Watercooler Stories

NYC police allegedly hit by ID theft ring

NEW YORK, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Two women face identity theft charges after 10 New York City police officers had $10,000 charged on fake credit cards in their names.

Peeksgill, N.Y., police spokesman Detective Sgt. Eric Johansen said the alleged scam started in July at a Radio Shack store in that city.

One unidentified employee became suspicious of a co-worker's behavior, and notified police, who started an investigation, the New York Post reported.

Soon after, two New York officers separately reported unusual credit activity, the investigation went into high gear.

They arrested clerk Candace Johnson-Davis, 19, who in turn led them to Laquaja Price, 20, who works as a civilian employee in a Bronx housing-police unit.

Police allege she gathered the 10 officers' personal information and gave it to Johnson-Davis, who allegedly created phony Radio Shack credit lines, the newspaper said.

Johansen said eight of the affected officers weren't aware their credit was being used.

Drunken driver destroys German house

VERSMOLD, Germany, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- German police say that a man who had been stopped for drunken driving earlier in the evening went home and wrecked his house by driving his car into it.

The wooden house crumbled as the owner repeatedly hit it with his Citroen Berlingo, a mini-SUV, Der Spiegel reported. He also knocked over a propane tank early Tuesday, forcing some of his neighbors in the small western German town of Versmold out of their homes.

The man was behind the wheel of a friend's car when he was pulled over and his driver's license confiscated. He got home by taxi.

He was admitted to a psychiatric clinic after the destructive rampage for evaluation.

Pardon sought for Swiss 'witch' of 1782

VIENNA, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- A pardon is being sought from a Swiss regional government for the last witch to be executed in Europe in an alleged conspiracy 225 years ago.

A lawyer and author of a book about the 40-year-old maid named Anna Goldi, Walter Hauser, has been a staunch campaigner to clear the woman's name, a correspondent for The Times of London reported from Vienna.

"We were the last to murder a 'witch', and we should be the first to pardon one," said Hauser. "The authorities must apologize for this historic injustice and take responsibility for an innocent victim of juridical persecution."

Material from local archives in the alpine town of Glarus indicate Goldi was having an affair with her employer, Dr. Johannes Tschudi, an influential judge and politician who apparently got her pregnant, Hauser said.

When the woman wanted to go public with the affair, historians claim Tschudi conspired to charge her for attempting to poison his two children by witchcraft.

An executioner with a sword cut off her head, making her the last woman to be executed in Europe for witchcraft, the report said.

Tight parking does in private sex parties

DALLAS, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Duncanville, Texas, residents may no longer have sex parties in their homes under a new law enacted after complaints that the affairs tied up parking spots.

The Duncanville City Council unanimously passed an ordinance forbidding sex clubs in private homes after neighbors complained about a neighbor's private "sex-capades," The Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday.

Neighbors said the complaints were only about the traffic problems.

"We are not addressing what activities are going on," Council member Johnette Jameson said. "We're addressing the traffic. We have to be good neighbors to each other."

"People can't find parking," Duncanville Mayor David Green added.