An Oklahoma mayor has learned the hard way that it's better to call ahead.
Edmond Mayor Saundra Naifeh spent Make a Difference Day walking door-to-door with volunteers to distribute 22,000 flyers campaigning for Project Under 21, the state's initiative to fight underage drinking.
Instead, the mayor ended up advertising a sex chat line.
A typo in the phone number directed residents to a line promising "exciting live talk" at the cost of up to $2.99 a minute, the Oklahoman reported.
Naifeh learned of the mistake on Saturday night, after police alerted the city's lawyer of the error.
"Obviously, it made me feel sick," Naifeh said. "I had a blister on one foot [from going door-to-door] when the city attorney told me the number was wrong. I have no idea how the error happened."
Project Under 21's anonymous tip line is 1-866-STOP-U21 (1-866-786-7821). It works. We checked.
MacGyver Doesn't Take the Train
Superglue and plastic cable ties do not a MacGyver make.
Manchester-bound passengers of Britain's Virgin Pendolino Train were surprised Friday when a staff member requested passengers with "nuts and bolts" to come forward. Train staff needed the items to fix a faulty windshield wiper, the Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.
No one had the hardware required, but commuter Damian Gaskin did have a briefcase full of superglue and plastic cable ties, which another passenger tried using to fix the blade, but to no avail.
Travelers were forced to disembark and wait for another train.
"It was so unbelievable it was funny," Gaskin told the paper. "I travel a lot and have heard some excuses in my time but I have never heard of passengers being asked for tools to help fix the train before."
Note to Self: Retire Love Potion No. 9
MUNICH, Germany (AP) — A German court has ordered a self-proclaimed witch to refund a disappointed client her hefty fee for a spell that failed to win back the woman's partner.
The Munich administrative court said Monday it ruled that the witch must pay back the $1,275 on the grounds she offered a service that was "objectively completely impossible."
After the client's boyfriend left her in 2003, she consulted the witch on a spell that would bring him back.
"The defendant carried out the corresponding ritual over several months, each time under a full moon, but without success," a court statement said.
It said the witch denied the client's claim that she had guaranteed success.
However, the court ruled that was irrelevant because "a love ritual is not suited to influencing a person from a distance."
Neither woman's identity was released.
Ax and You Shall Receive
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An ax infamous for its role in Iowa's most notorious mass murder — the 1912 Villisca ax murders — will be donated to the Villisca Historical Society.
The killings of eight people at the home of Josiah Moore, including the entire Moore family and two other girls who were visiting, have never been solved. In 1917, a jury acquitted Lyn George Jacklin Kelly, the only person ever tried in the case, and the state's investigation ended.
The murder weapon, though, has long been notorious — an ax, which originally came from a coal shed behind Moore's home.
Since Kelly's acquittal, the ax has been passed from the state's chief criminal investigator on to a researcher-writer and then, most recently to another researcher, Ed Epperly, who is considered to be the foremost authority in the case.
The ax doesn't have a permanent home yet because the Villisca Historical Society does not have a museum building. Until it acquires one, the ax will be held by the State Historical Society in Des Moines.
The weapon was to be presented to the Historical Society on Tuesday night, followed by a screening of the documentary feature film, "Villisca: Living with a Mystery," at the society's building in Des Moines.
Lots of Almonds, but Little Joy for Two California Thieves
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Authorities announced Monday that they recovered 44,000-pounds of stolen almonds after the suspected thieves tried to sell the processed nuts on the black market.
The thieves drove a truck full of Campos Brothers Farm almonds off the lot of a trucking company, where the almonds were sent for distribution earlier this month, according to the Fresno County Agriculture Crime Unit, which is made up of officers from several agencies.
Officials found the truck in a nearby Fresno County city, but it had been emptied of the nuts, which had an estimated value of $135,000.
An almond broker, having seen an alert about the stolen almonds, called authorities last week when he suspected someone was trying to sell him illegal nuts.
"We're very cooperative, even though we're competitors. We talk," said Jeannine Campos, a spokeswoman for the Caruthers farm.
Fresno County officials found the almonds in a San Leandro warehouse. The boxes of sliced almonds were smaller than typical almond boxes and their unique packaging helped officials track them down, Campos said.
Authorities have two "persons of interest" in the case.
The theft was one of several nut robberies this fall. Officials said that with prices at about $3 per pound for almonds, thieves have stolen everything from recently harvested raw nuts to whole truckloads.
Compiled by FOXNews.com's Sara Bonisteel.
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