UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Couple sued over 'ugly' kitchen

NEW YORK, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- A New York realty group is suing the owners of a floor at the Gramercy Park Hotel for installing an "ugly" Ikea kitchen at the property.

The Paramount Realty Group said retail mogul Jon Asgeir Johannesson and his wife, designer Ingibjorg Palmadottir, agreed to rent out the 16th floor of the Gramercy Park Hotel for $312,000 last year, but the "ugly" kitchen has been an embarrassment for the renting tenant, the New York Daily News reported Thursday.

"Defendants willfully installed what (Jon Asgeir Johannesson) defined as an 'ugly' kitchen," the suit states. "The kitchen installed is manufactured by Ikea, which is generally known to offer low-budget furniture."

"The kitchen has also been a source of embarrassment for Plaintiff and the subject of remarks by guests," Paramount said in the suit.

The lawsuit is seeking $52,000 in damages.

Parents banned from basketball games

SOUTHBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 25 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts YMCA youth basketball league says parents will be banned from watching the final games of the season because of recent incidents.

Program coordinators with the basketball program run by the Tri-Community YMCA in Southbridge said parents will not be allowed to watch Saturday's games because of frequent incidents involving parents shouting at referees or one another, the Boston Globe reported Thursday.

"This is what we tried to do to let people know this is not appropriate behavior," said Sue Casine, recreation director at the YMCA. "It's just a youth league. It's a youth league for kids to play ball and have fun and learn skills and good sportsmanship, but we were having some trouble with parents in the stands."

Casine said officials were concerned about incidents elsewhere in the country involving parents becoming violent at youth sports events.

"This is not going to happen in this league," she said. "We want to teach them the right way to have fun, the right way to play basketball, and that's how we're handling the situation."

Theme park seeks smelly urine for maze

CHERTSEY, England, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- A British theme park said it is seeking the smelliest possible urine for a maze attraction based on the "Saw" series of horror films.

Officials with Thorpe Park in Chertsey, England, said a $750 cash prize will be awarded to the patron whose urine is chosen Friday as the "signature stench" for the Saw Alive maze, which opens in March, The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.

Laura Sinclair, entertainment manager for Thorpe Park, said she will be judging the contest.

"We want Saw Alive to be as authentic and terrifying as possible to make visitors feel as if they are living in a real-life horror film," she said. "To do this we need to really push the boundaries of what our guests experience from a sensory point of view."

45 pounds of pot delivered to wrong home

SALISBURY, N.C., Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Police in North Carolina said a woman opened a package she believed to be her new computer and discovered 45 pounds of marijuana.

Lt. Rodney Harris, acting chief of the Salisbury Police Department, said Sarah Howell Leach believed the package she received Tuesday morning was the computer she ordered, but instead she found the stash of pot brought to the wrong address by a UPS driver, The Salisbury (N.C.) Post reported Thursday.

Harris said the package, sent from McAllen, Texas, was meant for another address in Leach's mobile home park. He said officers set up surveillance at the apparently vacant address but the intended recipient did not show up to claim the package when it was left outside the door.

The acting chief said the marijuana had an estimated street value of $35,000.

Leach said a FedEx driver delivered her new computer later in the day.