From buddy  Mon Dec 18 16:14:28 1995
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 16:14:25
Subject: Off the Wire


OFF THE WIRE
News We Just Couldn't Pass Up

A Nevada robber let a convenience-store clerk make one phone call
during a holdup, then seemed surprised when the police showed up.

A Rhode Island man was charged with breaking open vending machines
because he wanted to pay his $400 bail entirely in quarters.

An elderly Frenchman renowned for gate-crashing high-profile events
said he got into Denmark's royal wedding just by mumbling to officials
who were checking guests.

Workers in Barnaul, Siberia, face a long winter but at least there will
be light in their darkness -- a local factory has laid them off with 5,
000 boxes of matches instead of wages.

Two South Africans stowed away on a Norwegian freighter in Cape Town in
hopes of reaching Europe, only to learn the bitterly cold truth three
days into the trip.  The ship was bound for Antactica.

A British Airways captain diverted a jumbo jet 1,000 miles to save a
tiny dog from overheating after 200 passengers gave him the go-ahead.

A photograph of Quebec Separatist Lucien Bouchard and his wife was
published in a Hong Kong newspaper with the wrong caption, identifying
them as British serial killers Fred and Rosemary West.

Albuquerque, N.M., police arrested a drug-dealing suspect and took him
into custody -- but a search found nothing, and he was released.  Days
later an officer, cleaning out the squad car, found a package with 600
rocks of crack cocaine stuffed under the seat.

Compiled by Ivan Weiss.  From _The Seattle Times_, Saturday, November
25, 1995.