Newzity

Sure there are. One of them just looted $11,000 worth of broccoli in Toronto over the weekend. It was not clear if the thief was really after the healthy vegetable or it was just a mistake.

The truck with the broccoli made a long journey from California and was close to its destination. It reached east Toronto around 10 p.m. Saturday night and was waiting in the parking lot of the Queensway to be picked up in the morning. On Sunday 4 in the morning, the trucker who was in charge of delivering the loads of broccoli to a nearby destination came to pick it up. But he did not see any truck and reported it missing. People were really puzzled over the theft. It is one thing to steal a truck with valuables that are easy to sell like electronic gadgets or appliances. But $11,000 worth of broccoli is a lot. And you cannot wait long enough to let things cool down before you try to unload them.

Or maybe there are real heath-nuts in Toronto who are addicted to broccoli but not getting enough of it.

That may sound odd, but a drive through Pizza Hut in Fort Smith, Arkansas, was offering just that. The manager of the pizza place was arrested for selling pot in the drive-through window.

Aaron Massey, the twenty eight year old Pizza Hut manager, was looking to supplement his income with a side business: selling pot along with the pizza. Not sure if he put out any ad for the personal venture, but customers kept coming. It got popular enough that someone got the whiff of it and called police to check the joint out. Police came by and found the pot in Aaron’s office along with digital scales to measure the amount for each order. He got busted and arrested for possession of pot and for selling them.

We are not clear about the etiquette for ordering pot in a drive trough Pizza Hut: Is it listed on the menu? Do you order using the PA system? I bet you have to be a special customer. But the weed gives a new twist to the Hut in Pizza Hut.

That is what happened during a hunting accident. Anthony Klaseus mistook his nine year old son for a turkey and shoot him in a hunting range near Belle Plaine, Minnesota. The boy died on the spot.

Anthony took his young son for hunting turkey to a place 3 miles west of Belle Plaine. It was late afternoon about 6:30 p.m. when they spotted a group of turkeys across a field. Anthony told his son to stay put and tried to get closer to the turkeys. The little boy wandered along the edge of the filed. Anthony spotted him, mistook him for a turkey, and shot him with a 12 gauge shotgun. The bullet hit the boy in his chest. The father called 911 for help using his cell phone, but by the time help arrived the boy was dead. Police think it was an accident but would carry out an investigation to make sure.

Ironically, the boy was named Hunter. I guess some people won’t ever understand why it is not a good idea to mix kids and hunting.

You better believe it. Mark Urdahl, the current Mayor of West Lake Hills, Texas, is campaigning hard for one of his opponents Dave Claunch, the chairman of a city committee, for the upcoming Mayoral election in May.

There is no gimmick or trick here. And he is not doing out of some nefarious or malicious reason either. He simply wants Claunch to win. Or to be fair, he wants to lose the election. Why? Eight days after he filled papers for his reelection, Mark decided to withdraw from the race when the police chief accused him of tampering with a city investigation. On March 18, the deadline for withdrawal, he called the city office to notify then of his intention and later that day sent an email with a written request to remove his name from the ballot. Though both his phone conversation and the email met the 5 p.m. deadline, to be official the written request needed to be signed and notarized. His email did not satisfy any of those two requirements. Given the rules, the city officials said they cannot do anything to remove his name before the election and it will be on the ballot.

That left Mark with no option but work hard not to win but to lose. He is campaigning hard but for his opponent. What does his opponent think about the twist of fate? Claunch said Mark would not have any effect on the election. The whole thing “is just another dimension to life in Westlake Hills.”

Sure they can. Sgt. Ryan Nelson from Eugene police department in Oregon saved a pet store owner from the jaws of a 12-foot python. He had to pry open the snake’s mouth to free the woman’s hand.

Teresa Rossiter, a 46 year old pet store owner, was in full praise for her Burmese python Darla when she reached inside the cage to show it to a customer. But Darla picked up the smell of rat on her hand and bit her right hand and coiled around her left arm. Another friend in the store kept the snake from going around her neck. They called 911 and Sgt. Ryan Nelson arrived ready to kill the snake with a knife. But Teresa told him not to kill Darla - she did not want to hurt the snake and Darla would sell for about $850. Officer Ryan then put on gloves and pried open the snakes mouth off Teresa’s hand. The snake was returned to the cage without any damage. No one was hurt expect Teresa: she had dozens of puncture wounds.

Even though Teresa was really scared, she said it was her fault and not Darla’s.

Given the housing market, it is not easy to sell a house. The realtors and sellers are forced to rely on innovative incentives or trendy tricks. But Lovell family has come up with the prefect plan: give the house away in a 500 word essay content with $100 entry ticket.

The house is not a tiny one or really damaged one. It is a 1,200-square-foot three-bedroom, one bath-room standard house in Los Alamos, NM. Tiffany and Todd Lovell are giving their house away in an essay contest, and you can have it for a $100 ticket. The only catch is that they need about 2,500 people to sign up before they have the contest. That means they would sell the house for at least $250,000. Not a bad price for today’s market. If they don’t get the 2,500 people, they would return your money and start all over. One problem: the state Gaming Control Board is investigating if the contest is a raffle, which is illegal in NM, or a game of skill, which is legal.

So if you are interested, hurry. There are about 61 days left to enter the contest, and from their website it does not look like they got lots of entries.

Seems so. A group of 12 to 14 year old students from Clarksville Middle School lured a fellow schoolmate to a parking lot and beat her up. They taped the incident to share the video on PhotoBucket. Police say that group was inspired by the YouTube video of 16 year old Victoria Lindsay getting beaten by her friends.

This time the girls involved were even younger. The incident happened outside the school property. The group 12 to 14 year old middle school students planed it beforehand and lured a 12 year old schoolmate to an empty parking lot of a warehouse. When the victim reached the lot, the girls started arguing with her. Soon the group got angrier and started beating her. They again and again hit her on the head as other members watched and joked about it. The group taped the whole incident as they laughed. They later uploaded the video on PhotoBucket website. The 12 year old was left with bruises and cuts on her upper body and taken to a hospital for treatment. It seemed that they did it for the notoriety, and it was not clear what motivated them to pick the particular victim.

The girls were not formally charged since police were still investigating. Ironically, the victim is a daughter of a police officer. I guess the 15 minutes of notoriety is hard to resist for some kids.

How about 77 miles. Moon, a Siberian husky, who was ran away near a rest-stop in north-central Nevada 77 miles away from her home in Ely, came back. It took her a whole week to complete the journey through high desert and two mountain ranges.

Doug Dashiell, the owner, on his weekend trip stopped at roadside rest point near Railroad Valley which is about 80 miles away from his home. He let the three dogs out of his truck for fresh air, and Moon ran away. After waiting and looking for several hours, he called the local police. But they too could not find any trace of her. He waited for few days hoping Moon will show up. But when a week passed since he last saw her on April 6, he gave up hope. To his shock and surprise on April 14 he got a call from the local clinic. They told him that Moon was back. Moon had wondered back to Ely and was spotted by a resident who took care of her for the night and brought her to the clinic next day.

No one is really sure how she found her way back home or survived the week. Doug thinks she walked across Nevada’s high desert and dined on wild rabbits.

Malaysia for sure. A Malaysian police was arrested for trying to steal the CD player from a Mercedes Benz parked near a hotel. How did he get caught? He was found sound asleep inside the car.

On Monday, the cop broke into the car for the stereo on a hotel parking lot in southern Malaysian state of Malacca. While removing the CD player from the dashboard, he could not resist the comfort of the soft leather interior and dozed off. Other cops found him inside and arrested him for theft and illegal break-in. If a cop stealing from a car is not odd enough, there is more. He is also a member of gangs that is known to police for robbery from car break-ins to motorcycle theft. And that is nothing new in Malaysia; the line between crooks and cops is bit blurry over there. Police get inadequate salary, and often compensate by doing a side job as a criminal, not to mention corruption. After his arrest, the cop gave up a few of his fellow gang members who also work for the police department.

So when in Malaysia, be careful before you ask the cops to look after your valuables.

Of course not. The evil consumer protection laws expect them to prove their claims are for real. That is why five thousands British mediums, fortune-tellers, psychics, palm readers, and faith healers have filled a petition against the new consumer protection law and lunched a protest march on Friday.

Britain in an attempt to comply with the EU rule against unfair treatment of consumers has recently revised its Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951. The new rules would require psychics to either claim themselves as entertainer or prove their claims. The healers fear that given the new law anyone can file a complaint and force them to prove they are genuine. They say this is discrimination since no other religion has to do that. The critics say faith healing and fortune telling is not a religion but a big lucrative business that exploits human vulnerability, gullibility, and stupidity. The petition asks to revoke the new law, so that they can still enjoy legal protection under the old laws.

It is amazing that given all the connection to higher powers, they still need the protection of the laws of this world. And why do physics always act so surprised when asked to prove anything? Don’t they already know the future?