Post insane / odd / unique news releases here

[LWM]

Police: Wendy's robber complains about skimpy haul (August 1st, 2010 @ 1:47pm)

ATLANTA (AP) - Police say a man who robbed a fast-food restaurant with a gun was so mad about the amount of loot that he called back twice to complain.

The man walked up to the drive-through window of an Atlanta Wendy's late Saturday night, wearing a ski mask and holding a gun.

He demanded the cash drawer, grabbed it and ran away.

But police say he later called the fast food restaurant to complain about the amount of cash.

Police say in one call he said that "next time there better be more than $586."

He called again with a similar complaint.

[LWM]

Sharp curve in Maine nets another big fish spill (August 1st, 2010 @ 3:45pm)

WHITING, Maine (AP) - There's something fishy in Whiting, Maine.

For the third time, a fish truck has accidently dumped its load in Esther MacLaughlin's front yard, located on a sharp turn near the intersection of Route 189 and Route 1.

Maine State Police say a truck carrying at least 22,000 pounds of lobster-bait herring overturned on the curve Saturday, spilling its cargo and injuring the driver.

Trooper Andrew Foss tells the Bangor Daily News the driver blew a tire as he drove through the curve, causing the truck to flip on its side. The driver was hospitalized with leg injuries. The truck sustained $25,000 in damage.

Robin McPhail says her mother lives near a bad intersection, calling it "a really bad corner" with many accidents.

[LWM]

Ohio Red Cross giving away new car, or Amish buggy (August 2nd, 2010 @ 5:33am)

CLEVELAND (AP) - To spur blood donations, an Ohio Red Cross chapter is offering people who give a pint of blood the chance to win a car or a horse-drawn buggy.

Spokeswoman Christy Chapman in Cleveland says the Red Cross didn't want to leave its many Amish donors out of the giveaway. The organization's Northern Ohio blood services region includes three counties with one of the nation's largest Amish populations.

The Red Cross regional operation has a board member who is Amish and who is arranging to have a buggy custom made for the contest, which wraps up Sept. 6.

Blood donors who prefer a more modern mode of transportation can win a 2010 Nissan Versa.

[LWM]

Porn site airs at Indonesia's parliament (August 2nd, 2010 @ 8:17am)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesian lawmakers and journalists got a shock when an online porn video blazed across dozens of computer monitors outside the press room at Parliament.

Witnesses say it took security guards 10 minutes to shut down the computers Monday.

The touch-screen monitors are used by visitors to check the Parliament agenda and other political activities.

House Secretary-General Nining Indra said the unwanted interruption was probably caused by someone trying to access a porn site on the computer system.

She said officials would use close circuit TV footage to investigate.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation. Authorities have been trying to crack down on porn ahead of the holy fasting month of Ramadan that starts next week.

[LWM]

Mystery as Tokyo loses track of centenarians (August 3rd, 2010 @ 8:20am)

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press Writer

TOKYO (AP) - Japanese authorities admitted Tuesday they'd lost track of a 113-year-old woman listed as the Tokyo's oldest, days after police searched the home of the city's official oldest man- only to find his long-dead, mummified body.

Officials launched a search this week for Fusa Furuya, born in July 1897 and listed as Tokyo's oldest citizen, after it emerged her whereabouts are unknown.

Several other celebrated centenarians are also unaccounted for due to poor record-keeping and follow-up in a country that prides itself in its number of long-lived citizens but also frets about an unraveling of traditional family ties.

Officials updating their records ahead of a holiday next month honoring the elderly found that Furuya does not live at the address where she is registered, said Hiroshi Sugimoto, an official in Tokyo's Suginami ward.

Furuya's 79-year-old daughter, whose name was not disclosed, told officials she was not aware of her mother's registration at that address and said she thought her mother was just outside Tokyo with her younger brother, with whom she has lost touch. But that address turned out to be a vacant lot.

Police are also interviewing the brother and another daughter, but still have not been able to locate Furuya.

The disappearance follows last week's grisly discovery- also by officials updating the most-elderly list- that the man listed as Tokyo's oldest male, who would have been 111 years old, had actually been dead for some 30 years and his decayed body was still in his home.

Police are investigating the family of Sogen Kato for alleged abandonment and swindling his pension money. Kato is believed to have died around 1978 after he had retreated to his bedroom, saying he wanted to be a living Buddha.

Officials said that they had not personally contacted the city's two oldest people for decades.

Authorities are also looking for a 106-year-old man who is missing in Nagoya, central Japan, Kyodo News agency reported. The Asahi newspaper said three more centenarians were unaccounted for in Tokyo.

The missing elderly people could cast doubt on the exact number of centenarians in Japan, a figure that has been rising for decades.

Officially, Japan has 40,399 people aged 100 or older, including 4,800 in Tokyo, according to an annual health ministry report last year marking the Sept 21 holiday for the elderly.

Each centenarian receives a letter and a gift from a local government office- usually by mail. Officials in fewer than half of the country's 47 prefectures (states) routinely keep track of centenarians in person, Kyodo said, citing its own tally.

Health and Welfare Minister Akira Nagatsuma urged officials to find a better way to monitor the elderly.

"Many people have doubts whether the government properly keeps track of senior citizens' whereabouts," he said. "It is important for public offices to check up on them- where and how they are- and follow through all the way."

But local officials say it is hard to keep track because families are often reluctant to receive official visits.

Many also send their elderly relatives to nursing homes without doing the proper paperwork.

"It's shocking that even relatives don't know if their parents are alive or dead," Chiba University professor Yoshinori Hiroi, an expert on public welfare, told public broadcaster NHK. "These cases were typical examples of thinning relationship among families and neighbors in Japan today."

The rapidly graying population has also fueled concerns about Japan's overburdened public pension and medical care system.

[LWM]

Pa. city shames owners of blighted property on Web (August 3rd, 2010 @ 10:04am)

READING, Pa. (AP) - Property owners neglecting their homes in one eastern Pennsylvania city are getting an online shaming.

Reading (RED-ing') Mayor Tom McMahon on Monday announced a new online "Wall of Shame" featuring blighted properties.

McMahon says the property owners' names will be posted along with pictures and addresses. He says he's serving notice to property owners who fail to take action on eyesore properties.

Ten properties are already facing designation as blighted, which could lead to them being torn down. Fifty other properties are listed on the site, and McMahon says they're being targeted for blighted status by the city.

[LWM]

Michigan man says he's grateful dog chewed off toe (August 3rd, 2010 @ 11:34pm)

ROCKFORD, Mich. (AP) - A Michigan man says he's grateful his dog ate most of his toe while he was passed out drunk.

Jerry Douthett of Rockford says Kiko's action helped uncover an undiagnosed diabetic condition and led to treatment that could save his life.

The Grand Rapids Press reported that the 48-year-old musician knew for a while something was wrong with his foot. He resisted seeking care until giving in to his nurse wife's pressure one day last month.

Before going for an appointment, Douthett says he went out drinking, then came home and passed out. When he awoke, the terrier was beside him in bed and lots of blood was where his toe used to be.

His wife rushed him to Spectrum Health Blodgett Campus, where doctors found a bone infection and amputated the rest of the toe.

[LWM]

Woman told robber computer had tracking device (August 4th, 2010 @ 5:49am)

ATLANTA (AP) - An Atlanta woman who used her feet to type a computer message to her boyfriend asking for help after she was robbed and bound says she persuaded the robber not to steal her laptop.

The woman, 39-year-old Amy Windom, appeared on NBC's "Today" show Wednesday and described her ordeal.

She says a robber entered her home early Tuesday and bound her to her bed. Windom says the robber left her computer after she told him it has a tracking device.

She says she propped up the laptop and after realizing she couldn't type with her feet, wedged the power cord between her toes and produced messages. She got her boyfriend's attention with an instant message and he sent the police to her home.

[LWM]

Pa. woman's stripper job leads to fraud charges (August 4th, 2010 @ 6:24am)

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A Pennsylvania woman is accused of illegally accepting workers' compensation payments while working as a stripper.

Forty-three-year-old Christina Gamble waived a preliminary hearing scheduled for Tuesday and will face trial next month.

Prosecutors say the Quakertown woman claimed she hurt her back at her waitressing job and couldn't work. A judge granted her $360 per week in benefits in October 2008.

But private investigators working for the restaurant's insurance company say they taped her dancing at C.R. Fanny's Gentlemen's Club and Sports Bar in Wilson later that year.

Gamble is charged with two counts of workers' compensation fraud and one count of theft. Her phone number is unlisted.

[LWM]

NY prosecutors not sure which twin to charge (August 5th, 2010 @ 12:48am)

LOCKPORT, N.Y. (AP) - Authorities trying to solve a shooting in New York have zeroed in on identical twin brothers- but now they have to figure out which one to charge.

A prosecutor on Wednesday won the right to photograph 31-year-old Niagara Falls residents Edward and Raymond Nickens with their shirts on and off to see which one might match a witness' description in the May shooting.

The brothers wore matching clothes and goatees in court. But tattoos visible on their arms were different.

Edward Nickens' attorney argued photos should be taken after charges are filed. Raymond Nickens' attorney said police have already taken pictures.

But the judge allowed the photo session after the Niagara County prosecutor said the brothers could change their appearances to look even more alike.