The Odd Truth, Oct. 31, 2003

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.

MIAMI - Federal drug agents are investigating a nutty dope smuggling scheme - peanuts to be exact. Authorities say they found $20,000 worth of cocaine disguised as snack-sized bags of peanuts on an Avianca flight from Colombia to Miami. Customs agents say more than 2.5 pounds of coke were hidden in 51 peanut bags. A drug-sniffing dog alerted authorities to the presence of the drugs. Agents noticed the bags of peanuts didn't feel quite right and opened them. No arrests have been made and the investigation continues.

Vampire-Killing Kit

NEW YORK - Just in time for Halloween, a vampire-killing kit has sold at auction for $12,000. It comes complete with a wooden stake and ten silver bullets.

The kit, in a walnut box, also contains a crucifix, a pistol, a rosary and vessels for garlic powder and various serums. It was bought by an anonymous phone bidder.

The vampire-killing kit was part of Sotheby's sale of 19th century furniture and decorative works of art.

Sotheby's catalog says some experts believe that such kits were commonly available to travelers in Eastern Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. Others think the kits were made in the early 20th century, possibly to cash in on interest in vampires sparked by the 1897 publication of Bram Stoker's "Dracula."

Robber Disarmed With Kindness

TAMPA, Florida - Confronted with an armed intruder in their home, two women plied him with a ham sandwich and rum until he became groggy and passed out.

Police arrived and arrested Alfred Joseph Sweet, 52, to end the five-hour episode.

Cathy Ord, 60, and Rose Bucher, 63, said they tried to befriend the man after he burst through their kitchen window with a sawed-off shotgun Tuesday night.

They made him a sandwich, gave him a bottle of rum and suggested he shower and shave so he could "sort of be disguised in his getaway," Ord said.

"We just treated him with kindness," Bucher said.

She said she had offered Sweet cash and the keys to her Cadillac, but he just sat with them, holding his gun. The intruder never said what he wanted, the women said.

The Three-Wheeler Mafia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Greedy scooter taxi drivers in southern Sri Lanka are laying nails on roads to disrupt cheaper bus service and are charging higher fare from commuters, a news report said Friday.

Calling the scooter taxi drivers "three-wheeler mafia," the Island newspaper said that the drivers place nails on roads so that tires of buses are damaged and the vehicles remained non-operational.

"Their modus operandi had been to place nails almost daily on the road so as to damage the tires," Island said quoting a local transport official in Kalutara, about 25 miles south of Colombo.

With no buses, commuters turn to scooter taxies and the drivers charge a minimum of 100 rupees ($1) for a journey which otherwise cost 10 rupees (11 cents).

To show the plight of the commuters, Island carried a photograph showing school children taking free ride in a prison van. The area has Sri Lanka's maximum security prison.

There was no immediate comment from the government on the report.
Scooter taxi is a popular mode of transport in this tropical island of 19 million people which lacks efficient surface transport system.

Court Rules Against Ladies Night

HONOLULU - "Ladies Night" is unfair to the guys. That's the ruling of the Honolulu Liquor Commission, which has fined the Blue Tropix Restaurant and Nightclub $500. The commission determined the place was discriminating against men. On Ladies Night, the Tropix let women in for free, but the guys had to pay a cover charge. Commission investigators decided to take a look at the place, after hearing radio spots for Ladies Night. Liquor regulations bar discrimination in services based on gender.

I'll Show You Drive-Through!

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A former employee of a McDonald's restaurant drove his car through the front of the company's training center in Amsterdam, police said Friday. No one was hurt.

The 30-year-old man, whose name was not released, has been arrested, police said.

"It's a former employee who was a little over-stressed," said police spokesman Remco Gerritsen. "Our colleagues at social services are talking to him to see if he needs any help."

A spokesman for McDonald's said the man had been hired on Oct. 23 at a restaurant near the southern city of Eindhoven and then released a week later "for not functioning in the workplace."

Dirk van den Bogaart said the company had filed charges against the man, but it was too early to say what the cost of repairs would be.

Celebrity Tombstones Revealed

PARIS - Just in time for Halloween, a macabre guide book tells readers where dead celebrities are buried in France.

The latest "Guide to Celebrity Tombstones" spends 322 pages mapping 7,000 tombs of personalities from literature, cinema, theater, science, religion, sports, politics and military history.

"It's a little like my address book, but the addresses here are permanent," author Betrand Beyern said Thursday on France-Info radio.

"The book answers two questions: where is such and such a person buried ... and who is buried in my region, in my city or in the village where I like to spend my holidays," he said.

Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb at Les Invalides monument in Paris is one of the most visited, he said.

Others are Le Pantheon that houses Victor Hugo, Emile Zola and other luminaries, and The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier that honors French war dead.

Another popular site is the tomb of Jim Morrison, singer for The Doors, who died in 1971, Beyern said. Morrison is buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in eastern Paris.

"In Paris, we often walk all over deceased celebrities without even realizing it," the Beyern said.

The grave of French satirist Francois Rabelais, who died in 1553, is under a popular store in the capital's central Marais district.

The guide also mentions celebrity animals' tombs, with perhaps the most famous being canine movie star Rin Tin Tin, a German shepherd buried outside Paris.

Where Do They Stash Their Guns?

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Brazilian security officials have ordered 50 police officers to take off their uniforms and slip into swimwear - all in the name of fighting crime.

Faced with a spate of crime on the city's beaches, state officials said Tuesday they were deploying a special police force to mix in with the bathers in order to better protect them.

Another 1,250 officers will be deployed to provide support for the undercover officers, who will go unarmed.

The move comes after a weekend during which rampaging gangs of youths terrified bathers and there were several robberies on the city's most popular beaches.

Rio is one of the world's most violent cities, with a homicide rate of about 50 per 100,000 residents.

Robberies among tourists are also quite common, but violent crime rarely spills over on to the beaches.