Dateline: SpainA Spanish theater troupe has found a creative way of getting around a new government tax on theater tickets—by selling porn instead. The Spanish government recently raised the tax on tickets to movies, plays and concerts from 8 to 21 percent in an effort to reduce national debt. As a result the Madrid-based, all-woman theater group Primas de Riesgo [Risk Premium] has now registered as a distributor of pornography. The group purchased 300 back issues of a discontinued erotic magazine and is selling the magazines for $20. Each magazine comes with a “free” ticket to the group’s new show, The Prodigious Magician by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Taxes on magazines remains low at a mere four percent. “We want people to ask what kind of society makes this kind of decision,” Primas de Riesgo director Karina Garantivá told The Local newspaper. “That they compare pornography and Calderón, who is Spain’s Shakespeare, and reach their own conclusions.” The group already sold 180 magazines with free entry to their opening night performance. Members have vowed to continue selling porn until the government lowers the tax rate.Dateline: ArkansasAuthorities in the suburban Little Rock town of Bryant say an 11-year-old girl stole $10,000 from her grandmother’s sock drawer and used it to take a cab halfway across the country to meet a 16-year-old boy she was chatting with online. According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Alexis Waller hitchhiked to Little Rock and called a cab. “I said I need to go to Jacksonville, Florida,” Waller told KARK, “He’s like, ‘do you have money’ and I’m like, ‘yes.’” The 11-year-old made it to the Atlanta suburbs, about 500 miles from her hometown, before police got in touch with the cabbie. Waller’s parents drove nine hours to pick her up, but are glad she was found unharmed. “You have the rest of your life to punish her,” said Waller’s father. “You just want to hug her and just love her because you got her back and that’s what’s important.” Waller said she met the boy in question two years ago while on a family vacation.Dateline: TexasThe owner of Mark-1 Plumbing in Texas City has been flooded with phone calls and hate mail after his old pickup truck was spotted in Syria being driven by members of an Islamic militant group. The Islamic extremist group Ansar al-Deen Front posted a picture on its Twitter account showing members firing an anti-aircraft gun from the bed of a black pickup truck. On the side of the pickup is a decal for Mark-1 Plumbing. Mark Oberholtzer, who has owned the company for 32 years, told the Galveston County Daily News he traded that truck at an AutoNation dealership three years ago. He left the sticker on the side of the vehicle, assuming that AutoNation would remove it. “They were supposed to have done that, and it looks like they didn’t do it,” Oberholtzer said. “How it ended up in Syria, I’ll never know.” The plumber says he has received thousands of calls and faxes so far regarding the unusual photo. “A few of the people are really ugly,” Oberholtzer admitted. “I just want it to go away, to tell you the truth.”Dateline: PennsylvaniaPolice in Upper Darby say a 33-year-old man is facing charges of drug possession and disorderly conduct after he walked directly into a police station and lit up a joint. Around 11:30pm on Sunday, Dec. 14, Carlen Higgs entered the police station “talking gibberish.” He then allegedly sat down in the station lobby and lit up a marijuana cigarette. Higgs was promptly arrested and put inside a holding cell. Once inside, police say, he took off all his clothes, defecated on the floor and then wiped his waste on the walls. He was taken to a mental health facility where it was determined he was simply super high on drugs. Later that night the Upper Darby Police Department put up a Twitter post reading, “Walking into police headquarters and lighting up a joint probably wasn’t the best decision you made today.”
Compiled by Devin D. O'Leary. Email your weird news to devin@alibi.com.
