Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Rogue sheep causes traffic mayhem METROPOLIS, Ill., July 11 (UPI) -- A runaway sheep that caused an Illinois traffic accident and backed up traffic for miles died of a police bullet before its owner could be found. Advertisement The mayhem started around 5 p.m. Sunday when the sheep managed to get onto a bridge connecting Metropolis, Ill., with Kentucky, the Southern Illinoisan reported. Deputy Chad Shaw of the McCracken County Sheriff's Department in Kentucky said two people were injured when their cars collided after one had hit the sheep. Shaw said the sheep survived being hit but he made the decision to shoot it. "I had to put the sheep down," Shaw told the newspaper. "It had been struck by the car, and it was confused. It appeared as though it was going to run down the bridge and cause more accidents." By Monday, efforts to locate the sheep's owner were unsuccessful, the report said. Advertisement Muscovites pay real money for fake trips MOSCOW, July 11 (UPI) -- Image-conscious Muscovites are handing over hundreds of dollars to a travel agency that provides souvenirs and photographic proof of non-existent vacations. Dmitry Popov, founder and chief executive of Persey Tours, told the Los Angeles Times his company started the practice last year when business was bottoming out. The most far-fetched vacation was for a Siberian gas station owner who paid $2,000 for evidence he had rented a ride on the Russian space shuttle to the moon. For $500, the company can provide ticket stubs, hotel receipts and photos with clients' images superimposed on such locations as Copacabana. For philandering husbands claiming to be going on a fishing trip, the company provides photos of him on the river, a cell phone with a remote number, an answering service for a lodge that says the husband is checked in but not available and a few dead fish on ice. Yuri Lubimov, advisor to the economic development minister on piracy issues, said appearances mean a great deal to Russians. "It's better to look like something than to be something," he said. "It's a very Eastern way of thinking." Couple gets limelight with fluke cuke Advertisement HOUMA, La., July 11 (UPI) -- A Louisiana couple has made international news by accidentally growing a cross between a cucumber and a cantaloupe. Tim Dusenbery of Houma, La., spotted an odd-looking 3-foot-long fruit in his garden that had a hard, waxy, yellow skin with thick ridges running lengthwise from its pointed ends past a thickened middle, the Houma Courier reported. "We call it a cuculoupe," his wife, Karen Dusenbery, said. The couple took the fruit to the office of County Agricultural Agent Barton Joffrion, and he confirmed the two plants had cross-pollinated. Cucumbers and cantaloupes are closely related enough to swap genes, he said. The newspaper printed their story Saturday, and it went worldwide via news agencies, and by Sunday night, ABC's "Good Morning America" show had called the couple asking for more details for use in Monday's show, the report said. Town's downtown core for sale on eBay WARREN, Conn., July 11 (UPI) -- The downtown core of Warren, Conn., is for sale on the Internet eBay auction site with a starting bid of $5 million. Former Macy's and Donna Karan executive Joseph Cicio took the step of posting the property after trying for years to sell the 85 acres that contain an antiques store, general store, pottery shop, large colonial house and two barns surrounded by woods. Advertisement With a population of 1,300, Warren is the state's third-smallest town, the New York Post reported. However, it is the current or former home to such notables as Henry Kissinger, Joan Rivers and Oscar de la Renta, the report said.
