This is True- wacky stories from around the globe - to be updated continuously

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Most of the stories that will appear on this thread will be from This isTrue.com (click)

Comments welcome.

Charles D. McKinley, 25, of Brooklyn, N.Y., had four weeks of vacation coming, so he decided to visit his parents in DeSoto, Texas. Rather than buy a plane ticket for $320, McKinley, a shipping clerk, packed himself into a shipping crate and air-expressed himself home, charging the fees to his employer. When the crate was delivered to his parents' front step, McKinley pushed out of the box and shook hands with the "shaken and frightened" delivery driver. The driver called the police. After an investigation by the FBI, the U.S. attorney, postal inspectors, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration, McKinley was charged as a stowaway, a federal misdemeanor. (Dallas Morning News) ...If he had only waited for the driver to leave, he would have been home free.

[cabledog]

That is insane. Have you ever seen how delivery men handle packages? He's lucky to be alive.

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That is insane. Have you ever seen how delivery men handle packages? He's lucky to be alive.

Its amazing what some people will do to save a buck.

Although then again, if you really gotta get somewhere, and you can't afford the fare...desperate times call for desperate measures..

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HOT HOT HOT: Jason Viles had just gotten settled in a tanning bed in a salon in Regina, Sask., Canada, when he realized it was on fire. "I couldn't kick it open. I had to knock the stereo off the wall and crawl out of the back," he said, taking about a minute to get through the narrow gap. "Anyone bigger wouldn't have gotten out." He grabbed his clothes, alerted salon staff to evacuate, and barely escaped with his life. Viles said he'll still use tanning beds, but never the Leonardo   "high intensity" model again. (Regina Leader-Post) ...Right: if he wanted "char" he could have just stayed in there.

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BODY AND SOUL: Dr. Richard Batista, 49, and his wife, Dawnell, are getting a divorce. She filed the action, but the Long Island, N.Y., doctor has a demand too: he wants his kidney back. He donated it to her for a transplant eight years ago and, if he can't have it back, he demands $1.5 million instead. "I saved her life" by giving her one of his kidneys, he told reporters. "There's no deeper pain you can ever express than to be betrayed by the person you devoted your life to," he
said, alleging Dawnell was unfaithful to him with her physical therapist. "It put a hole in my heart that still exists." (New York Daily News) ...Forget the kidney, then. What he needs is a heart transplant.

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DO YOU SMELL SMOKE? A fire station in Syke, Germany, was destroyed -- it burned down, and six fire engines worth 2.35 million Euros (US$3.4million) burned with it. Investigators are unsure whether faulty wiring is the culprit, or if the firefighters themselves are to blame, since the fire broke out during a training exercise. The station was only 15 years old; it replaced the previous building, which was lost to a fire. (Austrian Times) ...Maybe this time they could try installing fire sprinklers -- or a smoke alarm.

HOW WAS YOUR DAY TODAY? The bad part: an unidentified 39-year-old man in Moenchengladbach, Germany, lost his keys. The good part: he was pretty sure he had accidentally tossed them into a public trash bin with some papers. The bad part: it had a narrow opening, and the top doesn't come off easily. The good part: he could fit his head and arm into the opening. The bad part: he got so stuck he couldn't move. The good part: a friend happened by, and called the fire brigade to come help. The bad part: they couldn't get him out either, so they widened the hole and shoved him the rest of the way in. The bad part: it took another half hour before they were able to get the top off. The good part: by the time he finally emerged, he had found his keys. (AFP) ...The bad part: in his pocket.

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IF THIS SCARES YOU, THINK ABOUT THE ONES WHO PASS: Stanley Mayausky, 79,   has lived in Tampa, Fla., since he moved there from New Jersey 30 years ago. He'd really like a Florida drivers license, but it was taken away from him after he drove away after an accident -- a hit and run. To get it back, he has to take the standard written state driver test -- 20 multiple-choice questions, and he has to get 15 correct to pass. There is no time limit, and he takes his time. Still, he has failed the test 72 times. "I've been driving for all these years and, see, they've made all these changes to the rules and they never told me," he explains.  "Maybe I'll try again tomorrow." If he passes, he then has to take a driving test. If he fails that test five times, Florida will ban him from driving for life. (St. Petersburg Times) ...All of Florida admires his persistence, but fears his success.

JUST CHARGE THE FINE TO THE VICTIMS: The State of Florida sold personal information from its drivers license data base to private marketing companies, including each driving citizen's name, address, and Social Security number. It made $108 million on the sales over a four-year period -- the four years after such sales were made illegal by federal   law. When several Floridians sued, the state refused to admit wrongdoing, but agreed to settle for $10.4 million, which will be divided up this way: the drivers who sued, $3,000 each. Everyone else: a $1 credit on their next car registration fee. The five law firms that worked on the suit: $2.85 million. Federal law calls for a $2,500 penalty for each violation, which would have come to $39 billion. (St. Petersburg Times) ...Which would penalize citizens even more. So how   about ten years in prison for every state official who went along with the scheme?

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2 more good ones today:

ORDER UP! A man wearing a motorcycle helmet and a leather jacket burst into the Williams Supper Club in Waukesha, Wisc., through the back door and grabbed an employee. "Give me the money or I will shoot you," the man said. The bartender handed over the night's receipts, but chef Erik Minor saw the man, walked up behind him, and "hit him over the head with a big aluminum spoon" -- which broke. He then jumped the intruder, put him in a headlock, and wrestled him to the ground, even though at first, Minor didn't realize the man was a robber. He took action because "I wasn't going to let someone manhandle an employee," he said afterward. Minor and a patron held Joey N. Geraci, 39, until police arrived. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) ...Tip: be nice if you ever send back your steak at the Williams Supper Club.

HARD-HEADED ROBBER II: A man wearing a bicycle helmet demanded cash at a bank in Gig Harbor, Wash. The teller slipped a little something extra in the bag with the $12,000 in loot: a GPS tracking device with a transmitter that police could track. The robber escaped on a bicycle, which he rode to a nearby car and took off. Shortly after he got rolling, there were police cars behind, and the robber led a pursuit. When he got the chance to ditch his car and run, he took the money with him -- complete with the tracking device. He was found hiding in some bushes within minutes. Police say James R. Knox, 50, had only been out of prison for 10 days after spending nearly 10 years in prison -- for bank robbery. (Seattle Times) ...It's so important to keep up with technological advances related to your profession.

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SHUDDUP YA DUMB REDNECKS: Missouri state Sen. Kevin Engler is really fed up with people who litter, and sponsored a bill calling for the death penalty for littering. "I think killing one or two of them would be a fine first start and then the rest would fall in line," he said after introducing his proposed law on the Senate floor. In his address, he said "dumb rednecks" are "teaching [their children] to be white trash" by throwing refuse out car windows, and he was "sick of every week having to pick up litter" for them. Engler then announced he was "doing this tongue in cheek" and withdrew the bill to "make it a little tougher." When criticized for calling people "rednecks" and "white trash," Engler said "The only people I called names are the ones doing it. If they are offended, good." (Park Hills Daily Journal) ...In other news, Missouri State Sen. Kevin Engler was re-elected in a landslide -- which he then immediately cleaned up.

YOU ARE NOW FREE TO MOVE ABOUT THE CABIN: Samantha Scafe is incensed that when she flew from her home in Cairns, Qld., Australia, to Coolangatta, airline Jetstar made her pay for two seats because she weighs 160kg (353 lbs). Scafe says the airline told her "not to worry about paying for the second seat" when she reserved her flight, but when she arrived at the airport, airline agents changed their minds and "advised me to book and pay for a second seat for other people's comfort because of my size." She paid -- and only then did she notice that the two seats were not together. (Cairns Post) ...So the "other people comforted" by the double fare weren't her fellow passengers, but rather the airline's stockholders.

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THAT THEY'RE KNOWN AS THE "BEEHIVE STATE" IS WEIRD ENOUGH ALREADY: A bill introduced in Utah will help in maintaining Utah's status as the go-to state for late-night punchlines," as the Salt Lake Tribune editorialized, has passed the state senate. It makes it a crime for anyone but state wildlife officials to provide birth control to animals, "so don't even think about handing out condoms to those randy mountain goats," the newspaper said. But the bill passed unanimously and is awaiting the governor's signature since it has a serious purpose: to keep anti-hunting groups from trying to reduce animal populations to the point where they can't be hunted. Meanwhile, the Tribune notes, "PETA volunteers will have to talk rutting Utah game animals into practicing abstinence" -- which "works so well for teenagers." (Salt Lake Tribune) ...Nah. PETA would just kill the animals so hunters couldn't.

PERSONAL FOUL: After a basketball game at Washington Township, Ind., High School, a fan came down from the stands and got into the referee's face. Referee Glen Fifield says the fan yelled "You suck!" and bumped him. Fifield tried to walk away, but the fan allegedly ran up and pushed him. That's when Fifield told the fan that he was a state trooper, and that he was under arrest for battery. "You can't arrest me, you're a referee!" the man screamed, allegedly pushing him again. Fifield wrestled the man to the floor and took him into custody, but only after the fan allegedly tried to choke him with his whistle lanyard. Once under control, the man realized Fifield really was a cop.  "That's not fair!" he whined. Patrick Rempala, 64, was taken to jail on charges of battery and resisting arrest. (Northwest Indiana Times)  ...And the penalty is the same as in the NBA: a $10,000 fine and a 3-game suspension.

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SMOOTH OPERATOR: Yvonne Morris, a veterinary technician at an animal hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, saw a man pass by her window and thought to herself, "That man really looks like no good." When she then heard a car alarm go off in the parking lot, she looked out to see the man sitting in another employee's car. She told the receptionist to call 911 and rushed outside to confront him. When the man ran, she chased him. She grabbed his clothing, but he just undid his shirt and jacket and kept going. When Morris caught up to him again, she grabbed him by his underwear and yanked -- hard. "I gave him a good wedgie," she said. "That was the only thing available to grab on to." She then put him in a headlock and held him until police arrived and took Frederick Baze, 21, into custody. She learned bad guy control techniques from her husband, who is a Special Forces soldier in Iraq, despite the fact she "tries not to pay attention. Apparently I must have learned them somehow." (Deseret News) ...Of course, she "tries not to pay attention" during dog neutering operations too, but I'll bet she easily could have managed one that day.

COME FOR THE FOOD, STAY FOR THE SHOW: A janitor at a Qdoba restaurant in Madison, Wisc., arrived at work at 10:45 p.m. and grabbed a beer. When the manager told him he'd have to pay for it, Ravone C. Jones, 35, allegedly threw a $5 bill at her -- and then started chatting up female customers, who complained. The manager told Jones to leave, but instead he threw food on the floor, the manager says, and then went into the kitchen and threw pots and pans around. When police arrived, Jones told officers he just wanted to get fired, since he wouldn't get unemployment benefits if he quit. He was jailed on disorderly conduct charges. A few days later, another man was arrested at the restaurant when he walked in and urinated on the floor. (Madison Capital Times) ...I hope they had hired a new janitor by then.

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SOMEONE OUGHT TO PAY: Fran MacLaren saw a homeless man outside a McDonald's restaurant in Nashville, Tenn. She bought the man a cheeseburger, but when MacLaren handed it over the man said he didn't want a burger, he wanted money, and threw the sandwich at her. "I told him he was an ungrateful bastard," she admits, and the man responded by beating her, breaking several bones. David Craig was arrested for assault, but that's not enough for MacLaren. She is suing, but since a vagrant isn't likely to have much money, she's suing McDonald's -- and a nearby liquor store that had asked Craig to leave -- on the grounds they "knew, or should have known, that their mode of operating their particular stores attracted persons prone to criminal acts and provided an environment to crime." The suit demands $2 million. (Nashville Tennessean) ...Yet an adult shouldn't "know" that it's inviting trouble to curse bums in the street?

OOPS: Employees in an office building in Rosebank, South Africa, were watching as crews demolished the building adjacent to theirs. "I was interested because I wondered how they would drop that section," said Kenneth Jones, who watched the operation day after day. "They had pushed out the walls and only the supporting pillars were left. When they were chipping away at the pillar they were directly underneath the slab and it was already sagging." Sure enough, he watched as the excavator broke away the last support pillar -- from underneath the slab. "Did those guys not realize it was going to happen?" Jones asked.  "I cannot believe they did not foresee this." But sure enough, when the final support for the slab was removed, the slab fell, crushing the excavator and killing the operator inside. Officials promised "a very technical investigation to determine if all safety concerns were addressed." (Johannesburg Times) ...OK, all together now: "Nope!"

[Fine Point]

The first story goes to show that no good deed goes unpunished eh?

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The first story goes to show that no good deed goes unpunished eh?

And also that in many cases people are homeless for a reason.

[Fine Point]

Good point!