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You are here:  Home / Odd News / UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

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UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Published: Dec. 29, 2006 at 5:24 PM
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Baby Jesus being sent to high school

SUFFERN, N.Y., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Thieves in Rockland County, N.Y., have been stealing Baby Jesus figures from lawns and leaving them at local high schools.

Whoever has been taking the figurines has left notes behind saying "Jesus never graduated from high school" and signed "The Opiates," the New York Daily News reported Friday.

Police found two of the statues at Suffern, N.Y., High School on Christmas Day and four more on Wednesday at North Rockland High School in Haverstraw, N.Y. All the thefts have taken place in the two towns.

Craig Long, a police detective in Suffern, said similar thefts, all involving Jesus figures, have been taking place for months.

"We don't have any suspects. It could be a gang of high school kids," he told the Daily News. "It's not like stealing a lawn ornament during Halloween, because this cuts to the heart of people. They're celebrating the birth of Jesus and its very hurtful. In the grand scheme of things it's not a major crime, but it's a hurtful crime."


Cross-dressing Italian cop given the boot

VENICE, Italy, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A police officer in Venice, Italy, reportedly has been fired for cross-dressing in public while off duty.

The officer, whose name was not released, was seen on multiple occasions dressed in a small T-shirt, a mini-skirt and women's earrings at a popular Venice gathering spot, ANSA reported Friday.

He attempted to get his job back as a deputy superintendent, but a local court ruled that he had displayed "total disrespect for the force and no sense of honor or moral values," ANSA reported. The officer argued to no avail that his off-duty activities were his own business and were not illegal.

The women's clothing may be preferable to the alternative: Police told ANSA that the officer's neighbors have complained that he sometimes washes his car in the nude.


Carjacker gets lost, turns self in

BOCA RATON, Fla., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A carjacker in Boca Raton, Fla. got lost after the theft and dialed 911 to report himself, WPBF-TV reported Friday.

Claude King, 31, approached a black GMC sport utility vehicle on Glades Road near Interstate 95. He allegedly smashed the driver's side window, pulled the driver from her seat, and got inside, the TV station reported. He also allegedly assaulted the four other passengers in the vehicle before they fled and he sped away.

King struck at least two other vehicles while driving erratically around the area, finally pulling over in Palm Springs, Fla., authorities charge. Police told the TV station that they received a 911 call a few minutes after the carjacking from King himself.

"Um, I committed a crime," King told police, shortly before asking them to send officers to the payphone he was using.

They did, and King is being held without bail, the TV station reported. No one was seriously injured during the incident.


Alien park deemed viable in Roswell, N.M.

ROSWELL, N.M., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- The planning director for the city of Roswell, N.M., says the possibility of an extra-terrestrial themed amusement part in the city is "looking very positive."

Zach Montgomery said a feasibility study completed by New Mexico State University's Arrowhead Business Center found that the city's fame in the subculture of alien belief makes the idea more viable in the area than anywhere else, the Roswell Daily Record reported Friday.

"This is not a guaranteed project but it has gone farther than any other theme park that has been considered for the city of Roswell and it's looking very positive," he said. "This project will add greatly to the things to do for the visitors that visit our great city in search of answers regarding aliens and UFOs, and the tax benefits and profits that could be realized from a project of this magnitude are tremendous."

Montgomery said the next step in determining the possibility of the park is to create of a business proposal, a competitive analysis, a cost-benefit analysis, a management analysis, a schematic design and a development plan.

Roswell was the site of a 1947 rumor that an alien spacecraft had crashed in the area.


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