oddly enough

oddly enough

Titanic II embarks on maiden voyage, lives up to its name

dorset, england

Mark Wilkinson’s secondhand boat, which he rechristened the Titanic II, behaved on its maiden voyage exactly as one might expect from a vessel with that name.

Wilkinson towed the 16-foot cabin cruiser, which he had just purchased for about $1,600, from his home in Birmingham, England, and set out on a fishing trip from West Bay harbor in Dorset on Saturday morning. On his way back, as the Titanic II made its way into the harbor and ... well, you can pretty much see this one coming.

According to the Dorset Echo, the coast- guard officers and the harbormaster spotted Wilkinson un-ironically clinging to the bow of his rapidly sinking metaphor for hubris. They helped moor the ship, and Wilkinson climbed out of the water unhurt.

The harbormaster speculated that the breach in the Titanic II’s fiberglass hull was caused when an old repair job came apart.

“It’s all a bit embarrassing,” Wilkinson told the Sun newspaper,

“I’m fed up with people asking me if I hit an iceberg.”

Contortionist thief hid in suitcase, Spanish officials say

MADRID

A man was arrested in Spain after curling himself up inside a large suitcase that was placed in an airport-bus cargo bay and sneaking out to steal from other people’s luggage, police said Thursday.

The man arrested last week was 5 feet 10 inches tall and very thin, a police official in the northeastern Catalonia region said. An accomplice also was arrested.

The suspects were successful on several occasions before being caught, the police official said on condition of anonymity because of department rules. The accomplice would place the contortionist thief inside the cargo bay of a bus running from the airport in the city of Girona south to Barcelona, board the bus and then retrieve him at the end of the line.

During the 60-mile ride, the man would slip out of the suitcase and use a sharp object to pick locks or open zippers to get into other people’s luggage, police said.

He stole objects including cellphones, laptops and GPS devices and would place them in a smaller bag that he brought with him. The thief then would get back into the larger suitcase and when the bus reached its destination, the accomplice would retrieve both pieces of luggage.

Police were alerted by bus riders who reported items stolen from their baggage.

Vindicator wire services