news of the weird

[thecreech]

The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned the "armed robbery" conviction of Deshon Rene Odom in May, saying that even though Odom had a gun in his waistband, he hadn't meant for anyone at the bank he was robbing to see it, and therefore that he was not legally "armed." The court said that the federal law speaks only of using a gun, not carrying one; on the other hand, the court acknowledged that if Odom had waved around a toy gun that looked real, that would be enough for "armed" robbery. [Reuters, 5-21-03]

A 70-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman pleaded no contest to public indecency in New Philadelphia, Ohio, in June after their arrest for engaging in sex acts in a booth at a Hardee's restaurant. Though it was the couple's first lewdness charge, the prosecutor told the judge that it was not the first time they had done something like that. [The Times Reporter (Dover-New Philadelphia), 6-5-03]

Ken Rohrer, an elementary school principal in Michigan City, Ind., resigned in April, two weeks after he had (apparently as a joke) decided to appear on the school's classroom TV system making his daily announcements while portraying an Iraqi character, denouncing "lying" Americans and the Bush administration and charging that the upcoming school ice cream social would be held as scheduled, even though Iraqis were starving. [Indianapolis Star-AP, 4-23-03]

In May, Reuters reported on the increasing popularity in Australia of large cockroaches as pets (won't hurt children, very low maintenance). However, at about the same time, health authorities in Thailand decided to confiscate and destroy about 1,000 pet cockroaches, calling them pests, but reluctantly showed sympathy for the owners' losses by holding a Buddhist funeral rite for the cockroaches. And a few days before that, artist Catherine Chalmers opened her "Executions" exhibit in New York City, featuring photographs of cockroaches dying simulated "human" deaths (hanging from tiny nooses or executed in a small prison electric chair) and, in a video, arising from the "dead" in a gas chamber (gruesomely knocked out by carbon dioxide, then revived as the gas dissipates). [Reuters, 5-18-03] [Reuters, 5-22-03] [New York Times, 5-8-03]

[Drewcifer]

My all time favorite News of the Weird was the one about the guy who paid to rob a convenience store.

To wit: man walks into store, lays a $20 bill on the counter and asks the clerk for change. When the clerk opens the cash register, the man demands all the money in the register. After the clerk hands the money over, the man runs out of the store. The problem is that the man left the $20 bill on the counter and there was only $15 in the register. Clearly, crime doesn't pay.

[Col. Crackpot]

The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned the "armed robbery" conviction of Deshon Rene Odom in May, saying that even though Odom had a gun in his waistband, he hadn't meant for anyone at the bank he was robbing to see it, and therefore that he was not legally "armed." The court said that the federal law speaks only of using a gun, not carrying one; on the other hand, the court acknowledged that if Odom had waved around a toy gun that looked real, that would be enough for "armed" robbery. [Reuters, 5-21-03]

by that logic i can walk around 'frisco with a submachinegun in my jacket, and not be armed.

[thecreech]

My all time favorite News of the Weird was the one about the guy who paid to rob a convenience store.

To wit: man walks into store, lays a $20 bill on the counter and asks the clerk for change. When the clerk opens the cash register, the man demands all the money in the register. After the clerk hands the money over, the man runs out of the store. The problem is that the man left the $20 bill on the counter and there was only $15 in the register. Clearly, crime doesn't pay.

Oh yeah i remember that one. If i was the clerk i would of pocketed the five dollars