Archive for the ‘weird’ Category

The most expensive bottles of Vimto in the world?

Police chiefs have waster almost a quarter of a billion pounds of taxpayers money by investigating the so-called theft of 5 bottles of Vimto by other police officers.

The bottles of Vimto in question were discovered by two transport officers, Rob Mitchell and Kris Catterall. They found the bottles of the popular cordial inside an abandoned cardboard box next to a rail line.

However, they stepped out of line according to police rules as they should have brought the box in to the station where it should have been reported lost or stolen.

Unfortunately for the officers and the taxpayer, Mitchell and Catterall couldn’t contain their excitement and had to share the bottles as equally as possible between each other and other colleagues.

18 month suspension and an internal probe…

These actions led to the officers being suspended for 18 months until the ridiculous case against them was dropped.

However the officers had to wait for 8 months until lawyers decided upon a charge, being a fine of four wages each for the officers who were forced to plead guilty to neglecting their duties – a sum of £400 each.

Mitchell and Catterall still face an internal probe over the situation.

A waste of taxpayer’s money…

Still, the biggest upset over the whole issue has to be the fact that the investigation has cost the taxpayer around £200,000 and has been blasted as a gross misuse of money.

Matthew Elliott of the TaxPayers’ Alliance has spoken out about the situation, which he says could have been resolved without wasting so much time or money.

“This is an absurd and shocking waste of taxpayers’ money and utter incompetence on behalf of the senior officers involved.

“If disciplinary action needed to be taken it should have been done quickly and without wasting money. The police chiefs who oversaw this episode should be held accountable to taxpayers,” said Elliott.

Unnecessary stress on the officers!

Meanwhile, the officers in question will be feeling the stress involved with such a remarkably weird investigation as well as the approaching internal probe looming over their heads.

The chairman of the British Transport Police Federation, Alex Robertson, who is representing both officers involved in the Vimto issue, claimed that the whole situation was a huge upset for both the officers.

“To be suspended for so long over something so trivial will have put the officers and their families under great stress.”

Were they wrong?

However, in retaliation the British Transport Police have claimed that the officers they employ must remain devoted to the laws of the land if they expect to continue at their jobs successfully.

“The integrity of officers is paramount in maintaining public confidence and any failure to uphold our high standards will always be treated seriously,” claimed a spokeswoman for the British Transport Police.

How about you?

What do you think about the whole Vimto fiasco?  Do you see it as a complete waste of your money or are you on the side of the Transport Police who claim that their officers must remain observant of the laws of the land, even in the smallest of cases?

Is that a phone in your belly or are you just happy to see me?

A businessman who misplaced his phone on a beach magically turned up – inside the belly of a gigantic cod caught by a fisherman.

The man in question, Andrew Cheatle, thought the handset had been lost forever when it fell out of his pocket at the beach, however a week after the incident his girlfriend’s phone rang and on the other end of the line was the amazed fisherman who had found the handset in the belly of the fish.

Amazingly after pulling the phone out of the belly of the 25lb cod and drying it off the phone still works!

The fisherman that found the cod and the phone, Glen Kerley, used the phone to call Cheatle’s girlfriend, Rita Smith, who was shocked to see the old number calling her on her phone.

“I was messing about with my dog and my phone must have fallen out and been swept out in the swell. I kept calling it but I gave up hope after a couple of days,” said Cheatle.

The call came…

But then around a week after the incident, Cheatle’s girlfriend received the call and said to Cheatle, “Your old mobile number is calling my phone.”

“She said some guy was going on about my phone and a cod so she handed it over to me and he told me where he had found it,” continued Cheatle.

“I didn’t believe him but went to meet him and found it was my phone — a bit smelly and battered — but incredibly it still worked after I let it dry out.

“I thought he was winding me up but he assured me he had caught a cod that morning and was gutting it for his fish stall and that my Nokia was inside it - a bit worse for wear.”

Maybe it’s time to spring for a new one?

And now apparently Cheatle is still clinging on to his phone and still using everyday.

“It was working but it kept playing up so I had to get the circuit board changed in the end. But now it’s fine. I know it sounds a fishy tale but it is 100 per cent true,” claimed Cheatle clearly happy that he has been reunited with his handset and of course his address book as he runs an online retail company.

Not the first fish to have eaten a weird object…

Picking up the odd cod with a weird object in its stomach is apparently nothing new for fisherman Kerley who has claimed to have found a number of out-of-place objects in the bellies of the fish in the sea.

“I’ve found plastic cups, stones, teaspoons, batteries and I’ve also heard of someone finding false teeth in one.

“I know what it’s like to lose your phone. It can be really frustrating. So I thought I may as well make a few calls to see if I could get it back to him.

“It was a bit smelly but I was glad to return it.”

Frogs or bust?

A scientist in Belarus seems to know something the rest of the world doesn’t.  He has come up with an idea about how to pull his country out of its economic drought.  His method involves the breeding and then the exportation of edible frogs.

The scientist has been doing the rounds promoting his idea to businessmen around the country, advising them that the best way to pull the country out of the economic recession can only be to breed the edible frogs and sell them to the rest of the world.

Belarus is said to be home to three different frogs that can be eaten by humans.  There is the Marsh Frog (Rana Ridibunda), the Pool Frog (Rana Lessonae) and of course the Edible Frog (Rana Esculenta). Each is a top dish in the country and if one scientist had his way it could be a worldwide delicacy.

Frogs to take Belarus out of a recession?

The scientist in question is Ruslan Novitsky who is claiming that the frogs are a big exportation dream for the country, which he says, could be the key to taking Belarus out of its recession.

Novitsky, who is a member of the country’s National Academy of Sciences, has even gone as far as to claim that the export of their frogs could actually see the former Soviet state morph into one of the world’s agriculture super-powers.

“Belarus has immense reserves of this delicacy. The republic could expect a huge foreign currency inflow if it developed the industrial breeding of these amphibians,” said Novitsky.

It’ll be easy, says Novitsky…

Novitsky clearly isn’t taking the whole frog proposal lightly and has suggested that the frogs can be bred in the same way as salmon that are currently heavily farmed.

According to Novitsky, farming the frogs would be easy as they are small (around 15cm long and weighing a meagre 0.5kg) and they need no special care.

“Frogs could be farmed along with fish, in fish ponds,” continued Novitsky.

It’s not exactly good news for our amphibian friends…

However, animal lovers everywhere have been up in arms of the situation as a recent study proved that if the consumption of frog’s legs continued to rise in popularity then we could bring an end to the whole species.

Still it would seem that Novitsky is on to a winner with his frog farming plans as the study, taken by the University of Adelaide, estimated that the worldwide trade of amphibians was somewhere in the region of between 200 million and one billion a year.

This amazingly high trade has apparently led to the end of around 100 species of frog already and is set to bring the premature end to around 3,000 more if nothing as done about the whole situation.

Frogs for dinner?

Do you enjoy a frog’s leg or two in the evening or is your celery enough to fill you up?  Let us know what your views are on Novitsky’s plans…

Google Earth aliens found…

Google Earth browsers got a bit of a shock when a supposed flying saucer was discovered through the application in Romania – however Romanian UFO investigators are pleading with people to stop reporting the alien craft because it is actually just a building…

The building, that does surprisingly look like a flying saucer from the skies, has caught the attention of a whole bunch of Google Earth surfers who have been urgently getting in contact with the Romanian authorities.

The circular building is situated in a farming area close to Timisoara and after first hearing about the possible alien landing the Romanian UFO Network set out, understandable eager and excited, and ran straight to the location.

Imagine the disappointment on their faces…

However, to their dismay the unidentified flying object was merely an abandoned water facility – talk about a let down!

And now, according to the UFO Network, the phone won’t stop ringing and the guys in the office are getting a little fed up.

Please stop calling us…

According to the president of the Romanian UFO Network, Paul Dorneanu, the whole situation was a bit of a let down, not to mention the fact that the building wasn’t the only one of its kind in the vicinity.

“I’ve been there and taken some shots of that building,” said Dorneanu.

“It is just a water pumping facility that used to supply Timisoara city in the past. There was another similar building a few miles away.”

“Some people believe we are all part of a conspiracy to obscure the truth about UFOs. We do have solid reports about UFO activities in Romania but this is definitely not one of them.”

Roswell is sooooo last century…

Some online bloggers were claiming that the sighting was proof that aliens were getting bored with Roswell and were sure that the buildings were indeed alien flying saucers.

Whatever we believe it is interesting to know that most of the unidentified flying objects that have been supposedly spotted over the years have mostly come from the United States, although rumours have been circling that Romania is supposed to be quite a steady location for UFO spotting.

Is the truth out there?

What are your views on our alien buddies out there in space or indeed in a little farm area in Romania?  Do you truly believe that we are sharing this planet with aliens keeping track of our every move or are we the only intelligent beings in the universe?  Speak your mind…

Hair mail…

Some people don’t take break-ups very well – some people scream and shout, others send hurtful letters and emails, but one ex-girlfriend has decided to send bits of hair in letters to get back at her ex-boyfriend…

Ivo Mikesic from Croatia has been receiving mail from his ex-girlfriend with pieces of her hair stuck to them – somewhat of a weird method of getting back at the man who ended their relationship.

The ex in question apparently started the weird “hair mail” attacks with one postcard, but since then Mikesic has been receiving hairy postcard after hairy postcard.

Restraining order…

And now, understandably, Mikesic’s postman is getting a little fed up with the whole situation too.

Mikesic has pleaded with a court in Zagreb to provide a restraining order against the former girlfriend, which he is hoping, will put an end to the strange postcards arriving through his letter box.

Imagine throwing that postcard in the fire…

According to Mikesic after the first postcard came he tried to put it behind him, but then they started to come in torrents…

“I got one and just thought it was really weird and tried to ignore it.

“I have no idea why my ex is doing this but at the rate she is going she’s going to have no hair left soon.”

Better a postcard with a bit of hair than setting fire to your house!

However, it would seem as though Mikesic got away with an easy ride with the hairy postcards.  An ex-girlfriend in Milwaukee, in the United States, set a house on fire after a heated argument with her ex.

The fire broke out after the ex-boyfriend arrived back to his house with another girl.  What they didn’t know was that the man’s ex-girlfriend was waiting there for them.

The fire caused $55,000 in damages but luckily no lives were lost.

Tell us your story…

So break-ups can indeed be tough to those involved, but as you can see some take things a step or two too far…

Hairy postcards and houses on fire aside do you have any weird break up stories that you think the world is ready to hear?

Feel free to let us know so we can all have a bit of a chuckle!

Woolly jumper weather…

The weather has been a little bitter recently to say the least.  For one woman, the time had come to protect her chickens from the icy weather by knitting woolly jumpers for each of her 1,500 chickens.

Jo Eglen from Norwich works at the Little Hen Rescue Centre in Norwich and thanks to Jo 5,750 battery chickens have been re-homed and saved from their tortured and captured lives.

Eglen still had to worry about a further 1,500 chickens, but her solution was to knit each of them woolly jumpers to save them from the cold – now that is caring!

A little help from her friends…

Eglen didn’t of course manage to knit all the jumpers herself, but instead asked the local community to pitch in and give her a hand, and they ran to the chicken’s rescue.

After a life-changing trip to a farm, Eglen had an epiphany and the teacher and mother of two started to turn her attentions to caring for the shunned birds and providing them with some solace.

“I went into a battery farm and saw how they lived and died. I just thought it was such a waste of life.

“Some battery farms have up to 10,000 hens of the same age. But when the birds stop or start to slow lying they are sent to the slaughterhouse - not to be used as meat, but just to be culled.

“We know that once they’re out of the farms they start laying good eggs again.  They get quite thin and bald because of the stress and heat. About 60 per cent of the hens that come through are bald,” said Jo.

Everyone has been pitching in…

According to Eglen, people from all over have offered their services to rush to the aid of the freezing chickens.

“We have patterns on our website that are straight-forward and simple. We’ve had 1,500 jumpers come through in just the past two months.  We’ve had so many different kinds - Christmas-themed jumpers, multi-coloured ones, some with bows and stripes,” continued Eglen.

Eglen managed to get hold of the use of some farmland for free through the good will of a local farmer and managed to set up the Little Hen Rescue Centre to care for unwanted battery chickens with a volunteer friend of hers, David Doy.

Could you provide bed and board for a little chicken?

It’s a nice little story, but hopefully with enough people getting the message and feeling the same way as Jo then there could possibly be a number of safe havens popping up around the country for our feathered friends who are all worked out.

Can you put Ruffles on the phone?

According to a psychic in Romania, the channels of communication are now open between the living world and the dead pet world – for a handsome fee of course.

Most of us have lost a pet at least once in our lives.  For me it was a small Syrian hamster called Harry who passed away when I was a mere 8 years old.  For you we could be talking about beloved dogs or cats that have been a member of the family for years.  Now imagine if you could get in contact with that missed pet – according to Nina Petre, you can, easily.

And if you thought that you would have to trundle over to Romania at even more expense then think again.  According to Petre she can pass the messages along through the Internet so the owner of the pet can chat from the comfort of their own home.

Do you think your dog understands instant messaging speak like LMAO or TC?

Imagine Instant Messaging with your dead pet – something to tell your friends about, I think.  The only thing is, how can you trust what you’re reading?

On the screen, through the psychic’s website, the owner can type their message to Petre and then in response the pet writes back through Petre.

And if you wanted a little bit of proof about Nina Petre’s powers don’t worry because apparently there is some!  There is a great deal of information about Petre’s past – about how she spoke to Jesus Christ and the whole communication kicked off.  But there are also some samples of communications that Petre has had with owner’s deceased pets.

Case studies…

According to the site, Petre managed to get in touch with a dog called Mexico who wanted its owner to know that everything was all right in the next life…

“I want to let you know that I am very happy here. I just came from the dogs judgement where I was told my good behaviour in life means I have a good chance to be sent back,” said Mexico, the dog.

“But I couldn’t have done this without your support, wisdom and love for which I will always be grateful to you.

“I also have one wish. Please give all my stuff - collar, leash, little coat - to a new dog which I know you will love as much as you did me.”

Would you be parting with cash for the service?

It’s a little hard to believe, but Petre is claiming that the connection can be made and is maintaining that she is doing so for the sakes of the pet owners who need to be relieved from the pain.

If you do believe her and you have a spare £80 knocking about then by all means pop along to her website and have a chat with your beloved pet.

What do you think?  Do you believe or do you think it’s a lot of spooky nonsense?  Let us know…

Running amok at 72…

It is true – we don’t age like we used to anymore…but in some cases we age in numbers only.  A teenager picked the wrong OAP to thieve from when she decided to run off with 72 year old Jean Hirst’s handbag, only to be chased and caught by the pensioner who used to be a world class runner.

Jean Hirst may have made a mistake by allowing three teenage girls into her car to help her with her directions, but the bigger mistake was made by the teenage girl who thought that running off with Hirst’s handbag would be a simple snatch and grab.

After all, perhaps not the best victim to steal from is one that could outrun most of the people in the world at the age of 17, which is exactly what Hirst could do.

All England Schools Championship.

Jean Hirst qualified for the final of the All England Schools Championship after gaining recognition for becoming her county’s 100 yards champion.

So when the teenage girl took off with the bag, Hirst regained her former glory by doing what she knew best – running.

“Suddenly I felt 18 again. The adrenaline just kicked in and I seemed to turn back the years,” said Hirst.

“She had a head start but I covered 70 yards in about 15 seconds and was within two strides of her when she looked over her shoulder and saw me.

“She probably thought I was an easy target but she shouldn’t have judged a book by its cover. The look on her face was one of sheer amazement and she just threw my bag aside.”

Run Hirst, run…

If anything this is a warning to the country to take a firmer hand on the obesity issues effecting the country.  But there is of course another lesson to be learned here, and that is not to underestimate an OAP!

Mrs Hirst is a widow from Mansfield and said that the handbag that was snatched contained “her life” from her keys to her purse.

Hirst stopped to ask three teenage girl for directions in Long Eaton in Derbyshire to which their reply was that they would get in and show her.

When they arrived at the location, one of the girls, who were aged between 15 and 16, asked Hirst for 20p which is when it was brought to her attention that one of the girls had pinched her handbag.

“Then she started running and that’s when the fun began. I was not as out of breath as I thought I would be at my age,” said Hirst.

Sorry doesn’t seem to be the hardest word…

The other two girls, who were caught as unaware by the whole situation as Hirst was, apologised for their friend.

“I just told them to choose their friends more carefully. There was no way I could detain them and at the end of the day I was just glad I had my bag back,” said Hirst.

Coke, Pepsi, Fanta, Cow’s Urine…

Fizzy drinks are often blasted in today’s health conscious society.  So you can imagine the up-roar about the imperative release of a new fizzy drink in India that is made using the urine of cows.

Created by India’s Hindu nationalist movement, Rashtriya Swayamesevak Sangh, the fizzy drink is said to be almost ready for general consumption.

Named Gau Jai, or Cow Water, the drink has been developed in a research centre in Haridwar, an Indian holy city, and is hoped to provide a healthier alternative to soft drinks like Coke and Fanta.

Health implications – Fizzy Cow’s Urine fights diseases.

According to the director of the Rashtriya Swayamesevak Sangh’s Cow Protection Department, Om Prakash, the drink is an invaluable cure for a number of supposed diseases.

“We refer to gau ark (cow urine) as gau jal (cow water) as it has immense potential to cure various diseases.

“We have developed a soft drink formula with gau jal as the base and it has been sent to a laboratory at Lucknow for testing,” said Prakash.

The organisation is now focusing its development to managing the preservation of the urine drink through the hot summer months.

“It will be a revolution of sorts. The acceptance of cow urine as a potent medicine is increasing day by day and once it comes as a cold drink, its demand will definitely increase.

“It will prove and justify the high stature accorded to a cow in Indian culture.”

Not as bad as you might think…

However, for all of you who are expecting a foul smelling, yellow drink will be pleased to hear that this will not be the case.  In fact, Prakash claims that the drink will taste good if anything and will work in a de-tox fashion.

The move comes as Pepsi and Coca Cola have gained firm success in the Indian market and they are anything but healthy.  It would appear that Prakash’s movement is firmly against the soft drinks and is simply working to create a healthy alternative for the people of India.

The RSS has had a number of dealings with the sickly soft drinks as in 1994 the organisation declared a nationwide boycott of goods which included the likes of Pepsi and Coke.

How much for that cow’s urine in the window?

Price wise, the RSS is remaining tight-lipped over the whole thing but has said that the drinks will be cheap.  However, competition will be tight as Pepsi and Coke  are also extremely cheap throughout India.

Maybe Prakash’s drink will stand a chance in the Pepsi/Coke dominated market as the big named brands have been struggling to fight off allegations of their drinks containing dangerous and harmful toxic pesticides – something which cow’s urine clearly would not fall pray to.

Would you drink it?

What about you?  Would you swap the Dr Pepper and the Sprite for a mouthful of the healthy cow’s urine or do you think you’ll stick to a few E numbers?  Let the world know!

Step away from the burger…

Sometimes hunger and rage go hand in hand.  A little hypo-glycaemia doesn’t help either, and when you need your food you need your food…although one man in Florida took it a little too far when he called the police because the Burger King he was in ran out of lemonade.

Jean Fortune, a 66 year old man in Boynton Beach, Florida in the United States, has now been arrested for misusing the emergency phone services after he got so mad with Burger King because they didn’t have any lemonade.

When the police arrived at the scene, an employee at the fast food diner informed the officer that she had simply informed Fortune that the restaurant had no lemonade when he was parked up at the drive-through.

Fortune called for back-up – he wanted the lemonade…

That was the trigger for Fortune, who started to lash out at the Burger King employee.  Fortune, with what I am sure would have been a sore throat due to all the lack of lemonade, then started threatening to call the police over the matter, to which the employee responded, “go ahead”.

Fortune was also turning purple over the time period he was asked to wait for his food – 15 minutes.  He wanted his food and no one was going to stand in his way…but did he really think the police would be on his side?

“You cannot dial 911 because you are unhappy with your burger, ok. I know you don’t seriously think that the police need to make Burger King give you food faster,” explained the emergency phone operator to Fortune who took the call.

“If it takes 15 minutes to cook, it takes 15 minutes to cook, ok. You don’t need to call 911.”

You could always…move on somewhere else?

The argument between the operator and Fortune went on for around 3 minutes, until the operator realised that Fortune hadn’t even placed his order or handed over any money.

The operator explained to Fortune that he was actually in a position to simply drive away, but Fortune refused to do so and was then told that the police were coming and that he should discontinue blocking the drive-through for other customers.

Fortune now faces a court appearance for his angry fast food stunt and will probably be told to attend some anger management to deal with what can only be described as an unnecessary rage.

In this world of fast food, fast internet and fast living, are we actually getting caught up in the fast paced pressure of it all?  If they don’t sell lemonade, surely anyone else would have ordered a Coke, or a Fanta or simply would have driven on to the next fast food restaurant.

Would you do the same thing?

What do you think?  All for the fast food anger, or should we all just take a chill pill?  Let us know…