Two Philadelphia police officers got the tables turned on them as their undercover vehicle was stolen by a suspected prostitute whom they'd just arrested and handcuffed.
The latter-day Starsky and Hutch picked up the woman Thursday evening on suspicion of soliciting prostitution, reports the Philadelphia Daily News.
The vice officers tossed her into the back seat of their Dodge minivan, but as they walked around to the front, she climbed forward, got her arms over her head, grabbed the wheel and sped away.
"She jumped in the driver's seat so quick," Detective Debra Reilly told the newspaper. "It happened so fast."
The van was later found abandoned. Police were searching for a white female, about 5-foot-6, presumably still wearing a pair of handcuffs.
— Thanks to Out There reader Michael M.
Lost Found, but No Longer Lost
LONDON (AP) — Exasperated at losing its name signs to souvenir hunters, the Scottish hamlet of Lost (population: less than two dozen) has changed its name to Lost Farm, which it hopes will prove less appealing.
At least five of the signs have disappeared in recent years; the longest any sign lasted was three months, and one disappeared after just a day, said Mark Skilling, principal engineer for Aberdeenshire Council (search).
"It's infuriating," he said Friday. "The hamlet is very popular because of its name and we suspect souvenir hunters of taking the signs."
Skilling said it costs around 100 pounds (US$185) to replace the sign.
"Apart from making it, we have to take it to Lost, which is quite far away," he said. "We hope that the name change means in future the sign will last."
The hamlet lies 40 miles west of Aberdeen in the Cairngorm mountains of northeast Scotland, near the village of Bellabeg where the Water of Nochty (search) feeds into the River Don.
Lost has been found by thousands of tourists every summer since it got a mention in guidebooks several years ago. During the rare periods when there has been a sign, visitors love to pose for photographs with it.
"The situation has caused great annoyance," said local council member Bruce Luffman. "The majority of the time there hasn't even been a sign so people don't even know if they are in the village."
The name comes from a Celtic word meaning "inn"; today the hamlet has a few houses, a war memorial and a farm.
Ticket-Writing Contest Ends Up With Cops as Losers
PORTERDALE, Ga. (AP) — A contest between two police officers in a small Georgia town to see which one could issue the most traffic tickets was stopped by a judge who overheard the apparent winner talking about it, the mayor said.
Part-time Porterdale police officers Erin Cox and Frank Jackson wrote about 150 tickets in January, which was significantly higher than in previous months, Mayor Paul Oeland said.
Some tickets were for minor offenses, including not reporting an address change to the state or having defective equipment on a vehicle, it was first reported in The Covington News.
The contest was revealed when City Court Judge C. David Strickland overheard the officers talking about it recently. Oeland said "Jackson indicated he had won the contest."
"I think it was sort of bragging rights," said Oeland, a lawyer. "They would make a traffic stop for a legitimate reason and then try to find anything else they could possibly write a ticket for."
The mayor added: "It is not anything that we as a city support."
Both officers were asked to resign by Friday by City Manager Tom Fox, Oeland said. They have been with the department less than a year, he said.
Neither could be reached Friday. There was no answer at the police department.
Dry Church Reaches Out to Bored Boozers
LONDON (AP) — After years of teetotalism, Britain's Methodist Church (search) is hitting the pubs.
The church, which does not even allow wine at communion services, has had 250,000 coasters printed for distribution in watering holes across Britain.
Designed to appeal to young drinkers, they carry slogans like "stop war," "reduce emissions," "eat more doughnuts," and "never give out your password" to promote a church competition to think up an 11th commandment.
Drinkers under 40 will be able to phone in or text-message their suggestions. The best five entrants will each win a cell phone with a built-in camera.
"We hope people will want to collect the drinks mats and postcards, discuss them with friends, and use the quick and popular medium of text messaging to tell us their ideas," church spokesman the Rev. Jonathan Kerry said Monday.
"This isn't about 'bums on pews,'" he added. "There'll be no pressure to get further involved."
Earlier this month, the church distributed 500,000 postcards in cinemas, colleges, student unions, cafes and bars giving notice of the competition.
The campaign is being run with the Christian satirical Web site www.shipoffools.com.
Simon Jenkins, editor of shipoffools.com, said the competition was designed "to take the 10 commandments out of boring buildings and put them on the street where they belong."
Later in the year, the organizers hope to publish a book containing the best competition entries.
Bank-Robbing Standards Slip Even Further
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A man wearing a fake mustache that might have been made from construction paper Friday robbed a Bank of Albuquerque (search) branch of an undisclosed amount of money.
Implying he had a gun, the man took money from two tellers and then fled.
The FBI was looking for the man described as being in his late 20s or early 30s, about 5-foot-6 in height and weighing about 160 pounds. He had a beard of several days growth and was possibly wearing contact lenses that made his eyes "noticeably" blue, the FBI said.
He also was wearing a tan baseball cap with some type of logo, a dark shirt, dark flannel jacket and blue jeans.
The FBI said the man is also considered a suspect in the robbery of a Compass Bank in Albuquerque on Feb. 13.
Compiled by Foxnews.com's Paul Wagenseil.
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