Dateline: Taiwan— The online video game blog MMO Champion reports that a Taiwanese man has become the first to “finish” the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft. The player, identified only by his screen name “Little Gray,” successfully completed all 986 achievements listed in the game’s armory. To reach this milestone, the player accumulated 7,255,538,878 points of damage, killed 390,895 creatures, finished 5,905 quests, raided 495 dungeons and hugged 11 players. Hardcore World of Warcraft players have pointed out that Little Gray did not complete the elusive Patch 3.2.2 event known as “BB King.” However, a glitch in an earlier PvP system gave the player an extra achievement point resulting in the perfect 986/986 score. For this epic achievement, the player wins … nothing more than a nagging sense that he’s wasted his entire life. Dateline: Italy— Police in Cremona, northern Italy, have written off a $300,000 supercar donated to them by Lamborghini after smashing the vehicle into a row of parked cars. The 202 mph Gallardo coupe was one of two given to police by the luxury motorsport manufacturer for use in high-speed pursuits. Witnesses say the police car accelerated massively just before another car pulled out of a nearby gas station, forcing the Lamborghini into the parked cars. Embarrassed cops allegedly tried to confiscate phone cameras from witnesses but abandoned the plan when hundreds turned up to gawk. “They are supposed to be elite drivers, but even the best can have an off day,” remarked one police colleague. Dateline: Germany— A luckless crook surrendered to police after four failed robbery attempts in a single day. Ralf Lautenbach, 24, allegedly started out by trying to rob two hotels, both of which set security guards loose on him. Fleeing the hotels, the suspect then tried to break into a tax office in the town of Mulheim an der Ruhr, but was unable to get inside. After three strikes, the crook then tried to ram a bank’s armored transport van with his car. Lautenbach ended up having to surrender to police after getting trapped in his vehicle following the collision. “He needs a change of job,” one officer said. Dateline: Florida— A Miami woman has been charged with calling in a bomb threat to an airline to prevent her boss from missing a flight. Miami International Airport officials received a call and an e-mail last Wednesday claiming a bomb was on an American Airlines plane. Police searched the aircraft but did not find a bomb. Investigators tracked the e-mail to the woman’s computer. During questioning, the 31-year-old woman reportedly told police that her boss had been booked on a flight to Honduras but was running late. She thought the bomb threat would give him enough time to catch the plane. The woman was arrested and charged with making a false report of planting a bomb. She was held on $7,500 bail. Dateline: Ohio— A holiday-hating Toledo man was arrested for robbing a Salvation Army volunteer. Maumee Police Sgt. David Tullis told the Toledo Blade that on Saturday, Nov. 28, at 6:25 p.m., a man approached the volunteer bell-ringer outside of a department store, grabbed the red Salvation Army Kettle as well as the tripod from which it was hanging and tossed it into the back of a pickup truck. “I can’t stand you and your bell-ringing,” the man told the female volunteer. “I hate Christmas.” Several hours later, police found the abandoned pickup truck, which had been reported stolen on Friday night. The empty kettle, stripped of its donated money, was found in a separate location in South Toledo. According to police, evidence collected in the stolen vehicle led them to 44-year-old Shawn P. Krieger, who was soon arrested and booked into Wood County Jail. It is estimated the kettle contained anywhere between $600 and $8,000. Dateline Ohio— A Goodwill thrift store in Marietta received an extra donation earlier this month when staff found $1,500 worth of marijuana stuffed into a donated water cooler jug. Four plastic bags filled with about a pound of marijuana were uncovered by staff and turned over to police. Police say the marijuana appears to be more than a year old and was probably donated by accident. Since the donation was anonymous, odds of finding the original owner are slim. Nonetheless, Marietta Police are holding out hope. “If anybody would like to come and claim this cooler, which is probably an antique, we would love to have them come in,” Marietta Police Capt. Jeff Waite told WTAP News. “We’ll be more than happy to try and get that cooler returned to them.”
Compiled by Devin D. O'Leary. E-mail your weird news to devin@alibi.com.
