Book 99 years overdue returned to Mass. library

The book returned to the New Bedford Public Library in Massachusetts this week wasn't overdue by a week, a month or even a year. It was nearly a century overdue, and the fine came to $361.35. Complete Story...

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Teen runs up dad's cell bill to nearly 22,000

A 13-year-old teen was probably in hot water with his father after running up a cell phone bill of nearly $22,000. Ted Estarija said he was expecting his bill to be higher this month after adding his son to his plan, but wasn't expecting a bill of $21,917 in data usage charges. The Hayward man said his Verizon Wireless bill soared after his son apparently downloaded about 1.4 million kilobytes of data last month.

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Shirtless man, woman in handcuffs belt rob bank

Authorities in South Florida are searching for a man who held up a Fort Lauderdale bank shirtless then fled with a woman who sported a belt made of handcuffs. According to a news release from the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, the man demanded money from a teller at a Bank of America branch on Friday afternoon and implied he had a weapon. The teller gave the man an unspecified amount of cash, and he then fled on foot with the woman.

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Police: Man shoots suspected prowler with arrow

Kelso, Wash., police said a man used his compound bow to interrupt an apparent break-in at a nearby vacant home, wounding a fleeing man in the buttocks. Police said the man grabbed his hunting bow late Sunday night and chased a suspected prowler for more than three blocks. When the fleeing man refused to stop, the bowhunter shot him with a broadhead arrow.

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Home intruder spooked by woman's medical call

A man who broke into an 89-year-old woman's Knoxville home and awakened her was scared off when a monitoring company answered her medical alert call. The Knoxville News Sentinel reported the woman told police she was awakened before dawn Tuesday by a loud noise. She said a man stood over her bed, shaking her by the arms and asking if she were all right.

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Cops: Man accused of rifle attack after drunk ride

Police arrested a 51-year-old man accused of attacking a relative with a rifle after driving home drunk on a snowmachine. The Tundra Drums reported that Hooper Bay police responded to a complaint of a man shooting a rifle inside a home Saturday night.

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Police: Mass. suspect mutilated fingers to hide ID

Police say a Boston man wanted for drug trafficking tried to conceal his identity by cutting the tips of his fingers to hide the prints. State Police spokesman David Procopio said Monday that Francis Viliar admitted to police that he paid someone $400 to slice off the fleshy pads at the ends of his fingers.

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The North Face files lawsuit against parody

The North Face Apparel Corp. is suing a small suburban St. Louis-area company called The South Butt and the teenager who started it. The lawsuit filed last week in federal court in St. Louis seeks unspecified damages and asks the court to prohibit The South Butt from marketing and selling its parody product line.

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1881 gold coin found in Conn. donation kettle

A Connecticut Salvation Army chapter got a pleasant surprise when its members were counting change dropped into one of the organization's holiday donation kettles. Members found a rare 1881 "half eagle" coin last week while counting donations made somewhere in Torrington on the day after Thanksgiving.

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Texas police arrest intruder suspect as he bathed

A 25-year-old man suspected of breaking into an east Texas house is jailed after police found him taking a bath in the house. The incident happened about 3:30 a.m. Sunday in a blue-collar neighborhood of northwest Tyler. Police Sgt. Matthew Smyser said a resident called to report that a man had kicked in the front door of the house. While en route, officers were advised the resident had left the house but the intruder remained inside.

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Germans flee into container after wild boar scare

German police have rescued four frozen walkers who called up from a waste container begging to be saved from roving wild boars. Police in Darmstadt, south of Frankfurt, said they received an emergency call at nearly 3 a.m. Sunday from a man who said he and three companions had fled into the container after being surprised by a group of boars during a nighttime walk in the woods. He said they didn't dare to emerge.

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Big bird gets talon caught in DC Metro escalator

Every so often in the Washington Metro subway system, a foot gets caught in an escalator. Usually, the culprit is a shoe lace or a flip-flop. On Monday, it was a bird's talon. D.C. fire department spokesman Pete Piringer says rescuers were called to the Benning Road station in northeast Washington shortly after 8 a.m. Monday. A large bird of prey — possibly a hawk or a falcon — had its foot stuck in the escalator.

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Authorities say angry driver crashed into DMV

Arapahoe County officials said a disgruntled driver crashed his truck into a DMV because it was closed. Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder Nancy Doty said she thinks a driver was upset because he didn't make it to the office in time to get in. The sheriff's office was investigating surveillance video of the crash that happened at about 4:30 p.m. Friday.

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Woman plans to be a graduate, bride on same day

A 34-year-old Florida woman plans to be a graduate and bride on the same day in Iowa. Tricia Giordano said she has always been the kind of person who loves to stay busy. She was scheduled to get her degree on Saturday afternoon at Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa. Shortly after that, she planned to head across campus to the chapel and swap her cap and gown for a wedding dress.

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Aussie, Chinese officials urge pandas to reproduce

Australian and Chinese officials urged two bamboo-munching giant pandas on Sunday to consider reproducing during their 10-year residency Down Under.

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Kitten apparently rides 120 miles in wheel well

An Oregon man says a 3-month-old kitten apparently hitched a cold, 120-mile ride in the wheel well of his SUV.

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Special delivery: UPS driver finds, returns $5,200

A UPS driver's unscheduled delivery in New Jersey has made one retailer very grateful. John Piontkowski spotted a bank bag in the middle of the road while he was making deliveries in Randolph. Inside, he found $5,200 and a Bank of America deposit slip showing the money came from Stuyvesant Liquors in Jersey City.

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Stolen Seattle totem pole found near Salem, Ore.

Police say an 18-foot-tall totem pole stolen from a West Seattle park has been found about 200 miles away in Oregon.

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Man allegedly assaults wife over snow shoveling

Police arrested a man who allegedly assaulted his wife when she refused to help him shovel snow. Officers said they went to the residence early Wednesday afternoon after the 44-year-old woman said her husband struck her in the head with his chest and attempted to pull her out of the house.

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Dutch man reports theft of Ecstasy pill collection

A man who said he spent two decades collecting Ecstasy pills of all colors and shapes as a hobby has turned to police for help after they were stolen — because he said some of them are poisonous.

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Sheriff: Bailiff unknowingly sold stolen wreaths

The Hillsborough County sheriff said a court bailiff sold stolen Christmas wreaths in the lobby of the Superior Court in Manchester. Sheriff James Hardy said the bailiff sold the wreaths after being asked to do so by an elderly woman who told the bailiff she had made them.

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Woman allegedly pours grits on sleeping boyfriend

A 44-year-old woman was booked with second-degree battery after allegedly pouring a pot of boiling grits onto her sleeping boyfriend. St. Charles Parish sheriff's deputies said Carolyn Brown caused second-degree burns on the man's face and arms. The man told deputies that he came home from work on Nov. 7, got into an argument with Brown, told her that he was breaking up with her, then went to bed.

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Man bets against Saints, gets his TV shot to bits

A Louisiana man who bet against the New Orleans Saints has lost his 60-inch high-definition, flat-screen TV to a backyard firing squad, but he also became an Internet star.

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Ohio cops: Man in Santa garb tried to kidnap girl

Police near Cleveland say a man dressed as Santa Claus tried to kidnap a 12-year-old girl walking to school.

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Man gets year in jail for urinating on officer

A Waldo man accused of urinating on a police officer during his fifth drunken-driving arrest has been sentenced to a year in jail. Court records released Wednesday show 36-year-old Daniel L. Shilts Jr. of Waldo was also fined about $3,600 and had his driver's license revoked for three years.

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Stupid is as stupid does just might be the new motto for the Miami-Dade Police Department. The primary crime fighting force in the county may have been promoting some of its dumbest officers, while passing over its best and brightest for promotions, according to JustNews.com. M …

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A bank robber has been jailed for 10 years after being caught when a witness remembered the personalised number plate on his car. James Snell, 27, of Cardiff, used his BMW with the number J4 MES to plan a raid on the Halifax, where he and accomplices stole £100,000.

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Simon Sharp, 42, noticed the large crustacean had become caught in his nets while fishing for Dover sole off the coast of Dartmouth in Devon.

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A New Zealand woman who flashed her breasts at passing motorists distracted one driver so much he ran her over.

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An Invercargill woman flashing her breasts at motorists distracted one driver so much he ran her over. Cherelle May Dudfield, 18, admitted disorderly behaviour when she appeared in Invercargill District Court yesterday, the Southland Times reported.

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A drunken Santa Claus prompts a mom to call 911 after he stumbles into her yard apparently looking for his reindeer and scaring her kids.

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Should In-Laws Be Out-Lawed? (and today's poll)

In this, the fourth in my Vine-suggested Topic series, we're discussing In-Laws. Before I dig into the dirt, you need to understand two things about me (and hence why I chose this title):

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A mother has told how her life has become "unbearable" after a car crash injury left her with a medical condition giving her an insatiable libido.

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Stupid trucker Sing Li drove more than 500 miles on a motorway - with a cardboard windscreen. Tightwad Li, 24, refused to replace his van's glass screen after it was shattered by a stone.

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Rudolph had a shiny nose. Eskimo the bullied reindeer didn't. He had something altogether more embarrassing, which stopped his antlers from growing.

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Everyone knows that the thing to do when you've been cheated on and humiliated is ... nothing. The greatest revenge you can take on a former lover, whatever they did to you, is to say not a word and move on.

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The 20ft-high conifer created by Roger and Valerie Holley - complete with lashings of cream, huge holly leaves and big red berries - looks good enough to eat.

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President Barack Obama and billionaire investment banker Warren Buffett are seventh cousins three times removed according to genealogists at Ancestry.com. They're related through a 17th century Frenchman named Mareen Duvall who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1650's.

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A Russian man was turned down for a loan from his bank in Moscow after he used a smiley face symbol for his signature on the paperwork

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With Christmas just around the corner, many of us will pile on a few festive pounds, but it would take a substantial Christmas feast to outdo Snowball the hedgehog.

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Mum Joleen Baughmans life is made hell by a car crash injury that has left her constantly craving sex. The smash two years ago damaged a nerve in her pelvis which controls desire, leaving it permanently switched on.

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They were flushed with excitement

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The anonymous passenger compares the train's service to a poor restaurant he visits for lunch that served bad - but overpriced food - which harasses its customers and makes him late for an important afternoon meeting.

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The phrase, 'At the end of the day', commonly uttered by Premier League footballers, is uttered at least three times-a-day in every workplace.

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Stephen Foster, a supermarket worker from Gateshead, received a shock was mistakenly paid £1.4 million in wages.

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Two Germans needed hospital treatment after they fought a pitched battle in a supermarket with salamis used as clubs and a chunk of Parmesan cheese brandished like a dagger.

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"A driver was forced to weave desperately in and out of heavy motorway traffic today [December 15, 2009] when his car's cruise control stuck at 50mph."

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Cincinnati-style chili has little in common with the Texas variety except for the ardor of its fans. The core concoction consists of ground beef in a thin, tomato-based sauce that is tangy rather than spicy.

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What could be more fun than bundling up to take a ride around town on your bike to check out all of the wonderful Christmas lights? I can think of only one thing...doing so on your very own rolling display of Christmas lights.

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By Ralph Richardson While I was organizing and agonizing over this very important list of Top 25 African- American films of all time, I used some parameters to guide me. First, what is an African- American movie? It has to be: a movie about the black experience;

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