HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW
Armed thieves in New Delhi, India, left a craftsman deep in debt after they made off with 500 pounds of wigs and raw hair worth more than $20,000 on Jul. 27, according to the Associated Press. “People think wigs are cheap, but they cost a fortune to make,” wig-maker Jahangir Hussain said. In fact, he had borrowed more than $17,000 to buy hair last month from South Indian wholesalers. India exports wigs and hair extensions to the tune of $300 million a year; much of the raw materials are collected at Hindu temples where people shave their heads as a religious sacrifice, a practice called tonsuring.
PROBLEM-SOLVER
The list of offenses was long when Franklyn Williams, 32, appeared in Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court on Jul. 31 to be sentenced for aggravated robbery, kidnapping, theft, misuse of credit cards, and more – including cutting off his ankle bracelet late last year and fleeing to Nebraska, where he claimed he was hit over the head and lost his memory. But it was his courtroom behavior that spurred Judge John Russo to call for an extreme measure. During the hearing, Williams would not stop talking, even interrupting his own lawyers repeatedly over about 30 minutes. Finally, Russo ordered deputies to tape the defendant’s mouth shut, reported FOX 8 in Cleveland. Williams continued to talk until deputies applied more tape, and finally Russo sentenced him to 24 years in prison.
SO MANY QUESTIONS
When an employee of Sarabeth’s restaurant in New York City opened the walk-in freezer door on Aug. 5, a man jumped out, yelling, “Away from me, Satan!” and grabbed a knife from the kitchen, which he used to threaten restaurant staff. Carlton Henderson, 54, of Cave Creek, Arizona, struggled with workers but eventually fell unconscious and was transported to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the New York Post reported. Authorities don’t know (1) why and how he entered the freezer and (2) why he died, but they did determine he was charged last year with two 1988 cold-case murders in Boston. He had been released on bail the week before the freezer incident and was scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 14.
RIPE
West Valley City, Utah, has a malodorous mystery on its hands. The community stinks, and for the past year, officials have been fielding complaints about the smell, which city communications director Sam Johnson described as “a musty sewer smell… that you can smell in certain parts of the city stronger,” according to FOX 13. The city has now launched a campaign recruiting residents to help pinpoint the source of the odor: “If you smell something, say something.” They’re hoping more complaints will spur Salt Lake County and Utah’s Department of Environmental Quality to investigate and take action.
NERD ALERT
Who knew? Apparently the unofficial “uniform” for Bay Area techies and venture capital investors is a vest, so the Japanese company Uniqlo is cashing in with a vest vending machine at the San Francisco International Airport. The airport’s public information officer, Doug Yakel, says the machine is no joke; it earns $10,000 a month on average. Do the math: At $49.90 apiece, the company is selling about 200 of its ultra-light down vests each month. “This is the first time we’ve had clothing available for sale from a vending machine, which we thought was very unique,” Yakel told Business Insider.
LEAST COMPETENT CRIMINAL
The Baltimore Sun reported that a driver’s license examiner in Glen Burnie, Maryland, got a whiff of something illegal on Aug. 6 when she approached a car about to be used in a driving test. She called Maryland State Police, who found Reginald D. Wooding Jr., 22, of Baltimore waiting in his mother’s car to take his test. But he never got the chance: Wooding was in possession of marijuana, a scale, more than $15,000 in suspected drug-related money and a 9mm Glock handgun with a loaded 30-round magazine.
‘FOR MY GIRLFRIEND’
Airport security at Berlin’s Schonefeld Airport evacuated a terminal on Aug. 7 after spotting “suspicious content in a luggage piece” during a routine X-ray, according to CNN. The bag’s unnamed owner was summoned, but he was reluctant to identify the mysterious items, calling them just “technical stuff.” After an hour-long investigation involving the bomb squad, the 31-year-old traveler admitted to federal police that the items were sex toys, including a vibrator, he had brought along for his girlfriend. He was allowed to proceed with his trip, and the terminal reopened shortly afterward.
COMPELLING EXPLANATION
In Bluffton, South Carolina, 32-year-old Lauren Elizabeth Cutshaw informed police officers she was a former cheerleader, sorority girl, good student and National Honor Society member after they pulled her over at 1:45am on Aug. 4 for running a stop sign at 30 mph over the speed limit. According to The Island Packet, she also told officers she shouldn’t be arrested because she’s a “very clean, thoroughbred, white girl.” She said she’d had only two glasses of wine, but then allowed, “I mean, I was celebrating my birthday.” Police arrested her anyway and booked her into the Beaufort County Detention Center.
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