Sitting pretty

More at Yahoo! News

A Berlin student who bought a second-hand sofa bed at a flea market learned she had been sitting on a small fortune when she found a baroque painting hidden inside the couch.

The artwork fetched 19,200 euros (about $30,000) in Hamburg after the student discovered it stashed between the folding sections of the couch she had paid 150 euros for last year, the auctioneers said on Tuesday.

There’s no place like home…even if it’s a jail cell

More at Yahoo! News

A former Australian prisoner liked his jail cell so much he has decided to buy it.

Graeme Alford, who spent several years in Melbourne’s former Pentridge prison for embezzlement and armed robbery in the 1970s, will buy his old cell, number 43, as part of a commercial redevelopment of the jail, local media reported on Wednesday.

No license? No pumpkin stall.

Hallowe’en pumpkin stall

Police have closed down three young children’s Hallowe’en pumpkin stall – because they did not have a traders’ licence. Dad Justin Sanford, 35, helped Robin, seven, Jack, four, and Benjamin, three, set up their stand on a rural road near their home in South Wiltshire.

They wanted to raise money to buy costumes to go trick or treating, reports The Sun. But they were shocked when two Police Community Support Officers pulled over and threatened them with a fine if they didn’t shut up shop.

Justin said: “When I saw the police pulling up I feared the worst and thought something awful had happened. When one of the officers turned to me and said ‘we have some bad news’ I naturally thought a loved one had been killed. But I couldn’t believe it when I was told my kids were breaking the law by selling pumpkins without a license.”

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Once again ever vigilant police work in the UK narrowly averts a horrendous crime. Just imagine…kids selling pumpkins without a license. Shocking!

Crime tip: Don’t turn on that stolen GPS tracker unit

The Courier-Mail

It might be the easiest arrest Mt Ommaney [Australia] police have ever made. One man has been charged with robbery after he was tracked by a satellite navigation system he had stolen [when he] inadvertently alerted police to his exact whereabouts.

The bust led police to recover tens of thousands [of dollars] of stolen equipment taken in what appeared to be sophisticated heists.

“Sophisticated”? How sophisticated do you have to be to stick your head up and call out “Yoo Hoo, Officer! Here I am.”

This little pig got a statue…then they made sausage

Monument to a pig

A monument to a pig has been unveiled in a Russian region famous for its sausages.

Nikolay Astanin, general director of the local meat industry in Kalach, close to the south western city of Voronezh, said: “We wanted to thank this wonderful animal for all it has given to the area.” The giant meat processing plants in Kalach were opened this week 80 years ago.

The monument in Kalach is Russia’s first dedicated to a pig.

Wicca school

More at The Raw Story

A Wiccan High Priest plans to open his own private version of Hogwarts with the lottery prize he won…some $49 million. He claims to have won the lottery after promising “Powers” that he would use any winnings to teach full time. Various other spiritual traditions will also be taught at the school.

116-year-old orange

More at BBC NEWS

A dried-up orange from the lunchbox of a miner fatally injured on the day he was due to eat it has gone on display in a Staffordshire museum. The fruit belonged to Joseph Roberts who was injured in an explosion at a Stoke-on-Trent colliery in 1891. [Mr. Roberts died in hospital.]

It had been kept by his family but has been donated to the Potteries Museum. Spokeswoman Deb Klemperer said it may just be a piece of dried fruit but the story behind it made it an amazing piece for the museum.

Attention New Jersey Gourmands: It’s OK to eat squirrels again

Squirrels

In January, the Garden State warned hunters and residents near a toxic waste dump in Ringwood in North Jersey to limit their consumption of squirrel after the feds thought they found lead in a dead squirrel. Officials now say it was a false alarm.

The Environmental Protection Agency said a blender used to process the squirrel’s tissue samples was defective – and that the lead believed to be in the squirrel actually came from a part of the blender.

Crime tip: When fleeing the scene remember to take your pants

6abc.comPolice in West Bend, Wisconsin, report a homeowner found an intruder and struggled with the man early the other morning. During the scuffle, the crook lost his pants and ran away wearing only a hooded sweat shirt and red boxers. Police say they found the pants-less perp hiding in some tall grass in nearby woods.

Wanted: Agile men. Must be excellent tree climbers.

The Times of India

New monkey-catchers have been hired by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to deal with the monkey menace in the city. The officials from the veterinary department who had been sent to other states like Tamil Nadu and Assam in search of monkey-catchers have been successful in bringing back two teams of monkey-catchers from Assam – each team consists of four members. They will be put on duty on Monday.

Scariest costumes for Halloween? Clinton, Giuliani

More at Yahoo! News

Once again, Hillary Rodham Clinton leads in a poll. This time, she was top choice when people were asked which major 2008 presidential candidate would make the scariest Halloween costume.

Asked about costume choices, 37 percent in an Associated Press-Ipsos survey this month chose New York Sen. Clinton, the front-runner among Democratic presidential contenders. Fourteen percent selected former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who leads Republicans in national polls.

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Prophetic ?

Costume too bloody good

Hallowe’en

A man who fell asleep on a train after a Hallowe’en fancy dress party prompted a police investigation in Germany.

Joerg Reichter, 24, had gone to the party dressed as a murder victim and had painted fake blood over his face and hands. But he passed out on the train back home after the boozy party in Hamburg and worried passengers called the police.

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Polizei arrived, found him just drunk and asleep, and got him to remove the makeup to prevent further confusion.

BYOM…Bring Your Own Marshmallows

More at Aliens

An Italian investigation into a series of unexplained fires in fridges, televisions and mobile phone is blaming aliens. It concluded that the responsibility for the fires in Canneto di Caronia on Sicily may lie with “aliens testing secret weapons”.

The village was the center of world attention three years ago after residents reported everyday household objects bursting into flames. Dozens of experts including scientists, electrical engineers and military experts, arrived in the village to investigate. One scientist reported seeing an unplugged electrical cable burst into flames.

Arson was ruled out while locals blamed supernatural forces and the Vaticans chief exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth suggested it was Satans work.

The life of a prophet is a hard one…

News item in a New York newspaper, 1868.

“A man has been arrested in New York for attempting to extort funds from ignorant and superstitious people by exhibiting a device which he says will convey the human voice any distance over metallic wires so that it will be heard by the listener at the other end. He calls this instrument a telephone. Well-informed people know that it is impossible to transmit the human voice over wires.”

via Boingboing.net

You gotta kiss a lot of toads…pigs. Might as well start early.

Bare facts

naked sleepwalkers

Workers at a budget hotel chain are being given advice on how to deal with naked sleepwalkers. It follows an increase in the number of guests found wandering around in the night with no clothes on at Travelodge hotels.

A study found a seven-fold increase in sleepwalking customers in the past year, to more than 400 cases – almost all of them men.

“Put the cuffs on him.” “Not me! You put them on!”

‘really hairy’ intruder

Deputies responding to a burglary-in-progress call found a bear ransacking a home. A resident discovered the break-in when he returned home Thursday evening and immediately called the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Sergeant Roberta Granek said deputies responding to the Woodland Lane address at about 6:30 p.m. spotted the “really hairy” intruder.

Department of Fish and Game officials were sent to the home and scared the bear off within a few minutes.

Haunted toilet? Umm…right.

Haunted toilet

A Kent librarian wants an exorcist called in to sort out a haunted lavatory. Gordon Jenns, 61, who has worked at Gravesend library for 14 years, says the ghost flushes the toilet when he thinks everyone’s gone home.

“It’s happened three times in the past 11 years, always around seven o’clock on a Friday,” he told the Bexley Times.

Chicago may be the Toddlin’ Town but New York is the spooky one

wcbstv.com

A self-proclaimed ghost-hunter says New York City has some of the most haunted places in the world. Kate Davey – who does research for an Internet company – says places where people hang out everyday of the week, have a lot of paranormal activity.

She says Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village was a public hanging square in the 18th century – and a lot of spirits roam among the college students, tourists and New Yorkers who hang out there.

Davey adds that New York City’s history dating back to the 1600s makes it a perfect environment for unrested souls. She says dozens of restaurants and other public places have paranormal activity, including one Greenwich Village restaurant – where the maitre D’ quit because he was pushed down the stairs by something he couldn’t see.

Don’t mess with guys in wheel chairs

News for Dallas, Texas

Dallas police said a disabled man shot and killed a person who broke into his apartment early Friday morning.

Police said the man was able to get out of his wheelchair, struggle with the invader, take his gun away and shoot him.