A California man did everything he could to get into jail, reports the San Jose Mercury News.
Arthur Gonzalez, 26, walked into San Jose police headquarters Tuesday morning and asked whether there were any outstanding warrants in his name. There weren't. He left.
Forty-five minutes later, he came back and announced that he was wanted for murder.
The cop at the receiving window asked Gonzalez who he'd killed.
"Anybody," he said, according to San Jose police spokesman Steve Dixon.
The receiving officer explained to Gonzalez that he wasn't wanted for anything, and that it'd be best if he just left for good.
Gonzalez blew his top. He picked up one of the heavy metal waiting-line poles and threw it into the glass window in front of the receiving officer, Dixon said, damaging the glass and the counter below it.
That did the trick. Officers walked out into the lobby and booked Gonzalez for felony vandalism, which carries a penalty of up to a year in jail.
Gonzalez was due to appear in court Thursday and was being held in lieu of a $20,000 bond.
"Frankly," Dixon told the newspaper, "we still don't know what his problem was."
— Thanks to Out There reader Helen H.
Driver Tries to Set Own Gas Prices
A Canadian man has begun his own form of protest against high gasoline prices, reports the Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sun.
Terry Blake of Port Ryerse, Ontario, filled up his car with $25 ($19 U.S.) worth of gas Tuesday, gave the attendant $20 — what he considered to be "the fair price" — and drove away.
Just to keep it above board, Blake left his name, address and phone number at the Esso (search) station.
"I was just trying to make a statement," said Blake, 71, who once owned a gas station himself. "If everybody did that, the price would come down pretty darn fast."
Mary Padyk, who owns the Esso station in the nearby town of Simcoe, doesn't see it that way.
"[The cash] comes out of my pocket, not Imperial Oil's," she said. Imperial Oil (search) is ExxonMobil's Canadian subsidiary.
Blake wants to be taken away in handcuffs to make a point, but local police plan to simply mail him a summons to pay Padyk the extra five bucks.
Dump Run Becomes Color-Changing Experience
A quick trip to the dump turned two upstate New York men green, reports the Troy, N.Y., Record.
Clifford Clark, 34, said he felt a little dizzy after dropping off some junk Monday at the municipal transfer station in Poestenkill, N.Y., about ten miles east of Albany.
Then he noticed his passenger, Frank Wagner, was sweating green liquid. So was Clark. Both their tongues had turned green as well.
"I looked at my friend and I couldn't believe his mouth had turned colors," Clark, an auto dealer, told the newspaper. "There was like a green liquid on his skin."
Clark, Wagner and two dump employees rushed off to the hospital, where not much was found wrong with them. That doesn't reassure Clark.
"I was very worried. ... I thought I got it off me last night, but now [Tuesday] I started sweating it out again," he said. "I want to make sure I'm not going to drop dead in the next six months or something."
A spokesman for Waste Management, Inc., (search) which runs the transfer station, said a green dye had gotten into the air. Clark doesn't believe it.
"If it was a dye, we would have seen it coming out toward us," he insisted. "It rained and my car looks like someone poured green Kool-Aid all over it."
Clark's wife said her husband was having chest pains and difficulty breathing.
"He turns green every time he sweats," said Heather Clark. "I'm really petrified, being in the same bed as him, and for my four children."
Federal EPA personnel told the Clarks they would be inspecting the site this week.
Woman Takes Wild Animal to Vet
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — This good Samaritan didn't know what she was getting into.
A woman rescued what was described as a "funky-looking house cat" after the animal was hit by a car near Santa Cruz, Calif.
But after the woman put the dazed cat in her car and brought it to an animal hospital, an animal rescue worker told her it was a good thing the injured kitty was too stunned to move.
It turns out the ten-pound cat was no ordinary housecat. It was a bobcat — with sharp claws and long fangs.
The rescuer admitted she thought the cat "looked kinda strange."
The bobcat has no broken bones, and has about a 50 percent chance of survival.
— Thanks to Out There reader Don W.
Politician Fights for Right to Have Inanimate Office-Mate
GREENFIELD, Wis. (AP) — An alderman in this Milwaukee suburb is going to court to defend his right to keep Madeline the handless mannequin in his City Hall office.
Alderman Thomas Pietrowski (search) filed suit in Milwaukee County Circuit Court Wednesday in his campaign on behalf of the former department-store mannequin.
The lawsuit contends the mannequin, clad in a baggy T-shirt and jeans, "serves as a social equalizer designed to facilitate communication with persons he invites into his office."
Pietrowski seeks to have a judge declare that Mayor Timothy Seider violated his privacy rights when he unlocked his office door and allowed a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel photographer to photograph Madeline April 30. Pietrowski also seeks compensatory damages.
"It is indeed unfortunate that Alderman Pietrowski has chosen to take the mannequin issue to this level," Seider said in a prepared statement.
The city has no choice but to defend the lawsuit, "an absolute waste of taxpayer dollars," he added.
Pietrowski put the mannequin in his office in August 2003.
Since March, complaints from some female city workers, who call it offensive, have led to the feud between Seider and Pietrowski.
The mayor requested that the alderman remove the mannequin in March. He later extended the deadline to May 7 before withdrawing the demand but directing Pietrowski to keep his door closed. The alderman defends the mannequin as a form of free speech.
The lawsuit was assigned to Circuit Judge Kitty Brennan.
Grease Thief Managing to Slip Away Every Time
EDMOND, Okla. (AP) — A slippery thief is on the loose in Edmond, where police say nearly 5,000 pounds of used cooking grease has been stolen from three restaurants.
The latest theft was of 1,700 pounds of grease from Alvarado's, taken between 10 p.m. Monday and 9 a.m. Tuesday, police said.
Two other restaurants have been victimized twice with about 2,200 pounds taken from Panda House and about 1,000 pounds from Jamil's.
"It's one of the most unusual cases of theft we've had in Edmond," said police spokeswoman Glynda Chu.
Police think the thief is someone familiar with the restaurant industry and is looking to turn in the grease for the recycling value, Chu said.
The grease was to be picked up by Evergreen Grease Service of Cashion, which resells it.
Evergreen officials said the grease has a resale value of about $380.
Compiled by Foxnews.com's Paul Wagenseil.
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