Watercooler Stories

Toy auction includes Bond, Starsky cars

KNUTSFORD, England, July 3 (UPI) -- A Knutsford, England, auctioneer has announced a planned auction of toy cars including replicas of vehicles from James Bond films and TV's "Starsky and Hutch."

Marshall auctioneers representative Peter Ashburner said it took 10 trips in an estate car to move all of the toys from the home where they were kept by their previous owner, a recently deceased 70-year-old man, The Times of London reported.

Ashburner said there were toys in every room of the house.

"He was most interested in circus toys and had model carousels and a collection of Corgi Chipperfield circus trucks and carriages," he said.

He predicted the collection will draw bids of more than $20,000 at the July 8 auction.

Duct tape prom wear contest gets recount

PITTSBURGH, July 3 (UPI) -- A Pittsburgh couple who finished second in a duct tape prom-wear competition say they will not concede the contest until a recount is completed.

Sharon Dranko and Joshua Humm, both 18 and recent graduates of Center Area High School, said they believe the online voting in Henkel Corp.'s Duck Brand duct tape competition to create the best prom attire out of the product was tainted by use of a computer program to ensure a win for the first place finishers, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Dranko said photos of her sporting a hot-pink dress made from duct tape and Humm dressed in a zebra-stripe tuxedo made from the same material garnered more than 23,000 votes online, landing them in second place. The first-place finishers completed the contest with more than 100,000 votes.

Dranko theorized the winners used a computer program to circumvent rules that only allowed "one vote per person per day." The winning pair received more than 60,000 of their votes in a single day -- a number that exceeds the total of 51,000 votes cast in last year's contest.

Lisa Schwan, a Henkel spokeswoman, said that due to the number disparity, the company is "going through all of the votes individually, making sure everything is valid."

First prize in the contest is $3,000 each toward college plus a $3,000 grant paid to their high school. Second prize is $2,000 for each participant toward college and a $2,000 grant.

Dead lawn could yield $746 fine

SACRAMENTO, July 3 (UPI) -- A Sacramento couple said they have been threatened with a $746 fine after they let their lawn die in an attempt to save water.

Anne Hartridge and Matt George said they decided to stop watering their lawn after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought emergency June 4, the Sacramento Bee reported.

"The whole water conservation ethic is very important to me," Hartridge said.

However, Hartridge said a neighbor complained before she could make new landscaping plans and the Code Enforcement Department slapped her and her husband with a citation after the grass went brown.

The citation declared their home a "public nuisance" under city code section 17.68.010, which requires front yards to be "irrigated, landscaped and maintained."

The couple said they were told a $746 fine is in their future unless they do something about the dead lawn.

Hartridge said she has covered the dead grass with redwood mulch but she does not know if that will allow the home to pass a re-inspection. She said the city told her it would send her information on how to bring her lawn into compliance but the information never arrived.

Police 'waste' $10,000 on apple core case

SWINTON, England, July 3 (UPI) -- A British man arrested for allegedly dropping an apple core said police wasted nearly $10,000 investigating him before dismissing a littering charge.

Keith Hirst, 54, a former plumber with heart problems, was taken into police custody April 21, after an officer accused him of letting an apple core fall to the ground, the Telegraph reported.

Police took a DNA sample from Hirst, got his fingerprints and jailed him for 18 hours, the newspaper said.

Hirst received medical attention twice while being held because he said he was experiencing chest pain and dizziness.

Hirst was scheduled to go to court in coming days, but officials said charges of littering and obstructing a police officer against him have been dismissed.

Officials are believed to have spent about $10,000 on police labor and other preparatory efforts in Hirst's case, the newspaper said.

Hirst said he thinks the "whole thing has been a complete waste of money."