UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Store: No cake for Hitler

HARRISBURG, Pa., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A Pennsylvania man has complained a local grocery store refused to decorate a birthday cake with his young son's name: Adolf Hitler Campbell.

Heath Campbell, 35, who denies the Holocaust took place and decorated his home with swastikas and Nazi paraphernalia, said The ShopRite supermarket in Greenwich Township refused to print his son's name on a cake to mark his third birthday, the Harrisburg (Pa.) Express-Times reported Monday.

Campbell said the store has also refused to decorate cakes with his 1-year-old daughter's name -- JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell.

"They're just names, you know," Campbell said. "Yeah, they (Nazis) were bad people back then. But my kids are little. They're not going to grow up like that."

"Other kids get their cake. I get a hard time," he said. "It's not fair to my children."

Karen Meleta, a ShopRite spokeswoman, said the store is standing firm in its Hitler ban.

"We believe the request to inscribe a birthday wish to Adolf Hitler is inappropriate," she said.

Campbell said he was previously able to purchase cakes with Adolf Hitler Campbell's name on them at a WalMart location in Lower Nazareth Township.

Man disputes $81,000 in parking fines

NEW YORK, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- The New York City Department of Finance says a man racked up $81,039 in parking fines but the alleged offender denies the claims.

The department said Alexander Khamish, 30, has incurred 415 parking tickets since 2004 -- the largest amount of fines racked up by anyone during the period -- but the alleged serial offender contends the tickets resulted from identity theft, the New York Post reported Friday.

"Basically, someone registered (the offending) vehicles under my name," Khamish said. "I knew about this a couple years ago, but I didn't know it (involved an) $80,000 (debt).

"Someone did register vehicles under my name before I found out, but I was going back and forth with the DMV, and from the last I heard, I thought everything was OK."

Finance Department spokesman Owen Stone said Khamish's claims would be investigated.

"If it winds up his identity was stolen, he won't be responsible for the tickets," Stone said.

Alleged robbers demanded eggbeater

PLANT CITY, Fla., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Authorities in central Florida say two men are charged with armed burglary after allegedly demanding only a metal eggbeater from their victim.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said deputies arrested Robert Eugene Thompson and Taurus Deshane Morris after they allegedly entered a Plant City home -- Thompson allegedly armed with a knife and Morris allegedly with a chrome pistol -- early Sunday and demanded the victim's chrome eggbeater, The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune reported Monday.

Both men were charged with armed burglary and Thompson, who allegedly held his knife to the victim's throat during the scuffle, was also slapped with a count of aggravated assault.

There was no explanation as to why the suspects, who were taken to the Orient Road Jail, were so intent on obtaining only the kitchen utensil.

Man gets public dating assist from mother

TAMPA, Fla., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A man in Tampa, Fla., is in desperate need of a good woman interested in one day getting married, the man's mother says in a newspaper advertisement.

The amateur cupid behind The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune romance posting was identified only as Claudia, a mother who said her only Christmas wish is for her son to find true love, the newspaper reported Monday.

"All I want for Christmas is a wife for my son," the woman's Tribune posting reads.

"I'm sad that he's alone, a 37-year-old handsome Tampa professional."

Claudia adds there is nothing about her son, Jason, that should prevent him from finding the right woman.

"He's such a good boy," she offers. "He's so good-hearted, so good-looking. He's got a good job."

Claudia told the Tribune she has only received three responses to date about her son, who has one divorce behind. Nonetheless, the romantic parent is determined to find love for her son.

"I feel like sometimes you just need to put yourself out there, regardless of the chance you're taking," Claudia said. "You will never know what you might have missed if you don't."