The Odd Truth, Jan. 23, 2004

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.

JOHN O'GROATS, Scotland - A man walking the length of Britain naked to promote public nudity finally reached his destination Thursday - barely.

Stephen Gough, 44, spent most of his seven-month odyssey behind bars - arrested 16 times - following complaints from the public.

The former Royal Marine made several court appearances and served two jail sentences - spending about 5 months behind bars - during the 847-mile trek from Land's End in southwest England.

Dubbed "the naked rambler," Gough reached John O'Groats in far north Scotland just before night fell, cheered on by a group of local residents.

Gough began the walk in the British summer of June 2003, wearing just his socks, boots, hat and rucksack.

He persisted despite the delays caused by his repeated arrests and refused to don warmer clothes as he reached northern England and the highlands of Scotland in freezing winter temperatures.

He also declined to dress for the occasion when appearing before judges across the breadth of the country, usually sitting in the dock wrapped in a prison blanket.

Gough said he was planning to stay the night in John O'Groats and enjoy a big meal before putting his clothes back on and heading back south to his home in Eastleigh, southern England.

Man Sentenced To Yoga For Slapping Wife

HOUSTON - A man convicted of slapping his wife has been sentenced to yoga classes.

Judge Larry Standley said yoga should help James Lee Cross with his anger management. Cross was ordered to take the class as part of his yearlong probation.

The judge said Cross' case is unique and prosecutors agreed.

Cross claimed he hit his wife during a New Year's Eve argument about her drinking problem. Cross said he hopes the yoga will also help him lose weight.

Standley, who is known for his creative sentencing, has in the past ordered dozens of people convicted of drunken driving to collect newspaper clippings about the crime.

Not Just A Nightmare

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Children often imagine seeing strange things in the middle of the night. But this time, a little girl was right.

Investigators in suburban New York say the ten-year-old girl work up her parents and told them a strange man and two dogs were in her bedroom.

Authorities say the parents evidently thought the child was having a bad dream and told her to go back to bed.

The parents apparently still weren't convinced when she returned a half hour later and reported seeing the man and two dogs leave the house.

Authorities say the parents later discovered they had muddy dog tracks all over their house and that items were missing.

Police say based on the child's description, they suspected a homeless man who lived in nearby woods. The man and his two cocker spaniels had been seen the previous night.

The man was eventually arrested in Florida. He still had his dogs with him.

Holy Dope!

BARBERTON, Ohio - A Roman Catholic priest in Ohio is behind bars - accused of growing marijuana in his church living quarters.

Police arrested the Reverend Richard Arko after searching the quarters at the church in Barberton, near Akron.

He's charged with illegal cultivation of marijuana.

Another man who police say lives at the church rectory is charged with trafficking in marijuana.

Each could get six months to a year in jail if convicted.

Police say they found a marijuana growing system in a spare bedroom - and confiscated about 35 potted pot plants.

Cops Get Contact High

JERUSALEM - The fumes from several tons of marijuana stored in an Israeli police station were so strong that officers had to leave their work place.

The police station in the town of Dimona in the southern Negev Desert is used to store all the marijuana confiscated along the Israeli-Egyptian border, a busy smuggling route. Between three and four tons were seized in the past two months.

"The smell was overpowering," police spokesman Gil Kleiman said Friday.

Finally, it was too much for the officers working next door to the storage room, and they had to leave their offices.

"Every time I came to work I felt very bad, like I was high. The smell of the marijuana was killing us, we couldn't work," one officer told the Israeli newspaper Maariv.

Next week the marijuana will be destroyed, but the room is expected to fill up again in a couple of months, Kleiman said.

Man Arrested For Landmark 20th DUI

PEABODY, Mass. - Twenty drunken driving arrests are enough.

Now, prosecutors in Massachusetts say they'll try to put a man with that dubious record behind bars for the next five years.

State police say Charles Stefanilo of Medford was too drunk to even take a sobriety test last weekend after an accident.

The 47-year-old man had previously been charged with drunken driving 19 times and had 16 convictions.

His license was permanently revoked in 1995.

NYC Mayor Chews The Atkins Fat

NEW YORK - He thought he was just chewing the fat, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg may have bitten off more than he bargained for.

Apparently thinking microphones were off during a visit to a Brooklyn fire house this week, Bloomberg, between bites of pasta, used an expletive to dismiss the reported details of Dr. Robert Atkins' death, hinting that he may have died from weight-related health problems. Later, he called the diet guru "fat."

Atkins died last year at 72 from head injuries sustained from a fall on an icy sidewalk. His controversial diet, which stresses eating meat, eggs and cheese over pasta, bread and vegetables, has been widely popular since his first book came out in 1972, selling millions of copies.

Atkins' widow is furious over Bloomberg's comments and wants an apology.

While Bloomberg backed off somewhat when asked by reporters about the comments Wednesday, saying he "would never criticize someone about their waistline," his spokesman, Jordan Barowitz, said that's as much as an apology as there will be.

Veronica Atkins plans to go on "Good Morning America" Friday to air her views on Bloomberg's comments.

"They are extremely hurtful. They made her very angry, truly hurt," said Richard Rothstein, a spokesman for Atkins Nutritionals. "She wants a public apology, and for the mayor to let people know what he said about her husband and his death was incredibly inappropriate and wrong."