oddly enough

oddly enough

Man thwarts Wis. bank robbery attempt

ST. FRANCIS, Wis

A good Samaritan has thwarted a bank robbery in Wisconsin by jumping on an armed man.

The Associated Bank’s surveillance video shows the man at a counter when the masked robber carrying a gun rushes to a teller at the bank in St. Francis about 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Within five seconds, the man approaches the robber from behind. A second later he puts his arm around the robber’s neck and jumps on his back.

The robber then tries to run with the man on his back.

Police Chief Brian Kaebisch says the man eventually released the robber before the robber ran to a car. No one was hurt.

Kaebisch says he appreciates the effort, but police don’t want people intervening in robberies. He would rather bystanders be good witnesses.

Cast-iron deer statue taken from Pa. yard

AKRON, Pa.

Police in central Pennsylvania are searching for a missing half-ton deer statue named “Valentine.”

The wayward whitetail was stolen sometime Wednesday night or early Thursday from a yard in Akron, near Lancaster.

Homeowner Charlotte Putt says it takes several men and heavy equipment to move the 5-foot cast-iron creature from its spot in her yard. She doesn’t know how it could have been taken undetected.

Putt tells WGAL-TV that her husband bought the deer for her around Valentine’s Day several years ago. The statue was kept in a fenced-in area with a pair of deer antlers on its head.

Romanian witches win tax fight for now

BUCHAREST, Romania

Abracadabra, we’ll turn all of you into toads!

That’s what Romanian senators may have been fearing when they rejected a proposal to tax witches and fortune tellers.

Lawmakers Alin Popoviciu and Cristi Dugulescu of the ruling Democratic Liberal Party drafted a law where witches and fortune tellers would have to produce receipts and would also be held liable for wrong predictions, a measure that was part of the government’s drive to increase revenue.

Romania’s Senate voted down the proposal Tuesday. Popoviciu claimed lawmakers were frightened of being cursed.

It’s unclear if Popoviciu and Dugulescu will try to redraft the law.

Maria Campina, a well-known Romanian witch, told Realitatea TV Thursday it is difficult to tax thousands of fortune tellers and witches partly because of the erratic sums of money they receive.

Romania is in a severe economic downturn and is trying to raise revenue from taxes. The government hiked sales tax from 19 percent to 24 percent, and slashed public sector wages by one-fourth.

In 2009, Romania negotiated a $26 billion loan with the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the World Bank to help pay state wages and pensions last year, when the country’s economy shrank by 7.1 percent.

Associated Press