Once again I was fortunate to find myself sitting in for Michelle Ward and as usual when I do this I always take a look at some of the items of oddball news stored in Phoenix Fm’s Dept of WEIRD AND WHACKY news.
On the menu today was the story of Gary, the Australian goat charged with destroying a flowerbed in Sydney’s City Centre. Mercifully Gary’s conviction was overturned after the lawyer acting for the goat successfully argued that the police had issued the wrong infringement notice. Gary himself did not give evidence in court and made no comment on the verdict.
Next up we had news that a group of old age pensioners in Stoke-on-Trent have been forced to cancel a sing-a-long event to raise money to save a community hall, after council officials insisted that for health and safety reasons, the pensioners would be required to hire two “bouncers” to keep order in case the they got out of control and damaged the venue.
Then we had news of a group of robbers who were using a stolen donkey as their getaway transport. Unfortunately the donkey started “hee-hawing” at the critical juncture, alerting the police who were nearby. The donkey together with the loot was abandoned. All the stolen property was restored to its owner the following day and the donkey was also re-united with its relieved owner.
If you thought some some of our teachers sometimes fall a bit short of the mark, in Belgium it has been discovered that one in three trainee teachers were unable to identify the USA on a world map or identify the Pacific Ocean! And this was just for starters.
Finally we learnt about the Spanish schoolboy who faked his own kidnapping to avoid parent’s evening at his school. It seems that he was concerned at the reaction from his parents to the expected critical remarks his teachers were likely to accord his schoolwork. Perhaps his marks would have been higher had been to school in Belgium! Bearing in mind that his father was a police officer, who upon hearing news of the “kidnap” managed to pull strings to have roadblocks set up, together with a nationwide alert, the reaction from his parents may now be even more spectacular!
I’ll be back again tomorrow with yet more oddball stories.
See ya,
Scott