'Elf' Jailed Over Alleged Dynamite Hoax

A man dressed as an elf is jailed after police in Georgia say he told a mall Santa that he was carrying dynamite.

Police say Southlake Mall in suburban Atlanta was evacuated but no explosives were found.

Morrow police arrested 45-year-old William C. Caldwell III, who was being held without bond Thursday in the Clayton County jail. He was not part of the mall's Christmas staff.

Police say Caldwell got in line Wednesday evening to have his picture taken with Santa Claus.

Police say when Caldwell reached the front of the line, he told Santa he had dynamite in his bag. Santa called mall security and Caldwell was arrested.

Caldwell faces several charges, including having hoax devices and making terroristic threats.

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Goodwill receives a "kind" donation: $1,500 worth of pot

It seemed like an innocent enough donation. A Marietta, Ohio Goodwill store received a large galvanized metal water jug with a spout -- perfect to hold lemonade during some long-ago summer picnic. Yet, the jug, which was donated anonymously, wasn't holding a refreshing drink; instead, it was filled with a heady cargo of marijuana.

The weed, bagged and labeled according to weight (i.e.; 124 grams) carries a street value of $1,500, local police said, and was about a year old; leading them to conclude that the stash had been accidentally abandoned.

The police, in their thigh-slapping funny way, are asking for the anonymous donor to come forward. "If anybody would like to come in and claim this 'cooler,' which is probably an antique, we would love to have them come in and we'll be more than happy to try and get that cooler returned to them," Marietta Police Capt. Jeff Waite told Charleston, West Virginia news station WSAZ.

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Giant Fast Food Sculpture Lands on California Lawn

How did a 4-foot-tall sculpture of a cheeseburger, a hot dog and a slice of pepperoni pizza find its way onto a California's family's front lawn?

That's the mystery Trisha Pickerel of Loomis, Calif., wants solved after waking up Sunday morning to discover the giant fast food, News 10 reported.

"This is what I saw on our front yard and I couldn't believe it," Pickerel told News 10 as she stood near the super-sized fiberglass and Styrofoam food sculpture. She alerted the local news to the sculpture's sudden appearance in hopes that it would find its way back to its rightful owner.

"It's pretty silly if you think about it. We've had many pranks with our children's friends, because we are the types of parents that have a good sense of humor as long as they come and clean it up," Pickerel told Slashfood. "Last June we had a lawn full of pink flamingos."

Pickerel said the sudden appearance of fast food on her lawn brought a smile to her face. "I have been going through breast cancer, so this was something that makes me laugh. It was hilarious."

The sheriff's department took the sculpture for safe keeping Monday, but if no one steps forward to claim the foodstuffs, the Pickerel family may have to find a place to keep its new art.

"Unfortunately it belongs to somebody, and I wanted to make sure that we got it out there," Pickerel said. "I've called everyone and no one is taking responsibility and none of them have a truck."

The Placer County Sheriff's Department told News 10 that local fast food joints haven't reported any jumbo faux foods missing.

Pickerel, meanwhile, suspects that the culprit didn't act alone. "It would take at least three people to put it in our front yard," she said.

"The sheriff's department said if nobody claims it in 90 days, we can have it," Pickerel said. "If anyone wants to claim it, give us a call."

If no one steps forward, Pickerel said she plans to donate the sculpture to the Ronald McDonald House or to another children's charity in Sacramento.

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Did Bank Robbery Suspect Eat Evidence?

As cops search a bank robbery suspect on the hood of a police cruiser, the alleged thief chows down on a piece of possible evidence.

STREETSBORO, Ohio (Nov. 21) -- Police say a bank robbery suspect in Ohio may have eaten evidence when he gobbled a piece of paper while handcuffed and lying across the hood of a police cruiser.

A police video camera captured the 35-year-old John Ford of Cleveland grabbing the paper with his mouth as police emptied his pockets.

Ford was arrested following a report of a bank robbery in Streetsboro just south of Cleveland on Thursday.

Police say a man walked into the bank and handed a teller a note that demanded money.

Police say they found money in a bag in Ford's car, which fit the description of the bank robber's vehicle, along with a bank die pack that had exploded.

Ford was being held in the Portage County Jail on Saturday where his file did not indicate he had a lawyer.

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Jungle gang in Peru killing people to steal their fat, selling it on black market for cosmetics

Peruvian police have captured several members of a remote jungle gang that kills people for their fat, which they purportedly sell on the black market for use in cosmetics.

One suspect told police that the killers would cut off their victims' heads and limbs, remove the organs and suspended the torsos from hooks over candles to melt fat from the bodies.

Three suspects have confessed to killing five people for their fat, said Col. Jorge Mejia, chief of Peru's anti-kidnapping police.

Two suspects who were arrested carrying bottles of liquid fat told police it was worth $60,000 a gallon. Police displayed two bottles of amber-colored fluid seized from the suspects which testing proved to be human fat.

Police dubbed the jungle-based gang the "Pishtacos" after a Peruvian myth of Incas who killed to extract human fat, quartering their victims with machetes.

The suspects told police the fat was sold to intermediaries in Lima. Mejia said he suspects the fat was sold to cosmetic companies in Europe, but had no proof.

One gang member, Elmer Segundo Castillejos, 29, led police to the rotted severed head of one victim in coca-growing valley last month, Mejia said.

Six members of the gang have eluded capture, including the leader, Hilario Cudena, 56, who Castillejos said has been killing to extract fat from victims for more than three decades.

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Stolen VW van found after missing 35 years

Michele Squires once owned the 1965 Volkswagen van that was found recently in a shipping container at a Southern California port -- 35 years after she had it stolen from a repair shop.

She'd now like to buy it back.

Squires told The Spokesman-Review that she was watching television news on Friday when a picture of a VW van popped up on the screen during a story about how customs agents on Oct. 19 discovered the vehicle in a shipping container headed for the Netherlands. The blue-and-white van looked to be in pristine condition, and could be worth more than $25,000.

Customs officials ran the vehicle identification number and found it had been reported stolen from an upholstery shop in Spokane on July 12, 1974. Squires said she had taken the van to the shop to have a bed made in the back for camping.

Squires, 58, is a lifelong Spokane-area resident who has worked at a Chinese restaurant for the past 30 years.

In this undated photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a 1965 Volkswagen van that was stolen 35 years ago from Spokane, Wash., is shown after it was recovered on Oct. 19, 2009, from a shipping container at the Port of Los Angeles bound for The Netherlands. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection / AP)

Her memory of buying the van is a little hazy. She wrecked her previous car and received $600 in settlement, and used that toward the van, though she doesn't remember the price. She remembers having a lot of fun in the van, hauling friends from home to home for progressive dinners and on ski trips.

"It was great in the snow," she said. "Lousy heater. I kind of fell in love with it."

After the van was stolen, Squires was paid off by the insurer, Allstate Insurance Co., which then became the legal owner. When it turned up at the Los Angeles seaport, officials seized it and turned it over to the insurance company.

The van had likely changed owners several times over the years. Most recently, it had been in the hands of a custom repair shop in Arizona, which refurbishes VWs and sells them overseas. Authorities say the owners of the shop are not considered suspects in the long-ago theft.

Squires has contacted Allstate to see if she could get the van back. Before she came forward, a company spokeswoman said Allstate would have the car appraised, apply for a new title and sell it at auction.

Asked Monday if Allstate would try to sell or return the car to Squires, the spokeswoman said the company was still investigating its options.

Squires said she probably cannot afford to buy back the van if it is worth $25,000 or more, as the auto theft investigator on the case has guessed. But she would at least like the first chance at purchasing it, she said.

Florida man dialed up 911 for phone sex

Meet Joshua Basso. The Florida man was arrested yesterday after allegedly placing a series of obscene 911 calls during which he asked a female operator about her breasts and whether she would have sex with him.

When confronted by cops, Basso would not say whether he was masturbating while talking to the operator, as he claimed during the calls, according to a Tampa Police Department report.

The 29-year-old rooming house resident admitted placing the calls, but "did not think he would get in trouble for calling 911." That miscalculation resulted in Basso being charged yesterday with a misdemeanor count of misusing the 911 system (he was booked into the Hillsborough County jail, where his mug shot was taken).



Asked why he chose to dial 911 from among "all the numbers he could have called," Basso told police that his LG cell phone was out of minutes and he "called 911 because it was free."

An excerpt from one of Basso's calls--which he placed while a shower was running in the background--can he listened to via the above link. Basso appears to be pleasuring himself while an operator diligently tries to obtain his address.

click image to enlarge

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WTH? 'Body sold' to Russia kebab shop

Police in Russia have arrested three homeless men suspected of killing a man, eating part of the body and selling other parts to a kebab shop.

The men were held in the city of Perm, some 1,400km (870 miles) east of Moscow, local investigators said.

Their statement said that the suspects had targeted the 25-year-old victim out of "personal hostility".

It was not clear when the incident occurred. The men - who have not been named - have been charged with murder.

The investigators said on Friday that the body of the man had been found in a forested area near a public transport stop in Perm.

They said the three men attacked their victim with knives and a hammer.

"After carrying out the attack, the corpse was dismembered. Part of it was eaten and part was also sold to a kebab and pie kiosk," their statement said.

It was not immediately clear if any customers had been served.

Diaper-wearing woman awarded $150,000

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Nov. 5 (UPI) -- A Pennsylvania woman was awarded $150,000 in a discrimination suit claiming she had to wear diapers to work due to a lack of toilets.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's lawsuit against Danella Construction Corp., of Plymouth Meeting, Pa., said Lisa Drozdowski, 37, had to wear adult diapers while she was working as a flagger for the company in 2005 because officials refused to provide portable toilets, the Philadelphia Daily News reported Thursday.

Drozdowski said her bathroom breaks, which involved walking a quarter mile to her car and driving several minutes to the nearest restroom, often came after she had already urinated on herself. She said the company stopped giving her work when she complained about the bathroom breaks and was denied a laborers position.

The commission and Danella entered into a consent decree filed in a court Wednesday. Danella agreed to pay $150,000 to Drozdowski and four other female employees who claimed they were also discriminated against by the company will split a $50,000 payout.
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Man says image of Jesus appears on truck window

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Jim Stevens said he's not particularly religious and is clueless about why an image resembling Jesus Christ keeps appearing on his pickup. Stevens, of Jonesborough, said nearly every morning, an image that looks to him like the face of Jesus Christ has appeared in the condensation on the driver's side window of his Isuzu truck. A Johnson City Press photo of the truck showed a facial image.

Stevens said when he first saw the image, he figured it would evaporate and not return. But it kept reappearing for two weeks now.

Stevens said folks at the grocery store he goes to were amazed to see the image.

He said he isn't going to wash the truck for a while.

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Man Shows Up Alive at Own Funeral

A Brazilian bricklayer reportedly killed in a car crash shocked his mourning family by showing up alive at his funeral.

Relatives of Ademir Jorge Goncalves, 59, had identified him as the victim of a Sunday night car crash in Parana state in southern Brazil, police said.

As is customary in Brazil, the funeral was held the following day, which happened to be the holiday of Finados, when Brazilians visit cemeteries to honor the dead.

What family members didn't know was that Goncalves had spent the night at a truck stop talking with friends over drinks of a sugarcane liquor known as cachaca, his niece Rosa Sampaio told the O Globo newspaper. He did not get word about his own funeral until it was already happening Monday morning.

A police spokesman in the town of Santo Antonio da Platina said Goncalves rushed to the funeral to let family members know he was not dead.

"The corpse was badly disfigured, but dressed in similar clothing," said the police spokesman, who talked on condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to discuss the case. "People are afraid to look for very long when they identify bodies, and I think that is what happened in this case."

Sampaio told O Globo that some family members were not sure the body was Goncalves.

"My two uncles and I had doubts about the identification," she told O Globo. "But an aunt and four of his friends identified the body, so what were we to do? We went ahead with the funeral."

The police spokesman confirmed there were doubts: "His mom looked at the body in the casket and thought something was strange. She looked and looked and couldn't believe it was her son," Sampaio said. "Before long, the walking dead appeared at the funeral. It was a relief."

The body was correctly identified later Monday, the police spokesman said, and has already been buried in another state. He declined to release the actual victim's name.

What's Lurking in Loch Ness?

There's something lurking in the depths of Loch Ness, Scotland, and it has nothing to do with monsters.
On a recent expedition to try and find evidence of the Loch Ness monster, U.S. research teams came across something quite unexpected -- not a prehistoric creature of the deep, but thousands of plastic covered golf balls.

Embedded video from CNN Video

Mike O'Brien of SeaTrepid explains: "At first we thought they were mushrooms, there were so many. But when we lowered the camera, we were surprised to see that they were in fact golf balls."

The balls were found roughly 300 yards from the beach and 100 yards from the shore where it is thought locals and visitors have been using the loch to practice their driving skills for quite some time.
One witness, conservationist Adrian Shine, told CNN he had seen locals launching balls almost 300 feet into the waters.

However, Shine doesn't believe this to be an environmental threat: "Certainly it's undesirable, but I don't think it will have a significant environmental impact on the loch."

It seems missing and discarded golf balls may not be bad news for all concerned. David Roston has built a career out of wading through rivers and diving in lakes to collect and re-sell discarded golf balls.
His online company, www.lakeballs.co.uk, had been retailing "lake balls" for almost 10 years, but even his powers of retrieval would be challenged by the monstrous task of recovering balls from the bottom of loch.

"I've dived in various lakes and found 10 to 15 thousand golf balls at a time, it's incredible -- but we've never attempted to clear a loch!"
Bobbing along at a depth of 754 feet, it's unlikely these balls of Loch Ness will ever see the light of day again.

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Sign Postings

A few weeks ago I showed you this hand designed sign that had been posted on a rural road.

Well, here's this weeks sign.

Now, if you are interested in applying to this school please let me tell you that there is no such school. :) However there is a great camp ground.

I can just imagine what the campground visitors might be saying. Residents of this area look forward to these weekly postings.