To trap a theif

Headline: Thief locks self in car
Clip from: news.com.au
Date of clip: 24.2.9
Caption: To trap a theif

A THIEF has bungled an attempt to break in to a car in Adelaide, locking himself inside the vehicle as police arrived.
Police said the man was one of two caught early this morning breaking into cars at Port Noarlunga, in the city's southern suburbs.

A 28-year-old was found hiding in some bushes while a 53-year-old was found hiding in one of the cars.

"The man, while breaking in to the car, had locked himself inside and couldn't get out," a police spokesman said.

Headline: Thief mistakes toilet for safe
Clip from: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/oddnews
Date of clip: 24.2.9
Caption: Maybe he had to go.

A hapless thief drilled his way into a French bank at the weekend, but missed the safe and instead found himself in a lavatory where he was promptly arrested, a French newspaper reported Sunday

Headline: Cops: Man Tries To Steal Laptop To Check Facebook
Clip from: CBSews.com
Date of clip: 24.2.9
Caption: Facebook Addict

Sheriff's officers said a 19-year-old man snatched a Starbucks customers laptop after being told he could not use it to check his Facebook account. According to officers, the man then grabbed the customer's laptop and ran out of the coffee shop, located in an outlet mall.

Two people in the parking lot tackled the man and held him there until a mall security guard arrived.

The victim got his laptop back and the man was charged Saturday with robbery by sudden snatching, a felony.

Headline: Family Living in Cave Puts Home on eBay
Clip from: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 23.2.9
Caption: Cave For Sale

ST. LOUIS — In a twist to the U.S. housing crisis, a family that has been living in a home built inside a cave in suburban St. Louis has put it up for sale on eBay.
Bidding starts at $300,000.
Curt and Deborah Sleeper of Festus bought about 3 acres of property and a cave in Festus in 2004, after they spotted it on the Internet.
The couple built a three-bedroom home inside the one-time mining cave.

Headline: Travelodge lost and found: horse, Porsche 911, World War II medals
Clip from: CBSnews.com
Date of clip: 23.2.9
Caption: We Found...

The budget hotel company, which has 7 million guests checking in every year, has revealed some of the more bizarre things that visitors have managed to leave behind. A pet lizard called Humphrey...a show jumping horse, left in his trailer in the car park at the Droitwich hotel..two sets of keys for a Porsche 911 car.. a diamond Rolex watch...a Centurion card, the black American Express card that is so exclusive the annual fee can run up to £1,800.

Headline: No Luck For NYC Santa In Parking Ticket Fight
Clip from: CBSnews.com
Date of clip: 23.2.9
Caption: Too Bad Claus

A New York City man who fought a parking ticket he got while dressed as Santa Claus and giving out toys says the city's response is more ho-hum than ho-ho.

Chip Cafiero says he learned Friday he'd lost his attempt to contest the $115 ticket he got in Brooklyn on Nov. 28. The city Department of Finance, which handles such matters, didn't immediately return a phone call Sunday seeking comment.

The 60-year-old retired schoolteacher had a sport utility vehicle double-parked near him while he handed out holiday bounty from a horse-drawn carriage. The SUV was ticketed.

Headline:Pennsylvania rocked by 'jailing kids for cash'
Clip from: news.com.au
Date of clip: 23.2.9
Caption: To Jail Scam

... There was no need for an attorney, said Phillip's mother, Amy Swartley, who thought at most, the judge would slap her son with a fine or community service.

But she was shocked to find her eighth-grader handcuffed and shackled in the courtroom and sentenced to a youth detention center. Then, he was shipped to a boarding school for troubled teens for nine months.

"Yes, my son made a mistake, but I didn't think he was going to be taken away from me," said Swartley, a 41-year-old single mother raising two boys in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

CNN does not usually identify minors accused of crimes. But Swartley and others agreed to be named to bring public attention to the issue.

As scandals from Wall Street to Washington roil the public trust, the justice system in Luzerne County, in the heart of Pennsylvania's struggling coal country, has also fallen prey to corruption. The county has been rocked by a kickback scandal involving two elected judges who essentially jailed kids for cash. Many of the children had appeared before judges without a lawyer...

Headline: Jackson Five star plans slavery theme park
Clip from: news.com.au
Date of clip: 23.2.9
Caption: An Odd Theme Park

MICHAEL Jackson's brother has been criticised for reportedly planning to build a slavery theme park in Nigeria.

Marlon Jackson is said to be prepared to invest in a $5.3 billion theme park where tourists can visit a replica slave ship and walk the route of shackled slaves, before playing a round of golf or relaxing by a pool, reports The Guardian

The former Jackson Five band member and the Badagry Historical Resort Development Project hope the park will attract African-American tourists keen to trace their roots back to Nigeria.

Headline: Woman Pleads Guilty in 'Unnecessary Surgeries' Case
Clip from: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 22.2.9
Caption: Nip And Take

COSTA MESA, Calif. — A woman who helped recruit patients to undergo unnecessary surgeries as part of a $154 million medical insurance fraud has pleaded guilty to 22 charges.

Sue Nanda, 40, of Costa Mesa, entered her plea Friday in Orange County Superior Court. She is scheduled to be sentenced April 24 where she faces up to 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors said Nanda worked for the now-shuttered Unity Outpatient Surgery Center in Buena Park, targeting employees from businesses in 39 states who were covered by PPO insurance plans. She recruited more than 170 people from 16 states to undergo unnecessary surgical procedures in exchange for money or cheap cosmetic surgeries.

Headline: Artificially-induced snow closes roads
Clip from: news.com.au
Date of clip: 22.2.9
Caption:

CHINA has closed 12 highways around the capital Beijing today because of heavy snow brought on after seeding clouds with chemicals.

All outbound highways were closed in Hebei, the drought-hit northern province surrounding Beijing, after heavy snow fell last night, Xinhua news agency said.

In all, 12 highways, including one linking Beijing and Shenyang, capital of northeastern Liaoning province, were closed.

Hebei got its first heavy snow of this year yesterday. The provincial weather bureau said that snow too was "enhanced" by artificial seeding.

Heradline: Police officer shoots himself with Taser
Clip from: news.com.au
Date of clip: 22.2.9
Caption: TASED

A POLICE officer has been treated for burns after shooting himself with a Taser stun gun.
Police were called to a nightclub brawl on Elizabeth Street, near Martin Place in Sydney, at about 3.40am last night.

They say a Taser stun gun was used in an attempt to subdue a 27-year-old man after he resisted arrest.

The officer Tasered himself in the struggle, injuring his arm.

Thong Throng Song

Headline: 250 Thongs Stolen From Florida Victoria's Secret Store
From: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 30.12.8
Caption: No Nipple Ring For Junior

A Florida Victoria's Secret store was the victim of an elaborate panty raid over the weekend when a thief walked out with 250 pairs of thong underwear from the store, authorities said.
An employee at the Naples, Fla., store noticed on Saturday that four drawers of PINK brand XS thong panties had been emptied, according to a police report The theft likely occurred between Friday evening and Saturday morning.

HEADLINE: Nipples out in new piercing rules
From: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 29.12.8
Caption: No Nipple Ring For Junior

MINORS will be banned from having their nipples and genitals pierced and children under 16 will need parental consent for any other body piercings under new Victorian laws.
From January 1, piercers who give a person aged under 18 an intimate body piercing will risk a $6600 fine.
The same penalty will apply to those who give minors a tattoo or perform scarification, tongue splitting, branding or beading on someone aged under 18.
And piercers who give children under 16 a non-intimate body piercing without parental consent will be slapped with a $2200 fine.
Attorney-General Rob Hulls said the new laws would help protect young people as body art increased in popularity.
"The possible health implications associated with body piercing can include the transmission of blood-borne viruses, infection, scarring and nerve damage," he said.

Headline: Study: Cocaine Alters Judgment in Humans, Bees
From: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 29.12.8
Caption: NO KIDDING

An Australian scientist is doping up honey bees with cocaine to study how their brains react to the drug, and possibly find a way to stop addiction in humans.
The research found similarities between honey bees and humans, in that they are both are driven by rewards and both have their judgment altered by cocaine.
"This is the first time that it's been shown that cocaine has been rewarding to an insect," Andrew Barron, co-author of the report published this month in the Journal of Experimental Biology, told Reuters.

Headline: Hubby: Men Who Slept With My Wife, Get HIV Test
From: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 29.12.8
Caption: Busy Wife

A Canadian man is urging others who may have slept with his Thai stripper ex-wife to get tested for the HIV virus after she passed it on to him, according to a report in the Toronto Sun.

"I know there were other men she slept with," Percy Whiteman told the Sun on Sunday. "I am lucky that I was able to find out early."

Whiteman has presented no public evidence to back up his allegations that his former wife, Suwalee Imkhong, 39, had sex with other men.

Headline: NYC Man Sells Bubbly Calendars For Popping Fans
From: CBSnews.com
Date of clip: 29.12.8
Caption: A Popping Good Time

A New York City man has designed a calendar that will drive Bubble Wrap fanatics popping-mad.

The Daily News of New York reports in Thursday editions that Stephen Turbek is selling a poster-size calendar covered with the plastic bubbles. Customers can pop a bubble each day to mark the passage of time.

The Brooklyn man says he has sold thousands of Bubble Calendars. A handmade calendar with paper backing is available online for $30 and a plastic version costs $50.

Headline: Man Arrested After Days Spent Hiding in Family's Attic
From: FOXnews.com
Date of clip: 29.12.8
Caption: House Guest of the Unknown Kind

A family did not realize they had an unexpected Christmas guest until a man who had been in their attic for days emerged wearing their clothes, police said.

Stanley Carter surrendered Friday after police took a dog to search the home in Plains Township, a suburb of Wilkes-Barre about 100 miles north of Philadelphia. He was charged with several counts of burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and criminal trespass.

"When he came down from the attic, he was wearing my daughter's pants and my sweat shirt and sneakers," homeowner Stacy Ferrance said. "From what I gather, he was helping himself to my home, eating my food and stealing my clothes."

Police said the 21-year-old Carter had been staying with his friends, who are Ferrance's neighbors in a duplex. But when they told him to leave, he apparently accessed the shared attic through a trap door in a bedroom ceiling.

Headline: Hospital Apologizes After Woman Gives Birth on Floor
From: news.com.au
Date of clip: 28.12.8
Caption: Thong Throng Song

A pregnant woman in the U.K. was left unattended for hours and had to give birth on a hospital floor despite her desperate appeal for a bed.

Health board officials have apologized to Lynne Neilson, 36, whose baby started to arrive as she stood, still clothed, in an assessment room at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, a major teaching hospital in Scotland, after hours of waiting to be admitted. As the baby's head appeared, a midwife ran in just in time to put a paper mat on the floor and catch the baby, who had the umbilical cord around her neck.

Neilson and her husband Gavin filed an official complaint after the incident. The U.K.'s National Health Service in the Lothian region of Scotland, which oversees the hospital, is investigating the complaint and has apologized to the woman.

Big Tall Theft

Headline: Newspaper 'Steals' Empire State Building in Just 90 Minutes
Clip from: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 3.12.8
Caption:

In what has been described as one of the biggest heists in American history, the Empire State Building was reportedly stolen this week by a New York City newspaper in less than 90 minutes.

The New York Daily News drew up fake documents, created a bogus notary stamp and filed paperwork with the city and successfully took ownership of the $2 billion property on Monday.

The heist illustrates what it descibes as a gaping loophole in the city system that doesn't require clerks to actually verify information....

Headline: Woman Charged With Stealing Neighbors' Decorations
Clip from: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 2.12.8
Caption: Not the true meaning of Christmas Part 2

MANCHESTER, Md. — A Carroll County woman is facing misdemeanor theft charges for allegedly swiping Christmas decorations from her neighbors' lawns.
The county sheriff's office says 51-year-old Gabriele Markert was found Monday in her Manchester home with decorations from at least three area homes.

Headline: Cops: Florida Man Attacked Father With Christmas Tree
Clip from: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 2.12.8
Caption: Not the true meaning of Christmas.

Authorities say a west Florida man who lives with his parents has been arrested on a felony assault charge after he used a Christmas tree as a weapon to attack his father.

According to the Manatee County sheriff's report, 37-year-old Thomas Edward Lackie was arrested last week after he threw a 3-foot Christmas tree at his father. The tree missed, but Lackie then tried to use the steel base from the tree to strike his father.

His father and mother were able to grab Lackie's arms to prevent the attack. Deputies say the tree could have caused serious injuries because the metal base weighs about five pounds.

Headline: Man Says God Ordered Him to Ram Vehicle at 100 MPH
Clip from: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 2.12.8
Caption: Confused, the devil made him do it.

SAN ANTONIO — A man who rammed his truck into a woman's vehicle on a highway early Friday told authorities he crashed into her while going more than 100 mph because God told him "she needed to be taken off the road."

The truck rear-ended the car on U.S. Highway 281 and both vehicles spun across a median before coming to a stop along a barrier in the opposite lanes.

Headline: Bill shock puts woman in hospital
Clip from: news.com.au
Date of clip: 2.12.8
Caption: It would be a shocking experience.

AN elderly South Australian Housing Trust resident was so upset to receive a quarterly electricity bill for almost $4500 she ended up in hospital.

Greenwith widowed pensioner Wilma Verneulem, 72, yesterday told The Advertiser she was stunned to open an account from energy provider AGL demanding $4489.71 for just three months of electricity use.

Not the true meaning of Christmas

Headline: Woman Charged With Stealing Neighbors' Decorations
Clip from: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 2.12.8
Caption: Not the true meaning of Christmas Part 2

MANCHESTER, Md. — A Carroll County woman is facing misdemeanor theft charges for allegedly swiping Christmas decorations from her neighbors' lawns.
The county sheriff's office says 51-year-old Gabriele Markert was found Monday in her Manchester home with decorations from at least three area homes.

Headline: Cops: Florida Man Attacked Father With Christmas Tree
Clip from: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 2.12.8
Caption: Not the true meaning of Christmas.

Authorities say a west Florida man who lives with his parents has been arrested on a felony assault charge after he used a Christmas tree as a weapon to attack his father.

According to the Manatee County sheriff's report, 37-year-old Thomas Edward Lackie was arrested last week after he threw a 3-foot Christmas tree at his father. The tree missed, but Lackie then tried to use the steel base from the tree to strike his father.

His father and mother were able to grab Lackie's arms to prevent the attack. Deputies say the tree could have caused serious injuries because the metal base weighs about five pounds.

Headline: Man Says God Ordered Him to Ram Vehicle at 100 MPH
Clip from: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 2.12.8
Caption: Confused, the devil made him do it.

SAN ANTONIO — A man who rammed his truck into a woman's vehicle on a highway early Friday told authorities he crashed into her while going more than 100 mph because God told him "she needed to be taken off the road."

The truck rear-ended the car on U.S. Highway 281 and both vehicles spun across a median before coming to a stop along a barrier in the opposite lanes.

Headline: Bill shock puts woman in hospital
Clip from: news.com.au
Date of clip: 2.12.8
Caption: It would be a shocking experience.

AN elderly South Australian Housing Trust resident was so upset to receive a quarterly electricity bill for almost $4500 she ended up in hospital.

Greenwith widowed pensioner Wilma Verneulem, 72, yesterday told The Advertiser she was stunned to open an account from energy provider AGL demanding $4489.71 for just three months of electricity use.

Headline: Deer Gets Revenge After Hunter Shoots Him
Clip from: CBS.com
Date of clip: 1.12.8
Caption: Didn't this happen in a cartoon?

A hunter bagged a big buck on the second day of firearms season, but the kill caused him a lot of pain. Randy Goodman, 49, said he thought two well-placed shots with his .270-caliber rifle had killed the buck on Nov. 19. Goodman said the deer looked dead to him, but seconds later the nine-point, 240-pound animal came to life.

The buck rose up, knocked Goodman down and attacked him with his antlers in what the veteran hunter called "15 seconds of hell." The deer ran a short distance and went down, and died after Goodman fired two more shots.

Headline: Thief Steals Thanksgiving Dinner Off Woman's Porch
Clip from: CBS.com
Date of clip: 1.12.8
Caption: Didn't this happen in a cartoon?

A Wisconsin family found it hard to be thankful after a thief made off with their turkey dinner.

Lillian Moore says she sent a cooler stuffed with Thanksgiving food to her daughter Cindy, only to have it stolen from her porch.

Moore packed the cooler with half a turkey, potatoes and salad. She left it on her daughter's porch Wednesday evening because her daughter's refrigerator was too small to hold the food.

When Cindy Moore went to get the turkey Thanksgiving morning, the cooler was gone.

Cindy Moore says she had to buy turkey using money she sets aside for bills. The disabled single mother didn't bother reporting the theft to police.

Headline: Cheap sex - the credit crunch is biting under the sheets
Clip from: BBC.co.uk
Date of clip: 1.12.8
Caption: Somethings in life are free--until the baby comes along

As the credit crunch bites, Britons may be turning to sex as a cheap way to pass the time, a charity says.

A YouGov survey of 2,000 adults found sex was the most popular free activity, ahead of window shopping and gossiping.

The Scots were most amorous with 43% choosing sex over other pastimes, compared with 35% in South England.

Aids charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, which published the survey, also welcomed recent figures showing an increase in condom sales.

Around one in 10 respondents to the survey, carried in November, said their favourite free activity was window shopping and 6% chose going to a museum as the cheapest way to pass the time.

Headline: Sweet Jesus that's distasteful
Clip from: news.com.au
Date of clip: 1.12.8
Caption: Much like when the real Jesus was put to death because leaders hated him.

GERMANY'S churches have criticised a businessman for selling thousands of Jesus chocolates.
Frank Oynhausen set up his “Sweet Lord” chocolate Jesus-making business saying he wanted to restore some traditional religious values to Christmas in Germany.

“I started thinking about how I could reintroduce traditional religious values into this commercial world,” Mr Oynhausen said .

Together with a friend, a local chocolatier, Mr Oynhausen, 54, developed the concept of “Sweet Lord.” Mr Oynhausen said thousands of people have put in orders for the figures wrapped in gold foil.

The Boot Caper

Headline: Venerable Texas Cowboy Boot Maker Hit By $3M Theft

Clip from: CBSnews.com

Date of clip: 22.11.8

Caption: Booty On The Monty

A truck-driving thief made off with more than $3 million worth of merchandise from a venerable maker of cowboy boots and other footwear, authorities said.

The thefts occurred Labor Day weekend and Nov. 9 at a Justin Boots distribution center, said Fort Worth police Lt. Paul Henderson.

A surveillance video shows a white single-cab tractor entering the property without a trailer and each time leaving with one. The driver gained entry by cutting the locked chain securing the gate, Henderson said.

Headline: Resort Sues Competitors for Swiping Beach Sand
Clip from: news.com.au

Date of clip: 21.11.8

Caption: Do they have to count the grains?

A developer is suing two Spanish-owned hotel groups for allegedly stealing nearly 100 truckloads of sand from a beachfront property in Jamaica.

Felicitas Limited has filed an $8 million lawsuit against RIU Hotels & Resorts and the Fiesta Hotel Group. Attorney Michael Hylton says forensic tests suggest sand at two Spanish-owned hotels is similar to that stolen in July. He says the theft paralyzed construction of a $105 million resort.

The Spanish ambassador to Jamaica, Jesus Silva, denied the accusations on Friday and said both companies have cooperated with police.

Government spokesman Darrel Vaz said charges likely will be filed in two weeks. He declined further comment.