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Odds & Ends
By Devin D. O'Leary
JULY 27, 1998:
Dateline: Japan--An early-morning commuter train seems
to have foiled a robbery attempt in western Japan. The train slammed
into a 440-pound safe boosted from the nearby stationmaster's
office at Tamamizu station in Kyoto prefecture. It is unclear
whether or not the thieves abandoned the heavy safe or were hoping
the train's impact would smash it open for them. Either way, the
safe maintained both its integrity and its approximately $2,836
booty. None of the train's 30 passengers were injured by the crash,
and services were resumed within the hour.
Dateline: Baltic Sea--Divers struggled in the icy waters
of the Baltic Sea last week to fit a special harness around a
sunken Russian ship filled with booze. Once the harness is in
place, a floating crane will raise the wreck, which has been sitting
at the bottom of the Baltic since being sunk by a German submarine
in 1916. The two-masted sailing vessel Jonkoping was carrying
5,000 bottles of 1907 Heidiek & Co. champagne and 67 casks
of cognac for the Russian army garrisoned in Finland during World
War I. Claes Bergvall, leader of the Swedish salvage team, plans
to sell the well-preserved liquor for a tidy profit. French wine
experts who have tasted samples of the ship's boozy cargo have
pronounced it "excellent." Each champagne bottle is
expected to fetch upwards of $3,000 at auction.
Dateline: India--According to The Hindustan Times,
a bride recently became so upset at her drunken groom that she
called the police, had him arrested and promptly married someone
else. Police hauled the inebriated groom off to the police station,
while the bride and her family announced the wedding's termination
to surprised guests. A gallant neighbor stepped up to the plate
and proposed to the ex-bride. The two were promptly hitched. The
original bridegroom was released from jail later that evening
and returned home with a hangover.
Dateline: Texas--Three men possibly linked to a Texas separatist
group have been arrested for plotting to kill President Clinton
with a cactus needle. The three men were jailed several weeks
ago for sending threatening e-mails to federal officials. An affidavit
unsealed in a Brownsville, Texas, court last week accuses the
men of developing a cigarette lighter that would shoot a cactus
thorn into an intended victim. According to federal prosecutors
who produced the affidavit, the thorn was to be coated with anthrax,
HIV and the rabies virus for use on Clinton, U.S. Attorney General
Janet Reno, FBI Director Louis Freeh and other state and federal
officials. Prosecutors believe the men were also planning on mass
manufacturing the deadly botulism bacteria using a homemade mixture
of rotten chicken meat, dirt and green beans. The three suspects,
who are believed to be part of the Republic of Texas separatist
group, are being held in jail without bond on charges of conspiracy
to use weapons of mass destruction.
Dateline: Washington--Finicky eater Shawn Richard Gamble
demonstrated his recent displeasure with an Everett, Wash., eatery
by putting a bicycle through the front window. The grumpy gourmand
was dining at Ivar's when he asked the waiter to put his clam
chowder in a blender. Gamble, who has his jaw wired shut, became
a bit testy when the staff informed him that the restaurant has
no blender. Gamble allegedly went outside and tossed his bike
through the window in protest. Now Gamble has a broken jaw, a
busted bike, a second-degree malicious harassment charge ... and
no clam chowder.
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