Man pays parking fine with toilet paper 英男子以衛生紙繳納停車罰單

A motorist who paid a parking fine with a cheque written on toilet paper claimed a victory for common sense today after he escaped a further penalty.

Richard Roper, 63, of Long Melford, Suffolk, was instead ordered to spend just over an hour at the back of Sudbury Magistrates' Court.

Mr Roper staged his "peaceful protest" after receiving a £30 ticket for illegally parking his car across two spaces in Sudbury.

But Suffolk Police took the matter to court to reclaim the £15 they said it would cost to process the unusual payment method.

My payment has been written on stationery which aptly reflects my feelings towards the system

District Judge David Cooper, who sniggered while listening to some of the evidence in the case, suggested the compromise punishment as a way of "clearing it all off".

Mr Roper told the judge: "This is not a case of not wishing or refusing to pay but a case of the authorities refusing to accept my payment.

"What I did here, your honour, was done in good humour.

"My payment has been written on stationery which aptly reflects my feelings towards the system which I am unfortunately forced to support through my taxes."

Afterwards, Mr Roper, a retired managing director of a pharmaceuticals company, said: "I don't consider it a punishment. It was a victory for common sense, really.

"At the end of the day, it wasn't me refusing to pay the fine. It was them refusing to accept it." (Metro.co.uk)

Driving car across two steel cables 汽車走鋼索

A Chinese man performed a breathtaking stunt by driving a car across two steel cables suspended 150ft above a river.

Liu Suozhu, 48, of Henan province, completed the 750ft journey over Miluo River in Pingjiang city, Hunan province.

Liu, who is nicknamed the Car King in China, drove the motor from a platform in front of tens of thousands of cheering spectators.

During his 30-minute journey, Liu communicated with the performance host via radio, which was broadcast to the audience.

"The cables are a bit shaky, not very stable... the slope is very steep," the showman said, to more cheers from the crowd.

Liu says the last few minutes were the most difficult and dangerous because the steep slope blocked his rear view. He stopped several times during the last section of his journey. (Ananova.com)

Woman robs bank with chocolates 女子持巧克力搶銀行

A shopping mall in Olathe, Kansas, was evacuated after a woman robbed a bank with a box of chocolates.

The woman walked up to a cashier at the Capitol Federal Bank and said the box contained an explosive and demanded money.

She got away with an undisclosed sum, but after X-raying the package, the bomb squad discovered it contained chocolates and harmless wires. (metro.co.uk)

Man commits crime to escape nagging wife 上海男子一夜搶劫三次 只為入獄躲妻子

A man from Shanghai has been constantly blamed and harassed by his wife for not making enough money. He finally decided to rob people just so he could go to jail and avoid his wife’s nagging abuse.

29 year-old Linghua Wang works as a technician. He and his wife Xiao Feng have been married for nine years and have one daughter. Everyone knows Wang is a good father and husband, but his wife is not happy that he’s making so little money, and so she verbally abusing him by calling him names and making fun of him.

At first, he tried not going home to avoid his wife’s nagging but that didn’t work. Finally, he just couldn’t take it anymore. He walked in to the police station and lied that he robbed someone and ask to be taken to the jail. The police did not believe his story and refused to arrest him, so he decided to rob someone for real.

He pointed a toy gun at a taxi driver, told him that he’s a fugitive and demanded the driver’s money. The driver then screamed, which scared Wang away.

After his failed attempt, he tried again with a young couple. The young couple turned out their pockets and showed they had no real money. Wang desperately turned to a woman who was passing by and the woman replied calmly, “You can shoot me, but I only got 3 bucks”.

Wang, frustrated with failure, gave up, but was soon arrested for his many attempts.

“I intentionally kept doing this because that gives me enough evidence to be arrested so I can go to jail and not have to face my wife again.”

Wang is so afraid of his wife he cannot even ask for a divorce. Instead he chose to break the law and go to jail.

He was sentenced to four years for intentional robbery, but at least he is finally free from his wife.

In China, Shanghai men are well known as “Pa Lao Po”, which means “afraid of wives”. Shanghai women are the dominant ones in the family. (Weirdasianews.com)

Lonely Japan prankster calls out firemen 388 times 寂寞的日本男子打了388次惡作劇電話給消防隊

A Japanese man arrested for making 388 prank phone calls to the local fire station between May 2006 and July this year said he did it because he was lonely.

"I live by myself and I was sad. I like the fire services and the police so I called them. I wanted them to come and look after me," the 58-year-old man was quoted as saying by the daily Yomiuri newspaper.

A police spokesman in Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo, said the man had been arrested on suspicion of obstructing the emergency services.

The Yomiuri said the man would phone the fire station shouting: "Fire! Fire! I've set gasoline and kerosene alight!"

After one such call in early July, local emergency services dispatched 10 fire engines, one ambulance and 35 firemen to the man's house, the Yomiuri reported. (Reuters)

Chinese man buys air conditioner with 8,000 coins 大陸男子以8千個硬幣購買冷氣機

If I were the salesperson of the shop, I must have turned down the man's purchase.

It took six staff members in a home appliance store in the city of Wuhan four hours to count the 8,000 coins brought by a customer, who came to buy an air conditioner with these coins.

According the Chutian Metropolis Daily report, the coins, all of them 10 cents each (RMB), were placed in a huge bag. The man left the bag in the store on Thursday (Aug. 9) morning, telling the salesperson to call him back after they confirm the amount of the money.

According to the report, the anonymous customer explained that he was able to collect lots of coins because of his job and decided to use his collection to buy an air-conditioner. (CRI English)