The Odd Truth
The Odd Truth is a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world compiled by CBSNews.com's Brian Bernbaum. A new collection of stories is published each weekday. On weekends, you can read a week's worth of The Odd Truth.
Soup Slinger Sentenced
SINGAPORE - A Singapore man was sentenced to six months in jail for slinging a ladle of seafood soup at his boss in a fit of anger, local media reported Friday.
Lim Hang Heng, a 43-year-old cook at a soup stall in Singapore's red light district, faced charges of inflicting pain after hurling the soup during a shouting match on June 25, the Straits Times newspaper said.
Lim's boss suffered minor burns to his chest, shoulder and arm, the report said.
"His foolish misdeeds were a result of a sudden provocation by the victim," Lim's lawyer was quoted as saying at the sentencing in a Singapore district court Thursday.
Court officials could not immediately confirm the report.
Guess Who Won't Get Any Presents This Year?
VIENNA, Austria - Some Austrians want Santa Claus to get lost. They don't like the American style Santa and say the jolly ol' elf is a symbol of commercialism. The activists are posting anti-Santa stickers around Vienna, showing a diagonal red bar across Santa's fluffy white beard. One of the organizers of the movement says Christmas should be about the Christ Child, not advertising.
Mormon Station Serves Breasts For Breakfast
SALT LAKE CITY - No, the bare-breasted babes weren't part of the newscast at KSL TV in Salt Lake City. A technical glitch at the local cable company caused a risque HBO comedy show to replace the morning news the other day. Some viewers complained they were seeing topless women, while hearing the newscasters. KSL is an NBC affiliate owned by the Mormon church. The station doesn't even carry "Saturday Night Live." AT&T Broadband spokeswoman Barb Shelley is apologizing for the goof. Shelley says the cable company was testing new equipment and the video feed was switched incorrectly. HBO's "Mr. Show with Bob and David" replaced the newscast for about 25 minutes.
Get Your Very Own Parking Meter
MERRILL, Wis. - Looking to raise some pocket change?
The city of Merrill is selling more than 400 parking meters for $50 each. The city council voted in October to remove them from downtown streets because of complaints that they deterred shoppers.
More than 100 meters have been sold, Mayor Doug Williams said.
He said people have put them in basements or dens, and that one man put a meter in his driveway — where his in-laws park.
Parents Upset By The Truth About Santa
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. — Much to the dismay of some parents, officials at an elementary school will not discipline a substitute teacher who told kindergartners that there is no Santa Claus.
The teacher, Fabiola Mehu-Pelissier, was reading a holiday storybook to students at Forest Hills Elementary School on Tuesday when the group began discussing the existence of Santa Claus, school board spokesman Kirk Engelhard said.
"No policies or rules were violated, but she obviously used poor judgment," Engelhard said.
Melissa Shea, whose 5-year-old daughter Hayley is in the class, said school officials refused a request made by some parents that Mehu-Pelissier not be allowed back in the class.
"I feel like no matter what I do or say now, the seed of doubt has been planted in Hayley's head," Shea said. "I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to undo it, and Christmas is everything in my family."
School officials said they would send a Santa Claus, complete with a natural, full, white beard, into the classroom Friday to make up for the teacher's poor judgment.
600-Pound 'Ghost Pig' Terrorizes Town
GREENWICH TOWNSHIP, New Jersey - A New Jersey town has gone hog wild over sightings of an enormous pig.
The 600-pound porker has been spotted wandering the streets of Greenwich Township -- digging up gardens and being chased by dogs.
One woman says the pig ate some broccoli from her brother-in-law's garden.
Another tells The Press of Atlantic City newspaper that when she and her dogs encountered the pig one morning, the dogs gave chase. And she says the scary part is that the pig ran as fast as the dogs.
She described it as being white "like a ghost pig" and having football-sized ears.
The town's clerk says "if anybody has a big barbecue, we'll know who captured it."
Man Bites Crocodile
BLANTYRE, Malawi - A businessman who was attacked by a crocodile in Malawi escaped by biting the reptile on its nose, police said Thursday.
Mac Bosco Chawinga, 43, went for a swim in a lake in the northern Nkhata Bay district of this southern African nation when the crocodile grabbed him, said Bob Mtekama, a senior police officer in the area.
"Both his arms were inside the full-size crocodile's jaws and the beast was dragging him into deeper waters when he decided to fight back," Mtekama said.
Chawinga sunk his teeth in the crocodile's nose, one of the few soft places on its body, and the reptile let go of him.
He was badly injured, but managed to swim to shore, where he was found by some fishermen, who took him to hospital, Mtekama said. He was reported to be in stable condition.
Mormons Baptize Ghengis Khan, Hitler
SALT LAKE CITY - The Mormon church is again promising to stop posthumously baptizing Jews.
Leaders from both faiths say an agreement made seven years ago has apparently been broken.
At a meeting in New York City, the church reaffirmed its commitment to removing Holocaust victims and other deceased Jews from its International Genealogical Index.
That's a list of about 600 million names Mormons use to perform ceremonies baptizing the dead into the faith. It's meant to offer salvation to the ancestors of Mormons, but many others are included.
An independent researcher says those baptized posthumously include Anne Frank, Genghis Khan, Joan of Arc, Adolf Hitler and Buddha.
The founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center says the Mormons are not "the exclusive arbitrators of who is saved."
Luck Doesn't Even Begin To Describe This
BELMONT, Calif. — Angelo Gallina beat the odds and then some.
In a single day, he won the $17 million SuperLotto Plus jackpot and the $126,000 Fantasy 5 top prize.
"I think I'll eat cake," Gallina told lottery officials after his Nov. 20 wins. He said he would also buy a new car and a home for his grown children.
State lottery officials put the odds for the SuperLotto contest win at 1-in-41 million. The odds of winning the separate Fantasy 5 contest were 1-in-575,000.
Figuring out the odds of one person winning both draws on the same day requires a calculator and lots of zeros.
"One in 23 trillion," said Mike Orkin, a professor of statistics at California State University at Hayward, who arrived at the number by multiplying 41 million by 575,000.
A Likely Story ...
San Diego - A 19-year-old man who spent several hours trapped in the chimney of a house is behind bars on burglary charges. The man, Josh Perez, says he was stargazing when he fell into the chimney and got stuck. He spent five hours in the chimney until rescuers could free him yesterday morning.
Nine-Year-Olds Busted Selling Pot
Port St. Lucie, Fla. - Two nine-year-olds face felony charges after being found at their elementary school with 15 plastic bags of marijuana. School officials in Port St. Lucie confronted one of the third-graders, who readily showed them three bags of marijuana. He explained he got them from another third-grader on the school bus. The second boy was found with 12 bags. The boy with three bags faces a charge of possession of marijuana, which is a felony because it happened on school grounds. The second boy is charged with felony possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Both boys have been released to their parents. They are automatically suspended for ten days and recommended for expulsion. It's not yet known where the boys got the marijuana.
Thief: 'Your Money Or Your Dog'
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - Your money or your dog. That's the choice a bandit gave Linda Johnston at an Oklahoma City shopping mall. Johnston says it was an easy but expensive decision. She let go of her purse and held on to her Yorkshire terrier, Bailey. Johnston says she lost more than $1,000 to the crook. The confrontation occurred when Johnston was getting out of her car. She says she felt a man tugging on her handbag and saw he had a knife. Giving up her pet wasn't a consideration. Johnston says Bailey's become her family since her children have grown up and left home.
Good Deed Rewarded
OLATHE, Kan. - Waitress Heidi Tomassi says she feels a little like Cinderella. She found an envelope stuffed with 33 $100 bills in the Applebee's where she works in Olathe, Kansas. But she didn't keep the money. She turned all the cash over to the manager for safekeeping while the owner was located. Tomassi could have used the cash. She's $15,000 in debt because of heart surgery needed for her baby son. The man who lost the money gave her a $100 reward. As news of her honesty spread, the cash started rolling in. She says she's even been offered $25,000 from a total stranger impressed by her story.
Florida's Balding Black Bears
OCALA NATIONAL FOREST, Fla. — More than half the black bears living in the forest around the north-central Florida community of Lynne are suffering from a type of mange that makes their hair fall out.
It is the only area in the country where biologists say they have seen a relatively large number of bears with the affliction.
"They look like a large, bald rat," said Mark Cunningham, a veterinarian with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "I show pictures to people who don't even recognize they are bears."
Cunningham said the mange is linked to tiny mites that attack the bears' skin.
More than 15 bears — about 60 percent of those in the area — have varying degrees of hair loss. About 90 percent of the females have it, and the illness seems to be handed down to their cubs.
Officials are not doing anything to relieve the bears' condition. The bears do not seem to have health problems besides hair loss, Cunningham said.
Finally, A Smart Criminal
LAPORTE, Ind. — A burglary suspect eluded police in northern Indiana by stealing the squad car of one of the officers pursuing him.
Police later found the car in the garage of a LaPorte County home, but there was no one in the house.
"We're just trying to regroup and find out where this guy went," said Police Chief Walter Brath.
Authorities said a North Liberty police officer was pursuing the man's van Monday following a reported burglary in St. Joseph County when the man bailed out near a church.
When the officer left his car to chase the man on foot, the suspect circled around the church and stole the squad car, authorities said.
The officer had left the keys in the ignition and the engine was running, said North Liberty police Chief Steve Michael.
The man fled into LaPorte County at speeds over 100 mph and again eluded pursuit.
Investigators believe the man then broke into a home in LaPorte and called for a cab, but the dispatcher became suspicious and called police.
Charges Dropped Against Peeing Alderwoman
ST. LOUIS - The case of the peeing alderwoman is now closed. A jury has found St. Louis Alderwoman Irene Smith innocent of misdemeanor lewd conduct. Smith allegedly urinated in a trash can, rather than give up the floor in a council debate in the summer of 2001. Aides draped Smith with a sheet, quilt and tablecloth while she apparently did something in a trash can. Smith had called the charge bogus, saying no one would ever know what she did or didn't do. The jurors agreed.
Apple For The Teacher Takes A New Turn
HOLYOKE, Mass. - The Department of Social Services is looking into a possible case of child abuse after a 4-year-old girl brought her teacher a small bag of marijuana as a gift.
When Head Start Early Childhood Center teacher Iris Galvez asked where she got the gift Monday, the girl said she got it "from her mommy," according to a police report obtained by the Union-News of Springfield.
The girl's mother, Shelin Colon, 32, said she doesn't have any drugs in the house and doesn't know where the girl might have gotten the marijuana, police said.
No charges have been filed.
A report of suspected child abuse or neglect has been filed with Social Services, a department spokesman said.
Suzanne L. Parker, deputy director of the area Head Start program, declined to comment.
Boston University Loses $3 Million Gift
BOSTON - A philanthropist is demanding that Boston University return his $3 million donation to renovate a library.
Grocery entrepreneur David Mugar said he had been told the money was "lost" through poor accounting and could not be identified among university funds. He is considering a lawsuit.
The 2-year-old dispute reached a crucial juncture Tuesday when the university's board of trustees debated Mugar's demand that the money be returned and asked a lawyer to recommend options.
Mugar made his gift in 1993 to expand and renovate the school's Mugar Library, named after his grandparents and funded by his family.
After acknowledging it had mishandled the donation, the university offered to name a new dormitory or theater after Mugar instead. But Mugar said he wants the money returned, along with $1 million to $2 million in interest, so it can be donated to WGBH-TV and Cape Cod Hospital.
"BU has been very apologetic about losing my money, but regardless, I want my money back," Mugar said in Wednesday's editions of The Boston Globe.
Bibles And Brewski
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.- Let there be -- beer! A reverend and a restaurateur hope to mix Bibles and brewskis in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Reverend Peter Winkle and business owner Renee Visser want to open a religious-themed bar called, "Graces." Visser says they'll offer music and fun, along with alcoholic beverages, pizza, steaks and burgers. Today, the entrepreneurs are requesting a free liquor license from city officials.
Meat Processor Gets Unexpected PR Boost
DES MOINES — A mistake by a meat processing company will mean 3,000 cooked chickens for the needy.
Des Moines-based Iowa Packing Co. cooked too many chickens for a custom order at its St. Joseph, Mo., plant.
The extra ready-to-eat birds will be distributed this weekend at the Christ the King Catholic Church.
"This is a tremendous donation," said Keith Isley, development director at Hope Ministries, which operates Bethel Mission and Door of Faith shelter and serves an estimated 150,000 meals a year. Hope Ministries will get 800 of the two-pound birds.
"This will help us for many weeks to come," Isley said. "There are many ways a company can deal with overruns, but this is a great way for them and for us."
Monsignor Frank Bognanno said his longtime friend, Dan Ochylski, president of the Pinnacle Food Group, Iowa Packing's holding company, asked the priest if he would like some of the extra chickens.
"I told him we'd take all" of them, Bognanno said.
Christ the King parishioners will hand out the bagged poultry at a drive-through pickup site at the church.
"I suspect we will go through them real fast," Bognanno said.
Escaped Cows Evade Police
COVINGTON, Ga. — Police Lt. Philip Bradford said it's the oddest call he's been on in his 17-year career.
Four cows remain on the run after escaping Sunday from a stalled tractor-trailer on Interstate 20. Bradford said the animals broke free when the floor board of a trailer carrying 59 cows snapped.
"I must have missed the day they taught how to catch loose cows in police academy," Bradford said. "I guess we have to write a new page."
Police said the bovines caused a minor fender bender and several other close calls before officers shut down a section of I-20. Horseback riders from a nearby rodeo even tried to rope the animals.
The cows jumped through an opening in a guardrail onto a grassy embankment. Police called off the search after nearly five hours.
Johnny Jarel, the driver of the tractor-trailer, was charged for operating a "junky" vehicle, police said.
The cows were last seen headed for Atlanta.
Couple To Split Over Incontinent Cat
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Many couples divorce because the wife refuses to share her husband with another woman. For one Taiwanese couple, the home wrecker was a cat.
Frequent squabbles over the cat — who frequently wet the bed — made it difficult for the couple to live together, Chen Tsai-wang, a Panchiao District Court judge in suburban Taipei, ruled Monday in granting the couple a divorce.
"The couple has been estranged for a year, and it would be too late to make remedies," Chen told The Associated Press.
The husband had allowed the cat to urinate "on the bed and anywhere at home," according to the woman's brother, identified only by his surname.
"He refused to put the cat in another room. This showed how he had ignored my sister's feelings," the brother said.
50-Year-Old Wallet Returned To Owner
FILER CITY, Mich. — Ron Bauman now has his wallet, nearly a half century after he lost it.
The missing billfold was found behind some ceiling tiles at the Packaging Corp. of America plant by maintenance workers Rod Schimke and Al Zatarga.
"My first thought was I wondered if the owner was still alive," said Zatarga. "But when we looked at the drivers license we said (he) must still be alive."
After a bit of sleuthing, the pair discovered the wallet's owner had moved away, then returned to Manistee after retirement. Zatarga called him with the news.
"The wallet is an amazing time capsule filled with things that were important to me as a young man," he said.
Bauman said he lost the wallet while installing insulation at the plant during a summer job in 1955. The wallet was in good condition and still had his old drivers' license, pictures of his girlfriend and a $2 bill.
Bauman said he and his girlfriend carried matching $2 bills as a symbol of their love. They eventually married, and she still has hers.
Bauman said he planned to frame the $2 bill and an 1881 penny he'd carried in the wallet for good luck.
Universal Health Care Exploited
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - It was the perfect alibi that wasn't so perfect after all. A Canadian hospital patient has been charged with robbing four neighboring restaurants. Authorities in Winnipeg, Manitoba, say Stuart Neil Stickney told hospital staff he was stepping outside for a smoke. Instead, police say he ducked into area eateries and claimed to have a gun. According to police, the case was cracked when a quick-thinking employee at Gondola Pizza followed the bandit back to the hospital. Winnipeg police spokesman Bob Johnson says, it "would seem that his needs were not being met totally by the treatment he was getting in the hospital." Stickney is now charged with four counts of robbery.
Strip Joint Torn Apart By Concerned Father
WICHITA FALLS, Texas - It sounds like one of those made-for-cable movies. A guy wrecks a strip joint, after finding his daughter working in the place. But authorities in Wichita Falls, Texas, say that's what happened at a strip club called Maximus. Lee Wayne Lawrence is jailed after allegedly going on a rampage in the club. Witnesses say Lawrence was dressed in survival gear when he was arrested. According to police, Lawrence damaged two seven-foot-tall water-bubble lamps and a leopard-skin chair, and slashed three tables tops with a knife. He's being held on $500,000 bond, charged with aggravated assault.
Tree-Sitter Breaks A Molar
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. - The tree-sitter who's lived in an old oak tree for 39 days saw a dentist Monday who shimmied up his tree and put a temporary cap on a molar he broke eating an energy bar.
"Instead of a house call this is a tree call," said Dr. Ana Michel as she stood near the oak prior to John Quigley's appointment.
Quigley perches 46 feet up in the tree he's trying to save from a developer's road-widening project. Michel met Quigley at a section of tree that provided a level setting for a dental consultation.
Quigley broke the upper left molar last week. Michel said she couldn't install a permanent crown while in the tree. Instead she applied a sedative substance that hardened over the break and soothed the pain.
Afterward, Quigley said, "It feels a lot better."
Los Angeles County has called for the oak to be uprooted so Pico Canyon Road can be widened from two lanes to four to accommodate future development west of Santa Clarita.
The tree was originally going to be cut down. Protests led to a plan to move it, but Quigley and other activists don't think it would survive relocation. Quigley said discussions with the developer, John Laing Homes, were proceeding positively.
One Very Large Coke, Please
MUNDELEIN, Ill. - At one Illinois Burger King, authorities say, you could order a Whopper, fries and some coke.
Not the soft drink but cocaine.
Four people are jailed on charges they sold cocaine from the drive-thru window at a Burger King in Mundelein.
Police had been watching the restaurant for nine months. Then on Friday night, they say they bought about $300,000 worth of cocaine from the night manager, his wife and two former employees.
Police say customers would either phone ahead or ask for particular employees. Then they would drive up, place their orders over the microphone and pull around the window to pick it up.
The drugs were handed over in a Burger King paper bag.
Morning Commuters Get Screwed
LEBANON JUNCTION, Ky. - Scores of cars and trucks got flat tires Monday along a 15-mile stretch of highway after an estimated 50,000 screws spilled onto the pavement. Police said no accidents or injuries were reported.
There were no witnesses to identify the source of the one-inch-long screws spilled along Interstate 65, said State Police spokesman Steve Pavey.
"A box may have burst on a truck and they rolled out the back, but we don't know for sure," he said. "There was no box or anything."
They were first noticed at 5:45 a.m. EST and tires were still going flat by 8 a.m., he said. Authorities estimate there were about 50,000 screws dumped on the interstate.
"They have a very sharp end," said Pavey of the self-tapping sheet metal screws.
Vehicles were stopped along a 15-mile stretch of the highway in the Lebanon Junction area, about 20 miles south of downtown Louisville, Pavey said. A dispatcher said at least 80 calls were received from motorists.
The interstate was shut down in both directions for a time while the state crews used sweepers to sweep the northbound lanes.
"Nobody saw a truck losing the screws, and I'm sure the driver doesn't want to come and tell us because somebody might have to buy a bunch of tires," Pavey said.
Garbage-Obsessed Kid Celebrates B-Day At Dump
LOS ANGELES — When 6-year-old Michael Wong-Sasso grows up, he wants to be a trash collector.
So naturally, he wanted to have his birthday party at the local dump.
About 40 children and their parents gathered Saturday at the Sunshine Canyon Landfill to celebrate Michael's seventh birthday.
"I like the big trucks," he said. "I like putting trash where it belongs. I like making the world cleaner."
For safety and sanitary reasons, the party was held in a small valley on the landfill's outskirts, away from bulldozers and strange smells. The partygoers were surrounded by scores of potted trees, which are used to landscape the landfill.
"We don't know where this interest in trash came from," said Michael's mother Sophia Wong. "He's been this way since he was 2."
"It's not like you're saying, `Oh no, not another birthday at the landfill,"' said Scott Krause, who brought his 6-year-old son, Trevor. "I mean, how many times can you go to Chuck E. Cheese's?"
Prison Strike Ends After TV Signal Restored
STOCKHOLM - An inmate strike at a Swedish prison ended peacefully after a popular television channel was restored, an official said Thursday.
About 50 of the 66 inmates at the Mariestad prison refused to return to their cells at bedtime Monday when the prison lost the signal to Kanal 5, a Swedish channel carried on cable or satellite, regional corrections chief Uno Rodin said.
Riot police were called in, but the five-hour protest ended peacefully after prison officials persuaded the inmates to return to their cells. The next day, 28 inmates refused to go to work because the channel still wasn't appearing, Rodin said.
Kanal 5 spokesman Carl Fredrik Mannerberg said the prison had not adjusted its receiver when the signal switched from one satellite to another a week earlier. He sent a technician to Mariestad to adjust the receiver Tuesday, and the inmates returned to work.
Kanal 5 programs include the American show "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and "Fraaga Olle," or "Ask Olle," a Swedish show which features a sex expert taking calls from viewers.
Rainer Bahlstroem, 48, imprisoned for drug and illegal driving convictions, refused to take part in the protest, saying it was organized by a group of "whippersnappers who didn't know what they were doing."
"I went to bed because I thought it was childish," Bahlstroem told The Associated Press in a phone interview from the prison. "I don't watch Kanal 5. There are four other channels, that's enough."
Cheney's Neighbors Complain Of Bizarre Blasts
WASHINGTON - Neighbors of Vice President Dick Cheney are being shaken and rattled at least once a day by mysterious blasts at the U.S. Naval Observatory where Cheney lives.
The Navy says the explosions are part of a construction project that has been going on for several months now, but won't say more because the project is classified.
Joseph Rieser, who lives a half-block off Observatory Circle, said each blast was "almost like thunder because it rolls and it lasts a noticeable period, probably several seconds." It said the explosions rattle windows that aren't shut tight.
Navy spokeswoman CateMueller acknowledged that they were "not as aggressive up front in warning" neighbors about the project.
She said the construction is expected to last another eight months, and for the time being there will be one or two blasts a day, each lasting about three to five seconds.
The vice president took up residence at the Observatory in 1974. It houses the master clock of the United States and telescopes dating back to a time when it was one of the premier astronomical observatories in the world.
The Washington Post, which reported the issue Sunday, said David Gillard, the observatory's superintendent, had sent the local neighborhood commission a letter noting that "due to its sensitive nature in support of national security and homeland defense, project specific information is classified and cannot be released."
All For A Cease-And-Desist Order?
CONCORD, N.H. - If it works with the mob and with drug dealers, why not with swingers, too? Police in Pelham, New Hampshire, went undercover to bust a swingers club. Lieutenant Joseph Roark says a male detective and a female officer posed as an engaged couple. He says the pair paid $50 to attend a party hosted by the E'Lan Swingers Club at an upscale home on a dead-end street. Roark says the undercover couple witnessed many guests having sex. He adds the officers left when things started getting "a little more explicit and crazy." The couple who hosted the sex party won't be charged with a crime. But Roark says they have been served with a cease-and-desist order for zoning violations.
2,600 Wrong Numbers
YORK, S.C. - Cheryl Tabak is sorry you don't have any power, but there's nothing she can do about it. Tabak's number in the York, South Carolina, telephone book is mistakenly listed as one of the power company's numbers. It wasn't much of a problem until an ice storm hit the region last week. In a few days she got more than 2,600 calls from folks with downed power lines -- and those are just the people who got through. Tabak is trying to make the best of her new-found popularity. She calls the phone-book error a simple mistake. As for those poor people without lights, Tabak says at least she's trying to make them feel a little better. She says some people just need someone to talk to.