Interesting In General

Interesting In General

Thai police force takes monkey on the beat

A Thai police force has begun taking a monkey dressed in officer's uniform on patrol each day to help improve relations with Muslim separatists.

The five-year-old pig-tailed macaque was adopted after policemen in Yaha province in southern Thailand found him injured with a broken arm.

Trainers taught Santisuk, which means peace in Thai, to pick up coconuts and he now lends a hand collecting the fruit with residents.

The monkey also helps supervise a police checkpoint and his boss says he has made it a much happier place.

Motorists now stop to play with Santisuk, rather than getting angry at the hold-up.

Other forces are now considering introducing monkeys to better their image in the troubled province.

There's a photo gallery here.

Man too fat to face food scam charges

A 600-pound Florida man accused of stealing food and scamming restaurants has been unable to face his charges in court because he is too sick and fat. George Jolicoeur, 38, remained in a bed in his nursing home while his lawyer pleaded no contest to five petty theft charges in an Orlando court.

The offences were all committed in 2007, when a more mobile Jolicoeur on five occasions walked into a restaurant or food store and claimed he had been sold substandard food. On each of the occasions, Jolicoeur demanded large refunds from the store.

The court heard Jolicoeur was eventually arrested after he marched into a 7-Eleven store and claimed he had bought $50 in beef jerky that turned out to be mouldy. According to court documents, Jolicoeur told his arresting officer: "The beef jerky got me."

Jolicoeur has been convicted of similar scams in the past, including one in 2005 where he claimed to have found hair in six milkshakes.

Defence attorney James D. Phillips Jr. told the judge his client now required a respirator to breathe and was too ill to attend a court hearing.

Jolicoeur’s medical condition was not specified but the court heard his health was unlikely to improve. He was spared a jail term but ordered to pay $1,365 in legal costs and unspecified damages.

Polish man survives after 2-inch nail pierces heart

A 30-year-old man from Poland is in stable condition after he was accidentally shot in the heart with a 2-inch nail.

The man’s heart was pierced as he was nailing boards with a co-worker at a carpentry shop. The shop’s owner said the men were working together, when suddenly, they ran into each other resulting in the nail gun going off.

Doctors said the man was in very serious condition when he arrived at the hospital and it was minutes, not hours, that decided if he was going to survive.

Doctors performed surgery to remove the nail and the man is expected to make a full recovery.

Gecko survives week in cold fridge after being packed in apple bag

A gecko survived a week in a fridge after accidentally ending up in a bag of apples. Wendy Newbury, from Bideford, said she was "rather shocked" when she took the last of the apples out of the bag in the fridge and found the small lizard.

She said: "This thing just fell out the bag and it looked dead. It then must have started warming up and he started moving around.

"He was such a sweet and amazing little thing and me and my husband, Brian, are both animal lovers so we didn't want anything to happen to it."

Wendy said she had taken in stray cats and chickens before but wasn't sure what care a gecko needed. So the couple put holes in a plastic container and took the gecko to Bideford's Torbridge Veterinary Centre.

Veterinary assistant Stephen Warren said the gecko was lively and appeared to be in good heath — particularly after spending a week refrigerated.

The vets believed the gecko probably originated in Asia meaning it may have travelled thousands of miles to get to North Devon. Although the apples Wendy bought from Waitrose in Holsworthy say they're from Kent.