Clare's Collection of Unusual Tales and Pictures

[Min]

PMSL @ Teapot cult. OMG. Are they for real?

*hunts down hogwarts-type school* I want a degree in divination!!

[Lauren]

Lol, me too, Min!!

[Dark One]

Blazing mouse sets fire to house


A US man who threw a mouse onto a pile of burning leaves could only watch in horror as it ran into his house and set the building ablaze.
Luciano Mares, 81, of Fort Sumner, New Mexico, found the mouse in his home and wanted to get rid of it.

"I had some leaves burning outside, so I threw it in the fire, and the mouse was on fire and ran back at the house," he was quoted as saying by AP.

Though no-one was injured, the house and everything in it was destroyed.

"I've seen numerous house fires, but nothing as unique as this one," Fire Department Captain Jim Lyssy said.

New Mexico has seen several major blazes after unseasonably dry and windy conditions which have destroyed 10 homes and devastated more than 53,000 acres (21,200 hectares) of land.

[Dark One]

Prisoner diets his way to freedom

A prisoner dieted his way to freedom in Australia when he squeezed through a narrow gap after losing more than 3st.

Robert Cole, 36, escaped through a gap he had chiselled between the wall and the bars on his cell window.

Cole, a sex offender and armed robber, weighed 12st when he was jailed two years ago but had slimmed down to 8st 10lb.

"The security has let us down badly here," said Ian McLean, the deputy commissioner of New South Wales corrective services.

"The department is obviously very embarrassed by this. Cole is cunning and he is a great threat to the public."

Cole, described as mentally ill and possibly carrying a knife, escaped from the hospital of Long Bay maximum security prison in Sydney.

After squeezing through, he climbed a fence lined with razor wire, walked along a wall and jumped to freedom. Drops of blood on the ground indicated that he had cut himself on the razor wire.

There were no guards in a watchtower because the authorities relied on cameras and sensors. The security chief has been suspended.

[Dark One]

Helmet abuse for parking wardens

A city council in Australia says its parking wardens are used to abuse, but the discovery that someone had urinated in their motorbike helmets went a little too far.

Darwin Council chief executive officer Alan McGill said five helmets were targeted during a break-in at the council's compound.

"Initially we thought that it might have happened during the early hours of the morning, but one of our staff actually saw someone leaving the compound. We're not quite sure whether or not it was someone who was a bit upset at getting a parking fine."

[Dark One]

NZ's most overdue library book

A New Zealand woman with the country's most overdue library book has been let off her £3,500 fine.

Marie Sushames borrowed The Punch Library of Humour from the Rotorua Public Library in 1945.

The book was discovered among family mementoes in the attic of her husband's former family home and recently presented to her on her 85th birthday.

A local official calculated she owed about £3,500 in overdue fees but later said she won't be made to pay

Library manager Jane Gilbert said she would be delighted to waive the charges in return for the privilege of displaying a book that's been 'out' for 61 years.

She told the Daily Post: "It's certainly the longest overdue book I've encountered in my 16 years here. It would be very nice to have it on show."

[Dark One]

Harry Potter and the Revenge of the Boy Bands

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has got two boy bands wanting to "kick his ass".

Daniel had a go at McFly when he claimed the band couldn't even play their own instruments.

But James Bourne, frontman of Son of Dork, told the Mirror: "Us and McFly are going to kick his a***.

"Daniel Radcliffe talks a lot of sh**. He keeps talking about everyone else's talent but he should look at his own - he is atrocious."

And bandmate David Williams added: "He's a sh** actor and the sh***est character in the whole movie."

[Dark One]

Man goes broke over Star Trek home

A Star Trek fan has gone bankrupt after spending £12,000 turning his home into the Starship Voyager.

Tony Alleyne's flat in Hinckley, Leics, has moulded walls, touch-panel blue lighting and a life-size model of the show's transporter room.

He even built a command console, reshaped windows to look like portholes and set up vertical lights so he can pretend to be "beamed up".

He hoped his pad would tempt other Trekkies to pay him to convert their homes too.

He took out two huge loans and ran up debts of over £100,000 on 14 credit cards marketing his idea and paying for the merchandise and has filed for bankruptcy.

Tony, who split from his wife Georgina after he replaced their fridge with a "warp coil" said: "I was convinced Trekkies all over the world would want a house like mine and pay me to do it.

"But I was wrong and just overstretched. Building it in my apartment was the enjoyable and easy bit. But then I got hooked up with marketing and merchandise people here and in America and it all got out of hand.

"I'm still proud of what I created but it's been a financial disaster."

[Dark One]

Digi-box sends out SOS to coastguards

A digi-box has sent a SOS signal to coastguards.

Lifeboats were scrambled as the signal from Mary Donaldson's Freeview box went out on a wavelength used by ships in distress.

It was picked up 600 miles away by rescue co-ordinators at RAF Kinloss in Scotland, who alerted coastguards near her home in Plymouth, Devon.

Teams spent three hours scouring 20 miles of coast before the signal was traced to dry land.

Mary, 67, arrived back from a cinema trip with a friend to find two men outside with a huge antenna.

According to The Sun she said: "It was extraordinary. My friend thought I hadn't paid my television licence."

An Ofcom spokesman said: "Digital boxes are not meant to transmit signals."

It is not the first time the boxes have sent out freak signals. Last month, a coastguard helicopter scoured Portsmouth harbour for two hours after another box sent a signal.

[Dark One]

Swearing Ozzy directs motorists

Ozzy Osbourne is helping motorists find their way with four-letter directions.

An impression of the Black Sabbath singer's voice has been made available to download on to satellite navigation systems.

According to The Sun he tells drivers: "In 400 metres you have reached your f***ing destination."

If a car loses its signal he shouts: "I've lost the f***ing satellite!"

Chris Hilton, boss of manufacturers Voice Skins, said: "Ozzy's voice comes in two versions - with swearwords or bleeps. He is the top choice by far."

Sharon is the next-best seller. She gives instructions like: "Turn around, a***hole."

Other voices available include Clint Eastwood, The Queen and Tony Blair who says: "At the end of the road, congestion charge. Bloody Ken Livingstone."

[Dark One]

MPs hunt Donkey Dong

Militarty police in Australia are hunting for a well endowed serial flasher nicknamed Donkey Dong.

The flasher, who wears army uniform, has been 'terrorising' underwear salespeople in Darwin, reports Northern Territory News.

Several clothing and sporting retail outlets in the city's Mitchell Centre says have been targeted over the past six months.

One shop assistant said: "He has been in here four times and apparently he always tries on the same pair of red undies. I didn't really know what to say when he asked me if I thought they fitted him.

"It looks real and it's so big, it winds all the way down his leg and I wasn't sure what to do so I just went and got him a bigger pair.

"We call him Donkey Dong in here. He never buys anything and walks out saying that everything in the shop is too small for him."

A Department of Defence spokesman confirmed military police have spoken to retailers and are analysing surveillance footage to try to identify the man.

[Dark One]

Police hunt cross-dressing bank robber

Police in Australia are hunting a cross-dressing bank robber who they have dubbed the Mrs Doubtfire Bandit.

The man robbed a bank in Bayswater, Victoria, wearing a floral dress, roller blades and brandishing a gun, reports the Melbourne Herald Sun.

He demanded cash and, after it was handed over, rolled out of the National Australia Bank branch and into the street at high speed.

Witnesses said he was wearing a striking white dress with a floral pattern, a pair of leggings and a black wig with a blue stripe.

But they told police his voice and facial features were clearly those of a man.

Sen-Det Robert Dabb appealed for witnesses: "Someone out there will most likely have seen this person roller-blading around," he said.

[Dark One]

Motorists talk to their cars

The majority of motorists talk to their cars regularly - with one in five worrying about its feelings.

The poll of 2,000 owners also discovered almost half of women believe their car has a personality and so do 37 per cent of men.

A fifth of women admitted to giving their car a pet name reports The Sun.

The British International Motor Show's quiz also uncovered regional differences in attitudes to cars.

Car owners in South West England worry most about its feelings and chat to it more often. Drivers in the Midlands care least.

Motorists in the North East are more likely to believe their vehicle has a personality, while few Welsh do.

Kirsty Adams, motor show organiser, said: "It's great to see the Brits bond so deeply with their cars."

[Siryn]

sure, i call my car names all the time.....they're not exactly what you'd call 'Pet Names' though.

[Dark One]

Remote-controlled sharks

The Pentagon is working on using remote-controlled sharks as stealth spies.

Engineers funded by the US military have created a neural implant designed to enable a shark's brain signals to be manipulated remotely.

The Pentagon hopes to exploit sharks' natural ability to glide quietly through the water, sense delicate electrical gradients and follow chemical trails, reports New Scientist.

The project, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, was presented at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Neural implants consist of a series of electrodes are embedded into the animal's brain, which can then be used to stimulate various functional areas.

Biologist Jelle Atema of Boston University and his students are using them to "steer" spiny dogfish in a tank via a phantom odour.

Project engineer Walter Gomes, of the Naval Undersea Warfare Centre, says the next step will be to implant the device into blue sharks and release them into the ocean off the coast of Florida.

[Dark One]

Woman's Venetian joyride

A drunken Italian woman stole a water taxi and went joyriding through Venice.

The 20-year-old had been celebrating the end of the carnival period and police said she was "considerably under the influence".

She jumped into the unmanned motorboat and rammed a number of moored boats before getting into a wild chase through the complex canal network with Venetian water police.

The young woman, who was inexperienced on the water, was said to be driving so uncontrollably that by the end of the chase all four policemen were injured and "numerous other boats" were damaged.

According to local police, she has been arrested and charged with theft, property damage, bodily harm and resisting arrest.

[Dark One]

Man forced to marry goat

A Sudanese man has been forced to marry a goat after he was caught having sex with the animal.

The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.

They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars, nearly £40, to Mr Alifi.

"We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," Mr Alifi said.

Mr Alifi, told the Juba Post newspaper that he heard a loud noise around midnight and immediately rushed outside to find Mr Tombe with his goat.

"When I asked him: "What are you doing there?", he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up."

Mr Alifi then called elders to decide how to deal with the case.

"They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife," Mr Alifi told the newspaper.

[Dark One]

Hubby's naked revenge

A husband took revenge on his unfaithful ex-wife by selling 200 sexy photos of her on eBay.

The man offered the CD snaps of blonde Linsey, 24, at £4.99 each, reports the Mirror.

Within 24 hours all the pictures had been bought.

The seller, from Wales, wrote on the internet site: "She was playing away with my so-called best friend and now it's payback time."

A spokesman for eBay said: "We saw no reason to take the listing off."

[Dark One]

Village flooded by pig manure
A German village in the state of Bavaria is recovering after being flooded by 240,000 litres of liquid pig manure.

Sewage rose to 50cm in the streets of Elsa after the tank burst.

A police spokesman said: "The village was swamped with green-brown liquid and it was pig manure - the mother of all muck."

Police estimate the pig waste had caused at least £68,000 worth of damage.

[Dark One]

Dog crashes car

Johnny Vaughan's dog Harvey crashed his Maserati sportscar leaving him with a £8,000 repair bill.

Harvey got his head wedged under the glove box on a trip back from the vets, reports the Daily Mirror.

Johnny moved into the passenger seat to prise him free but then Harvey jumped across and hit the accelerator pedal.

The £70,000 car ploughed into a skip near the DJ's South London home.

Johnny said: "The funniest part was having to explain to my insurers. I couldn't make a claim as Harvey wasn't a named driver on the policy."

[Dark One]

Dog nearly bit off man's thingy

A German man playing with his brother's Jack Russell was hospitalised after the dog sunk its teeth into his thingy.

Daniel Dietmaier, from Dueren, said the dog nearly bit it off and after his brother's girlfriend told it to "attack" as a joke.

He is demanding substantial damages, saying the woman did not even helped him as he lay on the floor in agony after beating off the dog - because she had collapsed on the floor laughing.

[Dark One]

Stiletto race over cobbles

A total of 150 women - and one man - took part in a sprint race while wearing stilettos on a cobbled city street.

Competitors had to run 75 metres on heels at least 3ins high along Hoofdstraat, a major shopping street, in Amsterdam.

The race was won by Nancy Karels, 20, who confessed she had never worn high heels before but who runs five days a week.

The one male participant was Giel Beelen, a local radio DY, who wore a padded suit and a safety helmet in case he fell over.

He finished last but told Gazet van Antwerpen: "Nevertheless I¹m the first man to participate."

The race was organised by Glamour magazine which put up the first prize of £6,850 worth of clothes.

[Dark One]

Beer flows from kitchen tap

A woman in Norway turned on her kitchen tap to find beer flowing out.

Haldis Gundersen was preparing to do the washing up when she made the discovery at her apartment in Kristiansund, west Norway.

Haldis did not realise that two flights below, workers in a bar were left confused when water came out of the beer taps.

A worker had connected a beer barrel to the apartment water pipe by mistake.

Haldis said: "I turned on the tap to clean some knives and forks, and beer came out. We thought we were in heaven."

The workers in the bar finally fixed the problem reports BBC online.

Ms Gundersen added: "If it happens again, I'm going to order Baileys," she said.

[Dark One]

Red snow falls on Russia

Russia is red again - after a freak fall of coloured snow on the former communist country.

Northern regions of Russia's Maritime territory have been blanketed by a creamy reddish snow caused by a combination of weather patterns.

Authorities have been broadcasting non-stop weather bulletins to explain the phenomena is down to natural causes after panicked locals bombarded police and emergency services.

Meteorologists have explained sand storms from neighbouring Mongolia are to blame.

A cyclone passed over Mongolia on its way to Russia causing sand particles to be driven up into the air causing the colour of the snow to change.

Yuri Meseznikov, a local weather expert, said: "The winds of the cyclone embraced dust particles that coloured the fallouts."

The red snow comes just weeks after yellow snow, caused by pollution from an oil and gas factory, fell on Russia's Far East island of Sakhalin.

[Dark One]

Hair by axe, sword and vacuum cleaner

A Hungarian hairdresser has ditched the traditional scissors and comb in favour of axes, swords and vacuum cleaners.

Stylist Szabolcs Bodnar has been doing a roaring trade since he dropped the traditional utensils in favour of items which he claims "allow him to express himself better".

He cuts hair at his shop in Budapest by placing it on a chopping block and striking it with an axe.

The hair is then styled using a vacuum cleaner, or straightened using an iron.

For the fitter customers there is also the option of hanging upside down as he hacks away with a Samurai sword, often so fast that the entire haircut is finished in seconds.

Bodnar said: "People never fall asleep when I am cutting their hair. Today's hairstyles allow for more creativity and inventiveness, and that is what I offer."