Raw fruit and vegetables — or else the pigs get it.
That's what a Gallatin, Tenn., woman read in a ransom note after a pair of concrete swine were swiped from her front yard two weekends ago, reports the News-Examiner of Gallatin.
The foot-tall plaster porkers, one dressed in farmer's overalls and the other in a pink dress, vanished from out in front of Mary Romines' trailer the night of Saturday, June 26, according to the police report.
Other pieces of garden statuary, including a bird bath, concrete chickens and a few other stone pigs, were disturbed, but not taken.
Tacked to Romines' front gate was a note with a specific demand: two ears of corn and one ripe mango (search), to be delivered by Romines alone at the entrance to the A and L Trailer Park.
"The other pigs were dusted with negative results," read the police report. "The [ransom] letter will be sent to T.B.I. [Tennessee Bureau of Investigation] for processing for [fingerprints] lifts."
On Monday, two days after the piggies, worth about $10 each, flew the coop, Romines got another menacing message — a well-done pork chop attached to a note reading, "Cooked the Pig."
"It's not the point with the pigs — pigs can be replaced," according to Romines, who said she has a bad heart. "It's the letters that are unnerving."
The next night, another note raised the demands — a potato in addition to the corn and mango. Signed "The Big Bad Wolf" and accompanied by a bag of pork rinds (search), the note asked Romines if she was scared.
"They think they have me buffaloed, but now I'm mad," Romines said. "They may think it's funny, but they're going to be charged with theft."
Police agreed that the perpetrator will be criminally charged. The case remains under investigation.
— Thanks to Out There readers Scott F. and Phil B.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Something fishy happened to Ray Bolanos' luggage.
Somewhere between Anchorage and Seattle, about 40 meticulously wrapped and packed one-pound pieces of fresh-caught halibut vanished from his checked bags.
"I really just feel violated," Bolanos said from his home in Kenmore, Wash.
Bolanos said his bags appeared on the luggage carousel at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (search) almost immediately after he arrived June 24. But one of the two coolers of fish was missing the rope he'd tied around it in Anchorage.
Inside, Bolanos found his rope and a few halibut scraps.
Bolanos complained to Continental Airlines and both airports, but so far there have been no clues to what happened to the fish he caught on Kachemak Bay (search).
A fish theft is unusual, said Brenee Davis, Continental's Anchorage general manager. "Usually when you hear about theft, it's electronic goods — cell phones ... things like that," she said. "Never fish."
Oldster's Record Try Thwarted by New-Fangled Technical Failure
KHAYELITSHA, South Africa (AP) — A South African man's bid to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest 100-year-old to run 100 meters was foiled when a power failure stopped the electronic clocks.
Philip Rabinowitz, 100, made his run on Sunday at the Mandela Park Athletics stadium (search) in Khayelitsha outside Cape Town. He said he did 100 meters in 28.7 seconds, beating a previous record of 36.1 seconds.
However, a power outage stopped the official electronic clock so the time cannot be recognized, the South African Broadcasting Corp. reported. And none of the figures could be confirmed independently.
But the man known as "Rabinoblitz" was not deterred.
"I feel absolutely wonderful. I never thought I'd be able to do it," said Rabinowitz, who already holds the record for world's oldest competitive walker.
He practices daily by walking 3.7 miles and sticks to a healthy diet. Rabinowitz, who turned 100 in February, still works, handling accounts for his daughter's business.
He participated in the South African leg of the Olympic torch relay across the globe earlier this year.
BRIGHTON, Utah (AP) — Everybody, and apparently every thing, loves a parade.
Two young bull moose, each more than 6 feet tall and weighing hundreds of pounds, crashed Brighton's Fourth of July celebration.
The moose trotted up to Saturday's festivities, but backed off when they saw the crowd. Then they bolted through to get to the other side of town, coming within a few feet of some spectators. A few kids screamed but no one was hurt.
"I told my family, 'That's something you don't see at the downtown parades,'" said Jeff Worthington.
"They stopped the parade and everybody just sat and watched," said Amber Bailey, a volunteer cleaning up after breakfast. "They could kill somebody. It was amazing that they would have the guts to walk out in front of everybody."
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A gunman apparently botched his own robbery attempt Sunday by crashing through a ceiling at the Hard Rock Cafe (search), police said.
A manager at the restaurant located at Union Station was about to open the safe when he noticed a pair of legs dangling above him.
The man dropped through the ceiling about 9:30 a.m., apparently after losing his footing, said St. Louis police Lt. John Green.
Cooks on the morning crew ran, but so did the robber — without firing his gun, stealing anything, or uttering a word.
Police unsuccessfully searched for the man around Union Station, and in the restaurant, which hadn't yet opened for the day. They're not sure how he got into the area above the ceiling. All the windows and doors appeared to be locked.
The Hard Rock Cafe opened for business, and had no comment Monday.
CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. (AP) — A landlord is sure glad he looked in an old stove before he threw it out. Inside were vintage coins and nearly $4,000 worth of gold and silver bars.
Vincent Bilotti came across the stove when he was cleaning the Broad Street apartment of Ben Mizera, a longtime tenant who had died recently. He pried open the coal-burning chamber and found several wrapped parcels and canisters.
The cans had plastic bags with ancient pennies — wartime zinc, Indian head and wheat. The brown paper packages had 133 one-ounce gold and silver bars. There were also five-dollar bills minted in 1851 and solid-silver dollars from the 1880s.
Bilotti said he'll make sure the valuables get to either Mizera's wife or a relative.
"It's possible that they had forgotten about it years ago," he said.
OSLO, Norway (AP) — A wealthy Oslo businesswoman was fined a record $71,000 for driving while drunk, Norway's biggest newspaper reported Tuesday.
The woman, whose name was withheld in court documents, was arrested in August 2003 after she crashed into three parked cars in Oslo, the capital. Police said she had consumed about 11 glasses of wine.
The recent court ruling also said the woman gave police a false name, punched one officer in the stomach and yelled at the others.
A breath test showed her blood alcohol level was 0.2 parts per million, or 10 times the legal maximum in Norway.
Norwegian courts usually fine those convicted of drunken driving an amount that corresponds to a month's salary. She got the hefty fine because her annual salary was $860,000.
She was also given a suspended jail sentence of 25 days.
At her attorney's request, the woman's name, age and employer were expunged from court documents.
Compiled by Foxnews.com's Paul Wagenseil.
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