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Hong Kong (CNN) -- A zoo in China has angered visitors by trying to pass off a hairy dog as a lion, Chinese state media reported.
A visitor, surnamed Liu, told the state-run Beijing Youth Daily she discovered the fraud when visiting a zoo in a park in Louhe, a city in the central province of Henan, with her son.
As they approached the cage marked "African lion," they were shocked to hear the beast inside emit a bark.
It was a Tibetan mastiff -- a large, hairy breed of dog.
"The zoo is absolutely trying to cheat us," Liu said. "They are trying to disguise dogs as lions."
Zoo in China substitutes dog for lion
Zoo in China substitutes dog for lion
A Tibetan mastiff (not a lion).
Other species in the park were similarly mislabelled, the newspaper reported, with another dog in the wolf cage, and a white fox on display in the leopard enclosure.
The head of the park's animal department, Liu Suya, told CNN that the animals had been substituted for various reasons, and would be back in their rightful place soon.
The lion and leopard had both been removed for breeding, she said, with the Tibetan mastiff placed in the lion's cage temporarily "due to safety concerns."
The zoo is absolutely trying to cheat us. They are trying to disguise dogs as lions.
Liu, zoo visitor
Similarly, the dog had been placed in the wolf enclosure to breed a hybrid wolf-dog, she said. "We're not doing it out of shortage of funds," she said.
The substitute lion has drawn ridicule on Chinese social media, with one commenter describing the situation as "absurd."
"If this works why would people even bother to go to the zoo!" wrote Guohebaxiaoma. "Children will cry out 'look a lion came out!' at the sight of Tibetan Mastiff or 'look it's a rat!' seeing snake on the street...This is totally absurd!"
Yidongdexulaoshi said: "This time you're lucky. Because perhaps next time you will find that all the animals in the zoo are played by the faculty. LOL."
"It's way too ironic. Why doesn't the zoo simply just put the zookeeper in a cage with the sign "Gorilla" on its gate," Lanseyapingningliuxunqing added.
The elderly grandpa who won a date with 2 prostitutes on the Howard Stern Show choked and died last night ... just before he was going to have sex for the first time in years ... TMZ has learned.
We've confirmed 86-year-old Johnny Orris died in a Lake Tahoe hospital last night ... after choking on his steak at a local restaurant.
Orris appeared on the Stern show back in October with his grandson ... who had entered him in a contest called "I Want To Get My Grandpa Laid." Orris said his wife had died more than a decade ago ... and he hadn't had sex since. He said he fantasied about big-breasted black women.
On the show, Orris won a date with two prostitutes from the famed Bunny Ranch in Nevada ... and flew to Lake Tahoe to claim his prize.
Bunny Ranch owner Dennis Hof tells us Orris came to the ranch last night and chose 2 gorgeous working girls he wanted to have sex with -- Caressa Kisses and Vanity. But before consummating the date ... Orris went out for a nice dinner with his grandson, Ed.
We're told Orris ordered the steak at Sage Room Steakhouse at Harvey's Lake Tahoe ... and began to choke on it. Ed and the maitre d' immediately began CPR ... and Johnny was transported by ambulance to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Hof tells us, "He just wanted a steak before having sex with Caressa Kisses and Vanity. The bunnies loved him."
And this is hilarious ... Ed tells us, he felt bad leaving the Ranch without sampling the goods -- especially after travelling so far -- so he banged one of the hookers after his grandpa died. Not Caressa or Vanity, though. That would have been weird.
The best part ... Hof let Ed use his grandpa's coupon for one free roll in the hay.
Jonny Orris, 86, namatay bago makapag-enjoy ng threesome mula kay Howard Stern!
Johnny Orris, 86, namatay bago makapag-enjoy ng threesome mula kay Howard Stern!
ARMED AND ON THE RUN: Quadruple amputee Sean Petrozzino is wanted for questioning over the murder of his parents [PH]
The quadruple amputee on the run after the November 4 murder of both his parents killed himself Monday night during a routine Memphis traffic stop.
Sean Petrozzino was over 800 miles from his slain parents' Orlando home when he made an illegal u-turn that caught the attention of Tennessee cops. As those officers approached Petrozzino's father's missing red Toyota, they heard a gun discharge. In side the car was the body of the handless, legless 30-year-old.
Victims: Michael (left) and Nancy Petrozzino (right) were found dead in their Orange County, Florida home the morning of November 7
Petrozinno was Orange County, Florida investigators' only 'person of interest' in the murder of school teacher Nancy Petrozzino, 54, and Disney World employee Michael Petrozzino, 63. He was never named as a suspect but police warned the public he was armed and possibly dangerous as he made his way out of Orange County. It was initially believed that Petrozzino might have been heading south toward Southern Florida last week. Presumably what was the final photo taken of Petrozzino was at an Orlando ATM, where he withdrew cash around the time of his parents' death. The Orange County Sheriff's Office said just before noon Tuesday that Memphis authorities had not yet confirmed Petrozzino's death, thus it remained unknown whether the murder investigation would continue.
Sean Petrozzino is seen with his father in this picture posted to Facebook
Petrozzino's inspirational battle with the disease made the headlines when he was a teenager with news crews visiting him in hospital and during events. Recent posts on social media suggests he and his family were happy. Some pictures were taken at Disney World where his father worked. But earlier this year he broke up with his wife Cynthia and moved in with his parents only a week before they were found dead. Soon after making the gruesome discovery, the Orange County Sheriff's Office held a press conference, asking about the whereabouts of the couple's son Sean Petrozzino, 30. They said he may be driving a red Toyota with a license plate number of 112VZY, which neighbors say is his father's car. Sean and his great Dane moved back in with his parents last week after separating from his wife. The former couple's home in Georgia is allegedly in foreclosure. Sean is also a quadruple amputee after a teenage bout with bacterial meningitis. In 2000, he underwent 13 surgeries to remove the infection which resulted in the loss of both his legs and he only has part of one hand left. He is able to walk with the use of prosthetic limbs.
Sean (right) reportedly moved back home with his parents last week after breaking up with his wife Cynthia (left)
'I've known Sean since he was 16 years old,' mother in law Cathleen Horne told the Sentinel. 'This just seems bizarre. It seems like a bad dream.'We met Sean about a week-and-a-half ago,' neighbor Richard Ellwood told My Fox Orlando. 'He was introduced to me by Nancy as their son.' Mr Ellwood went on to describe the couple as nice people who had lived in the neighborhood for several years. 'It's difficult to imagine someone who would have that much rage, whoever did this,' he told WKMG. The Orlando Sentinel spoke to Jerry L. Saunders of ABC Prosthetics and Orthotics, who verified that handless people indeed have the ability to fire a weapon. It's also known that Sean Petrozzino is able to manage other finer tasks such as using an ATM. Police verified this late Wednesday when they released surveillance footage of Petrozzino as he used an Orlando cash machine on Tuesday, most likely after his parents were slain. What's more, police are searching for Petrozzino as he's thought to potentially be on his way to South Florida and behind the wheel of his father's red Toyota.
A police officer who spotted something unusual in Gresham Thursday night was given a warning not to get any closer. “The goat will charge you,” he was told. That goat was on the roof of a house. Officers out on patrol spotted the goat on the 300 block of Southeast 172nd Avenue at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. When they inquired if everything was OK, seeing as how goats aren’t found on rooftops every day, they were told this farm animal was not the friendly type. In fact, they were told “that goat only respects one man,” according to Gresham police. That man is the owner of the goat, who arrived at the house and got the 2-year-old animal weighing in at 35 pounds off the roof without further incident. Officers suspect the goat used a ramp near the home to climb his way up to the top of the house.
When Nicholas Read got married in 2001, he was at the height of his fame. The 4ft 5in actor had landed the role of a Gringotts goblin in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and he'd featured in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi as an Ewok. His Halloween-themed wedding saw him marry Tammerson Shimmin, who met when they both worked at a circus. But since that happy moment, Nicholas's life has taken a dramatic turn for the worse due to his heavy drinking and string of court appearances. It has meant the acting work which turned him into a local celebrity has now dried up.
Jockey dwarf exposes himself METERS FROM KIDS in arcade
Jockey dwarf exposes himself METERS FROM KIDS in arcade
Instead, Nicholas has had to resort to hiring himself out as entertainment to make ends meet. Only last year he hit the headlines when he was forced to defend blacking up to play The A-Team’s Mr T for hen and stag-dos. His character act was labelled 'grossly offensive' by equality campaigners, but Nicholas insisted there were no black dwarves in the UK willing to do the job. Again, it was after one such stag party on March 2 last year that Nicholas found himself in trouble with the courts. After a boozing session, Nicholas - dressed as a jockey - went to an amusement arcade in the seaside village of Ingoldmells, Lincolnshire. While there, the 49-year-old was caught on CCTV pulling down his trousers in front of a penny push machine and exposing his bum.
Within a few seconds, a member of staff approached the actor and asked him to leave. The video, shared on Facebook, was seen by his ex-wife who was told by Nicholas he had been 'too drunk' to remember what happened. At Lincoln Magistrates' Court, Nicholas was handed a 12-month community order and a 7am to 7pm curfew for six months after pleading guilty to outraging public decency. The court heard Nicholas's career was going through a rough patch due to previous offences, including exposing himself to a 17-year-old girl on a train while travelling from London to Leicester in 2010. In that case he was found guilty of performing a sex act under cover of a juggler's hat - for between 30 to 40 minutes.
Leicester Crown Court heard he touched himself in a lewd manner and tilted the black bowler-style hat so only the victim sat next to him could see what he was doing. Again, Nicholas had been drinking - having consumed half a bottle of gin while judging a croquet competition. Giving evidence from behind a screen the girl, said: “He undid the button of his trousers and placed his hat on his crotch. I saw a movement and was a bit shocked. I didn’t know whether to believe it. I looked in the reflection of the window and saw his hand moving under the hat.” During the case, it emerged Nicholas had a previous conviction for indecent assault in 2004 when, after a party with a Snow White panto cast, he 'flaked out' on the stage manager’s sofa. He later drunkenly climbed into bed with the sleeping stage manager and his girlfriend, and put the woman’s hand on to his genitals.
And Nicholas also has previous convictions for making explicit phone calls to 'random' women from a hotel room in 1995. Following his latest court shame, Nicholas has admitted himself that he has an alcohol problem and has promised to quit doing events where drink was involved. But what comes next for North Staffordshire's celebrity dwarf remains to be seen.
Do you know who I am? I'm Ronnie Pickering! Who? - #doyouknowwhoiam?
Do you know who I am? I'm Ronnie Pickering! Who?
Serial sex pest Nicholas Read now works for Dwarf-Management.Source:Twitter
A year later after the train juggling incident he was given a 16-week suspended sentence for another flashing episode, in which he drunkenly exposed himself to two female medical students on a train to Manchester, and then took a picture of her friend’s horrified reaction on his mobile phone. In handing down that sentence, the judge said Read had “been making real progress” in a community sex offender rehabilitation group. “You have been very frank and straightforward and in the past often denied what you have done,” Judge Robert Thomas QC said. “You are now finally facing up to the difficulties you face. I’m not going to disrupt that progress by sending you to prison for only a matter of weeks. It would be better to see if the progress you are making can be contained.”But he warned another offence would see him land in prison. “That is inevitable and nothing can save you,” he said.
For hire ... Read with Katie Price.Source:Facebook - The dad of one recently opened a hair salon in Hoddesdon, Herts, with Katie Price.
If there was a symbol of the Liberal Democrats' discomfiture as their vote plummeted across Scotland and the rest of the UK, it came in the shape of a penguin. In the Pentland Hills ward for Edinburgh city council, the Lib Dem candidate won fewer votes than Professor Pongoo, or independent candidate Mike Ferrigan, who ran his campaign in a full penguin suit.
Nadine Dorris & Professor Pongoo! | Have I Got News For You - Series 43 Ep 5 ( 2012 )
Nadine Dorris & Professor Pongoo! | Have I Got News For You - Series 43 Ep 5 ( 2012 )
Professor Pongoo, who stood to raise awareness of social and environmental issues, took 5.6% of first-preference votes to the Lib Dems' 4.7%. Lib Dem officials were left having to explain why they were pipped at the poll by a man dressed as a flightless bird. "It wasn't a target ward for us," said one official. "We didn't put out any paper in that ward; it's never been a strong area for us." Despite not winning the seat, but with his achievement going viral, the penguin has not ruled out running for higher office. A line of T-shirts was said to be in the offing.
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Mandy Mountains weighs 55 stones.
It's every woman's worst nightmare. Your boyfriend is going down on you when suddenly he reels back in horror—gagging, dry heaving, sobbing. Did I forget to shower," you think, panicked. “Did I just get my period?" “Did the surgeon neglect to snip the entire thing?" In Mandy Mountain's case, it was far more sinister than a fishy smell or an angry inch, and only when her luvah lifted the flattened remains of a KITTEN from her fat rolls, did she realize just how sinister. The 25-year old told The Sunday Sport, bastion of rigorous journalism. (AKA made up shit) “Poor little Buttons must have suffocated when I rolled over, I never even noticed. “It wasn't even my kitten. I was looking after him for my neighbors." “My boyfriend was going down on me when he shrieked and leapt back, sobbing. He must have been in there dead for some time, at least three or hour hours. We gave him a proper burial, and broke the news to my neighbors. But I feel so terrible about it. I can't apologize enough. And I'm now willing to try anything to lose some weight. This is the wake-up call I needed."
MY BOYFRIEND WENT DOWN ON ME & FOUND MISSING KITTEN
MY BOYFRIEND WENT DOWN ON ME & FOUND MISSING KITTEN
That's a bold statement coming from someone who pulls in about $100,000 a year as a plus sized fetish model. The 770 pound from West Virginia has to eat 20,000 calories a day in order to maintain her ample figure. That's the equivalent of 30 ice cream sundaes, or 20 giant submarine sandwiches—every single day. Mandy's generous thighs measure an amazing six feet in circumference – that's the size of Leonardo DiCaprio! The model explained: “I've never had a real job, but I've always been able to make money modelling. Men love my buttery lumps and bumps. And I enjoy being worshipped like some sort of massive goddess.
But I also love animals. I'd never even hurt a fly. So to accidentally kill a gorgeous little kitten is too much for me to take.
And my boyfriend Clint's taken it bad too. He's started wetting again."
Wetting?? WTF??
An increasing number of overweight women are turning their obesity into a business. Channel 5 has covered this growing phenomenon in a new documentary, Fat for Cash, which follows women in America who deliberately gain weight to satisfy the desires of paying customers. Jennifer Bennet, 31, from Boston weighs 30 stone and is a professional super-sized web model.
Jennifer engaging in a 'squashing' session with a man who volunteers to be sat on
She has been a ‘gainer’, or someone who deliberately gains weight for 13 years, and estimates she has put on about 100lbs, or over 7 stone, since she started. One of her thighs now measures 42.5 inches. In order to add pounds to an already overweight frame, Jennifer and other gainers engage in ‘stuffing’, or deliberately overeating to the point of extreme fullness. Jennifer says: ‘I’ve always been overweight, I was an overweight child and I grew into an obese teenager,’ ‘From an early age I was always interested in the idea of being big and being round.’
Jennifer is a gainer and is deliberately putting on more weight. She says her 'double tummy' is popular with her fans
Jennifer's large arms are what she says make her stand out in the community
Jennifer says she used to put pillows under her clothes and bounce around in bed as a child to get the sensation of being large, and six years ago decided to launch herself on the web as a super-sized model. Fat enthusiasts can download pay-per-view clips of her showing off her body and eating, which can each earn her hundreds of dollars. She identifies her attractive points as her ‘thunder thighs’ and ‘double belly’ but says it’s her huge arms that make her stand out. ‘I suppose I prefer the person that I am online.' She also engages in private 'squashing sessions' where a man volunteers to be sat on by her for an erotic experience, which also films and posts on her website. Although Jennifer acknowledges the health risks of her chosen profession, but says she has always lived her life for the now. 'I would rather live my life the way that I want to and die younger than repress myself my whole life,' she explains.
28 stone Sammee Matthews, 'pioneer' behind the first super size strip night in Las Vegas and sufferer from a condition that causes her to be sexual aroused by food, mostly chocolate cake - The 41-year-old from Las Vegas, describes herself as a SSBBW, a Super Sized Big Beautiful Woman, and says she has a condition Sitophilia which causes her to be sexually turned on by food.
A depressed mother-of-three who tragically lost her daughter Maribella in labor, says she finally found happiness after ballooning to 616lbs - and becoming an overweight pin-up girl. For years Christina Paez, from Medford, Oregon, binged on cakes and chips until she was bed-bound through obesity and crippled with anxiety about her size. But after stumbling upon a group of fat admirers who loved her super sized body, the 39-year-old's life was transformed. Now Christina makes money selling glamour shots of herself to willing punters and says she is never going to lose weight. However, not everyone is pleased at her new lease of life - Christina's teenager daughter Ruby says her mum is deluding herself. While these days Christina is only too happy to strip off in front of the camera and gorge on cakes for her fans, ten years ago her life was very different. In 2003 she turned off Maribella's life support machine after complications during labor left her brain dead.
For the next few years Christina lived as a virtual recluse with kids Marco,19, and Ruby, 18, and younger son Rigabento, nine. She said: 'After I got back from the hospital I was in a fog. I was on medication for depression and I turned to drink. I drank at all times of the day for about six months. My sister had to take care of my kids.' Thanks to a diet of hamburgers, greasy Mexican food, crisps and ice-cream, Christina's weight gradually climbed. And when she did venture of out of the house, scathing comments from strangers on the street chipped away at her self-esteem. 'I've had total strangers hurl abuse at me all my life. People call me fat and tell me to take myself off the streets because I'm so gross. It kills you inside to hear these things,' she said. Christina says her self esteem issues go as far back as her childhood where she was teased for being big for her age, weighing 196lbs.
She said: 'Growing up I was picked on for my size. I developed early, by the time I was 13 I had the body of a 20-year-old. Even though I tried to stay active by running and lifting weights, I was still called pig and Shamu the whale. 'I thought of myself as a fat blob -- nobody can love me. I had no self esteem.' Over the years she tried diet pills and exercise to lose weight but nothing worked. 'In the end I thought it was easier to hide away from the world.' As her weight steadily grew she became less and less able to be the mum she wanted to be. Her weight gain continued even after youngest son Rigabento was born in 2004, and eventually, five years ago her second husband Frego left her. Soon she wasn't able to cook and even go to the toilet without help.
She said: 'I used to be active and make sure I took my kids out on trips regularly. But after losing Maribella I became so depressed I stopped wanting to do anything. I became dependent on my kids to look after me.' However, Christina's lifeline in the form of the internet and online communities made her look at herself in a new light. It was after being contacted by DJ and video producer 'Dr' Scott Winter, she was introduced to the world of Big Beautiful Women (BBW) modelling. 'The first time I turned on a computer I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't even know what Facebook was. But after I learned and uploaded some pics of myself I started getting comments from guys telling me I was beautiful and perfect. I had never had that before. 'I never would have guessed there was a community of people who liked big girls. It felt like a new awakening.'
Yet despite Christina's joy at her transformation into an obese glamour model, not everyone in her family agrees with what she's doing. Her daughter, Ruby, thinks Christina is happy just to please others. The student said: 'I love my mum but she is not happy with her weight. She's trying to make other people happy when she's not even happy in her own skin. 'She used to take us to the beach all the time, she used to cook healthy salads and vegetables and she was so happy. Now she waits for everyone else to do things for her, where she used to do it for herself. 'If she doesn't try and help herself she is going to get sick and she is going to die.' Christina, who is on disability benefits due to her size, now spends her days planning her pay-per-view website with Scott. She is currently building up a library of 500 images to begin offering to her adoring fans.
She said: 'Meeting Scott has really changed my life. Before my first shoot I was nervous but excited - I'd never done anything like this before. When I look at my pictures that I put up online I have a hard time even believing myself that it's me in the pictures. It's excitement. It's fun. 'I feel like that princess that’s walking around in her ball gown and pretty tiara that’s prancing around showing the world how sexy she is. I’m fat but I’m happy naked,' she insisted. 'Despite all the stuff people have done to me I'm willing to step out and say, "Yeah I'm fat, I'm beautiful, I'm sexy. So what?" I'm not going to hide away from the world because I'm fat.'
Peter Leach of Glasgow, Scotland, said he isn't holding a grudge against New Zealand birds, despite being robbed of hundreds of dollars by a kea. A thief stole hundreds of dollars from Peter Leach's camper van, but left no fingerprints - because the thief has no fingers. Mr Leach, a visitor from Glasgow, Scotland, stopped at Arthur's Pass on Wednesday to take in the views at a rest area along State Highway 73. He left the windows down as he snapped photos of the scenery, including one of an unusual bird on the ground near his vehicle. Little did he know he'd become a target for the local criminal element. "A Canadian couple walked by and said: 'We've just seen that bird take something out of your campervan'," Mr Leach laughed. "It took all the money I had. I was left with $40 in my pocket."
State Highway 73 in Arthur's Pass, Canterbury, New Zealand
The unsuspecting tourist had stashed his travel cash - about NZ$1300 - in a small cloth drawstring bag and left it on the dashboard, where the bird apparently found it while rummaging through other items. The kea grabbed the bag and made a clean aerial getaway. Fortunately, Mr Leach had old friends nearby, Paul and Lyn Fisher of Normanby, who lent him cash to tide him over.
Hoping to recover his money through travel insurance, Mr Leach sheepishly reported the incident to Timaru police. "The man I dealt with was very serious for the first few questions," Mr Leach said. Then he said, 'Do you mind if I just stop to laugh?' " Mr Leach said he had never heard of the mischievous kea before his visit. Lesson learned. "The birds are now lining their nests with £50 notes."
A swat team in Phoenix, Arizona, had to take time away from their intense negotiation with a suspected armed robber to shoo away an excited Pug. A video showed the pug continually trying to get at the police hound, with annoyed policemen having to chase it away. The Police had to chase away the pug after the dog picked a fight with their K-9. Yes. The SWAT team heroically saves German Shepherd from a pug attack! Eventually officers were able to get rid of the brave animal and return to the stand-off with the suspected Subway shop robber, who had barricaded himself inside his home. The six-hour siege eventually ended when the suspect shot and killed himself.
Pug picks fight with police dog outside Phoenix barricade
Man gets shock of his life when he buys two toy poodles for $150 only to be told by a vet that they are actually GIANT RODENTS pumped up with steroids to look like dogs.
Gullible bargain hunters at Argentina's largest bazaar are forking out hundreds of dollars for what they think are gorgeous toy poodles, only to discover that their cute pooch is in fact a ferret pumped up on steroids. One retired man from Catamarca, duped by the knock-down price for a pedigree dog, became suspicious he had bought what Argentinians call a 'Brazilian rat' and when he returned home took the 'dogs' to a vet for their vaccinations. Imagine his surprise when his suspicious were confirmed - he had in fact purchased two ferrets that had been given steroids at birth to increase their size and then had some extra grooming to make their coats resemble a fluffy toy poodle.
Poodle Scam? Ferrets on Steroids Disguised as Dogs
Poodle Scam? Ferrets on Steroids Disguised as Dogs - No longer an urban myth: People in the Argentinian market of La Salada are being sold ferrets (Brazilian rats - right) given steroids so that they resemble toy poodles
Previously considered an urban legend of the giant La Salada market, local television news in the capital, Buenos Aires, discovered that the unidentified man was not alone - another woman had been told that she was buying a Chiuhuahua, but ended up with a ferret. Both the woman and the retired man have not filed complaints. Typically, toy poodle puppies cost upwards of $1,000 in the United States and a ferret will usually set someone back around $75. Compared to Mumbai's infamous Dharavi slum, La Salada is a self contained micro-economic center of the Argentinian capital, largely filled with skilled Bolivian workers who have migrated. A stark contrast to the sprawling wealth of some parts of Buenos Aires, La Salada is a collection of small and informal workers, distributors and entrepreneurs - some lucky enough to sell ferrets as dogs for $150.
La Salada in Buenos Aires is the biggest illegal market in South America. A high range of products is offered at the market for half the usual price - The fair grew enormously in recent years, especially in the shadow of the economic crisis. Statistics yield contradictory numbers, but the truth is that their size is huge. An EU study investigated it, calling it "a global emblem of trade and production of counterfeit goods" in its report. Some fair numbers: La Salada mobilized $9 million a week and employed 6000 people to serve the more than 20,000 customers from across the country. On June 21st, 2017 Jorge Castillo, the fair's top reference, was arrested along with 30 other people on charges of illicit association and extortion. In one of the 57 raids that were carried out by a tax evasion case, Castillo injured a Bonamenian policeman in the police operation when he was shot with a shotgun.
September 1, 2011 12:49 PM
By Tim Prater
Folkestone Herald with
That Folkestone Pasty Story, in full.
Front page of the Folkestone Herald (if you excluded the advertising wrap-around) on 25th August had the headline of "Out-of-date pasty is sold to young mum: Toddler took bite of food three days past its sell-by date". The story, such as it was, was about a local Mum who had bought her two year old toddler a meat and potato pasty in "99p Stores" on Sandgate Road in Folkestone, and had snatched it away from her child after it had taken a bite of it having noticed it was three days out of date. Child slightly ill overnight (although whether or not that was due to the pasty is questionable) and when the Mum went back to the store, she was offered a £5 voucher by way of compensation for selling an out-of-date 99p pasty.
A classic "Slow news day" story - I would guess many stores have from time to time sold out of date food by accident: whatever systems are in place then errors happen. Equally, the pasty is not reported as rotten, filled with maggots, green or even stale: it was beyond a "sell by" date which tend to be several days before the food is actually likely to have gone off. The shop appears to have offered not just a refund, but compensation (OK - not thousands, but really - it was a slightly out of date pasty). And? And: a week later, the article (which had been discussed on Twitter by a number of local people as pretty much a non-story at the time) suddenly goes "viral" on Twitter, with hundreds of people posting tweets such as "STOP THE PRESSES! You just *have* to read this week's Folkestone Herald.
Reported on
Wednesday 22 Jun 2011
A father-of-two today told how he almost died after eating an under-cooked pork chop. Darren Ashall, a plant operator from Chorley, Lancashire, developed a potentially lethal brain bug that has left him in hospital for nearly five months. The 46-year-old cannot walk and still struggles to communicate. However, doctors told him he is lucky to be alive after listeria meningitis attacked his immune system and left an abscess on his brain. He first fell ill after cooking two pork chops on a caravan stove while working away from home in Birmingham. “I thought one of the chops wasn’t cooked properly. I regretted eating it straight away. I knew it was a mistake. A month later I went to hospital thinking I was having a heart attack. After three days, my face started drooping on one side and people thought I was having a stroke.” Darren had picked up the listeria bug, which can lay dormant for up to 70 days.
A 34 year old man from Lancashire has been awarded this year’s prestigious art award the Turner Prize, for cramming a total of 9 Cadbury’s Crème Eggs up his rabbit-hole over the Easter weekend, smashing the previous record of 6. Culture Minister Kim Howelles, who was reading the Sunday Sport on the bog earlier today said in a statemen: “This is the best thing I have ever seen in my life, and he must have a ringpiece like a chewed orange today. There have been a lot of things missing from popular British art, and conviction is one of them. This exciting young artist has demonstrated that conviction, and I only pray that he has splashed out on some Andrex, as that Smartprice stuff is going to feel he’s wiping his arse on a brick for the next few days,”
The prize, which has previously been awarded for a dead shark, and for Tracey Emin lying in bed drinking vodka in her pants & then not tidying up, was the instant and obvious choice by curators and critics. Its creator has been hailed as a genius and a legend. Lemon-sucking Evening Standard art critic Brian Sewell, that normally hates everything on general principle said: “This is a new era in British art. Normally the Turner Prize is a total farce, a conveyer belt of tasteless pranks drooled over by dreary idiots in Primark raincoats. But come on. 9 Crème Eggs. 9! This is a near-perfect metaphor for broken Britain,” Bruce Patterson will go on display in the Turner Gallery with 9 Crème Eggs up his arse in May.
TRACEY EMIN (B. 1963)
My Bed
Price realised
GBP 2,546,500
Estimate
GBP 800,000 - GBP 1,200,000
Janice O’dowd, 52, of England, was enjoying a night out with her daughter. The two drank alcohol before going to an all-you-can-eat buffet to grab a bite. Fellow diners got much more than they expected at the £8.99 (about $15.00) popular Chinese restaurant in Manchester. All seemed to go well until the 52-year-old grandmother grabbed a chair, removed her tights and proceeded to poop over the crispy seaweed. Some customers vomited at the nasty sight and everyone lost their appetite. The 60-year-old restaurant owner said that he had not seen such a disgusting behavior in all of his 40 years in business. The restaurant owner gave everyone their money back and the restaurant was closed to be sanitised. O’dowd had already been asked to leave the restaurant after she put a cigarette in someone’s drink. However, she disobeyed the ordered and refused to leave. O’dowd has been banned from the restaurant forever. O’dowd blamed the incident on drinking too much vodka. In an off the camera interview, the owner explained that he did not call the police because he employs some illegal workers. “I felt is was best not to involve the police,” he said.
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A three month old baby has been reunited with her parents after being kidnapped by a man at Riverfront Park in Little Rock, Arkansas. There are not many details on how the man acquired the baby at the park. However, it’s what he did with the baby after he kidnapped her that has the community shocked. According to employees at McDonald’s, a heavyset man, 45 year old Henry Osterman, entered the restaurant on Monday around 2:30 PM with a baby wrapped in a blanket. He seemed a bit nervous, and told the employee at the cash register that he had the munchies as he ordered 15 Big Macs. According to reports, when the cashier gave him his total, he handed over the baby to her. “I look to him and said ‘Whatcu think I’m gonna do with that,'” said Chandra Wilkins head cashier at the Little Rock McDonald’s. “He told me he didn’t have any money but I could take the baby. I said ‘Fool you need to back the f*ck up’. Then that’s when he threw the baby at me, ran behind the cash registers and grabbed every burger on the food warmer. That white man was crazy.”
Riverfront Park in Little Rock, Arkansas
Two other employees stepped into action and tackled the would be ‘Hamburglar.’ Unfortunately, the size of the man was too much for the employees to take down the kidnapper. That’s when eyewitnesses say a third employee, Todd Williams, clotheslined the man with a broom handle and took him down to the ground. “That was a big dude,” said Williams. “I grabbed the broom, swung at real real hard, and crack that punk in the neck. He fell and hit his head on the floor, knocked him clean out. My aim’s on fleek” Police searched Osterman’s 1972 cargo van that was parked in the McDonald’s parking lot where they discovered another infant strapped into a car seat, approximately 6 months old. They also recovered several firearms, knives and a neatly displayed collection of baby toys, bottles and other baby related items. They also recovered several roles of duct tape, rope and 20 bottles of Benadryl. Osterman was taken into custody and charged with kidnapping, assault, theft and child endangerment. He is currently being held on an $800 bond.
MAN'S 174-MPH SNEEZE BLOWS WIFE'S HAIR OFF!
MIAMI - Reginald Kaulman has the world's most powerful sneeze - a gale-force 174-mph scorcher so intense it literally blew half his wife's hair right off her head!
"When Reggie is about to let one rip, I always duck out of the way, but this time I guess I just wasn't quick enough," says wife Natalie Kaulman.
"I could feel that hot sneezy air blasting over my head like a blowtorch. This was worse than Hurricane Andrew and believe me, I know what I'm talking about because I lived through Andrew.
"I was scalped."
Kaulman, a 38-year-old accountant, suffers from a rare sinus condition that causes pressure to build up for days in his sinus cavities, rather than release with normal breathing.
Although he sneezes less often than the average person, when he does, it's with what doctors call "potentially lethal force."
Medical researchers were so intrigued by Kaulman's case that some years back, they subjected his killer schnoz to scientific tests. Incredibly, they found that particles were ejected from his nostrils at 174 mph - faster than the top speed of some cars.
"When I cut loose, everyone runs for cover, because papers and files fly everywhere," reveals Kaulman.
Kaulman's potent sneezes have knocked down dog houses, fences and tool sheds in his neighborhood, not to mention blowing away vases and knickknacks - costing the Kaulmans $31,000 since 1995.
More embarrassing still are the countless toupees and wigs he's sent flying and the many skirts accidentally hoisted at church.
Luckily, Kaulman doesn't sneeze that often - roughly once every three weeks.
"When I do, it's a biggie," he says. "I try to direct my sneezes away from people."
The hair disaster took place as they were driving on Biscayne Blvd. on September 30.
"Natalie was driving and I was looking for a restaurant some friends had recommended," he says. "Suddenly, I could feel a sneeze coming on.
"I turned to sneeze away from Natalie, but there were some kids riding by on bicycles alongside the open car window and I was afraid of knocking them over.
"Natalie looked at me but she couldn't duck in time. Just as she screamed, I sneezed - and I do mean sneezed.
Natalie adds: "I almost lost control of the car. A split second later I looked at myself in the rearview mirror and half of my hair was gone and my skull burned like fire.
"Reggie feels terrible about what happened. But I still love him in spite of his sneezing."
Said one doctor: "My colleagues and I agree that it's a miracle she's alive."
- By MICHAEL CHIRON
The world of Mexican midget wrestling is in mourning after two of its most famous stars were apparently poisoned by fake prostitutes. Brothers in armlocks Alberto and Alejandro Pérez Jiménez were found dead in a hotel room after being drugged and robbed. The women who spiked the twins’ drinks are thought to be members of an organised crime gang who pose as prostitutes to attract victims.
They normally just knock out their victims but the dose proved too much for Alberto â aka ‘La Parkita’ (Little Death) and Alejandro â aka ‘Espectrito II’. The 36-year-olds were veteran stars of the ‘Lucha Mini’ world of midget wrestling. They began their fighting careers 17 years ago in a tag team called the Small Devils and sometimes crossed over into American WWF/WWE wrestling. Skeleton-masked La Parkita fought at the WWF Royal Rumble showpiece events in 1997 and 1998 in a tag team alongside Lucha Mini legend and Hollywood actor Mascarita Sagrada.
At the 1997 Royal Rumble, he faced â and beat â a tag team featuring his brother, who was fighting under the name Mini Mankind. Alejandro also fought at WWE events using the alias ‘Tarantula’. But it seems their wrestling careers were the last thing on their minds on Sunday night. The luchadors picked up the two women after filming a TV fight show and took them to a hotel, according to police in Mexico City. But while preparing for their ’bouts’ they appear to have had their alcoholic drinks spiked before being robbed. The pair were found by cleaners at the hotel on Monday. Tests suggested they had not had sex with the women. It is thought their size made them more vulnerable to the drugs the women put in their drinks. Police suspect a gang known as The Leak or The Drops was involved in the incident and said 20 people were arrested for similar crimes last year. Yesterday, there were conflicting reports as to whether the ‘prostitutes’ had been arrested.
Image Above - Stone Cold Steve Austin - Royal Rumble (1997) was the tenth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on January 19th, 1997, from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The attendance of 60,477 is the highest recorded in the Royal Rumble's history. The main event was between Shaun Michaels and Sycho Sid for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. The main matches on the undercard were the Royal Rumble match, which Stone Cold Steve Austin won after last eliminating Bret Hart, Vader versus The Undertaker, and Hunter Hearst Helmsley verses Goldust for the WWF Intercontinental Championship. During this time WWF was working with the Mexico based Lucha Libre AAA World Wide (AAA) promotion, and had several wrestlers from that company participate in the Royal Rumble match, as well as in a number of undercard matches. The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmick pay-per-view, produced every January by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), now WWE) since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, later dubbed the "Big Four". It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. The match generally features 30 wrestlers.
For 1997, the winner earned a match for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania 13, 1997 was the tenth event in the Royal Rumble chronology. Traditionally, the winner of the match earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania.