Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Snow prints led to alleged thieves GODFREY, Ill., Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Authorities in Illinois said they arrested three teenagers who allegedly stole and abandoned a backhoe without covering their snow footprints. Advertisement Police said Dylan Andrew Johnson, 18, Jacob Benjamin Hook, 18, and a juvenile took the backhoe from a Village of Godfrey site during a Monday snowstorm but abandoned the construction vehicle only about 100 yards from where it originally sat, the Belleville News-Democrat reported Wednesday. Investigators said they followed the footprints in the snow to the home of one of the suspects, where all three teenagers were found. "The suspects admitted to driving away in the backhoe and abandoning the backhoe in the field after observing a salt truck returning to the park," said Capt. Marc McLemore of the Madison County Sheriff's Department. Investigators said all three suspects failed portable breath-alcohol tests. They were each charged with unlawful consumption of alcohol by a minor and criminal trespass to a motor vehicle. Advertisement School cancels dance over 'freaking' BRIGHTON, Mich., Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Officials at a Michigan school said they canceled a February dance because students refused to promise not to practice a dance style known as "freaking." Brighton High School administrators said they wanted students to sign a contract promising not to "freak" dance, a form of dancing considered sexually suggestive by officials, but only 64 of the 1,500 students expected to attend the Feb. 6 event agreed to sign the document, WDIV-TV, Detroit, reported Wednesday. Principal Ken Hamman said he and other officials decided to create the contract after witnessing the "freak" dancing at an October Homecoming dance. Students said they protested the document and boycotted purchasing dance tickets. "If I had started dancing that way, then I would have been punished," senior Mark Bellinger said. "But that's what everybody does, dance that way." Hamman said officials are working with student government to come to a compromise before the prom in May. British boy, 3, admitted to Mensa PACKMOORE, England, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- A 3-year-old British boy has become one of the youngest-ever members of the world's largest organization for people with high IQs. David Potter and Lynn Goldstraw of Packmoore, England, said their son, William Potter, was accepted to Mensa after scoring an IQ of 140 on the organization's tests, placing him in the 99.6 percentile among Britons, the Daily Mail reported Wednesday. Advertisement "He could count to 20 before he was 2 and knew his alphabet and colors and shapes," Goldstraw said. "When in his pushchair, he'd read car number plates. Now when we go in the car, he's in the back with a map on his knee." "He reads the signs and tells you when to turn," she said. "He's like a sponge. You only have to tell him something once and he remembers it. I think a lot of it is about spending time with him." There are only about 30 Mensa members less than 10-years-old, including two girls who joined at the age of 2. Police: Man had 3.5 oz of coke in undies MALMO, Sweden, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Swedish authorities said a man caught with 3.5 ounces of cocaine in his underpants attempted to escape by biting a customs officer. Customs and excise officials said they pulled the 41-year-old man aside on the platform at Malmo's Syd Svagertorp train station and he consented to a search that involved him stripping down to his underpants, Swedish news agency TT reported Wednesday. However, customs workers said the man claimed to be shy and refused to strip down further than his skivvies. Advertisement "It looked like he had something very large nestling aside his sexual organ," a customs official said. Police said the man attempted to secretly remove the package from his underpants and wrestled with customs officers who tried to stop him. They said he bit into the upper arm of an officer during the struggle. The package was found to contain about 3.5 ounces of cocaine. The suspect was booked on charges of aggravated smuggling and assaulting an official.
