Free Republic

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Surveillance video of a bank robbery surprised detectives when it showed the bandit holding a gun in a strange manner, even backward during the holdup. "(The robber) is holding it in a manner that he's probably not familiar with handguns and was afraid it was going to go off," Orange County sheriff's Detective Jason Sams said. "If that was a fake gun, he would be holding it normally because he wouldn't care." Investigators said the bandit was wearing a new Cleveland Indians baseball cap when he walked into the Fifth-Third bank on the corner of University Boulevard...

MIAMI BEACH, Fla., May 24 (UPI) -- A former employee of Florida's Mount Sinai Medical Center faces criminal charges after admitting to performing oral sex on a patient, police said. Hialeah, Fla., resident Pedro J. Gonzalez, 27, was charged with sexual battery, Miami Beach police said. The hospital fired Gonzalez after the April 30 incident, The Miami Herald reported Thursday. Gonzalez's hospital duties included wheeling patients through the building. ''Even an isolated incident is unacceptable. We worked very closely with the Miami Beach police on this matter, and will continue to assist the authorities until a proper resolution is achieved,''...

DADE CITY — A 16-year-old girl was arrested Tuesday and charged with aggravated domestic battery after Pasco deputies said she spiked her mom's food with an ingredient that she knew could cause a severe allergic reaction. The Times is not printing the name of the teen or her mother. The 39-year-old mother is allergic to many foods, deputies said. Her allergies are so severe that she carries around an EpiPen, a spring-loaded auto injector of epinephrine, or adrenaline, to prevent her from going into anaphylactic shock. The woman needed the EpiPen the night of May 7, when deputies said the...

Giant pythons capable of swallowing a dog and even an alligator are rapidly making south Florida their home, potentially threatening other southeastern states, a study said. "Pythons are likely to colonize anywhere alligators live, including north Florida, Georgia and Louisiana," said Frank Mazzotti, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences professor, in his two-year study. The pythons thriving in Florida are mostly Burmese pythons from Myanmar that were brought over as pets and then turned loose in the wild. From 2002-2005, 201 of the beasts were caught by state authorities, but in the last two years the number...

A 43-YEAR-OLD German decided to settle his imminent divorce by chainsawing a family home in two and making off with his half in a forklift truck. Police in the eastern town of Sonneberg said the trained mason measured the single-storey summer house - which was some eight metres long and six metres wide - before chainsawing through the wooden roof and walls. “The man said he was just taking his due,” a police spokesman said. “But I don't think his wife was too pleased.” After finishing the job, the man picked up his half with the forklift truck and drove...

German driver's car directs him into toilet 23 October 2006 BERLIN: A German motorist followed the command "Turn right now" from his navigation system and crashed into a small toilet hut by the side of the road - about 30 metres before the crossing he was meant to take. The overly obedient 53-year-old from Freiburg drove his sport utility vehicle off the road onto into a building site, up a stairway and into the small toilet shack, police in the eastern town of Rudolstadt said on Sunday. It caused 2000 euros ($NZ3843) worth of damage to the stairway, 100 euros...

A WIFE aged 65 chopped off her dead husband’s willy in hospital — so she could keep it in a pickling jar as a souvenir. Uta Schneider used a butcher’s knife to hack off the “treasured” manhood. She wrapped it in foil and put it in a lunchbox — next to gherkins. But she was spotted by a nurse and arrested in Stuttgart, Germany. She is accused of mutilation. Uta was wed to Heinrich, 68, for 35 years. She told police: “It was his best asset and gave me so much pleasure. “I wanted to pickle it for eternity —...

Police: UCF Student Set Dorm Fire To Meet Women   POSTED: 11:46 pm EDT July 19, 2006 UPDATED: 11:55 pm EDT July 19, 2006   A student at the University of Central Florida is accused of setting a fire on campus as a way to meet women, according to a Local 6 News report. Police said Matthew Damsky admitted to lighting a couch on fire at the Academic Village Dorms last week Damsky told officers he hoped he would be able to meet women as the building was being evacuated. He was arrested for arson and booked in to...

ADAM CAROLLA: Ann Coulter, who was suppose to be on the show about an hour and a half ago, is now on the phone, as well. Ann? ANN COULTER: Hello. CAROLLA: Hi Ann. You’re late, babydoll. COULTER: Uh, somebody gave me the wrong number. CAROLLA: Mmm… how did you get the right number? Just dialed randomly — eventually got to our show? (Laughter in background) COULTER: Um, no. My publicist e-mailed it to me, I guess, after checking with you. CAROLLA: Ahh, I see. COULTER: But I am really tight on time right now because I already had a —...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A 52-year-old man from the German town of Darmstadt tried in vain to get a refund for 400 euros ($475) worth of what he said was "bad marijuana" from his dealer before turning to the police for help, according to authorities. The police then charged the man with violating drugs possession laws and confiscated the 200 grams of marijuana he brought with him to the police station, according to a report in Bild am Sonntag newspaper Sunday. "It is un-usable," the man told police in the hope they would help him get his money back. Amounts of...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German inventor said he has developed a method to produce crude oil products from waste that he believes can be an answer to the soaring costs of fuel, but denied a German newspaper story implying he also used dead cats. Christian Koch, an inventor and patent holder of the "KDV 500" that he said produces high quality fuel, said he can transform waste products such as paper, rubbish and plastic materials into fuel. But Koch, 55, said there was no truth to stories published in Bild newspaper Tuesday and Wednesday that suggested he used dead cats...

DELTONA, Fla. -- A convenience store worker has admitted urinating into a soda bottle, causing a customer who drank from it to become violently ill, his bosses say. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Publix officials confirmed to Local 6 News that an employee urinated in a Mountain Dew bottle and put it on the store shelves at the Publix-owned Pix convenience store located off Howland in Deland, Fla. Publix Super Markets spokesman Dwaine Stevens said the accused employee was suspended after the company learned of the incident this week. An internal investigation is being completed. Lab tests done by Publix on the contaminated Mountain...

BERLIN (Reuters) - An apparently friendly motorist in Germany stopped to tow a broken-down car, stranded the owners as he sped away, crashed their car into a gas station and then drove off, police said Thursday. "After attaching it, the man sped off so fast that the two hadn't even got into the car -- and were left gesticulating wildly," said police in Aachen. The man then drove toward the gas station, swerving his own car at the last minute. "But the trailing vehicle went straight on and smashed into the air pump," police said. "The station attendant was roused...

Boca Raton resident Carol Flannigan, a music teacher at a Boynton Beach public school, not only slept with an 11-year-old former student, but also had a sexual relationship with the boy’s father at the same time, according to a deposition filed this week in Palm Beach County Circuit Court. The boy’s father says in the deposition that he had the same sort of sexual relationship with Flannigan, 50, that former President Bill Clinton had with Monica Lewinsky. But the document refers only to oral sex and points out a red dress that may or may not contain a DNA sample....

Nagel - A mouse was blamed for a two-car accident in southern Germany - after having crawled up a motorist's trousers. As the rodent squirmed up his inside thigh, the driver slammed on the brakes, causing a rear-end collision with a car driven by a female motorist. When the woman got out to give him a piece of her mind, the man opened his trousers and hauled out the wriggling mouse, according to a police spokesperson.

Mon Nov 29, 8:43 AM ET  Oddly Enough - Reuters BERLIN (Reuters) - A German singer who plays Snow White has lost her job at Dresden's Christmas fair after posing for nude photos in a bathtub, Bild newspaper said on Monday. Fair organizers fired Samira, 22, after photos appeared in Bild and other publications showing her lying naked in a bathtub filled with soap suds and rose petals. Samira, whose surname was not given, has played Snow White for five years. Dresden's mayor and others who miss her performance are asking that she be reinstated.

Man ducked from flying shrimp; family sues Benihana saying it caused his death Family of man who ducked a piece of shrimp tossed by a chef is suing the chain claiming the occurrence eventually lead to the man’s death BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER STAFF WRITER Posted November 24 2004 A sizzling piece of shrimp tossed at a man during dinner at a Long Island Japanese restaurant in 2001 led to his death, his family has claimed in a lawsuit against the Benihana chain. Jerry Colaitis injured his neck while ducking from the shrimp, which a chef flipped his way during...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans find smelly co-workers to be the most annoying aspect of their jobs, according to a survey by the German business magazine Junge Karriere. The survey found 38 percent of German office workers were "most bothered" by the smells of their colleagues, 15 percent said they were annoyed by co-workers socialising too much, and 14 percent by untidy desks. The poll of 354 participants found 26 percent were content with their jobs and have nothing at all to complain about.

Someone stole a Krispy Kreme truck from an Orlando supermarket Thursday morning. It happened at the Albertson's store on West Colonial Drive, WESH NewsChannel 2 reported. The driver left the truck running, and when he came back, his truck was gone along with $2,000 worth of doughnuts. So far, deputies haven't recovered the truck or doughnuts.

Attorney: 'It's A Classic Case Of Religious Discrimination' ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Central Florida woman was fired from her job after eating "unclean" meat and violating a reported company policy that pork and pork products are not permissible on company premises, according to Local 6 News. Lina Morales was hired as an administrative assistant at Rising Star -- a Central Florida telecommunications company with strong Muslim ties, Local 6 News reported. However, 10 months after being hired by Rising Star, religious differences led to her termination. Morales, who is Catholic, was warned about eating pizza with meat the Muslim faith...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The antics in the trial of a Walt Disney World worker accused of groping a 13-year-old girl's breast while posing for photos dressed as Tigger would be downright goofy if the charges weren't so serious. Jurors will get the chance to try on a Tigger costume in the jury room. Walt Disney World officials suggested Tigger's costume be altered before being introduced as evidence. The defense attorney moonlights as Goofy and Tigger at the theme park resort. "This whole trial has a bunch of things unique about it," Matt Benefiel, court administrator for the Ninth Judicial Circuit...

Rabid Bat Spoils Woman's Breakfast The Associated Press ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - A journalism professor received rabies shots after encountering a rabid bat while eating breakfast outside of a downtown cafe. Cheryl Koski said she was eating at a table outside the Dome Grill on Tuesday morning when she felt something crawling on her left ankle. "It was like being hit by lightning," said Koski, 47. "One minute, I'm eating breakfast, and the next, there's a bat crawling up my leg." Koski trapped the bat with a restaurant tray and called animal control. It tested positive for rabies Wednesday....

GERMANY’S cannibal killer Armin Meiwes has given his approval to a film production company to bring his story to the big screen. His Heart in My Brain is the working title of the film, which is being partly sponsored with public money. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has agreed a £14,000 grant to director Rosa von Praunheim because it likes his films. Meiwes, 42 - sentenced in January to eight and a half years for mutilating, killing and eating Jürgen Brandes, also 42, a computer programmer - still hopes that Hollywood is interested in his story. It is unclear if...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A camouflage-clad German man wielding a samurai sword attacked at least seven hikers in forests west of Berlin, performing sword tricks before ordering them to leave the woods, police said Friday. They suspect a 46-year-old local man who trained in martial arts and survival skills in camps in Papua New Guinea and Vietnam to be the attacker. "He's dangerous and has been hard to find because he wears camouflage," said Catrin Feistauer, spokeswoman for the Nauen police department. Police have used infrared cameras mounted on helicopters to try and track him down. The man pushed two elderly...

STRAUBING, Germany (Reuters) - Dogs in the German state of Bavaria can now blend in with the local Alpine scenery wearing the same traditional attire worn by their owners -- lederhosen. Dogwear designer Hildegard Bergbauer, who also makes Tyrolean mountain hats and rainwear for canines, said the leather outfits were best suited for dachshunds and other small dogs but also looked good on poodles, spaniels and boxers. "There are lederhosen for the dogs and Dirndls for the bitches," she said on Wednesday. "The idea has gone down really well; people think it's a lot of fun." Bergbauer said some items...

Three German men are facing weapons charges after being caught with a home-made potato gun. The men were seen by a police patrol driving away from a lake in Kirchhain-Niederwald at speed. Officers gave chase and stopped the men who told them they'd been trying out the potato gun in front of spectators. The men said they'd got instructions on how to make the gun from the internet. They'd used bits of piping and a fuse from a gas stove. They'd also used several spray cans to fire the weapon. The men were also carrying a number of potatoes, and...

An Orange County Fire Department employee is supposed to protect people's privacy, but police say he violated a female employee by using a small web camera to spy on her. Now, the information systems administrator has resigned from his job. Police say Hector Ray Valle (photo left) used a web camera at the Orange County Fire Department to watch the female employee from under a desk. Fortunately, the employee noticed it. She was at her desk and she either dropped something or bumped her leg and looked underneath the desk. What she found was a camera and, when she took...

A German inventor who developed a gadget that berates men if they try to use the toilet standing up has sold more than 1.6 million devices, his business manager says. German women fed up with a man with a poor aim can turn to the ghost-shaped gadget, which lurks under the toilet rim and, if the seat is lifted, declares in a stern female tone: "Hello, what are you up to then? Put the seat back down right away, you are definitely not to pee standing up ... you will make a right mess..." Alex Benkhardt, 46, invented the "WC...

Fort Myers, FL, Apr. 27 (UPI) -- Two teens face charges of making a bomb out of a bottle of homemade napalm wrapped in kielbasa sausage, the Fort Myers News-Press reported Tuesday. Lee County sheriff's spokeswoman Ileana LiMarzi said, "Everybody laughs when they call me about this," but she said bomb squad members weren't laughing when they had to disarm it.

<p>A nearly 10-foot-long alligator bit a woman on the leg and arm and dragged her into a Sanibel lake Wednesday evening as she was gardening near the bank behind her home, Sanibel police said.</p> <p>Jane C. Keefer, 74, of 1075 Blue Heron Drive, still was being treated in the emergency room at HealthPark Medical Center early today after being attacked by a 9-foot, 7-inch-long male alligator about 8 p.m. in the Gulf Shores subdivison.</p>

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German Web site dubbed "Pig Brother" has attracted more than a million visitors in under two weeks with its 24-hour live Webcam coverage of a family of wild boar, the site's creators said Tuesday. The site, launched in March by the German Hunting Protection League, offers day and night coverage of three males, three females and more than 50 offspring in an enclosure in their natural habitat of the Eifel mountains in western Germany. "The boar live freely in a natural environment but it so happens that there is nearly always a boar in front of...

LOS ANGELES -- A Walt Disney World employee who worked as the character "Tigger" was charged Friday with molesting a 13-year-old girl and her mother while posing with them for pictures. Michael Chartrand, 36, was arrested and charged with one count of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child between 12 and 15 and one count of simple battery.He was booked at the Orange County Jail on a $2,500 bond. A Disney spokeswoman said Chartrand has been suspended without pay. The sheriff's office received a complaint that a costumed character at Disney World had touched a girl and her mother...

Orlando, Fla. _ A Walt Disney World employee in a Tigger costume was arrested Friday on charges of groping a 13-year-old girl and her mother while posing with them for pictures. Michael Chartrand, 36, was charged with lewd and lascivious molestation of a child and simple battery and was jailed on $2,500 bail. A Disney spokeswoman said he was suspended without pay. Chartrand was accused of fondling the breasts of the girl and her mother at the Magic Kingdom on Feb. 21. The girl and her father reported the incident Feb. 29.

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. _ A man was charged with tying a dead dog to the truck of a deaf co-worker as part of an April Fools' Day joke. The co-worker left work Thursday unaware the Chihuahua was tied to his bumper, authorities said. Kevin Meloy dragged the dead animal two miles before a motorist caught his attention. Several motorists had tried to alert Meloy, but he did not hear their warnings because he is deaf. Paul Goobie, 47, was cited for unlawful disposal of a dead animal, a second-degree misdemeanor, sheriff's officials said Friday. He faces probation to two months...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German hamster called "Teddy" has sparked a police rescue mission after he climbed inside a computer printer and got stuck because he was too fat to get out again. "Contrary to his normal habits, Teddy climbed inside a PC printer and was unable to get out because of his corpulence," police in the northern city of Flensburg said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that they initially thought it was an April Fool's joke. Luckily for Teddy, a neighbour of his owner managed to free the hamster so the arriving police officer was spared the task....

Wild boar cause autobahn chaosFrom correspondents in Karlsruhe March 2, 2004A HERD of wild boar provoked a traffic jam that tailed back 18 kilometres after running onto a motorway in southwest Germany, police said today. One of the animals was killed as they ran onto the motorway at Sinsheim. It resulted in a traffic build-up which led to three lorries colliding. The motorway then had to be closed, leading to the lengthy tailback. Agence France-Presse

A German artist has written to the country's zoos to ask if they would feed his body to the piranhas once he's dead. Karl Friedrich Lentze, 56, said he came up with the idea after reading about a Dutch man who wanted to be fed to snails. Lentze, from Berlin, said he liked the idea but wanted something that would gobble him up a lot quicker. Cologne Zoo is one of those he has contacted, justifying the appeal by saying it could have educational purposes if, for example, it was done in front of a group of biology students. But...

Man Confesses To Torching Homes; On 'Mission From God' 28-Year-Old Faces Attempted Murder, Burglary Charges POSTED: 5:33 am EST March 23, 2004 UPDATED: 6:47 am EST March 23, 2004 A man in Orange County, Fla., said he was on a "mission from God" when he broke into three Pine Hills homes Monday afternoon and set them on fire, according to Local 6 News. Lajeffery Reeves, 28, was arrested Monday for allegedly going on a fire-starting rampage and torching a home and two apartments within a span of only minutes. Police said in some cases, residents were home when Reeves...

<p>MIAMI (AP) -- A 5-year-old boy took a bag of marijuana to school and was sprinkling it over a friend's lasagna like oregano when a monitor intervened, police said.</p> <p>The lasagna was confiscated before the other boy had a chance to eat it Monday in the cafeteria at Gratigny Elementary School.</p>

Luis Manuel Orama says he just wanted to make a little homemade moonshine for Christmas. But the Lee County Sheriff's Office says a wood-burning fire used in the fermentation process got out of control late Thursday, engulfing the outdoor still and spreading to his detached garage with three vehicles inside. Orama, 52, was charged with second-degree arson and possession of a still to manufacture liquor. He told investigators he was making moonshine for Christmas. Authorities said the fire caused about $50,000 in damages, but no one was hurt. Investigators later found several propane tanks behind the garage and empty jugs,...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- A man upset that his son was being bullied fired several shots into a crowd of teenagers, killing a 14-year-old bystander, police said. Tyron Debaron Williams shot Jabbard Anthony in the chest just after 9 p.m. Wednesday, police spokeswoman Katie Hughes said Thursday. The boy died at Tampa General Hospital.Williams thought the group of about five teens was involved in an earlier argument with his son. Anthony, who was a friend of Williams' son, was standing on a sidewalk nearby but had nothing to do with the group, Hughes said.She said Williams called 911 after the...

Police in Jacksonville, Fla., arrested a man who believed he was a 'vampire slayer' after he allegedly shot his Domino's Pizza co-worker twice in the face because he thought he was a vampire, according to Local 6 News.

Gator goes for ride on the bus A Pasco school bus driver brakes for the 4-foot reptile, which students haul onboard. By REBECCA CATALANELLO, Times Staff Writer Published March 9, 2004 LACOOCHEE - It was just another bus ride home as kids from Pasco Middle and High Schools laughed, played, zoned out. Then, 14-year-old Wilfredo Santiago noticed that Miss Hattaway missed his stop. She drove down a road near a pasture to drop off another student. That's when Wilfredo saw the alligator. It was 4 feet long and crawled across the road and into a field where a calf began...

Melee Breaks Out at Retirement Home Salad Bar WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (AP) - A dispute at the salad bar turned into a food fracas at an upscale retirement home, with a man taking a bite out of another's arm and other residents suffering minor injuries. Police said resident Lee Thoss, 62, of the Spring Haven Retirement Community was picking through the lettuce, which disgusted 86-year-old William Hocker, who was standing in line behind him. Hocker told Thoss no one wanted to eat food he had been playing with. Thoss yelled and cursed at him, Hocker told police, and Hocker...

Miami Beach High Teacher Bet Student to Jump Out Window MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A high school student jumped out a second-floor window to win a bet with a teacher, who has been disciplined, officials said. The teen was not injured. Miami Beach High School science teacher Yrvan Tassy Jr. has been reassigned to a non-teaching job while police and school officials investigate the incident. Tassy's class was discussing evolution last week when the student, who was not identified, talked about jumping out the window to prove his point, police said. The teacher bet him $20 that he...

Berlin - A German hunter stabbed a wild boar to death in a stairwell after the beast rammed through the bolted front door of a block of flats and stormed up to the sixth floor, a Berlin newspaper reported on Tuesday. The beast from the local forest sped past a group of children playing outside and into the building in a Berlin suburb, probably in search of food. Petrified neighbours peered through their spy holes fearing their doors would not hold - and called 36-year-old hunter Conrad Meyer. "I grabbed him around the neck and then stabbed him square in...

Dutroux's photo is in the front page of BBC. From http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3520819.stm "The trial has been delayed for eight years as police investigated claims of a wider paedophile ring." Just revealed by ZDF, which also showed the first exclusive interview with Nioul : at least 27 witness were murdered or commited "suicide" in the last 6 years. Revealed March 1, 00:05 AM, in the second channel of German State Television ZDF.

Young men attending sex parties in Orlando, Fla., were reportedly drugged and injected with tainted blood inside a man's garage, according to a Local 6 News report. Authorities arrested Mark Randall, 45, (pictured, left) earlier this month for allegedly trafficking 48 grams of methamphetamine. After an investigation, authorities determined that Randall was reportedly having sex parties in the garage of his home at 211 E. Kaley St. and possibly injecting the men with blood. According to court records, four witnesses said "Randall lured subjects to his residence via the Internet for the purpose of sex and once they were at...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Teachers in a German school were treated in hospital after gobbling up an anonymously donated chocolate cake, unaware it was laced with hashish, authorities said on Thursday. Some 10 teachers from the school in the northern town of Lueneburg were treated for nausea and dizziness after sharing a cake left at the door to their staff room, a police spokesman said. "They thought it was food poisoning, but the doctors quickly recognized the problem," the spokesman said. "They showed all the classic signs of people under the influence of drugs." The spokesman said the teachers had not...

HAMM. The host of a popular late-night television talk show must pay a teenager EUR70,000, or $87,500, in damages for repeatedly ridiculing her and making off-color jokes about her last name. Lisa Loch, now 17, became a target for TV Total host Stefan Raab last year after she won a local beauty contest. Loch - which means “hole“ in German - was awarded the damages on Wednesday by an upper state court here, which ruled that despite Raab's rights to free expression, German law demands special protection for the reputations and feelings of minors. Loch said she was relentlessly teased...