A Canadian town has limited the number of garage sales (search) residents can hold per year to three.
"We'll shut you down and we'll charge you," Brian Sweet, chief administrative officer of Leamington, Ontario, told the Canadian Broadcasting Company (search).
Fourth-timers could be fined up to $5,000 Canadian (about $4,200 U.S.) and have their sales shut down by cops.
"I don't think they should go out and spend their time looking for these," fumed town resident Sandy Martinho, who held her own yard sale this past weekend.
Sweet said garage sales create too much traffic and noise and that many recent ones were operating under false pretenses.
"The people would go out and buy stuff from other places and be re-selling it on their front yard as opposed to getting rid of all their own junk," he said.
He conceded that local retail stores had begun to complain about the competition.
"If you start having more than three garage sales in a year, what you're really doing is you're running a business off your residential premises," Sweet said.
Sweet believes most people should have no problem with the new law.
"I've lived in my house for 13 years [and] I think we've had one garage sale the whole time," he boasted.
Leamington is on the north shore of Lake Erie about 25 miles southeast of Detroit.
Woman Says Birds Planted Her Pot Plant
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A 75-year-old Greek woman has been charged with drug offenses after police in her a sleepy island village spotted a small marijuana plant (search) growing on her balcony, authorities said.
Hariklia Griva, a widowed mother of four from Ayiassos, on the eastern Aegean Sea island of Lesvos, was arrested last Wednesday and charged with growing marijuana with the intent of trafficking in the drug. She was released on bail of $2,480.
The retiree, whose late husband was a policeman, told police the 16-inch potted plant grew from seed dropped by her pet canaries. The birds live in a cage on the balcony overlooking a busy Ayiassos street — opposite the local police station.
"I couldn't believe it, when they told me I was being arrested," Griva said. "The plant must have grown from the bird seed. I had no idea what the plant was. I watered it regularly. I thought it looked quite nice."
— Thanks to Out There reader Greg M.
WILDWOOD, Mo. (AP) — Did someone pull the plug again?
Little more than a year after it practically disappeared overnight,Lake Chesterfield (search) is dwindling again.
"Déjà vu all over again," said Bruce Colella, chair of the homeowners' association board of trustees.
As reported in Out There: The 23-acre artificial lake in this affluent St. Louis suburb drained last year like a bathtub after the plug was pulled. A geologist determined that water had eroded layers of limestone, creating gaps in the bedrock.
Residents of the subdivision voted to contribute about $1,000 per home for repairs, spending a total of about $650,000.
By last month, the lake was almost back to its normal level and it had been restocked with thousands of fish.
Last week, however, residents noticed that the water was dropping again, by at least a foot each day, Colella said.
The lake must drain completely before a geologist can determine exactly what the problem is, he said.
"Last year, I knew what to do," Colella said. "This year, I'm not sure. I don't think people have the stomach for another $1,000 assessment."
MOORCROFT, Wyo. (AP) — A worker survived being shocked by 2,000 volts of electricity for about 30 seconds.
John Zimmerschied, 35, of Moorcroft, was working inside an electrical box when the accident happened about 9:30 a.m. Friday, Sheriff's Cpl. Eric Hyland said.
A colleague working nearby heard Zimmerschied grunt and pulled him from the box using a pair of electrician's gloves, Hyland said.
Zimmerschied was still attached to the current, so the other worker used a fiberglass pole to disconnect fuses in the box, Hyland said.
Emergency workers flew Zimmerschied to Casper for treatment. He had a 3-inch cut on the left side of his head and a 1½-inch burn on the right, Hyland said.
Zimmerschied was back home Saturday and, aside from some sore muscles, he was pretty much back to normal.
Zimmerschied said he couldn't remember what led to his near electrocution, although he has been told that he stubbed his toe and fell on a wire. He said he doesn't even remember leaving the office that morning.
But he's already planning on returning to his job.
"It's just one of them things," Zimmerschied said. "I'm just lucky to be alive, I guess."
Man (or Woman) Can't Make Up His (or Her) Mind
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A man who says his doctors misdiagnosed him as a transsexual may sue the medical team that advised him to have a sex change (search), an Australian appeals court ruled.
Alan Michael Finch was 21 when he underwent a sex change operation to become a woman in 1988.
By 1996, however, Finch said he was "a mess" and struggling to live life as a woman named Helen.
The following year, Finch began another round of surgery and reverted to life as a man.
Finch claims that the doctors who performed the initial sex change knew he was not a suitable candidate based on a medical report that described his masculinity as "above average."
Last year, a court granted Finch an extension to the usual six-year time limit on such cases.
Compiled by FOXNews.com's Paul Wagenseil.
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