Posted by BobaFett
Hostage released for pizza
An Australian prison guard held hostage for two days was released after a ransom demand for pizzas was met.
Up to 20 inmates at the Risdon Prison in Hobart, Tasmania, seized the guard in a protest over conditions in the maximum security jail.
Initially they made 24 demands to authorities, but eventually gave up their hostage after agreeing to 15 pizzas, Coke and garlic bread instead.
"At midnight, the final sticking point with the inmates was that they were requiring pizzas to be delivered. Our staff member was negotiated out with the delivery of 15 pizzas," Graeme Barber, Tasmania's director of prisons, told The Advocate newspaper.
The guard is recovering from his ordeal at home.
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Man learns to tell 'pigs' from cops
A New Zealand man who called police officers 'pigs' has been ordered to spend a day at a pig farm.
The 22-year-old has also been ordered to write an essay about the difference between pigs and police officers.
The man was charged with using offensive language after he hurled abuse at police during a trip to Auckland.
Community Magistrate Robyn Paterson at Tauranga District Court ordered him to spend a day at a pig farm and present a short essay on his experiences, reports The Bay of Plenty Times.
According to the newspaper, he wrote: "I was very, very drunk. I have stopped drinking because of what happened. I have wasted the police's time and my time."
He maintained the word pig could be found in the Oxford dictionary and was often used to describe police.
But added he had learned 'that there is nothing at all in common with a pig and an officer'.
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Man shot his own car
A US man who shot his car when it wouldn't start ended up in jail after shocked neighbours called police.
John McGivney pulled out a gun and fired five rounds into the bonnet of his Chrysler.
When asked what he was doing, McGivney, 64, said: "I'm putting my car out of its misery."
He then calmly tucked his gun in a pocket and went back inside his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Police arrested him for discharging the firearm, a .380-caliber semiautomatic, in public.
After being bailed, McGivney said the car has been giving him trouble for years and had "outlived its usefulness".
He called the shooting "dumb" but said he didn't regret it.
"I think every guy in the universe has wanted to do it," he said. "It was worth every damn minute in that jail."
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Drivers made to hop like frogs
Truck drivers who are caught speeding in an Indian state are being made to hop like frogs.
Police in Bihar dish out the humiliating punishments instead of taking offenders to court, reports Newindpress.com.
For the most popular punishment, leapfrog, speeding truck drivers have to sit on their haunches, hold their ears and hop for almost half a kilometre.
And the drivers are made to chant the name of the political leader they like most while they are being punished.
One policeman was quoted as saying: "If they remember their leader when they are being punished, it's like they are insulting them. If they have any sense, they won't do the offence again."
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Gran hits burglar with garden gnome
A grandmother knocked out a burglar by hitting him with a garden gnome.
Jean Collop, 69, woke at 5am to find an intruder clambering on her roof.
She yelled at the man, then picked up a gnome and hurled it at him, reports The Sun.
It bounced off his head, leaving him lying dazed on the roof in Wadebridge, Cornwall.
Jean dashed to fetch her rolling pin and a camera, and then took photos of the burglar as neighbours called the police.
Officers arrived to find the man still on the roof and half a dozen locals standing guard.
Jean said: "I heard a crash and rushed out in my nightdress. I politely told him not to move and grabbed the first thing that came to hand, which was a garden gnome.
"When it hit him he lay down for a while. I got my rolling pin in case. I didn't want to break another gnome."
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Cake robber returned once too often
A Chinese man was arrested after attempting to steal cakes at knifepoint three times in an hour from the same shop.
The 36-year-old burst into the cake shop at Changchun city, Jilin province, and told staff to give him some cakes.
"He came in with a knife and told us to freeze. Taking two cakes, he ran away," the shop manager told the Eastern Asia Economic News.
Considering the loss was so minor, the manager didn't call the police, but then, after only ten minutes, the robber returned and stole two more cakes.
This time, the manager called the police and officers were at the scene 30 minutes later when the man came back to the shop, asking staff to "load him with another two cakes".
At first, he told police he was a visitor and only spoke "foreign language", but he finally admitted he had just been hungry.
Posted by goldenface
Posted by leeboy13
nice work boba! 
Posted by scapevlocity
"I got my rolling pin in case. I didn't want to break another gnome."
the story about the chinese guy's pretty sad, though. reminds us of how hard life can get/be.