Another chimp has been having trouble kicking the habit.
As reported in Out There last summer, a female chimpanzee at the zoo in Zhengzhou, China, took up smoking out of frustration at her mate's lack of prowess in the, um, tree.
Maybe she could find sympathy at the zoo in Bloemfontein, South Africa, where Charlie, a very macho male member of her species, has become a positive nicotine fiend after learning how to bum smokes off zoo visitors.
"Baby chimps pick up habits by mimicking adults," Daryl Barnes of the Bloemfontein Zoo (search) told the South African Press Association on April 14. "We think he started mimicking smokers at his enclosure, which probably led to smokers throwing him cigarettes."
Video of Charlie shows him strutting around, cig clamped in mouth, then squatting down to grasp the butt between thumb and forefinger before letting out a hefty puff of smoke.
"He even acts like a naughty schoolboy by hiding the cigarette when staff approach the area," Barnes said.
The zoo's asked visitors to quit tossing him the ciggies.
"It may look funny," said Barnes, "but it's really bad for his health, especially as he gets older."
Charlie already has three bad teeth — from drinking cans of soda people threw to him.
Click in the top box above right to see photos and video of the hairy habit-former.
Gun-Toting Customer Robs Salon Over Bad Haircut
RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — A woman apparently dissatisfied with her haircut robbed a salon at gunpoint, shot at her stylist's car, then used part of the money to pay for a trim at another shop, police said.
Julie A. Anderson, 48, was booked into the Benton County Jail (search) for investigation of first-degree robbery and second-degree malicious mischief.
Employees told police the woman showed up Wednesday morning at Stage 1, a salon she had patronized for years, and asked to speak with her regular stylist, who was not in, police Capt. Mike Cobb said.
The woman waited in the parking lot and pulled a gun on the stylist when she arrived.
The woman got into her car and started to drive away but stopped, got out and fired at least one round into the back window of the stylist's car, threw the gun through the shattered glass and fled, Cobb said.
She was arrested about 45 minutes later as she left another hair salon nearby. She told stylists there she had received a bad hair cut some time ago.
The woman paid with a $20 bill, apparently from Stage 1, and then walked out to her car, where she was arrested, Cobb said.
"She said she was a dissatisfied customer," Cobb said.
— Thanks to Out There readers Tony L. and Derrick B.
Excuse Me, Dear, Would You Mind Handing Me Your Cash?
STERLING, Va. (AP) — There are bank robbers. There are cross-dressers. A suspect being sought apparently fits both descriptions.
The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday it is looking for a man who walked into the Washington First Bank (search) on Tuesday, handed a note to a teller and implied he had a weapon.
Investigators described the suspect as a 6-foot-3 man — wearing a flowery dress, a dark wig and white gloves.
He was also carrying a purse at the time of the robbery. But the purse was empty on the way out, because despite passing a note to the teller and implying he had a weapon, the man left without taking any cash.
— Thanks to Out There reader Jeannie L.
Couple Hand In $42,000 Found in Road
TWO RIVERS, Wis. (AP) — Honesty prevailed when a couple turned in $42,000 they found in a folder on the road and turned it over to police.
Christopher Dondlinger and his wife, Cheryl, were driving to Cheryl's 8:15 a.m. appointment at a local clinic Thursday when he spotted a folder in the road.
"I thought maybe some child dropped it in the street and maybe we would find some children's drawings," he said. "I opened it up and found a substantial amount of money." A total of $42,240 in cash and checks, to be exact.
They never considered keeping the money, Christopher Dondlinger said. "We were not brought up that way."
As an officer counted the folder's contents, authorities received a call from the woman who lost it — an accountant for a local fast-food company.
Police speculate she had set it on the roof of her car and drove off.
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Even for his fellow lawyers, a Dutch law school graduate may have gone a bit too far in expressing a desire to strike it rich.
Reinder Eekhof, a freshly minted lawyer, recently wrote in an e-mail that he had "finally finished this stupid education," and was "now looking for someone crazy enough to dump a suitcase full of money in my lap every month."
The e-mail was meant for a friend at the Houthoff Buruma (search) law firm. But Eekhof mistyped the address and his missive landed in the inbox of someone in the communications department instead.
That person forwarded it, and soon the e-mail was being read at law firms across the Netherlands.
"Good luck with your career," wrote one lawyer who saw the e-mail. Another noted that "the advantage is that now everyone in the legal profession in Holland knows your name."
Still, it appears Eekhof's e-mail hasn't turned off law firms looking for young lawyers to fill their ranks.
"We're having him in for an interview about an internship," said Marry de Gaay Fortman, managing partner at Houthoff. "But I understand he's also in talks with several other firms about a job."
Politician Has Twin Brother Take Place in Parade
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Mayoral hopeful Julian Castro (search) really wasn't in two places at once. His twin brother took his place in a parade this week, waving to the crowd of thousands.
Castro told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he had a conflicting event and didn't intend to deceive anyone.
"We can't help that we look like each other," said Castro, a city council member and leading contender in next month's election.
Retired state appeals court judge Phil Hardberger, one of Castro's opponents, said he believes the parade appearance was dishonest and deceptive.
"If you're 18 years old and having a date, it might be a youthful prank when you swap out your brother. But when you're running for mayor of a city with 1.3 million people and sending in your brother as an impersonator ... I do see a problem with it," Hardberger said.
Julian Castro said his brother usually accompanies him in the parade, and they are rarely mistaken for each other when together.
Compiled by FOX News' Paul Wagenseil.
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