Odds & Ends

Dateline: England—A man in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, lost his appetite when he checked the label of a packet of ham he had purchased at the local supermarket and found “dog shit” listed among the ingredients. Mick Woods, 34, examined another of the 12 oz. containers of cooked, sliced ham and saw the same “additive” listed. “Obviously, I haven't eaten it,” he told reporters. “It sort of puts you off.” Meat packer HR Hargreaves & Son is recalling the products. A spokesperson for the Manchester-based firm said, “We can't have people fooling about with food products. A number of packs are affected. We're trying to find out what shops they're in.” According to detectives, a 21-year-old employee of the meat manufacturer has been arrested on suspicion of tampering with the labels. “We spent 40 minutes laughing,” added Woods. “But we haven't put any in the kids' sandwiches.”

Dateline: Germany—Police in Herne were surprised recently when a senior citizen showed up to confess a crime he had committed some 80 years ago. Helmut Bleibtreu told officers he had suffered from a guilty conscience ever since placing a firecracker on the tracks of his local railway station back in 1926. The officers told the man that the statute of limitations had run out and that the incident had never been reported as a crime. They did caution Bleibtreu not to do it again.

Dateline: New York—A suburban New York couple has struck oil in their own basement. The Tesoriero family came home last Tuesday to find their basement filled with 50 gallons of heating oil. Apparently, a driver for the Benit Fuel Oil company stopped at the wrong house after misreading an address on a bill. He hooked up his tanker truck to a long-unused pipe at the home of Juliann and Edward Tesoriero and opened up the valves. Unfortunately, the Tesoriero home no longer uses an oil heater, having converted to natural gas about 35 years ago. The homeowners returned several hours later to find everything in their converted basement–from carpeting to furniture to family pictures–coated in oil. Benit general manager Dennis Barlow said the driver pumped about 50 gallons of heating oil through the pipe before realizing his mistake less than a minute into the delivery. The Tesorieros estimate that the unwanted delivery was closer to 150 gallons.

Dateline: Missouri—Several women in Springfield are regretting their decision to purchase body art from a door-to-door tattoo salesman carrying his own homemade gear. At least one person was hospitalized and two others face serious health risks. According to TheKansasCityChannel.com, an unknown man began knocking on doors at an apartment complex and offering his services as an itinerant tattoo artist. Tamra Eason, one of the residents, described the man's tattoo gun: “It was wrapped with black tape, had a pin underneath it, had fishing wire going through it. You could tell it was a homemade gun.” Nonetheless, Eason and two other women in the complex ended up paying for tattoos. The next day, one of the women, Linda Falls, passed out and had to be hospitalized. All three of the women have an infection in the tattoo area and have been told to get tested for HIV and hepatitis. It is illegal to give a tattoo without a license in Missouri. If several people file complaints with the state, the county prosecutor will pursue the case. “Beware of deals in parachutes, brain surgery and tattoos,” Miller Cotton, a local tattoo parlor owner, told TheKansasCityChannel.

Dateline: Utah—A man who was brilliant enough to call police to report a quarter-pound of marijuana that had been stolen from his home proved himself even smarter when police recovered the stolen drugs, then invited the man down to the Public Safety Building to identify it. Kory C. Tippets, 18, identified the pot as his and was arrested and booked into Utah County jail. Tippets is being charged with possession of marijuana in a drug-free zone with intent to distribute, police said. Tippets first called police last Monday night after he returned home and found someone had broken in through a window, cutting their arm on the glass. Tippets volunteered that the only thing missing from the home was a quarter-pound bag of marijuana that he had been trying to sell. Tippets also told officers that, earlier in the day, a man by the name of Richard W. Hight had called and tried to buy some weed. Tippets told Hight he could not sell him any pot, because he was on his way to work. Officers traced Hight, 23, to his mother's home in Provo. He had a cut on his arm and was found to be in possession of six ounces of marijuana. Hight was arrested for investigation of burglary, theft and possession of marijuana in a drug-free zone.