Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Pump tampered with to dispense free gas BETHONCOURT, France, April 18 (UPI) -- Police in France said they encountered "a certain hostility" while dispersing gas station customers lined up to use a pump dispensing free gas. Advertisement Bethoncourt police said they were called around 10 p.m. Saturday by a resident who was concerned about the 50 cars lined up to use a pump at a supermarket gas station next door, and officers arrived to find the pump had been tampered with to dispense free gasoline, Radio France Internationale reported Wednesday. Police said they encountered "a certain hostility" when telling the motorists they were breaking the law, and officers had to call for backup to help them disperse the waiting drivers. Officers said they took down several license plate numbers and the motorists likely will face theft charges. Man gets naked at Oregon airport security Advertisement PORTLAND, Ore., April 18 (UPI) -- Authorities in Oregon said they arrested a 49-year-old man accused of taking off all his clothes at an airport security screening area. Police said John Brennan was going through security at Portland International Airport around 5:35 p.m. Tuesday when he took his clothes off and refused to put them back on, The (Portland) Oregonian reported Wednesday. "Mr. Brennan's actions caused two screening lanes to be closed and while some passengers covered their eyes and their children's eyes and moved away from the screening area, others stepped out of the screening lanes to look, laugh and take photos," the arrest report said. Police said Brennan told them he is a frequent traveler and "disrobed as a form of protest against (Transportation Security Administration) screeners who he felt were harassing him." Brennan was taken to the Multnomah County Jail on charges of indecent exposure and disorderly conduct. He missed his flight to San Jose, Calif. Traffic cop gets the finger, literally WINDSOR, Ontario, April 18 (UPI) -- A Canadian traffic cop in southwestern Ontario who pulled over a speeding car wasted little time in rushing a man with a severed middle finger to a hospital. Advertisement The unidentified Ontario Provincial Police officer pulled over a car midday Tuesday near Leamington. The unidentified driver told her his passenger had accidentally severed his finger while working on a motorcycle. The two men had the finger in a bag. The policewoman radioed a message ahead to a hospital and rushed the injured man in her cruiser to a doctor prepared to do re-attachment surgery, the Amherstburg Echo reported. She didn't give the driver a speeding ticket, for which the OPP said in a release was commendable along with her prompt response to a medical emergency, the Windsor Star reported. There was no word midday Wednesday if the surgery was successful. Abandoned 500-pound Hindu statue claimed OAKVILLE, Ontario, April 18 (UPI) -- A damaged 500-pound marble statue of the Hindu man-elephant god Ganesh was never meant to be dumped in a museum parking lot west of Toronto, its owner said. The ornate carved white statue was found Tuesday in the parking lot of the Oakville Museum, and museum officials called police, the Toronto Star said. The figure has an elephant's head and a man's body with two extra arms. Halton Regional Police officers couldn't move the statue, so regional workers were called in with a hoist to transfer the statue to the police parking lot. Advertisement Police Sgt. Dave Cross told the Star Wednesday an unidentified man from neighboring Mississauga had called to say the statue was his. He said he had ordered the carving from India but couldn't display it religiously because two arms had broken off and were missing. The man said he had asked a friend to dispose of it and had no idea it was going to end up in a parking lot. Cross said the man was trying to find out how to dispose of the piece properly within Hindu custom and would see to its removal himself.
