By: David Matthews
Nice try
A Norwegian man recently blamed a Coca-Cola bottle for his
speeding ticket.
The man claimed the bottle rolled onto the accelerator pedal
after another driver cut him off and forced him to brake suddenly. He claimed
the bottle stuck to the pedal and made the car go faster and faster, ultimately
forcing him to drive 70 mph in a 40-mph zone.
He even tried to demonstrate in a test car but motor experts
and court officials didn't buy it. The man faces 18 days in prison and a fine.
Blowing things out of proportion
When you deliver mail to George Krushinski's home in
Lexington, Ky., you don't leave the mailbox door down. Or else.
Mail carrier Mary Vance apparently wasn't always clear on
that rule, so Krushinski was forced to teach her a lesson.
First came the note. "I've warned you many times about
leaving my mailbox open," Krushinski wrote, "(and) now you will
pay."
Then came the pipe bombs. Krushinski left the first one in
his mailbox for the unsuspecting carrier to find, but luckily it didn't
detonate. The next one, which he placed under Vance's mail truck, worked. It
damaged the vehicle and a nearby barn, but did not injure Vance.
After that incident, Krushinski was arrested and now awaits
trial where he faces a potential life sentence in prison.
The naked truth
When a new railway order was passed in India banning transsexuals
from traveling in women's compartments on trains, the transsexuals didn't back
down. In fact, they showed officials just what they're made of.
They staged a protest on the Calcutta-New Delhi railway line
where some lifted their saris and blouses to prove they did not have male
sexual organs.
The ban was introduced following complaints from female
train passengers about the transsexuals. Officials admit that because making
passengers prove their gender can be difficult, actually implementing the ban
might be tough.
Law and order
Jay Mack testified in court recently that he was not the
driver caught speeding in Essex, England, recently and he will not pay the
£208 speeding fine mailed to him.
Jay claims the motorist who was really pulled over must have
used a fake name because Jay was not driving through that part of the country
on that day. In fact, he wasn't driving anywhere because he's only 16 months
old.
That's right, the Glasgow Sheriff Court summoned an infant
to appear in court or face arrest over the outstanding speeding ticket. His
mother says she tried to explain to authorities but they wouldn't believe her
until they saw Jay in court.
Holy rolling at 70 miles/gallon
A Pennsylvania group called the Evangelical Environmental
Network has launched a national campaign to encourage the use of fuel-efficient
vehicles. They're calling it "What Would Jesus Drive?"
The group is asking Christians "to walk the walk and
drive the talk" when it comes to choosing transportation options. This includes
making a pledge to walk, bike, car pool and use public transportation more, as
well as educating others about the moral concerns and solutions associated with
transportation.
Dead and gone
When citizens of Sieden, Germany, woke up recently after a
night of heavy rain, they saw more than just Grandma's tombstone floating out
of the cemetery. They saw Grandma.
Police say the sudden flood overwhelmed the area with 7 ft
of water. Consequently the local graveyard became so saturated that coffins and
corpses floated up and out of their plots and wound up all over the streets.
Cut it out
When faced with the tough job of finding a place to hide
$100,000 of cocaine this past fall, Jose and Octavio of Fitchburg, Mass.,
decided on the gas tank of a car.
Unfortunately, when faced with the tough job of getting the
cocaine back out, the men decided to use a saw.
A spark from the sawing created a flash fire and the men
ended up in the hospital with third-degree burns. They said that next time, in
order to avoid such a mistake, they would try a more fire-resistant hiding
place.
