Small Bits of News You Didn’t Know you Needed

Credit Card Thief Caught After Signing Own Name to Receipts
Iowa City police say they didn't have much trouble finding a man accused of using a stolen credit card — he signed his own name to the receipts.
Police say Kody Merrival of Iowa City used the stolen credit card to buy a latte at a coffee house and to buy cigarettes at a tobacco store.
Police say the credit card was reported stolen from an unlocked apartment last month.
They say Merrival also tried to use it at another store, but the card was declined because it came up as stolen.
Police say Merrival also used the card at a local deli.
He has been charged with four counts of unauthorized use of a credit card.
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Man accused of offering police a bribe with sandwich
Iowa City police said a man who was driving drunk tried to bribe a police officer - with a sandwich. Police said a 25-year-old man was charged with drunken driving early Sunday morning after an officer saw him driving with his headlights off and pulled him over.
Police said the man was riding with a police officer in a squad car when he offered the officer free sub sandwiches if he could go home.
The officer declined.
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Jaywalker moons motorists after ticket
Athens, Ga. police have arrested a woman who they say started mooning motorists after she received a ticket for jaywalking. An officer stopped the 23-year-old woman and a friend about 1:10 a.m. Saturday after they walked diagonally across the intersection in downtown Athens.
Police said both women had been drinking and were upset and disorderly as the officer began writing them tickets for not crossing in a crosswalk.
Police said after getting the citation, she lifted her skirt, then walked to the middle of Jackson Street and did it again, walking around while shaking her buttocks in front of oncoming traffic.
The officer noted in his report that the woman used the crosswalks while crossing the street to expose herself.
She was arrested for misdemeanor public indecency.
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Brewer wins right to bottle 'weed'
A Californian beer brewer has won the right to use the slogan 'try legal weed' on the top of its bottle caps.
Mt. Shasta Brewing, based in Weed, California, has been embroiled in a battle with the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for the past six months.
The agency had believed the caps were an attempt to promote the use of marijuana but brewer Vaune Dillmann, 61, said it was just a reference to a brand name.
A triumphant Dillmann said: 'Weed fought the law and Weed won.'
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NYC man charged with selling bras online
A New York man has been charged with selling $80,000 worth of stolen Victoria's Secret bras online.
Prosecutors said George Tutaya, 41, was arraigned Tuesday on charges of possessing stolen property. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors said Tutaya used eBay auction and PayPal payment accounts to sell the bras for about $25 each. The bras retail for $40 to $80.
Prosecutors say records recovered at Tutaya's home in Queens link him to the sale of more than 2,000 bras. They say 650 more stolen bras were recovered in his home.
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Puppy choked to death in freak accident
A designer dog choked to death after being dragged six feet into the air when its lead became stuck in the doors of a lift (elevator).
The Bichon Frisé's owner, who was inside the lift, could only listen in horror as her six-month old pet Lola was strangled on the other side of the doors at a Brighton shopping center.
Dee Perch, 57, was handed the body of her puppy after being freed from the elevator by firefighters an hour later.
PICTURE and More
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Viagra made a 80-year-old man a sex monster
A man who demanded sex with his wife at least three times a day after he began taking the drug Viagra has been ordered to pay his wife $232,000 in compensation.In a landmark court ruling, Svetozar Varmedja, 80, was found to have subjected his 53-year-old wife to more than 18 months of physical and sexual abuse.
It included 60 threats to kill her if she did not meet his sexual needs.
"Those tablets changed him and he started to treat me like a slave," his terrified wife said from her Sydney home.
The Serbian-born woman said the horrific mental and sexual abuse began in 2001 after her husband began taking the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra.
She said he was taking up to three Viagras a day.
His sex drive increased dramatically and she was forced into hundreds of sex acts.
"After taking those tablets, he told me it was very important for him to have sex three or four times a day," she said.
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Dead Man Walks
The plan was elegant in its simplicity. Unfortunately, it was idiotic in its execution.
Ahmad Akhtary and his wife, Anne, developed a brilliant plan to get rich-- they would claim Ahmad had died and file a false claim to their insurance company.
Ahmad, a native Afghan, skillfully created an official-looking document that said that he had died from "brain trauma" after an accident in Afghanistan. Anne then submitted the claim to the Norwich Union insurance company and attempted to collect £300,000 (approx. $600,000).
It seems that Ahmad and Anne didn't quite grasp the concept of what it means to be "dead." Ahmad continued to go to work and live out-in-the-open. He even kept his doctor's appointment 6 months after he died.
When he was caught, Ahmad claimed to have no knowledge of the fake document. He could not, however, find a good explanation for the fact that his finger prints were on his own death certificate.
When Anne was confronted, she admitted to the scam. They have both been tried and sentenced to 9 months in jail (suspended for two years) and many hours of unpaid community service.
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If You Succeed In Getting People To Believe You Died Overseas To Collect $540K Life Insurance, It's Probably A Good Idea To Move To A New Location And, Oh Yeah, Especially, You Shouldn't Keep Those Family Doctor Appointments And Continue Paying Taxes Under Your Own Name. Did I mention wiping your fingerprints from your death certificate?