Dateline: Belgium— A teenager in Kortrijk, 56 miles northwest of Brussels, is suing a tattoo parlor after it allegedly covered her face in 56 black stars instead of the three she asked for. “I said this part, the top, is OK, but not the rest,” 18-year-old Kimberley Vlaeminck told Belgian broadcaster VRT. The tattooed teen said she “fell asleep” during the tattooing procedure and woke up to find the left side of her face covered in stars. Romanian-born Rouslan Toumaniantz, the tattoo artist who gave Vlaeminck the galaxy of stars, said Vlaeminck asked for all 56 stars and left his shop happy. “She agreed,” Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws quoted Toumaniantz as saying. “But when her father saw it, the trouble started.” Vlaeminck blames the language barrier for the mess up. She asked for the three stars in French and limited English and says Toumaniantz didn’t understand her. But the tattoo artist maintains he understood her perfectly. “She asked for 56 stars and that’s what she got,” he told reporters. Vlaeminck said she wants to keep the tattoos on her forehead but will have the rest removed. She is suing Toumaniantz for 10,000 Euros ($14,000). Dateline: Oregon— A Washington County woman dubbed “The Bunny Lady” is breeding trouble again after being caught in possession of some fuzzy contraband. Miriam Sakewitz, 47, was arrested last Tuesday at a hotel in Tigard after an employee conducting routine maintenance reported finding rabbits hopping around her room. Sakewitz first came into contact with local law enforcement in October of 2006 when Hillsboro police found and confiscated 250 rabbits from her home, including about 100 dead ones in freezers and refrigerators. Police said she broke into the facility where the survivors were being cared for in January of 2007 and stole most of them back. Authorities located her several days later in Chehalis, Wash., with eight live rabbits and two dead ones in her car. Another 130 were recovered at a nearby horse farm. Sakewitz was placed on five years probation, banned from owning or controlling animals and told not to go within 100 yards of a rabbit. Sakewitz also underwent a court-ordered mental evaluation, but no treatment was recommended. Things stayed quiet and presumably rabbit-free until August of 2007 when county probation officer Susan Ranger testified that Sakewitz had canceled counseling sessions and refused to open her door for unannounced visits. Ranger said she found no rabbits when she finally got inside Sakewitz’ home but did uncover “a half-empty 10-pound bag of carrots.” Sakewitz was sentenced to three days in jail. Last week, police removed eight adult rabbits, five young ones and a dead one from Sakewitz’ room at the Homestead Studio Suites in Tigard. Some were in cages, others were roaming free. The Bunny Lady was arraigned several days later on animal neglect charges and parole violations. Dateline: California— A South Lake Tahoe man is being held in lieu of $5,000 cash bail for alleged nakedness near high school property. According to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, three Whittell High School students reported coming across a naked man behind the school who appeared to be tied to a rock and lying facedown. One of the students asked the man, later identified as 53-year-old Dean Richard Mark, if he was really tied up. Mark allegedly confirmed this, but answered “No” when asked if he needed help. Deputies investigated but were unable to find the man in question. Sometime later, officers were called back after employees again spotted the man on school grounds. Police asked Mark what he was doing. He said he was reading a book. When asked why he was lying naked behind the school earlier, Mark told a deputy, “There were buzzards flying overhead and I wanted to see what they did.” Mark was arrested for loitering on school grounds, trespassing and public indecency. Dateline: Oklahoma— The daily Oklahoman reports police in Oklahoma City arrested a woman at a Target store after an employee allegedly spotted her shoplifting nearly $1,000 worth of Blu-ray movies. Lisa Roshelle Myles, 40, was arrested June 2 on charges of grand larceny, assault and battery, trespassing and three outstanding warrants after employees detained her. A search of Myles turned up a grand total of 33 Blu-ray discs, all of which were stuffed into her pants. Retail price of the merchandise exceeded $970. Myles had previously been arrested for stealing items from the same Target store. Dateline: Oklahoma— A man in Oklahoma City said he was attacked for his bologna and cheese sandwich. Police say 24-year-old Roger Hamilton told them he was sitting on a bus station bench last Wednesday, about to put mayonnaise on his sandwich, when another man began staring at him. Hamilton told police that the man then punched him in the mouth, grabbed his sandwich and left. Police said Hamilton had a swollen lip and his face was covered in blood. The police report listed the value of the sandwich at 76 cents.
Compiled by Devin D. O'Leary. E-mail your weird news to devin@alibi.com.
