Friendly Competition

The boy was attempting to set fire to his farts as part of a competition against his cousin in the garden of a house in Tipton when the accident occurred.

Fire fighters were called to the address but the small blaze had already burned itself out when the crew arrived.

Officers administered first aid until an ambulance arrived.

The victim was taken to Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley suffering from 18 per cent burns to the backs of his legs and his thumb.

Watch commander Paul Harpin, from Tipton station, said it was the first time he had been called out to deal with such an incident.

“The boy had been pranking around in the garden having a competition with his cousin, when they were breaking wind and lighting it. Right behind him was a petrol can and that just flashed.

“I think he must have won the competition but he will have some nasty burns now.

“It is a warning not to mess around with fire,” he added. (Full Story at telegraph)

There's not much you can add to that. . .

For The Curious

One cyclist was killed and 10 others injured after a suspected drunk driver crashed into a bicycle race in Monterrey, Mexico.

Police allege Juan Campos, an American citizen from Brownsville, Texas, was drunk when he fell asleep behind the wheel and crashed into the bikers who were participating in a 21-mile race along a highway near the U.S.-Mexico border.

37-year-old Alejandro Alvarez of Monterrey was killed in the accident.

The cyclists were 15 minutes into the race when the crash occurred. The cycling event was cancelled following the incident. (From transworldnews)

Tragic.

Too Smart To Work Here

A Federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a man who was barred from the New London police force because he scored too high on an intelligence test.

In a ruling made public on Tuesday, Judge Peter C. Dorsey of the United States District Court in New Haven agreed that the plaintiff, Robert Jordan, was denied an opportunity to interview for a police job because of his high test scores. But he said that that did not mean Mr. Jordan was a victim of discrimination.

Judge Dorsey ruled that Mr. Jordan was not denied equal protection because the city of New London applied the same standard to everyone: anyone who scored too high was rejected. (Full Story at nytimes)

I don't think any comments are necessary for this one.

Cigarette Prices In NYC

"New York has traditionally had the highest cigarette taxes in the nation," said Patrick Fleenor, chief economist at the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan tax research group in Washington, D.C. "It's also the state with the most significant smuggling problems."

The state tax on a pack of cigarettes jumps today from $1.50 to $2.75, making it the highest tax in the country. In Central New York, a typical pack of smokes will cost about $7.

New York City charges an additional $1.50 excise tax, so the cost of a pack of cigarettes there will hover around $9.

At those prices, experts predict that many smokers will try to find ways to buy cheaper, untaxed cigarettes. Historically, when taxes surge, so do black-market cigarette sales. (Full Story at syracuse)

I'm not for people smoking; its just a bad idea in general. That said, I have a serious problem with the government policing my choices. They aren't banning smoking in NYC, but the tax is a round about way to force people to quit. Add to this the fact that they are knowingly creating a black market and this just becomes a ridiculous tax.

By the way, if you are looking for a new business opportunity you can start trafficking cigs to NYC along with your moonshine (ethanol via home pump).

Wonder No More

Comcast Racing

Witnesses claim a horrible accident over the weekend could have been prevented if two cable-company vehicles weren't driving recklessly.

The police report says that the speed of the Comcast driver contributed to an accident that left a three-year-old girl seriously injured.

I've been in contact with the family and they are very upset and won't leave her side.

They're holding onto hope that she'll regain consciousness. . .

Witness Wesley Hadley says, "I said a prayer right there. I didn't know what else to do."

Hadley saw the accident happen as he was traveling south on Memorial Parkway.

Near Sam's Club and Lowe's, he says, "Two Comcast vans passed me... I estimate, probably about 75 miles per hour."

In a 50 mile-per-hour zone.

Hadley says one continued straight and another tried to turn right near O'reilly Auto Parts.

"I knew he wasn't going to make it." (Full Story at waff)

Anything I say just won't do this one justice.

Shoot Yourself in The Foot

RIVERDALE, Utah (AP) - The police chief who shot himself in the ankle was waving a loaded pistol and being careless, according to two students who were attending his class to qualify for a concealed-weapons permit. "We were told the gun is the chief's personal sidearm, but it looked to me like he didn't know anything about the gun," Lewis Walker said.

Bart Ulm, another student seeking certification to carry a concealed weapon, said he was surprised Chief Dave Hansen was using a loaded gun to show how it worked.

"Right then, I was very leery, because there's no need to have live ammo in a gun in the class. But I figured he's the chief, so he must know what he's doing," Ulm told the Standard-Examiner of Ogden.

Hansen held the Glock 40 under a table to disassemble it when a bullet fired, Walker said.

The chief cried, "I'm hit," and fell over. Students who were screaming "Officer down!" were urged to call 911. (Full Story at wtop)

Nice.

I Would Like To Cash This Check Please

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - 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, of suburban Crowley, was arrested on a forgery charge, police said. He was released after posting $3,750 bail.

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.

Officers reported finding less than 2 ounces of marijuana and a .25-caliber handgun and magazine in his pockets, police said. (From wtop)

You have to think, though, that someone of his caliber will be on the other side of the counter eventually.

Hard Lemonade

The 47-year-old academic says he wasn't even aware alcoholic lemonade existed when he and Leo stopped at a concession stand on the way to their seats in Section 114.

"I'd never drunk it, never purchased it, never heard of it," Ratte of Ann Arbor told me sheepishly last week. "And it's certainly not what I expected when I ordered a lemonade for my 7-year-old."

But it wasn't until the top of the ninth inning that a Comerica Park security guard noticed the bottle in young Leo's hand.

"You know this is an alcoholic beverage?" the guard asked the professor.

"You've got to be kidding," Ratte replied. He asked for the bottle, but the security guard snatched it before Ratte could examine the label.

... it would be two days before the state of Michigan allowed Ratte's wife, U-M architecture professor Claire Zimmerman, to take their son home, and nearly a week before Ratte was permitted to move back into his own house. (From boingboing)

Really people, this is just insane. I don't even care if he did know that it was an alcoholic beverage. This is where the government clearly overstepped their bounds.

Texting Under The Influence

CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) - A former Virginia Tech student who had been drinking before she crashed into a crowd while sending a text message on her cellphone is facing jail time.

Mary Elizabeth Bowen, 21, was convicted Wednesday of driving under the influence and three felony counts of maiming while driving under the influence. Three people were hurt when Bowen's small SUV veered onto a sidewalk and into a crowd of people in front of a sports bar in Blacksburg around 2 a.m. June 16.

Police said Bowen admitted she had been sending a text message when she crashed. Her blood-alcohol content shortly after the crash was 0.20, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.

Bowen will be sentenced in August. (Story From wtop)

I'm curious what she was texting about and to whom. I bet it seems trivial to her now.

Not Just a Halloween Trick

"About halfway through, I bit in and felt something hard and crunchy." That’s what NYU senior Benjamin Jarosch declared after eating part of a found muffin, and he wasn’t talking about a walnut: his innocuous-looking blueberry muffin was stuffed with three razorblades. Jarosch and his buddies had discovered the muffin, along with four others, wrapped in tin foil, upon arriving in the classroom.

It seems they were left over from a previous class and were "props" used by a student to demonstrate "ideas of absurdism and randomness." Professor Heidi White forgot to discard the muffins when class was dismissed, and the professor for the next class knew nothing about the muffin's sharp surprise. (Full story at gothamist)

So wait a second. You mean, it isn't a good idea to eat randomly placed, opened food with unknown origins? No lunch for me today. . .

So No One Could Rip It Off?

CATLETTSBURG, Ky. (AP) - A man who wrapped his head in duct tape to conceal his identity has pleaded guilty to robbing an eastern Kentucky liquor store.

Under terms of a plea agreement, 25-year-old Kasey G. Kazee faces 10 years in prison, the maximum sentence. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree robbery.

Police said Kazee entered an Ashland liquor store on Aug. 10 with his entire head, except for openings at his eyes and mouth, wrapped in duct tape.

Kazee told a clerk he had a knife and threatened to harm her if she didn't give him the money from the cash register, police said. The clerk complied and the man left.

Before the "Duct Tape Bandit" could make his getaway, another store employee tackled him in the parking lot, police said. The employee and several other men who came running from a neighboring store detained the suspect until officers arrived.

Police didn't say how much money was taken, but the store manager said the register came up $15 short. Police said no weapon was found on Kazee when he was arrested. (Full Story at wtop)

It doesn't appear that he had a whole lot of time put into creating his mask either.

Youthful Stupidity Is Global

Never Sample Your Own Product

MERRIMACK, N.H. (AP) - A family called police to their home to report a fight and ended up being arrested on drug charges. Police said they went to the Roehl family home on Monday after getting a call about a fight, possibly involving baseball bats.

They said that when 17-year-old Karl Roehl was showing them a large clock that had been damaged, they noticed two potted marijuana plants.

Officers said Roehl was arrested when he tried to hide the plants and that his mother, Lee Ann Roehl was arrested after ripping a plant from its pot and throwing it into the yard.

Police returned with a search warrant and said they found more pot and a growing room, so they added more charges to the mother and son and arrested the father, also on drug charges. (Story via WTOP)

If these yahoos were able to successfully grow (for a time), how many other folks out there with half a brain are growing and not getting caught? I would guess a lot.

The Perfect Plan

KIRKSVILLE - A Kirksville man faces a felony indictment after trying to purchase a LCD television for less than $3 by allegedly replacing its UPC code with that of a water bottle.

Reginald Newman, 44, was indicted Monday by the Adair County Grand Jury and has been charged with attempted stealing by deceit.

According to documents filed in Adair County Circuit Court, Newman allegedly tried to purchase a 26-inch Viore LCD television from Wal-Mart, claiming the UPC code valued at $3.16 was the proper code the television, which normally sells for more than $517.

If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison, a fine of up to $5,000 or any combination of the two. (Full Story)



I have a feeling this guy tried to argue his way out of trouble too. I've worked retail before, and this is that special kind of customer. The kind that argues, "I don't care if it's the right price. It rang up as three dollars so that's all I should have to pay."

Finders Keepers

NEW ORLEANS -- A local man is actively trying to take possession of hurricane-ravaged houses – and deputies are actively trying to stop him, police said.According to the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office, Jesse Bryant, 47, was booked with burglary and criminal trespassing after posting signs in yards of damaged houses reading "I, Jesse Bryant, take possession of this abandoned property."Police said he went so far as to change the locks in one house at a subdivision – effectively keeping the real owner out of his own house.Deputies said Bryant, who had been living with a daughter, claimed it’s legal to take possession of abandoned property. Deputies emphasized that Bryant is wrong and more charges might be pending regarding other properties.

Does this guy think New Orleans is the wild west or something? The great land grab of '08? You have to admit though, this would make a great COPS episode. We can only hope.

[Story via wdsu]

Bernie Revisited

Dumb and dumber are free and clear.

A Manhattan judge today dismissed all charges against the two men accused in the "Weekend at Bernie's" stunt of trying to cash their dead friend's check in January.

James O'Hare and David Daloia, both 65, were accused of dressing the corpse in a pair of pants, a T-shirt and sneakers - then loading him into a chair, and trying to cash his $355 Social Security check.

Prosecutors acknowledged that two autopsies were unable to determine Virgilio Cintron's exact time of death, and the case was dropped for lack of evidence. (Full Story)

I understand that you have to let the judicial system work, but I personally don’t think you could miss the fact that the person you’re pushing is dead. Just my opinion.

I'll Need to See Some ID

via BBC:

Supermarkets have banned sales of eggs and tomato ketchup to young people in a bid to cut anti-social behaviour.

About a dozen residents in the Charles Close area of Caister-on-Sea, near Great Yarmouth, have reported tomato sauce being squirted at cars and homes.

Norfolk Police asked supermarkets in the town to challenge youths trying to buy sauces in squirty bottles or eggs.

Sgt Andy Brown said no more complaints had been received in the past two weeks since the agreement came into force. (Full Story)


Something just doesn't seem right about this. They have some incidents with ketchup and eggs so they ban the sale to minors. What's next, toilet paper? How about condiments from fast food joints? What's to stop the minors from switching to, let's say, BBQ sauce?

Not to mention I have a fundamental problem with the government taking away the rights of everyone because of the actions of a few goobers. At least this didn't happen here. . . yet.

It's Tough Being a Criminal

A boy in his mid-teens learned Wednesday afternoon that it is not a good idea to try to rob a former U.S. Marine at knifepoint, even if the former Marine is 84 years old, police said today. (Full Story | Mercury News]



A burglar who broke into a funeral home tried to fool police by playing dead, but two things gave him away. First, he breathed. Plus, he wore grungy clothes rather than the Sunday best of those settling in for eternal rest. (Full Story | wtopnews.com]

It does stand to reason that those who choose a life of crime generally lack sound judgment.

[Photo via thechaly]