oddly enough

oddly enough

Greek police smash violent doughnut ring

THESSALONIKI, Greece

It took an undercover operation, but Greek police have blown a hole in a ring of alleged crooks who had cornered the doughnut market in a beach resort.

It started with complaints that two Bulgarian men and a former Greek wrestling champion were using violence to choke off the trade by other doughnut vendors on Paliouri beach in the Halkidiki peninsula near Thessaloniki.

So an undercover officer posed as a doughnut seller, police said Tuesday, and he was attacked, leading to the arrest of the three aggressive doughnut sellers.

As a result, they have been charged with blackmail and fraud. They also were charged with food-safety violations after police found they had stashed their product in an abandoned hotel that was open to the elements and used by bathers as a toilet.

Ashtabula County boasts shortest covered bridge

ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP

An Ohio county that’s home to the nation’s longest covered bridge now also has what’s considered to be the shortest one.

An 18-foot span with a wooden roof opened this week in Ashtabula County, in the state’s far northeast corner.

It replaces a deteriorating bridge in Geneva, about 45 miles northeast of Cleveland.

The new bridge will have its formal dedication in October during the annual Covered Bridge Festival in the county, which now has 18 of them.

Festival spokeswoman Betty Morrison tells The Star-Beacon newspaper the new bridge is so short that tour buses passing through it will look like hot dogs in a bun.

The longest U.S. covered bridge — 613 feet long — was dedicated in Ashtabula County three years ago.

Ravenna frets its huge, old flagpole is a hazard

RAVENNA

A Northeast Ohio community wants to wash its hands of a towering flagpole well over 100 years old that officials fear is a tempting hazard.

Within the past year, two people thought to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs climbed up the 150-foot flagpole in front of the Portage County Courthouse in Ravenna. Ravenna Township Trustee Patsy Artz says both were lucky to survive and calls the flagpole “an accident waiting to happen.”

The Record-Courier newspaper reports the township is asking that either the city of Ravenna or the county take responsibility for the steel flagpole, which resembles a broadcast antenna.

Artz said Tuesday the township should tear it down if no one else wants the responsibility. So far, city officials say they’re not interested.

Associated Press