Serial Toilet Tipper Still on the Loose
DOTHAN, Ala. - A portable bathroom prankster has plagued building sites in Dothan, tipping over about 50 of the unsecured toilets, police said.
The tipper has struck at construction sites in upscale subdivisions around Dothan, leaving portable toilet vendors to clean up the mess. "It's not funny at all," said Kelly Powell, co-owner of Portable Toilet Services in Dothan, which has 400 rental toilets and three people to service them.
"It's pretty cut and dried: They turn them over and we have to go clean it up. It's very time-consuming." Dothan Police Capt. John Givens admitted that he chuckled at the first few tippings, until the pranks became a more disgusting problem.
"There are additional problems if it lands door-down," Given said. "If it leaks out, there is no ventilation. It gets really nasty in there." Police have stepped up patrols around the building sites, which seems to be helping; only two tippings were reported since last weekend, when the bulk of them occurred.
Authorities suspect a teenager or group of kids may be responsible, since a portable toilet can weigh between 220 and 400 pounds. Powell and Givens estimated each damaged toilet costs $150 in time, energy and repairs, plus the drain on police resources.
Schumacher scraps sex toy plans
BERLIN (Reuters) - Formula One driver Ralf Schumacher has scrapped plans to invest in erotic products firm Beate Uhse because rude jokes on German television were damaging his reputation. Schumacher, younger brother of world champion
Michael, announced last week that he was joining a 50-50 investment of two million euros (1.4 million pounds) to set up eight sex product shops in Slovenia next year.
"The whole thing has unfortunately been turned into a campaign and being a role model is more important to me than any investment," Ralf told Bild newspaper on Friday.
Women in 20s, 30s Groped on Japan Trains
TOKYO - Nearly 64 percent of Japanese women in their 20s and 30s participating in a survey said they've been groped on trains, subways or at transit stations in Tokyo, according to a news report Tuesday.
Groping has long been a problem on Tokyo's crowded commuter trains and subways, particularly during rush hour. In recent years "women only" cars have been used in December, when trains are often packed with drunken male office workers on their way home from company parties.
Gropers can be imprisoned for up to seven years or fined up to $485. But few victims report such crimes, either because they are ashamed or because they do not think they will be taken seriously.
The survey by the Tokyo metropolitan government and railway operator JR East showed that in most cases women fled or tried to stop the groper with a rebuke, a slap, or by covering themselves with a bag. Some unable to act simply endured the unwanted fondling, the national Yomiuri newspaper reported Tuesday.
Asked how officials could stop the groping, a majority of women polled favored dividing train cars by gender, according to the paper.
Tokyo and JR East officials questioned 632 women from the beginning of November; 403 responded. As is customary with polls in Japan, no margin of error was given.
Love-Struck Bull Pacified by Charms of Cow
BERLIN (Reuters) - A wild bull on the loose in southern Germany was brought under control by the charms of a cow which lured the distressed male back to the barn, police said on Friday.
"When bulls break out there's no telling what might happen," a police spokesman in the town of Hof said. "He was pretty worked up." Authorities were getting a tranquilizer gun ready when the farmer's niece suggested luring the bull back home with a cow on a leash. "It worked," the spokesman said. "He calmed right down and trotted behind her back to the barn."
Read a Book, Get Oral Sex?
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York officials were red-faced on Friday after they discovered that clothing ads on city buses that appeared to promote reading suggested a love of books could be rewarded with oral sex.
The advertisements that ran on about 200 buses across the city in recent months carried posters displaying a suggestively posed woman in hot pants kneeling among a pile of books beside the snappy slogan "Read Books, Get Brain."
What unhip, unsuspecting local transportation officials did not know was that "get brain" is street slang for oral sex. The ads -- from hip-hop clothing maker Akademiks, which intended the double-entendre -- was stripped off New York buses on Friday after transportation officials discovered the street slang meaning.
Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesman Tom Kelly condemned the "vulgar street phrases" in the racy ads he said were "demeaning women." "To me and I believe to everyone else, while it was done by a clothing line, it would give the impression that it was also promoting reading and literacy," Kelly told Reuters. "It's easy enough to understand how that would get by based upon someone not knowing the expression."
A spokesman for the New York-based clothing maker noted the ad campaign had run since September and "we hadn't had any complaints at all." New York officials may not be the only ones caught out. Akademiks also placed the ads on buses and bus shelters in Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, San Francisco and Philadelphia, the company spokesman said.
Kelly, who said he was his 60s, said that after he was tipped to the hidden meaning of the phrase on Thursday he ran a test among some young MTA workers. "I went downstairs to the mailroom and showed some of the young guys a copy of the ad," he said. "I was watching their faces and they all start smirking.
"Apparently it's on all the music, in music that's how they refer to it," Kelly said. "I didn't know anything about it and I'm sure the people that approved the ad didn't." Kelly said it was sad that "you can't take things at face value any longer," adding, "We'll have to learn from experience before we accept ads."
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