Posts Tagged ‘wierd’

Be safe…no laughing!

We all know that we have to strap ourselves in when driving.  We can’t eat or drink when driving, no chance of using a phone and if you want to read a book behind the wheel then you might as well drive straight to the jail cell – but one motorist was pulled over in Liverpool for LAUGHING?

The motorist was shown the flashing blue and red lights, pulled over and questioned by police officers for driving under the influence of laughter.

The driver in question was Gary Saunders who was chatting to his brother-in-law over a hands-free mobile phone when he was told a joke and broke out in hysterics.

That’s a crime apparently…

Little did he know that the police that were on his tail were offended by the jovial spirits of the man and signalled him to pull over to the side of the road for a questioning session.

When he pulled over the policeman approached Mr Saunders and actually said “laughing while driving a car can be an offence.”

Mr Saunders was questioned for around half an hour which was a bit of problem for the company director of Spontex Workwear as he claimed that due to the questioning he missed an important appointment.

Mr Saunders was asked to show his license and other documents at a police station – all for laughing whilst driving…

“I couldn’t believe it when he told me I’d been pulled over for laughing.  I was driving very safely in the Birkenhead Tunnel and took a call,” clamed Mr Saunders.

“He said something funny and I was laughing - simple as that. I never took my eyes off the road and was in full control of the car.

“I definitely wasn’t speeding so I asked what the problem was and he told me I was laughing too much.”

No record – waste of time…

However, the incident wasn’t taken to be too serious by the police officer as Supt Kevin Hagger of the Mersey Tunnels Police has said, “There is no record of the incident in the system so it seems the gentleman was just spoken to by the officer and the matter not taken any further.”

However, Mr Saunders won’t be forgetting the incident too quickly as according to him it went from weird to surreal in an instant.

“The officer accused me of throwing my head back in a dangerous way, which I denied since it is definitely not something I do.

“It went from ludicrous to unbelievable. He definitely had a bee in his bonnet about something and I got the brunt of it.  In the end he reluctantly admitted that he had nothing he could accuse me of, but still required me to take my documents to the station.”

He’s got a lighter.  Everyone down on the ground…

Smoking was never so dangerous – six police patrol cars were rushed to a scene where a man was carrying a hunting rifle in a Chinese city and the whole situation could have gotten very messy…if the hunting rifle wasn’t infact an oversized lighter.

Police in the Chinese city of Nanjing were suddenly inundated with emergency telephone calls claiming that there was a man on the loose brandishing a hunting rifle.

The police obviously responded to the emergency calls and were expecting a possible dangerous situation but instead they arrived at the scene to discover the man, clearly unaware that people around him were scared out of their skins, was simply carrying a gigantic lighter on his back.

“We sent out six patrol cars immediately, trying to stop the man before anything bad happened.

“On spotting the man, officers forced him to stop. The man was obviously very scared and said the gun was only a toy lighter, which he just won as an award in a restaurant,” commented a police spokesman.

Well, the flame was pretty hot.

After getting the supposed rifle back to the police station, the police tested the object but once they had pulled the trigger they realised the mistake that had been made as a small innocent flame poked out of the barrel of the gun.

Unfortunately the man who was allegedly stalking the streets with a deadly firearm was given a warning for carrying the lighter, which was confiscated.

The end of novelty lighters?

The news comes as fire officials in Louisville in the United States demanded that novelty lighters were removed from stores as they are apparently responsible for several deaths a year, although not because they are parading as hunting rifles.

The fire officers claimed that the lighters can easily be picked up by children who will play with what they think is a toy and then there is a strong possibility that a fire could start.

“Anytime a child can get to it and they think it’s a toy and they get by themselves in a closet and they’re playing with it and a fire starts, that’s the biggest concern we’ve got,” said Henry Ott of the Louisville Fire Department.

“Kids are playing with lighters, kids are cooking at home, using candles in the room, or they may lay a curling iron down.”

According to an arson investigator in Louisville children are responsible for around half of all fires in the United States.

No real proof…

However, the fires have not been connected with novelty lighters, partly because the United States Fire Administration only started to keep their eyes on the cigarette accessories since January of last year.

Although the move by the Fire Department doesn’t have the backing of some hardcore smokers, the plans do indeed have the unanimous backing of the Louisville Metro Council Public Safety Committee and the full council will be meeting next Thursday to vote on the move.

What do you think?

Is this proposal to ban joke lighters a good decision or is it just another example of how wrapped up in cotton we are as a culture?  Let us know…

A baby at 75…

It’s never to late to try something new – but in Paul-Louis Mariasusay’s case 75 years old is apparently not too old to parent a child.

Paul-Louis from London was shocked and thrilled at the news that his new wife, Gena, was to bear his child.  The news came to the pensioner just months after marrying Gena, who is only 38 years old – almost half Paul-Louis’ age.

The child, named Xavier, isn’t the first for Paul-Louis who has already brought two other children into the world, not to mention his 5 grandchildren.  Infact one of his children is actually older than Gena.

Paul-Louis, who used to work as a BT engineer, is said to be thrilled at Xavier’s arrival who was born at a healthy 7lbs 11ozs.

Born in Malaysia, Paul-Louis has been living in England for over 30 years but actually found his new love on a trip he took back to the Far East to visit his family.

Excited at the chance to be a father again…

Speaking about the birth of his son and how he is dealing with being a father at such a mature age, Paul-Louis stated how much he appreciated the chance to be a father to a small baby once again.

“I may be a pensioner, and it is almost 40 years since I looked after a baby, but I haven’t forgotten how to change a nappy and it is just marvellous to be a father again.

“I know that Michael Douglas and Cary Grant both became fathers again when they were older - but I am older than both of them,” said Paul-Louie.

“The baby came as a complete surprise. I had no idea that I could still become a father at my age but Xavier is a lovely gift.

“We soon became good friends and then I asked her to come to this country for a holiday - and while she was here I proposed to her. She accepted and then she never went home.

“I get plenty of comments about Xavier when I’m pushing him in his pram from people who think I am his granddad. I am proud of Gena and Xavier and I want to walk with my head up high,” he continued.

Not everyone is happy about the birth.

However, Paul-Louis didn’t hide the fact that his family had been against the marriage to Gena and didn’t take the news too well when they found out that the couple were expecting little Xavier.

Still, Paul-Louis wants to keep his focus on being a good father and bringing Xavier into a good family home.

“I will do everything I can to be a good dad - educate and provide for him and my wife.

“I just want to spend as much time as possible with my son and don’t want to think about the future - everything is perfect so far.”

Paul-Louis, Gena and Xavier live in Acton and were married in February of last year.

How would you feel?

Would you feel comfortable taking your baby to pick up your pension or do you think it’s a bit unfair on the child?  Share your views!

It’s OK – the problem has been solved…

Everyone can relax – stop worrying, the wait is finally over…a scientist has uncovered the mystery of “belly button fluff”.

Georg Steinhauser, an Austrian chemist, has found a type of hair that actually holds pieces of lint that are floating around the belly button and then drags them into the navel.

This news didn’t come without a bit of sweat or tears as Dr Steinhauser spent his recent free time studying 503 pieces of fluff from his own belly button over a three-year period.

And if you thought that the contents of the belly button fluff were simply bits of lint then I’m afraid that Dr Steinhauser has proven you wrong.  Inside the fluff apart from the lint you will find particles of dead skin, fat, sweat and dust.

And here’s the reason…

Writing in the journal, Medical Hypotheses, Dr Steinhauser claimed that the scaly structure of the hair promotes the “abrasion of minuscule fibres from the shirt” thus moving the lint into the belly button.

According to Dr Steinhauser’s study “small pieces of fluff first form in the hair and then end up in the navel at the end of the day”.

“The hair’s scales act like a kind of barbed hooks.  Abdominal hair often seems to grow in concentric circles around the navel,” continued Dr Steinhauser.

“The question of the nature of navel fluff seems to concern more people than one would think at first glance.

“We hope we have been able to provide information for doctors when they are next confronted with the simple question of ‘why some belly buttons collect so much lint and others do not’.”

No stranger to the strange…

Dr Steinhauser is no stranger to weird and wacky studies – he has also looked at answering the question of why his wedding band erodes.

To add to the study, Dr Steinhauser explained a number of methods of ridding the body of the unproblematic fluff.  If you found the fluff to be an annoyance then you should think about shaving the hair or even getting a belly button piercing fitted.

However, Dr Steinhauser was quick to remind shavers that the problem would resurface as soon as the hairs grew back.

Another tip from the doctor is to wear old clothes as they tend to shed less amounts of lint compared with newer clothes.

When you think that a new item of clothing can lose up to a thousandth of its weight over the course of a year then perhaps this isn’t as much of a laughing matter as you might have originally thought…

Maybe more valuable than we thought?

Of course, there are always viable reasons for keeping hold of the belly button fluff and one man that will definitely not be shaving his belly button or fitting a piercing will be Graham Barker.

Mr Barker has been building up a collection of the fluff since 1984 in hopes that he might one day see a picture of himself in the Guinness Book of Records.

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.”

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.

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…