Dateline: GermanyAn administrative court in Düsseldorf has ruled that a man has the right to pee standing up. The ruling came in a case in which a landlord had sued his tenant for damages allegedly caused by “splashing” or missing the target altogether in the bathroom. The landlord had asked for 1,900 euros ($2,200) in damages caused to the bathroom’s marble floor and even brought in an expert to testify about the urine damage. In his ruling Judge Stefan Hank said that the tenant’s method of upright whizzing was well within cultural norms and that, “despite the increasing domestication of men in this context, urinating standing up is still common practice.” Dateline: FloridaPolice in West Palm Beach and officials at St. Mary’s Medical Center have decided not to charge a teenager who was caught posing as a gynecologist. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that a patient alerted staff at the medical center’s OB/GYN office that a juvenile wearing a lab coat and a stethoscope was inside the exam room. A security guard told police he’d seen the teen around the hospital for a month. Another said the teen had been in secured areas of the hospital for at least a week. Dr. Sebastian Kent, who ran into the teen in one of the hospital’s exam rooms, told FOX-13 News, “The first thing I thought was I am getting old. I am really getting old because these young doctors look younger every year.” The unidentified juvenile told police he’d been a doctor for years. His mother told police he is under the care of a doctor and has not been taking his medicine.Dateline: PennsylvaniaBrothers Brian and John Vetrulli Jr. were jailed earlier this month in Montgomery County and charged with stealing $500,000 worth of sewer grates. Brian, 36, and John, 38, allegedly stole 13 sewer grates from parking lots in the Philadelphia suburb of Gilbertsville since December. Receipts from area scrap metal dealers show that the brothers have sold more than 1,000 grates over the past few years. Each grate weighs 100 pounds and costs $475. Police say the Vetrullis got about $9 apiece for them. The brothers have been charged with theft, conspiracy and receiving stolen property.Dateline: New YorkA woman returned to her home after running some errands, only to discover that her handyman husband had bulldozed their entire house to the ground. Diane Andryshak left her home in Middletown, N.Y., on the morning of Monday, Jan. 19, thinking her husband was going to do some “renovations.” When she came home that evening, the entire structure was gone. Neighbor Steve Belfiglio told CBS New York that Andryshak’s husband “bulldozed all her clothes in there. Washer, dryer, furnace, hot water heater, everything was still in there. In fact, her medication was still in there.” James Rhein, 48, is facing criminal mischief charges, a second-degree felony, for allegedly using a rented Komatsu excavator to knock the building down without a proper permit. Rhein told Westchester News 12 he tore down the house because the foundation was “bad.” Rhein, who started the demolition without shutting off gas, electricity or water, said he attempted to get a permit, but couldn’t because government offices were closed on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Police officers who responded to a call about a “hazardous condition” made emergency calls to the local utilities. Gas and electricity were cut to prevent an explosion. Andryshak told ABC-7 News she and Rhein were not having any marital problems and had no idea why he demolished the entire building. “I have family and friends. Right now I’m staying with a friend,” Andryshak told ABC-7 News. “I don’t have any answers for you. I don’t have any answers whatsoever.” Dateline: OregonA former postal worker who failed to deliver nearly 1,000 pieces of mail has pled guilty to misdemeanor mail obstruction, admitting he “just got lazy.” According to the Register-Guard newspaper, 27-year-old Alex Douma was sentenced to a year of probation and ordered to pay a $500 fine. Douma worked at a post office in Eugene, but admitted to investigators that he failed to make his rounds on multiple occasions between April and July of last year. He apologized in US District Court and said he set aside the mail because he “felt pressured for time.” Two bins containing the undelivered mail were found on Douma’s front porch. Although most of the bins contained merchant advertisements, there were more than 200 items of first-class and standard mail, including 27 voter ballots from last May’s primary election. Douma told Judge Thomas Coffin he “wasn’t intending on keeping” the mail.
Compiled by Devin D. O'Leary. Email your weird news to devin@alibi.com.
