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Coffee taster's tongue insured for $14M

LONDON, March 10 (UPI) -- A taste tester for Britain's Costa Coffee said the company has taken out a $14 million insurance policy on his tongue.

Costa Coffee taster Gennaro Pelliccia said the company took out the policy with Lloyd's of London as it prepares to open a planned 100 new stores during the year, The Daily Telegraph reported.

"In my profession, my taste buds and sensory skills are crucial," Pelliccia said. "My 18 years of experience enable me to distinguish between thousands of flavors. My taste buds also allow me to distinguish any defects, which enables me to protect and guarantee Costa's unique Mocha Italia blend."

While competitor Starbucks has been forced to close hundreds of locations around the world, Costa officials said their company has thus far avoided any recession-powered downturn and reported positive sales growth this year.

A spokesman for Glencairn, the Lloyd's broker handling the policy, said Pelliccia's insurance trumps the $4.8 million policy taken out for singer Bruce Springsteen's voice.

"The taste buds of a 'master of coffee' are as important as the vocal chords of a singer or the legs of a top model, and this is one of the biggest single insurance policies taken out for one person. It shows how valuable Gennaro's tongue is to the Costa brand," the spokesman said.

Men arrested with pot plants in pickup

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., March 10 (UPI) -- Police in Florida said a man charged with cultivating marijuana after 17 plants were found in his truck said he was moving his crop to protect it from burglars.

Jacksonville investigators said Ryan Smith, 26, was arrested with friend Raymond Rhude, 32, Saturday after police received a tip that two men were loading marijuana plants into the back of a green pickup truck, the (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union reported.

Rhude, who was charged with felony possession of marijuana, told police he was driving Smith's truck because the other man's license was suspended.

Smith told police the plants were his and he was moving them because burglars had broken into his home the previous night.

Man ejects intruding kangaroo

GARRAN, Australia, March 10 (UPI) -- An Australian woman said her husband wrestled a 6-foot-tall kangaroo into a headlock and threw it out of the family home after it jumped in through a window.

Verity Beman said the marsupial jumped through a window at about 2 a.m. Sunday and landed on the bed she shares with her husband, Beat Ettlin, at their Garran, Australia, home, CNN reported. She said the home is on the border of a kangaroo reserve.

"At first, he (Ettlin) thought it was a lunatic ninja," Beman said. "It leaped through the window, this martial-arts kind of figure. It was very Jackie Chan."

Beman said they soon discovered the intruder was a 90-pound kangaroo and it began rampaging through their home, punching furniture and leaving bloodstains on the walls.

"That's when his male instinct kicked in," Beman said of her husband.

Ettlin put the kangaroo in a headlock, dragged it toward the front door and ejected it from his home. Beman said her husband, who is originally from Switzerland, probably would not have confronted the kangaroo if he had been a native Australian.

"They would be fully aware of the risk," she said.

"I kept marveling at what he did," Beman said. "I called him my hero. My hero in Bonds undies."

Police: Alleged thief left library card

SHEBOYGAN, Wis., March 10 (UPI) -- Police in Wisconsin said a man accused of stealing beer from a tavern was arrested after his library card was found at the scene of the theft.

Kristopher Lehnhardt, 34, was charged with misdemeanor counts of theft and property damage after a bartender at Cozy Bar in Sheboygan discovered his library card on the floor of the establishment's basement -- and noticed four cases of Miller Light and six cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon were missing, the Sheboygan (Wis.) Press reported.

Police said the library card allegedly had been used in an attempt to unlock a door. They said the bartender found a window screen had been cut.

Lehnhardt could face up to 18 months in jail if convicted.