Watercooler Stories

Police: Strip club visitor lost truck, son

INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Indianapolis police allege a man got so intoxicated at a local strip club he forgot where he parked his truck, which contained his 5-year-old son.

Donald Crawford, 39, was arrested for public intoxication and child neglect for allegedly leaving his son inside the truck so he could visit a strip club, WIBC-FM, Indianapolis, reported.

Police allege after a drunken Crawford exited Sassy Kat's Showclub early Tuesday, he failed to find his semi cab and became concerned his vehicle had been stolen with his son inside. Police said they received a call from someone identifying himself as Crawford about the possible theft and kidnapping.

The truck was located after officers arrived at the scene and Crawford's son, whose identity was not reported, was safe inside the vehicle. The boy has been returned to his mother, the report said.

Police suspect Crawford couldn't find the truck at first because be walked in the wrong direction after leaving the strip club, WIBC said.

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U.K. official backs meat reduction report

LONDON, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- A British Cabinet minister has put his support behind a report by scientists calling for people to eat less meat to curb climate change.

Hilary Benn, a vegetarian and minister for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, put his support behind a paper by British and Australian scientists calling for people to reduce their meat intake by one sausage a day to reduce the number of farm animals bred for meat by 30 percent, the Daily Mail reported.

The report, published in medical journal Lancet, said the reduction would help combat rising temperatures and sea levels.

"There are lots of ways people can cut their carbon footprint and impact on the environment -- and reducing the amount of meat in our diets is one option," the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.

However, the department did not endorse the 30 percent figure.

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'Robin Hood' banker sentence suspended

BONN, Germany, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- A German banker has drawn a suspended sentence for transferring $11.5 million from wealthy account holders to those of poorer ones, her attorney says.

Attorney Thomas Ohm said his unidentified client, dubbed "Die Robin Hood Bankerin," was given a 22-month suspended sentence by a Bonn court for making the unauthorized transfers between 2003 and 2005, keeping none for herself, the British newspaper The Guardian reported.

"The accused hasn't put 1 cent in her own pocket," Ohm told the newspaper. "She did it purely out of sympathy with people who were suffering financially."

The banker, Ohm said, was a "good Samaritan" akin to playwright Bertolt Brecht's character Mother Courage, who believes she can do good in a bad world.

Prosecutors reportedly accused the employee of allowing overdrafts for customers not qualified for them and using money from richer customers' accounts to cover them temporarily during the bank's monthly audits.

The Guardian said German broadcaster WDR reported that the banker, who worked in a small, rural branch, knew most of the bank's clients and had discovered that many of its richer account holders had not touched their money in years.

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Taverns violating Illinois smoking ban

CHICAGO, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- A number of Chicago bars are willfully violating an Illinois law that bans smoking in public places, an investigation has found.

The Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV say reporters witnessed patrons smoking at several city bars despite the Smoke-Free Illinois Act that went into effect Jan. 1, 2008.

In a report Wednesday, the newspaper and television station said patrons at one Southeast Side tavern were contributing money to help the tavern owner pay fines incurred for flouting the law.

Chicago health officials say smoking-ban scofflaws are the exception and that indoor smoking has been drastically reduced since the ban went into effect.

"There are always some bad apples out there who will try to get around the law," says Tim Hadac, a spokesman for the city's health department. "If you look at the big picture, compliance is widespread."