Frock in the dock
A defendant who was turned away from court because he was wearing shorts came back half an hour later dressed as a woman. David Jeffries-Tipton, 47, was told by Cannock magistrates court that he was improperly dressed, so he went to a nearby charity shop and bought a silk blouse and a red floral skirt. The case went ahead. He was cleared of damaging a former girlfriend’s television, but admitted urinating on her dog basket.
Intruder gets clean away
A mother returned home to find that an intruder had broken into the house, done some cleaning and left a bill — and her name and number — scrawled on a napkin. Sherry Bush popped out, leaving her daughter sleeping upstairs at their home in Westlake, Ohio. When she came back she found the rubbish had been taken out, the carpet had been vacuumed and coffee mugs had been washed up.
Bush called the number on the napkin. “I said: ‘Did you get the wrong house?’. And she said: ‘No, I do this all the time’.” Police revealed that the cleaner was last month charged with criminal trespass after breaking into and cleaning a home.
Angler caught frozen fish
A father has been arrested after “catching” two frozen fish from a lake to impress his children. Alexander Donninger took the ready-gutted trout to a lake in Kufstein, Austria, and dangled them in the water until they had thawed enough to appear freshly caught. But as he reeled in his “catch” in triumph, he was spotted by a passing cyclist who reported him to the police for poaching. Donninger could face up to six months in prison. As Die Welt remarked: “This is a high price for making his children happy.”
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Sprinter in reverse gear
An athlete has smashed his own record for running backwards. At the UK backwards running championships in Manchester, Garret Doherty ran a mile in 6min 57sec. Doherty, 33, said: “I’m always getting passers-by shouting at me, telling me I’m going the wrong way. But who says everyone else is going the right way?”
Cats or husband? No contest
A husband has filed for divorce because his wife refuses to part with her 550 cats. The man told the rabbinical court in Beersheba, Israel, that he couldn’t sleep in the couple’s bedroom because the bed was covered with cats. They wouldn’t let him into the bathroom and also stole his food. The couple had attempted a reconciliation but the wife chose the cats over her husband.
Revenge of the deckchair, part 2
In the second incident of the kind in recent weeks, a sunbathing pensioner has been trapped in a deckchair after the fabric ripped and she got stuck in the frame. Two weeks ago, an 84-year-old woman was trapped for two days in Sweden. Now an 83-year-old woman in Scarborough had to shout for six hours before being rescued by a fire crew. North Yorkshire fire service said: “Our firefighters are trained for every eventuality.”