ODDLY ENOUGH

August 18, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

ODDLY ENOUGH

Authorities: Mass. man fakes death to avoid trial

SALEM, Mass.

Massachusetts authorities are searching for a man they say faked his death to beat charges of driving without a license.

The Gloucester Times reports that 42-year-old Michael Rosen of Salem sent a man to court last week to file a certificate showing that Rosen had died the previous week. Afterward, a judge dismissed the traffic case.

But a suspicious probation officer heard from a colleague in a neighboring town that Rosen had checked in four days after he purportedly died.

Additional investigation showed the certificate contained spelling errors in the place of birth, cause of death and the cemetery.

City officials confirmed the document was a fake, lacking a raised seal and printed on the wrong kind of paper.

Rosen now faces additional charges of forgery and counterfeiting.

Pa. fan turns Paul McCartney autograph into a tattoo

WEST CHESTER, Pa.

Call it a signature in very permanent ink.

A Pennsylvania woman took a sign to Paul McCartney’s show Sunday in Philadelphia requesting he autograph her back with a marker.

McCartney called Rose Ann Belluso up on stage and obliged, and she decided to make the moment last forever.

She had McCartney’s signature permanently etched onto her body at Extreme Ink Tattoo Parlor in West Chester. A tattoo artist went over the signature Monday.

Belluso, of Downingtown, says the painful procedure was a no-brainer.

She says getting McCartney’s autograph was the best experience of her life, behind only the birth of her two sons.

It’s also her first tattoo.

2 zebras wander streets of Northern Calif. suburb

CARMICHAEL, Calif.

Two zebras are safe after a wild five-hour romp through the streets of a Northern California suburb over the weekend.

The zebras were being loaded onto a truck Saturday evening in Carmichael, east of Sacramento, when they were spooked by dogs and went running in opposite directions.

Confused residents reported zebra sightings throughout the downtown area until deputy sheriffs were able to round them up.

Bystanders helped corral one after it was hit by a car, suffering only a superficial cut. The second was found in an apartment complex’s pool.

Their owner, Michael Mastagni, transported his entire herd of seven zebras, including the two runaways, to his ranch in Bly, Ore., on Sunday.

Associated Press