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.
Jumping Jack Flap
PENSACOLA, Fla. - A city police officer resigned over allegations that he chose to punish a 16-year-old girl by making her perform jumping jacks while topless.
Patrick Shields, 31, resigned Wednesday, about a half-hour before Police Chief John Mathis planned to recommend that the fourth-year officer be fired.
The incident allegedly occurred April 29, when Shields found the girl and a 19-year-old male together in a parked car. Shields made the two teens — neither of whom were identified by police — exit their vehicle, then told them he could arrest them for lewd and lascivious behavior.
The girl told investigators that Shields told her to perform five topless jumping jacks, which she did as he shone his flashlight on her.
Both teenagers passed polygraph tests during the investigation. Shields declined two invitations to take a polygraph test. He admitted making the girl perform the jumping jacks, but said she was fully clothed for them.
"In my career I've never seen anything like this. ... I'm very sorry for what happened and very ashamed for what happened," Mathis said.
Shields could not be reached for comment. He has not been charged with any crimes, although the police investigation is continuing, officials said.
"They make mistakes just like (those in) any other occupation can make mistakes," Mathis said.
Guilty Feet Have Got No Rhythm
ATHENS, Greece - Two suspected robbers were arrested after they were spotted dancing in the customer area of an Athens bank to distract staff, while an accomplice emptied the safe, police said Friday.
Mexican Juan Sanchez, 45, and Costa Rican Roberto Verduzco, 35, were arrested Thursday after allegedly snatching 38,000 euros ($43,000) from the bank and attempting to flee in a rented car.
The accomplice escaped arrest.
Police said the three men had robbed nine banks over the past year in Greece, distracting staff with inquiries about loans or complaints about automatic teller machines.
Party Foul, Dude!
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. - Talking on a cell phone while driving is illegal in New York state. So is driving around with 100 pounds of pot in your car.
Police in Plattsburgh say a Canadian man found that out this week when he was pulled over for using his cell phone and making an improper turn.
The officer who pulled him over smelled strong odor of coffee grounds and marijuana coming from the car's interior. A search turned up 105 pounds of hydroponic marijuana in the trunk, wrapped in plastic bags, covered in coffee beans and secured in cardboard boxes.
Police say the estimated street value of the marijuana is more than $500,000.
The driver of the rental car is being held without bail.
Plattsburgh's police chief called the arrest a "$525,000 traffic stop."
Man Tries Chewing Fingerprints Off
PHILADELPHIA - A Nigerian man who authorities say tried to gnaw off his fingertips in jail to prevent himself from being identified through fingerprints has pleaded guilty in Philadelphia to identity fraud.
The Nigerian man — Olugbemia Olusajo — was identified despite his efforts. He faces up to five years in prison and prosecutors say he is likely to be deported.
Olusajo and his wife, Bolanle Elizabeth Onikosi, were arrested last year and accused of setting up bogus credit card accounts using the names and Social Security numbers of people who were clients of their airport cleaning business.
Prosecutors say the scheme netted the couple nearly $145,000 in cash and merchandise, and also allowed Olusajo to used a false identity to get a $49,000 mortgage.
Shortly after he was arrested, prosecutors say, Olusajo tried to conceal his identity by soaking his fingers in a jail toilet, then chewing away the softened skin. Officials say he was unsuccessful.
Widower Urns It
LONDON - Newly widowed John Walker could not believe it when bailiffs wrote to demand that his wife pay a series of parking fines.
He wrote back to tell them his 44-year-old wife Zitta had died in January of breast cancer and had sold her car, a Peugeot 405, for scrap more than two years before. But the threatening letters kept coming.
When a demand for 90 pounds ($144) arrived, Walker, 40, of Thorpe Willoughby in northeast England, responded dramatically.
Carrying the urn containing his wife's ashes and her death certificate, he marched into the offices of York Council and laid them on the desk of a startled official.
"I had already rung them and sent a letter with a copy of her death certificate which they said they didn't receive and the bailiffs still said they were coming to take items of property from the house," Walker said.
"That's when I flipped my lid so I took the casket down to show them."
When the official saw the casket, said Walker, he became "very apologetic."
Surprise Birth
LAKELAND, Fla. - A woman who went to the emergency room thinking she was having an anxiety attack ended up giving birth in a hospital restroom.
"She didn't realize she was pregnant," Lakeland Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Cindy Sternlicht said. "When they asked if she had any reason to believe she was pregnant, she said, `No."'
Other patients waiting in the emergency room Tuesday heard the woman's screams from the restroom. They later broke into applause when a nurse emerged with the baby girl wrapped in a pink blanket.
Sternlicht said there was no time to get the woman on a stretcher or to a room. About 25 nurses and paramedics surrounded the woman while she gave birth.
Sheila Holton was at the hospital when the 1:20 p.m. birth occurred.
"I was hysterical because this lady was screaming bloody murder," Holton said.
The mother asked that no information be released about her or her child. Officials said the baby is healthy and that the mother was "healthy and smiling."
Praying Principal Under Fire
SYLVIA, Kansas - A teachers union is considering legal action against an elementary school principal who suggested that teachers pray next to their students' desks on the May first National Day of Prayer.
Teachers in Fairfield, Kansas, who belong to the National Education Association were offended by Principal Ellen Green's suggestion, according to a union spokeswoman.
In a memo to teachers, Green said teachers should, quote: "Take a few minutes to stand beside each student's desk and pray for that student, their family and their needs." She also wrote, "I would welcome your joining me in seeking God's favor and direction."
The American Civil Liberties Union calls Green's memo inappropriate, and possibly illegal.
But Fairfield school superintendent Chris Manning said he hadn't received complaints from parents, and called the matter a "non-issue" — adding that he's "all for prayer."
That's Austria, Not Australia
VIENNA, Austria - Who said there are no kangaroos in Austria?
Those struggling to distinguish the small alpine country in Europe from Australia were dealt a blow when a kangaroo was hit by a car and killed in central Austria.
Police said Wednesday that they had discovered the carcass of the Australian kangaroo near the town of Steyr, 100 miles west of Vienna.
The animal — the pet of a private owner — had apparently escaped from its cage early Tuesday before hopping onto a road where it was hit by a car, police in Steyr said in a statement.
The driver then escaped, "committing a hit and run," police said.
A police officer in Steyr reached by phone said that coming across a kangaroo — dead or alive — was "extremely uncommon around here."
"We're just used to dead deer and rabbits," said the officer, who refused to give his name.
Heroic Chihuahua Saves Sleeping Owner
NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. - Monica Hayes lost virtually everything she owned in a weekend fire that tore through her rented mobile home. But if it wasn't for her dog, Hayes could have lost even more.
Sassy, a 3-year-old Chihuahua, managed to rouse Hayes from a deep sleep early Saturday morning. Hayes said she opened her bedroom door and discovered flames and smoke racing through the home.
"I wouldn't be alive today if not for my Chihuahua," said Hayes, 36, who was alone inside the home. "I lost everything I have except her."
Hayes' children, ages 10 and 11, were at their father's home when the fire broke out, she said.
The North Fort Myers Fire Department determined the fire was accidental, possibly caused by a burner on the electric stove being left on. Hayes said she can't figure out how that would have happened, because she only uses a microwave when she cooks.
Hayes does not have renters' insurance and only receives $545 in monthly disability income. She's not sure where her next home is, but she knows that Sassy is coming with her.
"I'd live on the streets before I'd leave my dog behind. ... I'll never yell at her again for barking," Hayes said.
Roommate In The Attic
FREDERICK, Md. - He thought he'd gotten rid of his roommate.
But, according to police in Maryland, the man was still around — hiding in the attic and spying on him.
They say the man who was thrown out for not paying rent had secretly returned to the home — and hid in the attic for nearly six weeks.
Robin Lewis allegedly spied on his ex-roommate with the help of a telephone tap and hidden baby monitors.
He was discovered Saturday when someone heard strange noises and noticed dime-sized holes in the ceilings. The roommate then searched the townhouse attic — and found Lewis hiding in a ten-by-ten-foot chamber.
Police say Lewis then fled with the ex-roommate's car — only to return the next day to leave a taunting note that warned, "I will always be watching you." He's still at large — and police say he's wanted on an unrelated warrant for armed robbery.
Danish Supermarket Yanks Jesus Sandals
COPENHAGEN - A Danish supermarket chain decided Wednesday to remove plastic sandals with images of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary on them from store shelves amid heavy criticism from religious groups.
The sandals, available in children's and adult sizes, featured drawings of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary on the upper sole with light blue or pink backgrounds.
The decision to withdraw the sandals from the Kvickly chain's 86 stores was made after more than 200 people complained about the footwear, said Jens Juul Nielsen, a spokesman for Coop Danmark, owner of the supermarkets selling the sandals.
"Some priests believe that one steps on Jesus and the Virgin Mary when putting on the sandal," he added.
Jan Lindhardt, the Lutheran bishop of Roskilde, 25 miles west of Copenhagen, called it "very clumsy, stupid and foolish" of Kvickly to sell footwear with religious images.
$500,000 Left In Taxi
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Authorities seized $500,000 in cash left in a taxi's trunk in Puerto Rico's capital and later detained a Colombian man.
Police on Tuesday said they pulled over taxi driver Arcadio Rodriguez Vazquez for running a stop sign in the Ocean Park section of the capital, San Juan.
When Rodriguez opened the taxi's trunk to look for his driver's license, police saw wads of cash coming out of a suitcase, San Juan Police Commissioner Adalberto Mercado said.
The cash, in denominations of $5, 10 and 20, was stuffed into two black suitcases, Mercado said.
Police questioned Rodriguez, who told officers the suitcases belonged to his previous fare, a 45-year-old Colombian man who lived in Miami. The man was staying at a condominium in San Juan.
Local authorities turned the man over to U.S. Customs agents. Police said they believe the money was related to drug trafficking.
North Korea To Produce Cure-All Healing Stone
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea is mass producing a "stone" it has developed that when heated emits "infrared rays" that are good for the human body, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday.
The rays can remove smells, be used as a sterilizer and as a treatment for heart disease, hypertension, arthritis and other illnesses, the report said.
"The long-wave infrared rays emitted from the stone penetrate deep into the human body, giving no side effects to the heart, and help (the) human body absorb energy," it said.
The agency said the stones were being "mass produced" in various sizes, colors and patterns and branded with the name "Kumgang," or "Diamond."
North Korea's communist government is cash-strapped and has been accused of resorting to selling narcotics and missiles to raise money. Alternative health remedies are believed to be popular in the isolated country as health care is poor.
Colombian Prez Robbed After Losing Wallet
BOGOTA - Colombia's law-and-order president was robbed of thousands of dollars after he lost his wallet containing his bank card and the code to access his account, authorities said Monday.
President Alvaro Uribe's wallet apparently fell out of his jacket pocket after he removed it Friday while visiting Bucaramanga, a city in one of Colombia's warmer regions.
The wallet held the president's ATM card as well as the code to access his bank account, even though banks warn customers not to keep their access codes alongside their bank cards.
Within hours, someone was using Uribe's card to take out money from his account. Between Friday night and Saturday morning, there were 17 cash withdrawals equaling 12 million Colombian pesos (about $4,200) before Uribe realized his card was missing.
Authorities arrested two suspects in the case Monday and recovered all the money.
Which is Worse: Rotting Garlic Or Raw Sewage?
READING, Pa. - How much rotting garlic does it take before an entire neighborhood notices? Residents in the town of Millmont say they know the answer: one ton.
Already accustomed to foul smells from a nearby sewage treatment plant, Millmont residents recently noticed their usual putrid air had turned garlicy.
Turns out one ton of garlic — about five truckloads — has been spoiling in a warehouse since February.
After complaints from residents and businesses, the state Department of Environmental Protection traced the odor to a warehouse owned by a man whose company sells food products to Chinese restaurants.
The DEP ordered the man to toss the garlic by Monday, said DEP spokeswoman Karen Sitler. It was never shipped to customers, she said, because of a winter snowstorm.
Most residents, though, said they'd rather have the garlic stay.
"I think they should give the guy an award, not a violation," said Nick Civitarese. "It's much better than the alternative."
Angry NASCAR Nut Charged In Fox E-mail Rage
BOSTON - A NASCAR fan who flooded Fox with angry e-mails after a Red Sox game pre-empted an auto race pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge Tuesday.
Michael Melo acknowledged that he fired off more than a half-million e-mail messages to WFXT-TV 25 in Boston after the Red Sox game was broadcast instead of a NASCAR race in 2001.
The e-mail messages were automatically forwarded to Fox-25's Los Angeles parent company, Fox Entertainment. The network, thinking it was a hacker attack, shut down Internet communication with the affiliate and was forced to spend about $36,000 to clean up the barrage.
Melo pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge of damage to a protected computer system. Under a plea agreement, the government recommended a sentence of six months' confinement in a halfway house. Melo's sentencing is Aug. 12.
Brutal Badger Attack Injures 5
LONDON - A man savaged in a rare badger attack is likely to be permanently scarred, his wife said Tuesday.
Pam Fitzgerald said the attack on her husband Michael, 67, at the front door of their house in Evesham in central England on Friday, was "like something out of a horror movie" in which her husband suffered severe wounds to his forearm and legs.
The animal, which is believed to have escaped from a local visitor attraction, injured four other people around the town during a 48-hour period, conservation officials said.
Fitzgerald, 60, said her husband went to investigate after hearing a loud banging noise in the garage late on Friday night.
He discovered the badger and opened the garage door to let it out. But instead of scuttling away, the animal attacked him, she said.
"It was like something out of a horror movie, he was bleeding so badly," she said. "To hear your husband screaming and shouting in such pain, it was horrifying."
Worcestershire Badger Society destroyed the creature after trapping it on the Fitzgeralds' front lawn.
Chairman Mike Weaver said it had attacked four other people, adding, "I have never heard of anything like this in 24 years of work with badgers throughout the U.K."
Fitzgerald has had several skin grafts at Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital and was expected to be discharged later Tuesday.
For Once, A Trust Fund Baby Who Earned It
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - A pregnant woman who won a $4.4 million slot machine jackpot attributed the good luck to a kick from her unborn baby.
Valarie Johannessen, 34, was about to walk away from a Wheel of Fortune progressive slot machine at Bally's Wild Wild West Casino on Friday night when she felt the fetus kicking her stomach.
"I was about to leave. I had played $50, and the machine was rejecting the money I was trying to put in the bill changer, which means to me that I should play a different machine, but the baby started kicking, so I said to myself, 'The baby is telling me to stay,'" Johannessen said.
Three pulls later, she hit for $4,434,930 on the 50-cent machine.
"I thought I had won $4,000 until a lady passed by and told me that I had won $4 million. She asked me why I wasn't screaming, and I said that if I started screaming, I'd probably pass out," Johannessen said.
She took home a check for $221,746, and will get equal installments every year for the next 19 years.
"If I wasn't pregnant, we'd be flying to Hawaii to celebrate," Johannessen said. "Maybe we'll take a little vacation after the baby comes. This is awesome. Dreams really do come true."
He Really Loved His Walnut Trees
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa - A man who valued his walnut trees so much that he had his casket made from them was laid to rest in it.
Don Wheeler, of nearby Crescent, died last month after an extended illness.
Wheeler had worked in real estate in southwest Iowa for several years and was always on the lookout for good land, said his daughter, Lu Hoogeveen. In the 1970s, he bought property near Missouri Valley that included a stand of walnut trees.
He sold the land about 10 years ago, but before that he had the trees cut down and made into slabs. He asked a woodworker friend of his, Ken Viator, of Omaha, Neb., to build him a casket from the wood.
Viator didn't start building the casket until several years later, after Wheeler became seriously ill.
"In the back of my mind, I remembered that dad had someone doing this for him," she said. "None of us knew Ken, so I had to ask my dad. I felt kind of silly because here we were in this hospital room with the curtain drawn, and I leaned in and asked, 'Dad, what's the name of he man making your casket?' It was kind of embarrassing."
Wheeler died April 6, and Viator finished the casket on the morning of April 10, the day of Wheeler's visitation.
Microsoft 'i-Loo' A Hoax, But Still A Good Idea
REDMOND, Washington - Forget about surfing on the john. Microsoft says a company news release about a portable toilet with Internet access was a hoax. The April 30th release — issued by the company's MSN Internet division in Britain — said Microsoft was developing what it called an "i-Loo." It supposedly had a wireless keyboard and an extending height-adjustable plasma screen in front of the seat. According to the release, the i-Loo was to debut at festivals this summer in Britain. Microsoft spokeswoman Bridgitt Arnold says the news release was not sanctioned by the company. She apologizes for any confusion it caused.
America's Armpit Embraces Its Stench
BATTLE MOUNTAIN, Nev. - It didn't take a deodorant company long to hear opportunity knocking after a magazine dubbed this northeast Nevada town the nation's armpit.
Old Spice deodorant has agreed to sponsor Battle Mountain's "Festival of the Pit" from Aug. 15-17 under a new name: "Old Spice's Festival in the Pit."
The company plans to spend about $75,000 on the festival, with events such as an armpit beauty pageant, a sweat t-shirt contest and a "quick-draw" antiperspirant contest.
Shar Peterson, executive director of the local Chamber of Commerce, said the town is coming together to support the festival after initial mixed feelings over it.
The town has erected billboards along I-80 reading "Battle Mountain, Voted the Armpit of America by the Washington Post," and "Make Battle Mountain Your Next Pit Stop."
In the humorous magazine article, Gene Weingarten chose Battle Mountain for the armpit award, citing what he described as its "lack of character and charm," its "pathetic assemblage of ghastly buildings and nasty people," and its location "in the midst of harsh and uninviting wilderness."
When Perfume Attacks!
STUART, Fla. - A woman was arrested for dousing herself with perfume, spraying the house with bug killer and disinfectant, and burning scented candles in an attempt to seriously injure her chemically sensitive husband, prosecutors said.
Police charged Lynda Taylor, 36, with aggravated battery Thursday.
David Taylor, 46, is disabled due to allergies that resulted from exposure to toxaic mold and hazardous chemicals as a construction worker, his doctors say. That exposure netted him $150,000 in a recent workers compensation settlement.
The fragrant incident occurred on April 4 during a conversation the couple were having about separating after three years of marriage. Taylor told investigators that his wife became enraged when he refused to give her half of his settlement.
"Lynda came in the kitchen wearing perfume and applied some to (her daughter). Then went around the house spraying Lysol and even sprayed some in my face," David Taylor wrote in his complaint.
Magicians' Careers Disappear
SAO PAULO, Brazil - Magicians claiming they nearly went broke after a television program aired the secrets of their trade have won a legal fight against Brazil's largest television network.
TV Globo must pay damages to 21 magicians in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul because of a program that revealed how magicians perform such tricks as pulling rabbits out of hats and sawing women in half, Judge Eduardo Kothe Werlang ruled recently.
The show featured Leonard Montano, an American magician known as "Mister M" who always hid his identity with a scary black mask and was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Paulo Roberto Brito Martins, one of the magicians who sued, has performed as "Uncle Tony the Magician" for three decades, estimated he lost $518,000 since 1999 because many people lost interest in magic after learning how the tricks were performed.
His show on a local television station was dropped, many clients stopped contracting him for shows at parties and theaters and business slumped at his magic store in Porto Alegre, a city about 540 miles south of Sao Paulo.
Lizard Head Found In Salad
CORALVILLE, Iowa - There's good news about a lizard head found in an Iowa woman's salad. It's tested negative for salmonella.
The lizard head was found earlier this month in a carry-out salad from a restaurant in eastern Iowa.
The Johnson County Public Health Department says preliminary results showed no presence of the bacteria that causes food poisoning. Final results are expected tomorrow.
A University of Iowa dentistry professor filed a complaint with the health department, saying his wife discovered the lizard head in a Santa Fe Chicken Salad she bought at an Applebee's restaurant.
He says she was "upset" and probably won't be eating Santa Fe salads anytime soon.
Applebee's parent company has issued a statement apologizing for what it calls an isolated incident.
The statement says the restaurant is now using pre-cut, pre-cleaned lettuce for its salads.
Lawyer Wants To Ban Oreo Cookies
SAN FRANCISCO - A San Francisco attorney wants to outlaw the sale of Oreo cookies to children — because they contain something called trans fat.
It's the trans fat that makes the cookie crisp and the cream filling creamy.
And that's just the problem, according to lawyer Stephen Joseph. He sued last week in Marin County Superior Court after reading about the dangers of trans fat in newspaper stories.
The suit asks the court to order Kraft Foods, the parent of cookie maker Nabisco, to stop selling Oreos to California's children because they are made with the fat.
The fat is in about 40 percent of the food on grocery shelves. A branch of the National Academy of Sciences said last summer that trans fat is directly tied to heart disease and artery-clogging cholesterol.
Nabisco officials have 30 days from the May 5th filing date to respond.
Thai Official Trapped In Malfunctioning Car
BANGKOK - While on the way to an important speech, Thailand's finance minister got locked inside his luxury car Monday because of an onboard computer malfunction and had to signal someone to smash a window for him to crawl out.
"It was pretty bad because nothing worked, everything was locked," a shaken Finance Minister Suchart Jaovisidha told reporters.
Suchart said he was on his way to give a speech to central bank officials from 17 countries when his ministry-assigned BMW car stalled on a road, not far from his house.
The engine stopped, the air conditioning shut down, the doors got locked and the windows wouldn't roll down, he said, adding that he was trapped for about 10 minutes.
"We couldn't breath because there was no air," he said.
Suchart and his driver waved at passers-by to draw attention to their plight, but it took a while to make them understand that they wanted the windows smashed.
Finally, a guard of a nearby building came to their rescue with a sledgehammer and broke a window. Suchart then climbed out of the car through the hole.
Klingon Translator Sought For Mental Health Patients
PORTLAND, Ore. - Star Trek fans fluent in Klingon take note — there's a job opening in Oregon for you.
The fictional language of the popular TV and movie science fiction series is one of about 55 languages needed by the office that treats mental health patients in metropolitan Multnomah County.
"We have to provide information in all the languages our clients speak," said Jerry Jelusich, a procurement specialist for the county Department of Human Services, which serves about 60,000 mental health clients.
County research has shown that Klingon has gone from being a fictional tongue to what many people — and not just fans — consider a complete language, with its own grammar, syntax and vocabulary.
If a patient speaks only Klingon, the county is obligated to respond with a Klingon interpreter. So officials have decided to include it with about 55 languages, some of which, such as Russian and Vietnamese, are widely spoken, and some, such as Dari and Tongan, are seldom spoken.
The county's purchasing administrator, Franna Hathaway, greeted the request to include Klingon with skepticism.
But, she said, "There are some cases where we've had mental health patients where this was all they would speak."
Accidental Boat Theft
KENOSHA, Wis. - The only time Ed Nedweski Jr. ever brought his 12-foot aluminum boat to his tire shop to work on it in his spare time, it disappeared.
Then, as he gave his statement to the police, a stranger appeared in the shop and asked, "Do you have a trailer and boat for free?"
"No, not me," Nedweski replied.
But the stranger persisted, showing Nedweski an advertisement that appeared in the Kenosha News.
A neighboring business at the same address had placed the ad offering two free boats and trailers. Someone mistook Nedweski's business for the business that placed the ad and took the wrong boat.
"For a while I thought somebody was just pulling a joke on me putting an ad in the paper," Nedweski said. "I just couldn't believe the coincidence."
Hours later, the man who took the boat returned it after a friend told him police cars were at the tire shop, Nedweski said. The man had assumed it was the boat advertised.
"It was just a big, gigantic mistake," Nedweski said. "I can't believe what went down.