Jockstrip: The world as we know it.

Houston trash bins targeted by thieves

HOUSTON, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- As many as 4,400 black 96-gallon garbage cans are stolen from Houston-area homes every year, police say.

"You know it is not a trash can collector," said Richard Alderman, an associate dean at the University of Houston Law Center. "Trash cans are worth something. Somebody is trying to make or save money."

The city buys about 20,000 of them annually for $44 apiece, which is $880,000 a year, and provides one for each residence along a public roadway, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Replacing a stolen garbage can is free for residents, but it requires a police report to be filed for what is considered a misdemeanor theft of city property and is in the same grouping as first-offense prostitution and indecent exposure.

"Gosh, somebody has got to be really bad off," said Douglas Baucum, 67, whose trash can of 10 years recently went missing. "If they are going to steal something, I think they would have gotten a newer one."

New York jail menus focus on health

NEW YORK, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- New York City Correction Department officials have overhauled the menus at city jails to eliminate butter, white bread and any milk that isn't fat-free.

Commissioner Martin Horn said the new menu, which replaces white bread with whole wheat bread and adds more fiber-rich cereals and fresh fruit to meals, is aimed at promoting health, not deterring crime, the New York Daily News reported Monday.

"These people are in our custody, and they don't get to make their own choices. We have a moral obligation to make sound choices for them," Horn said.

"Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg doesn't say, 'New Yorkers should eat healthy except for inmates,'" he said.

Horn said the health-conscious menu won't be a bane on taxpayers -- meal costs will remain at $2.50 daily per prisoner, the same price as 2007.

He said feeding healthier food to prisoners could even potentially save money.

"The cost of an inmate having a stroke or going into diabetic shock is far greater than keeping people healthy to the extent we can," Horn said.

Homemade sub nearly seaworthy

MARATHON, Fla., Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A Marathon, Fla., man who has spent 11 years building a homemade yellow submarine says his project is nearly complete.

Duane Shelton, an engineer for Sea Air Land Technologies, said his 92-foot, 100-ton steel submarine, which is currently parked in a canal off the island of Boot Key in Marathon, is nearly ready to voyage under the sea, the Key West (Fla.) Citizen reported Monday.

The engineer said he faced a number of financial obstacles on his path to constructing an underwater vessel, beginning with a Chicago scrap yard that wanted more than $100,000 for the steel tube he needed to serve as the submarine's hull. He said he managed to haggle the price down to about $10,000, but the problems didn't end there.

"Then I had to figure out how to get it down here," he said.

Shelton transported the pipe using a series of trains, trucks and barges.

He said he is facing another financial hurdle, this time from the U.S. government, which requires at least $750,000 to apply for federal permission to put his vessel to its intended use -- transport for dive and educational tours in Honduras.

Man uses GPS to chase down stolen truck

UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo., Feb. 18 (UPI) -- The night manager at a University City, Mo., tow truck service used a global positioning system locater to chase down a stolen truck and nab an alleged thief.

Michael Filius, the night manager of Hartmann Towing and a former corrections officer, said he was inside the garage at about 2:45 a.m. Saturday when he noticed that he could no longer hear the truck he had left idling outside, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Monday.

Filius said the theft surprised and angered him to the point where he decided to track the vehicle down before it could be stripped by the thieves. He switched on the truck's GPS and contacted AAA to have the service monitor the truck's location and give him updates on his cell phone.

He said he saw two men who appeared to be in their 30s flee from the truck when he approached it, and he managed to run the vehicle off the road and kept the driver from fleeing until police arrived.

Police cautioned that victims of car theft should phone the authorities instead of setting out to find the vehicles on their own. However, Filius said he was fed up with criminals.

"I have to see these little hoodlums every day," he said. "There's a point I'm not going to take it anymore."