Watercooler Stories

Hitler's love book to Eva Braun for sale

BERLIN, April 19 (UPI) -- A book of Bavarian poetry Adolf Hitler gave his girlfriend Eva Braun in 1940 with a sentimental inscription is up for auction with an asking price of $175,000.

The copy of "Josef Filsers Briefwexel," by Ludwig Thoma, is inscribed in German with the words: "My darling Eva. A gift of love from the heart. Adolf Hitler. Berlin Jan. 19, 1940," The Telegraph reported.

Dr. Ines Jung, a lecturer in political science at Munich University, said the German adjective Hitler used for darling indicates a sincere, tender affection. It is the only known written indication of affection Hitler showed for Braun.

The pair later married, and committed suicide together five years later in a Berlin bunker.

By then, Braun had given the book to a friend, who recently died, and whose family offered it for sale.

$5.5M bond in Ferrari crash case

LOS ANGELES, April 19 (UPI) -- Ex-videogame executive Bo Stefan Eriksson was being held in Los Angeles on $5.5 million bond on charges stemming from the crash of his $1 million Ferrari Enzo.

Eriksson, 44, appeared in Los Angeles County court Monday on charges of embezzlement, grand theft, drunken driving and illegal possession of a handgun.

Prosecutors accused Eriksson of theft for removing $3.8 million in leased luxury cars from England and being the driver in a 162 mph February crash near Malibu, Calif., that destroyed the rare Ferrari, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Prosecutors also said Eriksson failed to disclose Swedish convictions on drug and counterfeiting charges when he entered the United States last year.

The attorney for Eriksson, who pleaded not guilty, described the charges as "overblown" and the bond as "excessive."

Eriksson was an executive of London videogame company Gizmondo, which filed for bankruptcy this year with $200 million in debt. The company's finances are under investigation.

"If the guy didn't get into the wreck, none of this would have happened," Malibu Mayor Andy Stern told the newspaper.

Australian hated toads become fertilizer

DARWIN, Australia, April 19 (UPI) -- An Australian conservation group says a much-hated non-native species of toad plaguing the country makes an excellent liquid fertilizer for bananas and papayas.

The Bufo Marinus cane toad was introduced to Queensland from South America in the 1930s to prey on a beetle that was devastating sugar cane plantations. The experiment was a failure, but the toads began multiplying by the millions and spreading throughout the country.

Now, the FrogWatch conservation group is encouraging the public to recycle the hundreds of thousands of toads culled every year, turning them into fertilizer, or "toad juice," the Sydney correspondent for London's Telegraph newspaper reported.

The first batch of toad juice has been produced from 440 pounds of dead toads by a fertilizer company in Darwin, the report said.

"They stink when they are rotting down, but at the end you are left with a clear blue liquid," said Graham Sawyer, FrogWatch's founder.

Mother didn't notice police took child

INDIANAPOLIS, April 19 (UPI) -- An Indianapolis woman left her infant son in her car while grocery shopping and failed to notice he was missing when she tried to leave, police said.

Police officer Paul Humphrey said he spotted the 4-month-old boy -- wearing only a T-shirt and a soiled diaper -- in an unlocked car Monday.

The officer took the infant, who was sitting unrestrained in his car seat and waited about 15 minutes until the mother returned.

The woman got in the car and started to drive away, when Humphrey stopped her and asked "if there was anything she was missing," the Indianapolis Star reported.

The mother "was totally oblivious to the fact that I had her child," Humphrey wrote in his report.

Aimee Ward, 29, of Indianapolis was charged with child neglect.

The infant was examined and placed into protective custody, police said.