Constanta, and his 15-year-old son "entered the stage marching the clearly identifiable Nazi 'goose step,'" the Center for Monitoring and Combating anti-Semitism in Romania said in a letter to the country's prosecutor general.
Mazare, 41, said he had not noticed the Nazi swastika symbol on the uniform before he wore it, according to the Romanian Times newspaper. "I checked it before I put it on but the swastika was very small and I didn't see it," he said. "I really liked the look of the uniform after seeing it in the Tom Cruise film 'Valkyrie.' I bought it from a costume hire shop in Germany."

So, how is that a mayor of a city did not know the history of the Nazis, or recognize the swastika on the uniform ? Even though he wore a uniform of the Army rather than the SS, the Army was also an instrument of the Nazis during the Second World War.

Crushing house based on wrong GPS coordinates

GPS (Global Positioning System) is a satellite based system of providing the coordinates of any point on earth, and is used for a number of different applications such as being able to plot destinations, traffic mapping, city planning, races, etc. GPS is also being used more and more for offensive tactics such as positioning for cruise missiles, bombs, and other targeting. GPS has seen to be seen as a major solution accelerator for many industries, however, the dependence on GPS to the exclusion of any other factor caused this man to lose his house (link to article):

A Georgia man is none too happy that his memory-filled family home, lovingly hand built "brick by brick" by Pop, is now a scene of rubble-strewn desolation after a demolition firm used a GPS to identify its victim and moved in for the kill. Al Byrd of Sandy Springs got a bit of a shock earlier this month when someone called to let him know the Carroll County house was no more. Byrd had lived there with his nine brothers and sisters, and the house still contained precious heirlooms including "mom’s dining room set … her hutch with her dishes in there"
“I said, ‘What address did you have?’ and he said, ‘They sent me some GPS coordinates.’ I said, ‘Don’t you have an address?’ [and] he said, ‘Yes, my GPS coordinates led me right to this address here and this house was described.’”

A great problem, imagine demolishing a house just because the technology used for GPS erred; but this was also true in some cases where drivers have been reported as having been guided down wrong roads while using their GPS trackers. It would have been good for the firm to have got a confirmation for the address before demolishing it.

What police officers in Britain's do inside the royal palace

For those who were earlier shocked at the separation between Princess Diana and Prince Charles, and some of the lurid tales of affairs and other such juicy stuff that was revealed over the years. However, the concept was still that the Palace was a serious place, and that everything over there would be formal, and maybe a bit boring. However, if you read about the antics of some of the police inside the Palace, you would find that things can get pretty interesting inside the palace (link to article):

Police officers responsible for protecting the British royal family handled firearms when drunk, traded pornography and steroids and sat on Queen Elizabeth II's throne in comical poses, it has been alleged in a London court. At one point Cooper "suggested" there had been a procedure among armed officers at the palace whereby one officer on duty would sleep while the others kept watch for their superior.
The court also heard that officers protecting the royals lost more than £250,000 ($365,800) to a spread betting venture called "The Currency Club," one of a number of apparently successful sidelines Page allegedly set up to clear spiraling debts, PA said. Cooper suggested that McGregor had been "one of those police officers" using mobile patrols to deliver cash to other police officers based in Royal Protection who were involved in financial matters.

The image of police and that of the palace has been totally serious in the past, but maybe no longer.

Filing a multi-million dollar lawsuit for a pair of pants

The United Stated probably has one of the most developed legal system of the world. Cases move fast over there, and people are able to get justice quickly (if you leave out the inmates of the Guantanamo prison camp). However, as with any system, there is always scope for misuse, and when there is scope for misuse, there will be always be people who will try and exploit these possibilities. A lot of laws were raised in the past, and may contain clauses or loopholes that have not yet been filled, and people may be wanting to fill these gaps. So, here is a gentleman who has filed a case that wants to claim $54 million from a dry cleaner over a missing pair of pants:

A court Thursday rejected an appeal filed by a former administrative law judge who sued a dry cleaners for $54 million over a missing pair of pants. Pearson initially sought $67 million from the Chungs, calculating the amount by estimating years of legal violations, adding nearly $2 million in common law claims for fraud. The saga began in May 2005, when Pearson took several pairs of pants to Custom Cleaners for alteration as he prepared to start his new job as an administrative law judge. He alleged that among them was a pair of pants from a blue and maroon suit. When he came to collect his clothing, he said, the Chungs tried to give him a pair of charcoal gray pants that were not his.
He claimed millions of dollars in attorney fees and millions more in punitive damages for what he called fraudulent advertising under the law. He also claimed that a sign in the store's window promising "satisfaction guaranteed" was an unconditional warranty that required the defendants to honor any claim by any customer without limitation. The Chungs' attorney argued that no reasonable person would interpret the signs to mean an unconditional promise of satisfaction. District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff agreed, ruling that Custom Cleaners did not violate the city's Consumer Protection Act.

Such cases do have an impact on people. Legal fees can be fairly high, and in the past, it has been seen that even important personalities have had to raise money for feed to attorneys; so there is always a cost to frivolous cases. The United States does not seem to have a way to defer such frivolous cases, and because of legal feed, even if a person wins a case, the amount of money involved could end up harming them immensely.

Selling off a live army shell

Corruption takes many strange forms, and can cause very strange situations. However, this incident takes the cake. The Indian army has policies for disposal of its ammunition, and those do not allow letting its soldiers walk off with these shells and sell them for their personal benefit. So how do you account for the stupidity of this armyman and the scrap dealer to whom he sold it to?

Three people, including an Armyman, were killed and three others seriously injured when a shell exploded at a scrap dealer's shop in Punjab’s Muktsar district on Thursday.
Muktsar police chief Gurpreet Singh Gill said the Armyman had taken the shell to the scrap dealer in Mehna village to sell. “When the shopkeeper hit the shell with a hammer, it exploded, killing three people on the spot,” he said.

Shells have been known to be volatile. Bombs that were dropped during World War 2 in Europe are still seen as dangerous, and treated with as much care as live shells. How does one explain the concept of this army soldier trying to sell off a shell; one wonders about the caliber of our soldiers if she did not realize that a shell is volatile. And the policies of the army where a soldier could walk off with a shell during peacetime, and it is not missed.

Kerala book shows frog in place of Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi is revered as the father of the Indian nation. He has a special place in the Indian polity, with many politicians and social workers using his name and legacy in their actions, and making a name for themselves by called themselves 'Gandhians'. His birthday is celebrated as a National Holiday in India on October the 2nd. So it was a shock and a very surprising thing that school book in one of the states of India showed a frog in a place where Mahatma Gandhi's photo was to be depicted:

Causing extreme embarrassment to Kerala government, a school workbook features the picture of a frog in a chapter on Mahatma Gandhi. The "goof-up" appears in a workbook distributed to students of classes V to IX in Kasargode district of the state. The workbook mentions Gandhi Jayanti and has the picture of a green frog under the heading. Below the picture is a quote by Gandhi on the importance of work.
Education officials were quick to dismiss it as a technical error. They claimed that it happened due to a mistake in handling the printing plates at the press. Officials have also started efforts to collect back the 'erroneous' books so that it can be set right.

Now mistakes happen, but it also seems to be that there was nobody who actually verified the book after it was printed to see whether there was any mistake or not. There would have been somebody whose job it was to verify this, and they must have been goofing off.

Flight attendant tried to set plane on fire

In a report on how stupid a person could be, especially in this heightened state of tension and worries about terrorism (specifically with relation to aircraft), a flight attendant was angry about his work routine and set fire to paper towels in the aircraft lavatory. He was finally caught, arrested, and fired from his job. Even with all the mercy petitions that he can file and pleas for mercy, he is looking at some jail time:

Court documents said Rojas, of the Twin Cities suburb of Woodbury, told authorities he was upset at the airline for making him work the route. He is accused of taking a lighter with him through the security checkpoint, authorities said. "Rojas further stated that he was preparing his cart to serve the passengers, he set the cart up, went back to the lavatory and reached in with his right hand and lit the paper towels with the lighter," court documents said.
Investigators later found a lighter in one of the overhead bins. Rojas confessed after authorities interviewed him, the complaint said. Compass is a subsidiary of Northwest Airlines, based in Eagan, Minn. Rojas has been fired, said Northwest spokesman Rob Laughlin.

If prosecutors do decide to get tough, Rojas is looking for a long time in the prison, since the maximum sentence for such a crime is 20 years in prison. He will have to get a public defender who can plea-bargain his case.

Trying to cash a check for $360 billion

The most successful criminals are the ones who are never detected, and the most seemingly obvious way to do this is in way that seems like normal behaviour; don't be too flashy and don't ask for outrageous things. Hence, for example, people who try to steal from banks find manipulating the system a much less detectable method rather than taking a gun and trying to hold up the teller. Somebody should try telling all this to this gentleman who tried to present a forged check, not for a figure like $1,000 dollars but for the figure of $360 billion.

Charles Ray Fuller must have been planning one big record company. The 21-year-old North Texas man was arrested last week for trying to cash a $360 billion check, saying he wanted to start a record business, authorities said. Tellers at the Fort Worth bank were immediately suspicious — perhaps the 10 zeros on a personal check tipped them off, according to investigators.
Fuller said his girlfriend's mother gave him the check to start a record business, but bank employees who contacted the account's owner said the woman told them she did not give him permission to take or cash the check, according to police. In addition to forgery, Fuller was charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon and possessing marijuana, Fort Worth police Lt. Paul Henderson said.

This guy belongs in a special class; not only did he try to rip-off the mother of his girlfriend, he did so for an amount that the bank could not possibly fulfill and that the lady's account would not have. Additionally, he was actually carrying both a weapon and marijuana !