Don't I Know You From Somewhere?

Memo to robbers: Don't hold up the establishment where you're trying to get a job.

Megan A. Whittaker, 35, of Menasha, Wis., was arrested Sunday and accused of holding up the local Q-Mart convenience store. Cops say she brandished a toy gun and forced the clerk to open the register.

Identification was easy — Whittaker was a regular customer and had recently applied for a job at the store, reported the Oshkosh Northwestern newspaper.

Whittaker realized during the robbery that the clerk knew her, police said. So she told the clerk she was her own twin sister.

Cops found Whittaker at her apartment, along with the $181 and case of beer that had been taken from the store.

She faces up to $100,000 in fines and a 40-year prison sentence.

— Thanks to Out There reader Mike L.

Potty-Mouthed Parrot a Stranger to Us, Say Churchill Experts

Feathers flew across Britain as Winston Churchill's friends and family claimed to know nothing about Charlie, the foul-mouthed parrot featured in Wednesday's Out There.

"He loved animals, he had dogs, cats, pigs — but there's no record of a parrot," Judith Seaward, who works for the British National Trust (search) at Chartwell, Churchill's former country home, told the BBC.

The former prime minister's daughter, Lady Soames, told The Scotsman newspaper that her father did own a parrot, but it was "an African grey parrot and it certainly did not talk."

"He definitely did belong to Churchill," Sylvia Martin, manager of the Surrey garden center where Charlie now lives, protested to The Scotsman. "My boss's father-in-law sold the parrot to Churchill, and when he died, they were asked to go back to Chartwell and collect it. Churchill had him from 1937 to 1965."

Curiously, the blue-and-gold macaw appears to have gotten an overnight sex change. The first set of news reports identified the bird as female, but Wednesday's stories all referred to the parrot as "he."

The present owner's son joined the gender-bending crowd, but left the question of previous ownership unanswered.

"My dad had him before I was born," Mark Oram told The Scotsman.

Kitchen Knife No Match for Bottle of Salad Dressing

A British armed robber thought his knife would be enough to convince a shopkeeper to open the cash register — but he hadn't reckoned on her skills with a squirt bottle of salad dressing.

"He came in and produced a knife and said, 'Give me the money out of the till,'" said Lorraine Avery, 48, according to London's Daily Telegraph.

"I thought, 'He's not having our money, I've worked hard for it' ... The nearest thing was a big bottle of salad cream so I grabbed it and squeezed it all over his clothes," she told a court in Stafford, England, yesterday.

Michael Watt, 18, backed out of the store and ran out into the street. Police caught up to him following a trail of salad dressing, which was also all over his clothes.

Watt got a sentence of 3½ years for attempted robbery. The judge also recommended that Avery get a bravery award.

— Thanks to Out There reader Mark M.

Two Tickets for the Price of One

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — There are many things that cause distractions for drivers: eating, grooming, cigarette smoking, talking on the phone.

For Rithcik Ramakri of Staten Island, it may have been a speeding ticket.

South Brunswick police say Ramakri, 19, was reading a speeding ticket he had just received Tuesday morning when his Nissan Pathfinder ran into the back of a Robert Wood Johnson University (search) ambulance at a stop light.

Neither Ramakri nor the two paramedics in the ambulance were hurt.

But when police arrived and heard Ramakri's story, he ended up getting another ticket, this time for careless driving.

Ramakri, who is scheduled to appear in municipal court on Thursday, faces up to $200 in fines.

Serial Escapee Has Consistent Clothing Problem

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — It was the pink underwear that gave away escaped inmate Keith "Lucky" Stratton — that and the fact his jail work pants kept falling down.

The convicted car thief jumped from a truck carrying a prisoner work crew through Portland's Parkrose (search) neighborhood on Tuesday.

Someone called 911 and reported seeing a suspicious-looking man with pink underwear running behind a furniture store.

"The inmate was wearing brown work crew pants, but apparently they kept falling down," said Multnomah County sheriff's Lt. Michael Shults.

Stratton was still having trouble keeping his pants up when officers cornered him.

Last April, the 32-year-old escaped from a community transition program. Police found him hiding in an apartment under a pile of dirty clothes and blankets, his feet poking out.

Deputies were mystified why Stratton would again try to flee, since he was to be released May 2 and now may face substantially more jail time for the escape.

Shults had one possible explanation: It was Stratton's birthday.

Compiled by Foxnews.com's Paul Wagenseil.

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