Global Oddities

A woman who wasn’t invited to her sister’s wedding reception showed up anyway and attacked the bride, pulling out clumps of her hair, police said. Annmarie Bricker, 23, of Valparaiso, was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of battery.

Jeremy Glotzbach told police he was hosting a reception for newlyweds Nicholas Landry and Lori Kappes at his home on Jan. 23 when Bricker, Kappes’ sister, attacked Kappes on the front porch.

Bricker pulled out clumps of Kappes’ hair, struck her head and took the bride to the ground during a struggle, according to the Porter County Sheriff’s Department.

Bricker told police she went to the house because she “just wanted to talk” to her sister and parents about family problems. She said she never touched her sister, but five witnesses contradicted her, authorities said. Kappes did not need medical treatment.

Bricker later resigned from her job as a Porter County 911 dispatcher, officials said.

Source: AP, January 30, 2008

A blaze broke out at a fire station in Japan this week after a firefighter left a cooking stove burning as crew members left the station to respond to emergency calls.

Most of the duty staffers were out on a call when their colleague, alone at the station and cooking dinner for the crew, was himself called out.
In his haste to respond to the call, he forgot to turn the stove off, said Seiji Hori, a Nagoya City Fire Department official. Ten fire trucks from other stations put out the fire, Hori added.
“We are an institute that should be in a position to educate people about fire, so we are extremely sorry that such an incident happened,” Hori said, adding that they would consider ordering-in for dinner from now on.
Source: Reuters, January 29, 2009

The bodies of five children and two adults were found Tuesday in a home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington, and authorities are investigating the case as a murder-suicide, police said.
Among the dead were an 8-year-old girl and two sets of twins: 5-year-old girls and 2-year-old boys, authorities said.
“There is no reason to believe this is anything other than a murder-suicide,” Lt. John Romero said. “There is no current threat to the community, no active search for a suspect.”
The father and the three girls were found in one upstairs room of the home, the mother and twin boys in another, police said. Deputy Police Chief Kenneth Garner described the scene as one of the most grisly police have encountered.
The children’s father is believed to have killed the children and their mother before calling 911 and contacting a local television station, KABC, by fax. He told dispatchers he found his family dead but told the station he had killed them, said Deputy Police Chief Kenneth Garner.
In the faxed note to KABC, the man said he was despondent over an employment situation, police said.
The fax is signed Ervin Lupoe, police confirmed. But the coroner’s office has not identified the male body found in the home.
A note was also found in the home, Garner said. He would not divulge details but said it could be described as a suicide note.
Ervin Antonio Lupoe and his wife, Ana, are former employees of Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente said in a written statement.
“We are deeply saddened to hear of the deaths of the Lupoe family,” the statement said. “Our sympathies are with all their extended family and friends at this time. We are also providing resources and support to our employees who are affected by this tragedy.”
The company said it is cooperating with police.
A dozen police officers and detectives remained at the scene Tuesday afternoon and several surrounding blocks were sealed off by police.
Authorities said at an afternoon briefing that a community meeting would be held Tuesday afternoon at a local church.
Source: CNN January 27, 2009

In India’s eastern Jharkhand, villagers ‘married’ off a young girl to a stray dog to ward off an evil spirit.
The locals at Munda Dhanda village performed the ceremony as they believe it will overcome any curse that might fall on the family
Interestingly, the girl is free to get married later in life to a man without even seeking a divorce.
Superstitions are widespread in India, especially in rural areas where literacy is scarce.
Source: Reuters, January 26, 2009

Relatives of 100 missing people want to show photos of their loved ones to a man arrested in Tijuana for allegedly helping a druglord dispose of his slain enemies by dissolving their bodies in acid, a victims’ group said Saturday.
Santiago Meza Lopez, known as the “Pozole Maker” after a local stew, is accused by Mexico’s military of disposing of 300 bodies for Teodoro Garcia Simental, a suspected former lieutenant of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug cartel.
The relatives have asked authorities for permission to meet face-to-face with the 45-year-old Meza, said Cristina Palacios, president of Citizens United Against Impunity, a group that represents families of missing people in Tijuana.
Meza was arrested Thursday and paraded by soldiers and federal police in front of reporters on Friday at a cement-block shack where he allegedly got rid of many of the bodies over several years.
The security officers had Meza tell reporters how he did it: first dumping the corpses in large plastic bins filled with acid, then burying any remains. Surrounded by soldiers, Meza told reporters he helped get rid of 300 bodies.
Meza has not been charged. Investigators have not identified any of Meza’s alleged victims or provided evidence to back up the 300 victims claim.
“We are here because this arrest has given us a ray of hope,” Palacios said after meeting with Baja California state authorities.
State Attorney General Rommel Moreno said Meza would be shown the photos to see if he recognized any as among his victims, and authorities were considering allowing the relatives to meet with him.
The relatives did not say whether they believed their missing loved ones were involved in drug trafficking. But Fernando Ocegueda, whose son disappeared in February 2007, said most of the 100 people vanished in eastern Tijuana, which is believed to be Garcia’s stronghold.

Source: AP. January 24, 2009

A man suspected of fathering four children with his teenage daughter faces charges of killing at least one after human remains were discovered at the rural home where the family once lived, authorities said Friday.
The 47-year-old man is charged with second-degree murder, endangering the welfare of a child, statutory rape, two counts of incest and two counts of abandoning a corpse.
Three of the children are dead. The abuse of his now 19-year-old daughter allegedly began when she was 13, Cass County prosecutor Teresa Hensley said.
The Associated Press is withholding the suspect’s name to protect the identity of the teen daughter, an alleged sexual assault victim.
“For six years (the daughter) was under his control,” Hensley said.
At an arraignment later Friday, the man said he did not yet have an attorney and indicated to a judge that he didn’t understand the murder charge. Another hearing was scheduled for Jan. 29.
According to court documents, the teenage daughter told police he had fathered all four children, while the father told detectives he was certain two of them were his. Both said all of the children were delivered at home by the father and his wife. The wife is charged with endangering the welfare of a child for not reporting the alleged sexual abuse. She is free on $10,000 bond.

Source: AP, January 24, 2009

Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.
Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.
“The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat,” Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.
“We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat,” he said.
Belief in witchcraft is widespread in parts of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.
Source: Reuters, January 23, 2009

German teen-ager caught shoplifting tried to dupe police by lying about where he lived — but ended up in even more trouble when the address he gave turned out to be the home of an investigating officer.

The 18-year-old from Achim, a town of 30,000 in northern Germany, admitted he had lied when the officer explained that the address belonged to him, said police in nearby Verden.

“It was complete coincidence,” said a police spokesman. “The thief gave that address because he’d once lived in the house. The policeman was the guy who moved in afterwards.”

Source: Reuters, January 21, 2009

France’s former president Jacques Chirac has been bitten by his lap dog Sumo, who is being treated for depression, in a dramatic incident that rattled his wife Bernadette, she told a magazine.

“If you only knew! I had a dramatic day yesterday,” she told VSD magazine. “Sumo bit my husband!”
Sumo is a “Maltese”, a miniature lap dog with a silky white coat. He has been agitated for some time despite receiving treatment with anti-depressants, the article said.
A member of the right wing former president’s entourage confirmed that 76-year-old Chirac had been bitten, but insisted that the attack had not been serious and had not left a permanent scar.
Chirac, who is a fan of Sumo wrestling, left office in 2007 after Nicolas Sarkozy was elected to the presidency.
Source: AFP, January 24, 2009

The boyfriend of a woman whose four children were burned with sulfuric acid has surrendered to authorities on charges he injured them.

Tracy Lynn Escobedo, 27, was being held at the Cooke County jail after surrendering Sunday at the sheriff’s office, Sheriff Michael Compton said. He said Escobedo did not have an attorney.
Escobedo was charged with four counts of injury to a child. Authorities said the children’s mother, Cynthia Darlene Stout, told them Escobedo tried to throw the acid on her during an argument Wednesday but splashed the children instead.
The four children, whose ages range from 18 months to 14 years, were badly burned and remained hospitalized Sunday.
Compton said Escobedo called a television station to say he was going to surrender, then did so without problems.
Escobedo had been on the run since authorities found three of the children at a cafe in Woodbine, an unincorporated community more than 60 miles north of Dallas.
Stout, 43, remained in jail Sunday on $100,000 bond on a charge of child endangerment. Stout was taken into custody while trying to leave the cafe.
A judge on Friday had granted temporary custody of the children to Child Protective Services. The children would be placed in foster care once they are released, agency spokeswoman Marissa Gonzales said.
Compton said it was believed that Escobedo is the father of the 18-month-old.

Source: AP, January 19, 2009