Fake PC does it for the beat
A male “police officer” who broke up a fight at a music festival, called paramedics to treat an injured member of the crowd and found a missing woman, was later unmasked as a gatecrasher wearing a stolen female officer’s uniform. Daniel Tredinnick had even been chatting to senior officers, who didn’t spot the disguise. It was 2½ hours before he was challenged by a security man, who was suspicious that the officer wasn’t wearing a hat or tie.
Tredinnick, of Shanklin on the Isle of Wight, wanted to visit the island’s music festival but he didn’t have a ticket, so he broke into a police car and stole the uniform.
At a court in Shanklin, he was given a 16-week suspended sentence after admitting theft and impersonating a police officer. “Strangely enough, he did more good than harm,” said Keith Verrinder, defending. Tredinnick later told a local blog: “I was pretty hammered.”
Ready, aim, stare
Troops guarding an Austrian airport against storks have been ordered to frighten the birds away by staring at them in an aggressive manner. The troops were sent to Zeltweg airport after fears that the birds would disrupt an airshow this week.
“Being stared at intimidates the storks more than the sound of a gun,” explained a local environmentalist, Siegfried Prinz.
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Car replaced by bricks
The manager of a Legoland theme park headed for his car after a day’s work only to discover it had been replaced with a life-size Lego copy. Tim Petsche played a practical joke on his colleague Peter Ronchetti by making off with the keys to his Volvo and delivering a new model — made of 201,000 Lego pieces — by forklift truck.
Ronchetti, general manager of Legoland in Carlsbad, California, said: “I won’t leave my keys lying around ever again.”
Who are you kidding, Mr Deng?
In a modern-day version of Dad’s Army, Yupeng Deng led more than 100 troops in civic parades through Los Angeles, ran training exercises at the weekend and issued the soldiers with ill-fitting uniforms. But Deng’s Special Forces Reserve unit, where he was known as the supreme commander, was a sham.
Last week a court in Los Angeles heard that Deng, 51, charged $300 (£185) for Chinese immigrants to join the service, and $120 to renew membership each year. Recruits could move up in the ranks if they paid more. The FBI launched an investigation in 2008 when members started showing up at real army offices to pay their fees.
Sir, this is the ladies aisle ...
A drunken airline passenger who urinated in the aisle just over halfway through an 11-hour Jetstar flight has been let off with a warning about his behaviour. The New Zealander was on a flight from Auckland to Singapore when he began to relieve himself, splashing people in nearby seats.
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“He slowly became aware that he was being uncouth,” said a fellow passenger. “He pulled up, and wobbled back to the other end of the plane.”