Iguana Meat Siezed At US Mexico Border:
Nearly 60 pounds of exotic reptile meat was seized by customs officials on a bus at the Texas-Mexico border on Sunday.
While doing a security sweep at the Lincoln-Juarez International Bridge, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers said anomalies with two ice chests led them to discover 58 pounds of alleged iguana meat that had not been declared.
The meat had been mixed with masa, a dough made of cornmeal, and was apparently being turned into tamales.
Iguana is a delicacy in many Central American countries and is considered to be a curer of all ills as well as an aphrodesiac.
The CBP office said the iguana meat has an estimated value of $1,560, though iguana prices domestically vary widely. A quick search on the Internet showed prices ranging from $15 per pound to more than $50 per pound.
“This is a substantial amount of iguana meat, well beyond what would be considered as personal use. It lacked the necessary permits for lawful importation and further it was found hidden in masa,” said Joe Uribe, acting CBP port director, Laredo. “This seizure illustrates the hard work of our CBP agriculture specialists and the diversity of laws that CBP enforces on behalf of other federal agencies.”
CBP agriculture specialists seized the meat for alleged violations of the Lacey Act and CITES and returned the woman who was transporting the material to Mexico. CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, ensures that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
The case was turned over to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agents for further investigation.
(Frank Heinz NBCDFW.com)
Swedish Bank robber Busted By Forgotten Urine
(03-09) 13:15 PST COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) –
A Swedish bank robber forgot to cover his tracks and left three bottles of urine behind after hiding inside a bank vault in Copenhagen for three days. The 27-year-old man and his accomplice used the bottles to relieve themselves after sneaking into the vault on a Friday in May and remaining there until the bank opened again the following Monday.
While inside, the robbers emptied 140 safety deposit boxes of at least $500,000 in cash and jewelry. But Prosecutor Frederik Larsen said Wednesday they forgot to take the urine when they left “so we were able to get their DNA samples from the bottles.”
The evidence helped prosecutors win a 21-month prison sentence for the Swede on Tuesday. His accomplice is still at large and the loot hasn’t been recovered.
Woman Goes To Court With Monkey In Bra AMHERST, Va. — A woman turned a few heads when she walked into a rural Virginia courthouse with a tiny monkey clad in a pink-and-white dress tucked in her bra.
The woman brought the palm-sized marmoset to Amherst County Courthouse on Thursday for a hearing in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. Officials apparently didn’t notice the monkey until the woman went to an office to complete some paperwork.
Story: Woman smuggles monkey to U.S. under blouse
In an interview with The News & Advance of Lynchburg, the woman says the marmoset is 7 weeks old and requires constant attention.
The woman tells the newspaper she bought the animal on an online auction site and had its clothes specially made in West Virginia.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Trapped Thief Calls 911: A man called 911 to say there was a burglaryin progress and he wanted police to come protect him. The caller, however, was the alleged intruder.
Timothy James Chapek, 24, had allegedly broken into a home in Portland, Ore., and was taking a shower in the house when the woman who lived there returned about 7 p.m. Monday, according to police.
Chapek leaped into the bathroom, locked the door and called 911. “I just broke into a house and the owners came home…I think they have guns,” he told the operator according to the 911 audio tapes.
He goes on to tell the operator that he has no idea where he is.
“I’m up in the hills,” he says.
When asked what his name is, he grows quiet, saying the homeowners can hear him. The homeowner, Hilary Mackenzie, can be heard confronting Chapek. Her two German Shepherds can be heard barking during the call.
Mackenzie asks, “Why are you in my house taking a shower?”
Chapek responds, “I broke in. I was kidnapped.”
He tells the homeowner his name. When Mackenzie tells Chapek that she’s calling the police, he says, “I’ve already called them. They’re on the phone right now.”
Mackenzie calls the authorities anyway, standing on the front porch wearing slippers and no coat and even laughing at time about the man who broke into her house.
“I said who the hell are you and he said Timothy something…He said he broke in and he was kidnapped and he was taking a shower,” she tells the 911 operator.
Chapek told police that a group of men had kidnapped him and put him in the bathroom, according to a police report.
Mackenzie and her daughter had returned home fron running an errand at the grocery store Monday night when they heard a man’s voice coming from their first floor bathroom, according to the police report.
The bathroom windows were fogged up and a towel was thrown over the stall of the shower. Chapek still had a wet head from his shower, according to the police report.
Mackenzie, in her own call to 911, said that her daughter first thought there was an intruder.
“My daughter said you know I hear a man in the house, I thought, oh no, don’t be silly,” she told the 911 operator.
Click Here to Hear Audio of the 911 Calls
400 lb Shoplifter Caught: A 400lb woman from Michigan was caught shoplifting when her motorized cart got stuck in the store’s door.
30-year-old Jerrie Perkins attempted to leave a store in Rochester Hills with more than $600 worth of stolen electronic equipment.
Police say Perkins set off the door alarm & hit a store employee who confronted her. When police arrived, she “took a fighting stance” & had to be tasered so she could be subdued.
Perkins has been charged with unarmed robbery, resisting & obstructing a police officer & second-degree retail fraud. Her bond was set to $15,000 on Thursday.
Source – UPI
Baby with 12 Fingers 14 Toes: (AP) YANGON, Myanmar – From almost the moment Le Yati Min was born, her mother knew the girl had a little something extra.
“I asked the nurses whether my kid was born complete with hands and legs,” says her mother. “They replied that the baby even has more than she needs.”
Born with 12 fingers and 14 toes, Le may be the most “digitally enhanced” person in the world. Now, the 16-month-old girl’s family in impoverished Myanmar is seeking a Guinness World Record to prove it.
A neighbor is helping her mother apply to claim the record hearing that a boy from India currently hold bragging rights for the most digits, with 12 fingers and 13 toes.
Polydactylism — being born with an extra finger or toe — is fairly unusual, but it is even more rare for someone to have spare functional digits on both hands and feet, as Le does.
Le lives with her family in a small wooden house on the outskirts of the Southeast Asian country’s former capital of Yangon, where she runs around with seven toes on each foot.
Proud mom Phyo Min Min Soe, 26, said Tuesday that she’d be happen to see Le gain a world record, but even without that, her daughter already has a happy life, and even some natural advantages.
“She seems to have a stronger grip on things — so she doesn’t drop things much,” she says, as Le plays nearby with a mobile phone.
According to the Guinness World Records website, the record for most fingers and toes for a living person is currently held by two people in India, who have 12 fingers and 13 toes each.
Very Polite Robber: SEATTLE (AP) — Authorities have made an arrest in a weekend convenience store robbery that a Seattle store owner found remarkable for the robber’s politeness.
Sgt. John Urquhart of the King County Sheriff’s Office says officers quickly identified a suspect from tips received after a surveillance video of Saturday’s robbery “went viral.”
The man is seen in the video telling White Center Shell station owner John Henry: “I’m robbing you, sir.”
He takes $300, apologizing and saying he has bills to pay and children to feed. If he ever gets back on his feet, he tells Henry, he’ll pay the money back.
Urquhart did not identify the 65-year-old man arrested Monday at a residence near the robbery site. The suspect has convictions for armed robbery and forgery.
Man makes 3 photocopies of his buttocks: CLAYTON, Mo. — Police arrested a man who allegedly dropped his pants in the crowded lobby of the St. Louis County Courthouse and made photocopies of his buttocks. Police found Daniel Everett holding two copies he had already made. He was making a third. ”What did I do? What did I do?” witnesses said Everett asked police. Everett, an immature 38, told police that the copies were intended as a practical joke for his girlfriend.
Bird Kills Man In Cockfighting Incident: It seems one of these guys finally got
knocked off by an angry bird. Jose Luis Ochoa, 35, of Lamont, California, was declared dead at a hospital about two hours after he was injured in Tulare County on Jan. 30, the Kern County coroner said.
An autopsy concluded Ochoa died of an accidental “sharp force injury” to his right calf.
“I have never seen this type of incident,” Sgt Martin King, a 24-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, told the Bakersfield Californian.
Ochoa and the other spectators fled when authorities arrived at the scene of the fight, King told the newspaper. Police found five dead roosters and other evidence of cockfighting at the location. According to Kern County Superior Court records, Ochoa paid $370 in fines last year after pleading no contest to one count of owning or training an animal for fighting, according to the newspaper. Speculation is that Jose simply got too close to the action and was sliced by the razor on one of the birds legs.
http://allweirdnews.com/japan-builds-a-chocolate-car/
