ABRACADABRA

Beware there are pavement thieves

In a bizarre robbery, thieves posed as workmen cordoning off an area in UK's Kent county and stole pavement slabs weighing more than five tonnes.
A 35-year-old man from Chatham, Kent, has been arrested on suspicion of theft and bailed until January 14.
The thieves used stolen roadwork signs to cordon off part of the centre of Rochester, Kent, and lifted 7,000 pounds worth of Yorkstone paving slabs.
"This appears to be a brazen operation to make it look genuine. It would have taken time and effort to set up and work in this way," Councillor Phil Filmer was quoted as saying by Daily Express.
"It could be very difficult for the council to replace the missing slabs with matching Yorkstone as it is difficult to get hold of. I would ask any resident who may have seen what was going on to contact the police as soon as possible," he said.

‘Vandalism’ French style

Paris: Some 1,067 vehicles were torched in France over New Year’s Eve, Interior Minister Manuel Valls announced, a marked drop from last year in what has become a turn-of-the-year tradition in rundown areas.
Every year, the night of December 31 to January 1 sees hundreds of cars set  ablaze across the country in an orgy of vandalism — as much a tradition as champagne and oysters in more affluent parts of France.
 Briefing reporters late on Wednesday, Valls said the number of cars torched  over this New Year’s Eve had dropped by more than 10 percent.
 The Seine-Saint-Denis department that neighbours Paris, the poorest in  France, was the clear winner with a total of 80 burnt cars, he added. Authorities had stopped publishing official figures of the number of burnt  cars after it was discovered a district-by-district breakdown was fuelling a  destructive competition between rival gangs.
 But last year, Valls had promised to publish the figures again. Some 53,000 policemen were deployed across the country during New Year’s  Eve to try and avoid any violence, but three people were knifed and died, including one in Paris.

Kiss a girl’s hand & school suspends 6 yr-old

Denver: The suspension of a 6-year-old boy for kissing a girl at school is raising questions about whether the peck should be considered sexual harassment. The boy’s mother said officials at Lincoln School of Science and Technology in Canon City, a Colorado suburb of 16,000, are over-reacting. Jennifer Saunders said her son was suspended once before for kissing the girl and had other disciplinary problems, and she was surprised to find out that he would be forced out of school again for several days. First grader Hunter Yelton told KRDO-TV (http://tinyurl.com/lyhxh7l) that he has a crush on a girl at school and she likes him back. “It was during class, yeah. We were doing reading group, and I leaned over and kissed her on the hand. That’s what happened,” he said. Saunders said she saw nothing wrong with her son’s display of affection. She said she punished him for other problems in school, including rough-housing. She was shocked when the school’s principal brought up the term “sexual harassment” during a meeting. “This is taking it to an extreme that doesn’t need to be met with a six year old. Now my son is asking questions. what is sex mummy? That should not ever be said, sex. Not in a sentence with a six year old,” she said. District superintendent Robin Gooldy told The Associated Press the boy was suspended because of a policy against unwanted touching. “The focus needs to be on his behaviour. We usually try to get the student to stop, but if it continues, we need to take action and it sometimes rises to the level of suspension,” he said.

When bullet boomaranged

In a bizarre mugging incident, a 16-year-old robber was killed after a bullet fired by an accomplice ricocheted off their victim’s face and hit him.

A man was walking along the Alemany Boulevard in San Francisco when a group of boys approached him and demanded his cellphone, police said.

One of the robbers pulled out a gun while the other robbers rifled through the victim’s pockets.

The victim was not resisting and complying with the robbers’ demands, but the armed man fired one shot at the victim anyhow, Sergeant Danielle Newman was quoted as saying by the SF Weekly.

The shot bounced off the victim’s face and instead hit Clifton Chatman, one of the robbery suspects, killing him instantly, police said.

A dog’s day as driver

New York: A mischievous Chihuahua in the US got behind the wheel of his owner's car, somehow kicked it out of gear and steered it onto the open road before crashing into another driver. Jason Martinez, from Spokane, said he left the pooch in his car while he ran into a store. The cheeky chihuahua, Toby, somehow kicked the vehicle out of gear and took it for a spin. However, unable to properly control the car, he ran through a red light and crashed into a woman's motor. Fortunately only her tire was damaged in the bizarre crash, 'New York Daily News' reported. Tabitha Ormaechea told KREM-TV she couldn't believe her eyes when she saw a dog was driving the vehicle. "When I looked up, there was no one in the car, just a little dog up on the steering wheel peeking over looking at me," she said. The dog owner Martinez got to know about the crash when someone ran into the store and said that a gold car had been in an accident. "He [the dog] must have knocked it out of gear and the car rolled out," Martinez said.