Neighbor Fined Over Gesture

A Park Orchards man who erected a sculpture of a middle finger gesture in his yard and head butted a neighbor has been described by a magistrate as “the neighbor from hell”.

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Ringwood Magistrates’ Court has heard David Muscat, 47, felt he was “at war” with the other residents of Frogmore Cres during the long-running feud.

Muscat used a chainsaw to carve the 1.2m wooden sculpture in his front yard after his neighbors complained to Manningham Council that he had cleared trees on his property.

The court last week heard two months later Muscat assaulted his neighbor, John Washbourne, who had asked him to turn off a leaf blower that was sending dust and debris into the caravan Mr. Washbourne was cleaning.

Prosecutor acting Sgt Jo Allen told the court last Monday that police obtained 20 statements from residents who found the sculpture indecent, offensive or inappropriate.

Muscat pleaded guilty to charges relating to the assault, sculpture and failure to turn off his stereo and was convicted and fined $700.

In a separate hearing, Muscat was fined $10,000 by Manningham Council after pleading guilty to removing vegetation and doing earthworks without a permit.

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Policeman gets hurled through the air by stolen car

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No Parking !!!

Dramatic footage has captured the moment Lithuanian politician Arturas Zuokas took his anger out and drove an armored tank over a luxury Mercedes Benz which was parked illegally in a bicycle lane.

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Crazy insane train jump

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Man gets stuck in a hole while trying to get his phone back

Walking to a friend’s house, Jared Medeiros was set upon by a group of men who left him battered and bruised.

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And, adding insult to injury, his phone was then chucked through a manhole cover by the attackers.

But the 21-year-old refused to accept the phone was gone and decided it would be a good idea to stick his head down the drain to retrieve it and call police.

It was not a good idea. He became stuck fast – and the alarm was raised only after he had been in there screaming for about 40 minutes.

‘I was concerned but I was also laughing – it was funny!’ said Brianna Mooney, 16, who called the emergency number

Mr. Medeiros was freed by firefighters, who spent hours trying to pull him out.

He said he had been beaten and kicked by four men.

‘I don’t understand why they would sit and take pictures,’ said Mr. Medeiros. ‘That kind of p****s me off.’

Harry Potter dwarf spared jail over sex act

A dwarf who appeared in the Harry Potter and Star Wars films has dodged a short spell behind bars for indecently exposing himself to a teenager on a train.

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Former pantomime star Nicholas Read, who played a Ewok in Return Of The Jedi, was given a suspended 20-week jail term after a judge said it would offer the best opportunity for rehabilitation.

Read, of Wade Close, Cheadle, north Staffordshire, was convicted of indecent exposure last month after a 17-year-old girl told Leicester Crown Court how the actor performed a sex act under the cover of a juggler's hat.

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Dialing for Dollars

Inmate Larry Stone discovered the phone system was mistakenly depositing money into his account, so he took advantage of it, deputies said.

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Larry Stone made a phone call from the Lake County Jail that would typically cost about $20, but it didn't go through.

The charge was supposed to be refunded to his inmate account. But, the 32-year-old checked his balance and discovered his account now had more money than before the call. He made another call and hung up to test his luck. Again, more money magically appeared.

He repeated the exercise 77 times, exploiting the glitch that was mistakenly depositing credit into inmate trust accounts for each incomplete phone call.

After four hours of dialing a combination of local, long-distance and international numbers, Stone had accumulated more than $1,250 — enough money to bond out of jail, according to a Sheriff's Office investigative report.

Stone, who was arrested in April on property-crime charges, walked out of the Tavares facility earlier this month with $50. But he wasn't free for long.

News of the bug floated to other inmates, who began to spend inordinate amounts of time on the phone.

Global Tel*Link — the company that provides the jail's inmate phone system — charges the cost of a call from inmate trust accounts at a rate of $2.58 for local calls, $13.85 for long distance and $23.68 for international calls.

If no one answers or the caller hangs up, the money is returned to the account, officials said.

But in early July something bizarre happened. The system was reimbursing inmates twice for incomplete calls — allowing them to make a profit.

Stone took advantage of the malfunction and dialed a Canadian number dozens of times, investigators said.

Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. John Herrell said scammers reaped immediate gains from the ruse because inmates can check their balances on the phone.

The jail's technology department noticed a high volume of incomplete calls and alerted detention deputies.

Inmate Kevin Tomlinson was in the middle of paying his $1,400 bond when investigators caught up with him. He had used the malfunctioning system to his advantage, investigators said, accumulating hundreds of dollars in the process.

Tomlinson told detectives he learned about the system's bug on his own and didn't tell anyone else.

Nevertheless, the glitch affected about 256 jail inmate accounts and lasted 24 hours, Herrell said.

Detectives have not calculated the total amount that was inappropriately refunded, he said.

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Cup Stacking The Hard Way

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Small Bits of News You Didn’t Know You Needed

8 DUIs gets man 55 years in prison

A Houston-area man will be 100 years old before he's eligible for parole after his eighth drunken-driving conviction.

A Montgomery County jury convicted 73-year-old Gliddon William Davis of Conroe and then sentenced him to 55 years in prison over the 2009 incident. Witnesses contacted law officers after noticing Davis was driving erratically through New Caney. His blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit for driving.

District Attorney Brett Ligon says jurors determined that Davis, who was convicted and sentenced, had used his vehicle as a deadly weapon.

Court records indicate Davis had seven previous DUI convictions.

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Motorcyclist lands in van unhurt

A California motorcyclist rear-ended a minivan and was hurled through a window into the back seat but was not injured.

Investigators say the minivan driver made a turn after his collision and drove to his Mojave Desert home a half-block away before discovering he had a new passenger.

Callers reported the crash saying the motorcycle crashed and slid under the minivan on a Victorville street and the biker couldn't be found.

Investigators say the minivan slowed or stopped to make a turn and the motorcyclist slammed into the vehicle.

San Bernardino County sheriff's spokesperson Karen Hunt says the minivan driver had already committed to the turn and drove a short distance to his home. He then discovered the motorcyclist in the back seat.

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Controversy after kid defecates in pool

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is looking into a report that fourth- through seventh-graders at a YMCA day camp were told to lower their swimsuits in front of a counselor trying to determine which child defecated in the pool.

Police say a parent told officers that boys and girls were separated at a YMCA in Lancaster, southeast of Columbus. He told them his son was called into a locker room with another boy, both were told to pull their shorts down to their knees, and a male counselor inspected their butts.

The YMCA's executive director says up to 65 students were involved. He says there was no criminal wrongdoing but the YMCA is investigating.

He says feces found in the pool on consecutive days were a serious health concern.

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Monkey bites off baby's testicle

A monkey bit off an eight-month-old boy's right testicle in a zoo in Guizhou Province and doctors said the damage was beyond repair.

A park official told the family that injuries from money attacks "are too common and happen all the time." He didn't even make an apology. His remark was recorded and shown on the TV news, which ignited outrage among Chinese netizens.

The monkey that broke loose from the cage and was playing with visitors suddenly attacked the boy when the mother was changing his diaper.

"It happened within seconds," said the mother

Doctors said the baby was not in danger of death but it seemed the boy would lose his reproductive ability because his testicle had been eaten by the monkey.

The zoo agreed to pay 10,000 yuan to cover the boy's hospital bills but it failed to reach a compensation deal with the family.

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Forklift mishap did $1M worth of damage to Australia wine

An unsteady forklift dropped a container full of fine Australian wine worth more than $1 million, smashing most of the bottles. The winemaker says he was shocked and numb after the loss of his flagship Shiraz.

Sparky Marquis of Mollydooker Wines lost a third of his Velvet Glove Shiraz production after the accident that destroyed all but one of the 462 cases bound for the United States. Each bottle of the Mollydooker wine sells for $200. He said the wine was fully insured.

The accident has crippled Mollydooker's U.S. launch in September. It will also impact the wine market in Australia.

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Guy got punched for a joke he did

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You can buy a Pooter

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