xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx - 9

Written by American City & County Administrator

Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.

Jacob Hadad and his “witness,” David Mullem, were charged with perjury in Long Beach, Calif., in July after they refused to budge from their testimony in Hadad’s challenge to a camera-generated traffic ticket. Hadad said he was forced to run a red light because a maniacal driver was chasing him, and Mullem, his “passenger,” backed him up. However, the camera revealed no car chasing Hadad and no passenger in his car.

Similarly, Shaun Woodhouse, caught on camera speeding in Northrop, Wales, admitted in June owning a car of the same model and color and license plate number as in the photo, but said nonetheless, “It was not my car, and it was not me driving.” (He was convicted.) In April, the St. Augustine (Fla.) Record announced the opening of artist Andrea Giovanni’s exhibit on behalf of The Betty Griffin House, a local shelter for battered women; eight days later, the same newspaper carried news of Giovanni’s arrest for allegedly beating up her boyfriend and trying to run him over with her car.

Three of these four things really happened, just recently. Are you cynical enough to figure out the made-up story?
(a) A Texas school board refused to allow a boys’ hair-growing campaign to donate for wigs to support hair-losing cancer patients, citing school rules against long hair for boys.

(b) A misbehaving monkey in India was sentenced to life in an official government monkey prison, joining a dozen other simians declared incorrigible.

(c) A man in Seville, Spain, filed a domestic-abuse complaint against his wife for turning him down for sex for five consecutive days.

(d) Its budget depleted until the new fiscal year in October, the District of Columbia government said the public could copy official documents in September only if they lugged their own copy machines and paper into a government reading room.
Answer: (d) is false.
Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, Fla. 33679 or [email protected]
Copyright © 2001 by Chuck Shepherd

NEWS OF THE WEIRD