Watercooler Stories

Oil wresting champ takes second title

EDIRNE , Turkey, July 15 (UPI) -- Turkey's largest oil wrestling event, a traditional championship dating back 647 years, has been won by last year's champion.

Recep Kara claimed his second consecutive and third overall Baspehlivan title after out-wrestling Ekrem Yavuz at the 647th Kırkpınar Oil Wrestling Championships at Edirne, Today's Zaman reported Tuesday.

The two finalists continued to grapple without a victor until the end of regulation time, so a10-minute overtime was held that allowed Kara to score three points over his rival.

The three-day oil wrestling event drew thousands of competitors using more than two tons of oil to lube themselves up for the challenge, Der Spiegel reported Tuesday. The championship, which dates back to 1362, is open only to the Turkish people.

Man sues over mistaken identity

SWEET HOME, Ore., July 15 (UPI) -- A Sweet Home, Ore., man said he is suing his neighbors after they confused him with a registered sex offender who shares his name and birth date.

Richard Bryan Smith, 41, said his neighbors, Ray and Tracy Kelly, posted flyers around the neighborhood that bore pictures of another Richard Bryan Smith who has similar features, indicating the two Smiths were one and the same, the Albany (Ore.) Democrat-Herald reported Tuesday.

The second Smith is a registered sex offender in Reno, Nev., and currently resides in southern California.

Smith said the Kellys have been telling locals that he and the other Smith are one and the same, the newspaper reported.

"It's truly humiliating," Smith said. "It's intimidating walking down the road with my kids."

The Linn Circuit Court lawsuit is seeking $150,000 for alleged defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Stalin, last czar nearly tied in fame poll

MOSCOW, July 15 (UPI) -- Josef Stalin and Czar Nicholas II are running neck-and-neck in an online Russian poll to determine the country's most significant historical figure.

The Internet poll, part of state-run TV station Russia's "Name of Russia" program, had attracted more than 2.3 million votes as of 9 p.m. Monday, with 252,360 cast for Soviet dictator Stalin and 252,262 votes cast in favor of Nicholas II, the country's last monarch, the Moscow Times reported Tuesday.

Stalin had initially held a healthy lead over the czar until a glut of votes in support of Nicholas poured in thanks to a campaign on Russian social networking site Odnoklassniki.ru.

As of Monday evening, Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin was in third place with 171,224 votes and folk singer Vladimir Vysotsky was in fourth with 150,405 votes. In fifth place was Peter the Great with 115,115 votes.

Internationally renowned playwright Anton Chekhov and poets Alexander Pushkin and Sergei Yesenin were also in the top 50 as of Monday.

Suspect claims he was checking security

ANASET, Sweden, July 15 (UPI) -- A man who took $3,350 in cash from a Swedish bank and subsequently returned the money claims he was just testing the bank's security.

Police in Anaset said the man walked into an unlocked safe at Swedbank on Oct. 11, 2007, and walked off with the cash, but the money reappeared in the bank's mailbox the following weekend with a note, the Swedish news agency TT reported Tuesday.

"I am sorry that I took the money. I feel very ashamed," the note read.

Investigators said they tracked down the suspect after he was caught on security cameras entering and leaving the vault and his fingerprints were found on the note with the returned cash.

Police said the man initially denied the crime, but later admitted to taking and then returning the money. However, his story changed from that indicated by the note.

The suspect told officers he saw the unlocked safe and felt an impulse to check the bank's security. He said he never intended to keep the money and denied writing the apology note.

The man has been arrested on suspicion of theft.