Odd News - October 2008

[Bungleau]

Justice is served...

From Sweden...

Smuggling charges dropped when couple revealed party plans The busy social life of an elderly couple from Piteå in northern Sweden has helped free them of smuggling charges after being caught transporting thousands of litres of alcohol from Germany into Sweden. The couple has detained back in August 2006 when customs officials in Malmö stopped their minivan on the way back from a trip to Germany, reports the Pitea-Tidning newspaper. An inspection of the van uncovered 2,692 litres of beer, 27 litres of wine, and 4.2 litres of hard liquor. In a subsequent search of the couple’s home in Piteå, police discovered an additional stash of alcohol, as well as a journal which included people’s names, along with different sums and types of beer. Altogether, the couple had brought around 24,000 cans of beer in Sweden, reports the Norrbotten-Kuriren newspaper. The prosecutor filed smuggling charges, alleging the pair had engaged in a systematic operation to import and distribute alcohol, and argued that the couple should be sentenced to several months in prison. During the trial, the pair openly admitted to having transporting the alcohol from Germany into Sweden, but denied they had committed any crime since the beer, wine, and liquor was meant for personal use. Specifically, the booze was meant to supply partygoers at their son’s upcoming 40th birthday party, the wife’s 60th birthday party, their daughter’s wedding, a friend’s 70th birthday party, and for a New Year’s party. Upon hearing the couple’s defence, the court threw out the smuggling charges and ordered that the couple’s alcohol supply, which had been confiscated at the start of the investigation, be returned. David Landes (david.landes@thelocal.se/+46 8 656 6518)

Glad to hear that justice was properly served... although I wish I knew those people. That'd make for one heck of a set of parties!

Say.... anyone know where Johnny was back then?

[Raistlin Majere]

Thats us scandinavians for ya throw a few parties and get charged with smuggling

[Bungleau]

I wanna party in Scandinavia...

In the meantime, from Yahoo Odd News...

Men nabbed after playing 'chicken' with police car BETHANY, Okla. – Three Oklahoma City men were arrested after playing "chicken" with a police car. Police said a 23-year-old man drove his car at the oncoming patrol car driven by Capt. J.D. Reid and didn't move until Reid swerved out of the way. Reid then chased the car until it crashed. The driver was found inside the car, another 22-year-old man was found lying outside the vehicle and a third man was found hiding behind a traffic sign. Two of the men were hospitalized and the third was treated and taken to the Oklahoma County jail where he's being held without bond. Police say the driver apparently decided on a whim to play chicken car and didn't realize the car was a police car. ___ Information from: The Oklahoman, http://www.newsok.com

Gotta love that third guy.... hiding behind a traffic sign? "Maybe if I suck in my gut, they won't see me..."

[Bungleau]

And 'cause I have to have two...
From Yahoo Odd News...

No rest for dead at foreclosed Mich. funeral home PONTIAC, Mich. – Even the dead can't escape foreclosure in suburban Detroit. Five bodies and the cremated remains of 22 people were evicted Friday from a funeral home in Pontiac. The remains from the House of Burns Memorial Chapel were delivered to the Oakland County medical examiner's office for storage. A medical examiner's administrator, Robert Gerds, said some of the cremated remains date to the 1990s. The county will send the bodies to another funeral home if a family member makes a claim. A pastor who went to the building Friday to attend a funeral service says he disapproves of the timing and the way the eviction was carried out. Detroit television stations also aired video of caskets being removed. Gerds says no bodies were inside.

Okay, the thing that caught my eye here... the House of Burns? What kind of comedian is running this joint?

[Firestormalpha]

ha ha.

I'd add something to that, but nothing comes to mind.

[VulcanRider]

A crematorium named House of Burns?? I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt & suggest that either that was the owner's name, or with Michigan's Scottish population, it was named for poet Robert Burns. Otherwise, that's just mean...

[Arvon]

Neighbors in the previously quiet New York City neighborhood of Nolita complain about the raucous, late-night trance music and crowds at the recently opened Delicatessen, according to an August New York Post story, but with little success. However, 10 of the apartments next door happen to look directly down upon the club's architectural signature, a see-through ceiling, and at least one resident has taken to relieving himself out his window, splattering the roof. (Another of the residents, though, said that when the man misfires, it ruins his air-conditioning unit.) [New York Post, 8-31-08]

[Firestormalpha]

I think that one was posted awhile back already, still, it is amusing.

I think someone speculated reliever was actually aiming for the AC.

[Bungleau]

From Yahoo Odd News...

Restaurant closed after dead deer found in kitchen HAMBURG, N.Y. – Health officials shut down a suburban Buffalo restaurant after an inspector found employees butchering a dead deer inside the business. Erie County Health Department officials said they got a tip Friday about a dead deer in the China King restaurant in the town of Hamburg, just south of Buffalo. An inspector soon arrived and saw the deer being butchered in the kitchen. State health laws prohibit butchering an animal inside a restaurant. Officials don't know whether the deer had been killed by a hunter or a vehicle. They said there was no indication the deer meat was served to any customers. The message on the restaurant's answering machine Monday says it was closed because of "family emergencies."

First, I thought it was one of those "I opened the door and there it was" things. Then I realized that with a name like "China King", it's probably a chinese restaurant (go figure!) or a buffet.

Hmmm... wonder what's *REALLY* on the menu?

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

..probably sending it overseas and making a fortune; cookie!