Tuesday, September 23, 2014
oddly enough
Illinois city marks birthday with mega-bratwurst
BELLEVILLE, Ill.
Residents in the southwest Illinois city of Belleville celebrated its 200th birthday with a 200-foot bratwurst, complete with a 200-foot bun.
Larry Schubert and his team from Schubert’s Packing Co. in Millstadt used about 120 pounds of meat to make the brat, which volunteers grilled Sunday, the final day of the city’s bicentennial celebration, the Belleville News-Democrat reported .
A few days earlier, a saloon hosted a half-size practice run for grilling the mega-bratwurst.
Lindenwood University and Southwestern Illinois College athletes helped march the bun down a main thoroughfare, making a wide turn in a parking lot to finish the delivery. The athletes also helped roll the bratwurst onto a 200-foot metal grilling trough.
Event organizers decided not to pay a fee to have the bratwurst-record attempt recognized by the World Record Academy.
The event raised $1,600 for local food pantries.
Greece: Homeless people used in VIP-taxi scam
ATHENS, Greece
Police have busted a phony VIP taxi service in Greece that was using the bank accounts of homeless people to collect deposits from cabdrivers.
Police spokesman Christos Parthenis said Monday that seven people have been arrested.
They are accused of taking more than 110,000 euros ($141,300) in deposits from drivers who were promised a customer list that would include officials from the European Commission and the World Health Organization.
Parthenis said a 66-year-old man and 39-year-old woman, both Greek, were accused of paying panhandlers and homeless people in Athens to use their bank accounts to collect the deposits.
Taxi drivers, approached around the country, typically paid a 1,500 euro ($1,925) deposit to join the service, which promised to pay them 300 ($385) a day for at least a month.
Man breaks into police station
SHELBURNE, Vt.
Police say a man who thought he was breaking into a Vermont school actually got into the local police station.
WFFF-TV reports the man, identified as 59-year-old John Dettor of Washington, D.C., told police he wanted a warm place to stay.
Police say late last week Dettor used a traffic cone to break the glass to get into the police station in Shelburne, thinking it was a school.
He was arrested on suspicion of unlawful mischief and ended up in the Chittenden Correctional Center. It wasn’t immediately known if the man has a lawyer.
Associated Press