Odds & Ends

Dateline: Holland—A 32-year-old man says he will appeal a judge's conviction after being arrested for refusing to use a shopping basket at his local market. Carst Kijlstra, from Assen, went to the meat counter at the Eddah supermarket and tried to buy two pieces of veal. The assistant refused to help him because he wasn't carrying a basket. “I told her I didn't want one because it was nearly closing time,” said Kijlstra. The assistant still refused to help him and called for the shop owner. The owner reiterated the need for a basket. Kijlstra left his money on the counter and went home. Shortly afterward, as Kijlstra was preparing the veal for his dinner, a police car arrived and took him off to the police station. “They put me in jail like a criminal, for half an hour,” Kijlstra said. “Kijlstra knew he was a guest in the shop and that means he has to act according to the house rules,” the prosecutor told the court. The judge agreed, ruling that Kijlstra was “trespassing” by ignoring the supermarket's compulsory basket policy, and fining him $150.

Dateline: Germany—Police arrested a flasher in the western university town of Bielefeld who had tripped over his own pants while trying to flee. A 42-year-old woman called police after spotting the half-naked man on her terrace. When police arrived, the unidentified 34-year-old man tried to escape but tripped over his trousers—which were around his ankles—and fell to the ground. “We have quite a few exhibitionists because of the university,” said a police spokesman. “But not many at this time of year because it's still far too cold for them to come out.”

Dateline: Florida—An 83-year-old man was found dead in his yard after he fell and ordered his wife not to get help. Glen Schibley was working in his yard in Orlando last Monday when he fell down and was unable to get up. When his wife Harriet, 79, found Glen on the ground, he instructed her not to get help and told her he would take care of the situation himself. Despite heavy rainstorms, she left him in the yard and continued to care for him, covering him with a tarp and bringing him food and water. Sheriff's deputies said that while caring for her husband, Harriet also fell down and was unable to get up. The couple's son-in-law eventually went to the house to check on the elderly couple and found them both in the yard. Glen Schibley had passed away and his wife was seriously injured. She was rushed to Florida Hospital East where she is expected to recover. “They wanted to be left alone and we left them alone and maybe we shouldn't have left them alone,” neighbor Sherman Brunell told Local 6 News.

Dateline: Florida—A high school teacher lost a bet, and potentially his job, after wagering that a teenage student couldn't jump out of a second story window without getting hurt. The school's science class was in the middle of a lecture on evolution last Wednesday, when the student—whose name was not released—began arguing with his teacher that he was strong enough to jump out of the window without getting hurt. The teacher, Yrvan Tassy Jr., bet him $20 that he would injure himself if he jumped, police said. The boy jumped out the window, landed on his feet and returned to the classroom to demand his money. Tassy said he'd bring it the next day, students told police. “It doesn't look like this is something where there would be criminal charges. It looks like it will be administrative,” Miami-Dade schools spokesman Carlos Fernandez told the Miami Herald. Tassy has been reassigned to a non-teaching job at a regional ACCESS center while the investigation continues.

Dateline: Indiana—A father facing drug charges is hoping to get off by arguing that a state trooper who found crack cocaine while changing his son's diaper was conducting an illegal search. Walter H. Martin, 30, goes on trial this week. His wife, Tawana Fairley, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in the fall. Trooper Douglas Humphrey pulled the couple over for speeding last June in Evansville. After learning Martin was a suspect in a drug investigation, Humphrey brought in a drug-sniffing dog, which prompted Fairley to admit she had marijuana in her possession. While the couple was being hauled off to jail, Humphrey picked up their 18-month-old son and noticed “a large load” in the baby's diaper. While changing the diaper, Humphrey discovered a bag of crack that Martin had hidden in the baby's diaper. Martin is now arguing that the diaper change was conducted “without probable cause.”