Watercooler Stories

Director charged with taking electricity

LONDON, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- London taxpayers will pay more than $8,200 for the trial of a filmmaker accused of stealing less than a penny's worth of electricity, a magistrates' court said.

Mark Guard, 44, appeared at two separate hearings in North London before the charge was dropped and the cost of the proceedings added up to $8,200, The Daily Mail reported.

Guard was making a documentary about crime and the homeless. He filmed squatters entering an empty building through an open window Aug. 1. A movement sensor in the building was triggered. When the squatters fled, Guard, a former electrician, decided to remain and turn off the alarm because the noise would disturb neighboring families.

To see the alarm switch, Guard had to turn on the electricity in the building for a few seconds.

When police arrived he told them what he had done and was arrested for stealing the electricity.

He offered to pay for the electricity, but the electric company wouldn't bother collecting such a tiny sum, the report said.

Drunk newlyweds arrested after smoking

DURHAM, England, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- British police said a couple were arrested on their wedding night for drunkenly arguing with a security guard who asked them not to smoke at a bus stop.

Harry and Claire Arnold were married, had their twin sons christened and celebrated the groom's birthday all in the same day, but the night found them at a Durham, England, police station on charges of drunk and disorderly behavior, the Daily Mail reported.

"The couple had been celebrating, having got married in the morning and having their children christened in the afternoon," a police spokesman said. "They took exception to being asked by a security guard to refrain from smoking inside the bus station. Eventually police were called and they were arrested for being drunk and disorderly."

Claire Arnold said the incident "was a nightmare wedding night. I was crying my eyes out. I was devastated."

"The police told us: 'We've never had a bride and groom in before,'" she said.

The Arnolds said a sergeant took pity on them when he discovered it was their wedding night and let them off with a caution instead of a fine.

Thief-tackling workers fired

BROOMFIELD, Colo., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- A Best Buy in Colorado has fired two employees who tackled a shoplifter in front of the electronics store, the former employees said.

Jared Bergstreser, 20, and Colin Trapp, 23, said they were informed of their firings Sunday, two weeks after they followed the shoplifter out of the Broomfield store, KMGH-TV, Denver, reported.

"A gentleman came by us in a red shirt with a bunch of product in his hand. It was pretty obvious that he hadn't paid for it yet," Trapp said of the Aug. 1 incident, which has not resulted in any arrests.

Bergstreser said he tackled the man and Trapp jumped into the fray to help.

"We thought we had the situation under control. That's when he pulled a knife and began flailing it around wildly," Trapp told KGMH.

The manager of the store, who had come outside to try to calm the situation, was cut by the shoplifter. Bergstreser sustained minor cuts and bruises during the struggle before the man fled with an accomplice in a green car.

The men said they do not believe they should have been fired.

"It was just completely demoralizing. You think you have in your head what you know is right or wrong, what your parents instilled in you growing up as a child, and then to be reprimanded for that act is so sour and so sad," Trapp said.

Best Buy said it does not comment on employee terminations.

Kudzu forms image of Jesus

RALEIGH, N.C., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- An image suggestive of Jesus has been spotted in a kudzu vine growing on a utility pole next to railroad tracks in Raleigh, N.C., pub customers said.

The resemblance was first spotted by customers of the Boylan Bridge Brewpub, The (Raleigh) News & Observer reported. They pointed it out to John Morris, who runs the Web site Goodnightraleigh.com.

Morris said he has a special interest in pareidolia, or finding meaning in random events, like the way a kudzu vine grows.

The kudzu Christ is about 30 feet tall with arms outstretched along the wires and a head seemingly bowed. The rear view resembles the 100-foot statue of Jesus looking down on Rio de Janeiro.

So far, the figure has attracted more jokes than worship in Raleigh, the state capital and a university town.

"Poor Jesus," one poster said on newraleigh.com. "Guy hasn't had a decent night's sleep in 2,000 years, and now he's got to pull a double shift at the edge of a scrub lot. No respect."