911? Help!!

You may have heard of house calls, but this is ridiculous.

After months of enduring a leaking pipe that buckled its floors and sagged its ceilings, an empty Massachusetts house somehow called police for help.

The Salem News reports the emergency call went out to police from a house in Marblehead after water short-circuited the phone system, apparently sparking the emergency call.

Officers were sent to the address after the call was recorded as a hang up and a return call got static.

via News.com.au

Related Articles

• Leaking Mass. house dials 911 for help (hosted.ap.org)

File under Dubious Ideas…bicycle wine rack

Wine Rack

Tornado + Mustang = Bad.

But he drove it away. Story and video here.

Cunning Plan #12: Steal milk while wearing cow suit

Walmart shoppers in Stafford County saw the sight of their lives Tuesday night—a cow, on all fours, trying to score gallons of milk.

An 18-year-old man dressed up in a cow suit stole 26 gallons of milk around 10:35 p.m. from the Garrisonville Walmart, Stafford County Sheriff’s spokesman Bill Kennedy said.

The man was apparently crawling while he exited the store, trying to emulate cattle, Kennedy said

via InsideNova.

Zombies, ghost and witches, oh my!

Investigating 3,300 reports of UFOs, ghosts, witches, zombies and vampires has cost the Welsh Dyfed-Powys Police force £500,000 over a five year period.

via BBC News

Not what you want to find in your bathroom

via Alligator invites himself into Palmetto home.

Big man or small van?

Link

Maybe they should add to that disaster plan

Hancock County Public Library administrators were gathering to discuss an earthquake-preparedness plan this afternoon at the Greenfield branch when a different kind of disaster struck — the building caught fire when a lightning bolt apparently struck the roof.

via indystar.com.

Any identifying marks?

The 27-year-old California man was arrested early Sunday for allegedly shooting at a vehicle in Sacramento. Martinez, a parolee, was also charged with possession of methamphetamine and unlawful possession of a firearm.

via The Smoking Gun.

No problem. Just buy narrower buses

A UK council is under fire for spending £1.5 million ($2.5 million) on a bus lane, only for drivers to find it is not wide enough for buses.

Residents of King’s Lynn in Norfolk, eastern England, branded the project “farcical” after drivers discovered they have to navigate the route at walking pace because it is so narrow, Lynn News reported.

via News.com.au.

Related Articles

• Bungling council unveils bus lane… too narrow for BUSES (dailymail.co.uk)

German politician’s career wiped out?

A German politician has been caught short after janitors collared him red-handed pilfering toilet paper rolls from the gents in the town hall during a sting operation, authorities said Wednesday.

Janitors’ suspicions were raised when more than 200 rolls vanished and they laid a trap for Frank-Michael John, 24, a member of the far-left Die Linke party in the regional council of Stralsund, northern Germany.

They discovered him exiting the toilet with one roll in his hand and another in a backpack, according to several media.

via flushed out

Related Articles

• Frank-Michael John: German Politician Busted Stealing Toilet Paper (blippitt.com)

All that gray hair doesn’t mean you’re defenseless

A good whack “upside the head” with a frying pan and a poke with a pitchfork was too much for a home invasion style robber who lost teeth from the smack with the pan and fled, bleeding from pitchfork wounds, only to be caught a short time later by police in Jacksonville.

Did I mention that the pan/pitchfork wielder is 81?

via Northwest Florida Daily News.

Related Articles

• Man, 81, fights robber with pan, pitchfork (upi.com)
• Frying Pan, Pitchfork Deter Burglar (patspapers.com)

Evidently they didn’t use library paste

The Metropol Parasol (Spain) looks from afar like it’s constructed from popsicle sticks — but it is actually built from bonded timber with a polyurethane coating (translation: extra-strong glue). The unusual materials have given it two unique claims to fame: It’s the largest wooden building in the world, and the largest structure to be held together by glue.

via The Upshot

What happens when a taxidermist has never seen a lion

You may be asking for trouble when you commission taxidermy work from someone who is unfamiliar with the species. That was just the case for King Frederick I of Sweden in 1731. The lion was a gift, but after it died, the pelt and bones were presented to a taxidermist who had never seen a lion. You see the result looks more like a cartoon character than the king of beasts.

via The Lion on Gripsholm’s Slott.

Related Articles

• The Lion on Gripsholms Slott (neatorama.com)

Artist thinks “out of the box”… or urn, as the case may be

Raven Collins puts her heart and other people’s souls into her art.

The 37-year-old Thonotosassa artist has been sketching for more than 15 years, specializing in detailed hand-drawn portraits. Nowadays, most of her commissioned work incorporates an unusual ingredient: Cremated remains — ashes — brushed right into the portrait.

It’s a fast-growing trend in the art world, though Collins says she is the only one she’s aware of who uses ashes in sketch drawings. Others mix remains in the paint of abstract works, and some sculptors put cremated remains in jewelry or glass. One artist in Canada compresses cremated remains and puts them into pencils. “Like lead,” Collins says.

via Loved ones live on in art.

A fact you may not know

Get out your party hats, your bread and your cheese and heat up your grills. April is National Grilled Cheese Month.

Crime tip: Burglars should never fall asleep at work

A man was arrested Sunday morning after Monterey County Sheriff’s deputies said he broke into a CVS Pharmacy on Vierra Canyon Road.Deputies responded with their K-9 unit to a burglary alarm at the store, and when they arrived, they said they found Steven James Cobbs, 19, asleep inside.

via  KSBW The Central Coast

How to park a Russian SUV

Even after staring at this bizarre picture for a while we still can’t understand exactly how this Russian SUV ended up as you see it here. No details were included…

via How did this Russian SUV end up parked like this?.

Crime tip: Stripping to your underwear won’t throw off a police dog

(A) 25-year-old woman found in her bra and panties after a traffic crash told an officer she stripped off her clothes to try to “conceal her scent” from a police.

But Angela C. Ferranti’s disrobing plan last week apparently didn’t work as Kilo, a police dog, tracked into a wooded area in central Port St. Lucie where she was found, according to a recently released report.

via  Off the Beat with Will Greenlee.