Fun_People Archive
24 Sep
News of the Weird

Date: Tue, 24 Sep 91 09:49:18 PDT
To: Fun_People
Subject: News of the Weird


Officials at the Houston Zoo admitted that their coral snake 
was a rubber imitation. "We had live snakes in the exhibit, 
but they didn't do so well," said curator John Donaho. "They 
tend to die."

Robert Kropinski of Philadelphia sued Transcendental Meditation 
groups where he spent 11 years as a student & teacher, claiming 
he suffered psychological disorders as a result of never having 
achieved the "perfect state of life" the group promised. The 
36-yr-old real-estate manager said, for example, that the groups 
had told him he would be taught to "fly" through self-levitation, 
but all he learned to do was "hop with the legs folded in the 
lotus position."

A construction company in Saipan, Northern Marianas, placed a 
notice in the local newspaper after 1 of its flashing amber 
warning lights was stolen from a road construction site on March 
28, 1984. Noting that the lights were necessary to warn motorists 
of the excavation so they could avoid an accident, the company
said it was removing "the remaining warning lights and we are 
not going to install them again unless we are sure they will not 
be stolen."

And from "Wrong Arm of the Law":

In Atlanta, a daring thief stole $8900 worth of cameras & 
accessories from an exhibit booth at a convention for crime-
detection experts. His getaway was delayed by having to pretend 
to be a salesman and give a 45-minute sales pitch to a security 
guard who had seen him walking off with the goods.

Police in Tulsa, responding to an emergency call that a man was 
holding a woman at knifepoint, surrounded the wrong house. The 
man was in the house next door.  He tried several times to 
surrender, but the police, thinking he was just a nosy neighbor, 
kept ordering him back inside. After about an hour, a newspaper
photographer who lived nearby alerted police to their mistake.

In Florida, Dade County & Jacksonville officials discovered that 
their new $34 million jail was being built with 195 cells-- but 
no cell doors.  Michael Berg, city-county director of jails & 
prisons, said he wasn't sure how the oversight occurred but that 
there was money to pay the extra $1.5 million to have the doors 
added.  And at the Ontario County Jail in Canandaigua, NY, 
installation of new cell doors was halted when officials 
discovered the bars were too far apart & prisoners could slip 
through them.

Undercover police in Pompano Beach, FL, arranged to sell 
2 lbs. of cocaine. The buyers turned out to be undercover 
officers from the Ft. Lauderdale police force.

Police in Van Nuys, CA arrested Dennis John Alston on charges 
of forging checks, then released him when he posted bail with 
a $1500 cashier's check. It turned out to be a forgery.

Police in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, raided their own Christmas 
party for not having a license to serve liquor.

Tommy Cribbs, the sheriff of Dyer County, TN, was arrested in 
Van Buren, MO, after police noticed his car in the parking lot 
of a local motel. A car of that description had been used in 
the theft of 2 sheep from a nearby farm.  Officers who were 
questioning people at the motel were led to Cribbs after a 
sheep was thrown from the window of his room.
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