Streak of bad luck
A footballer who rugby-tackled a male streaker dressed in a Borat-style mankini and a curly black wig was shocked to be sent off by the referee for violent disorder. The streaker, who ran onto the pitch with the score at 1-1 between Dorchester Town and Havant & Waterlooville, ran about for 30 seconds before Dorchester’s player-manager, Ashley Vickers, decided enough was enough.
Vickers, 39, said: “I’m dumbfounded. The Havant chairman even offered to take a player off to even things up.” Dorchester went on to lose the game 3-1.
Eau de stench
Living in the city but a country bumpkin at heart? A German company has just the thing for you — authentic rural smells in a can. Just peel back the lid and enjoy that familiar odour of cow manure. According to the “Countryside Air to Go” website (stallduft.de), the tins — which sell for £5 each — are filled with fumes sucked from a wooden stable filled with flatulent cattle.
Daniela Dorrer, the can’s creator, who lives in a Bavarian village, says: “We’re planning other smells, such as horse, straw, pigs and manure. But most people miss the smell of the cows.”
Robber’s wee error
A bank robber, who spent a weekend in a Copenhagen vault surviving on water and Corn Flakes, made the mistake of leaving behind plastic bags filled with urine. The 27-year-old Swede and an accomplice had used the bags as makeshift lavatories while they cleared the vault of cash and jewels worth almost £300,000 last May.
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One of the robbers was arrested after DNA tests were carried out on the urine, and was last week sentenced to 21 months in prison. His accomplice and two lookouts are still at large.
No points, just pointing
Police in India are punishing dangerous drivers by making them direct traffic. The plan was devised by Bharti Arora, deputy commissioner of police in the city of Gurgaon, because fines were not working.
“We decided to let them see how difficult it is to work as a traffic constable,” she explained. “Some say it has changed their attitude.”
Bad hair delay
Late for work because you missed your train? Come on, you’re not even trying. An American survey has uncovered some of the most imaginative excuses for lateness. They include: “I’m not late ... the company clock is wrong” ... “My car was inhabited by a hive of bees” ... “My hair was hurting my head” ... and “I was attacked by my cat”. One employee said he was let down by public transport, and produced a note signed “The Bus Driver”.
Were they woolly liberals?
Nigeria’s opposition party says it suspects sabotage after its candidate for vice-president was forced to make an emergency landing because an airport runway was full of rams and goats.
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Ibrahim Modibbo, spokesman for the Action Congress of Nigeria, said: “Is it possible for President Goodluck Jonathan to be involved in a situation where the runway he is to land on will be filled by rams? We suspect sabotage.”