An Indiana man found that when it comes to getting people to take off their clothes, nothing beats money and fame as enticements.
Police and prosecutors say Richard C. Brown, 41, lured three men to his house last July by telling them he was a radio-station DJ and that they could win $50,000 in cash, or a new car, as part of a contest.
All they had to do, he explained, was take off their clothes and walk around naked, The Indianapolis Star reports.
"It's lucky no one was damaged any more than having to shed their clothes," said one prosecutor at Brown's trial.
Two men went through with the scheme, one of them walking back to his car wearing only a small T-shirt around his waist, passing a mother pushing a baby stroller and enduring wolf-whistles from construction workers.
"I'm surprised I didn't get arrested," the unnamed man, 31, testified at Brown's trial. "It was very embarrassing."
The third man noticed an electronic monitoring bracelet (search) around Brown's ankle, left the house and called the radio station Brown said he was working for, only to find out Brown's story wasn't true.
Brown was on house arrest after being convicted of posing as a sheriff's deputy and humiliating yet another man in 2002.
In the latest cases, Brown called local restaurants and asked to speak to their youngest male employees, who would then get the radio-station pitch.
Brown's defense attorney said the incidents were weird but not worthy of prosecution.
"Creepy — absolutely, but not criminal," she said in closing arguments. "Are we going to start raiding the frat houses in America and charging those people with felonies?"
Nevertheless, the jury on March 30 convicted Brown of three counts each of criminal confinement and identity deception, which could add up to nine years in prison.
He faces another trial later this month in connection with similar incidents involving seven other young men.
Wanted Man at Alleged Accomplice's Court Hearing
Loyalty didn't pay off for one Virginia man.
Saprina D. Porter, 29, was in court in Portsmouth April 4 to face a grand larceny charge in connection with a grocery-store robbery last fall.
But another suspect in the robbery, 23-year-old Tabarus M. Holland, had never been caught, The Virginian-Pilot of Hampton Roads reports.
During Porter's hearing, Portsmouth police Officer R. Hanks saw her take notice of a man in the gallery — and realized that, despite a fresh set of dreadlocks, the man looked an awful lot like Holland.
A sheriff's deputy approached the man, who ran out of the courtroom — and headed down the courthouse hall straight to the detectives' office.
"He ran from the wolves' house to the lions' den," chuckled a bail bondsman who saw the incident.
It did turn out to be Holland, and he was soon in custody.
To add insult to injury, Holland was charged with grand larceny in the grocery-store robbery — while Porter's charge was dropped.
Robot Alarm Clock Rings, Then Hides
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Before you hit the snooze button a second time on this alarm clock, you'll have to hunt it down.
The shag carpet-covered robotic alarm clock on wheels, called Clocky, rolls away and hides.
The clock is the invention of Gauri Nanda, a graduate student — and occasional oversleeper — who works in the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (search).
"I've been known to hit the snooze bar for a couple hours, wake up two hours later and be completely shocked," said Nanda, 25, who created Clocky for an industrial design course last year.
She made a prototype out of foam, a pair of wheels and a circuit board connected to small motors.
"It is programmed to tell the motors to move randomly, to generate random speeds and directions so that the clock ends up in a new place every day," she said.
Nanda's adviser, V. Michael Bove Jr., said hundreds of people interested in buying or selling the clocks have called and e-mailed. But the gadget is not yet available for sale.
Nanda is thinking of starting her own business to manufacture and market the clock.
MIT owns the intellectual property rights to Clocky and other student inventions, but Bove said Nanda would receive a share of any revenue generated.
Nanda said she wanted Clocky to remind its owners of a troublesome pet.
"The idea really was to use technology in a more playful way," she said. "It's sort of like a hide-and-seek game."
— Thanks to Out There reader Greg M.
Prom-Bound Teens Call Cops on Own Limo Driver
WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — Ten friends took a limousine to assure themselves a safe ride to their high school prom — but they ended up busting their own driver.
Patrick Curley, a senior at Winter Springs High School (search), used his cell phone to call home Saturday and reported the driver had driven through stop signs, cut off other vehicles and veered onto the wrong side of the road.
Robert Curley told his son to tell the driver to pull over, and when she stopped, the students grabbed the keys out of the ignition.
"This is unbelievable," Robert Curley told Seminole County Sheriff's Office dispatchers when he reported the incident. "We rented the limo so you're obviously going to be safe."
The students got to the prom an hour and a half late.
Christina Tomacelli, 49, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and refusing to submit to a blood-alcohol test.
Deputies said they found a half-empty bottle of citrus-flavored vodka next to the driver's seat. They said she also told them she had been drinking wine.
Tomacelli, of Altamonte Springs, didn't return a phone call to her home seeking comment Tuesday.
Angry Goose Greets Iowa Print-Shop Customers
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Customers of a local print shop: Beware of the hissing goose.
For the second year in a row, a Canada goose has made the front door area of Artcraft Inc., her home. Mother Goose, as she's called, greets customers by hissing at them.
Last year she hatched a gosling just a few feet from the front door. She has already made a nest this year.
"I had one customer call from a cell phone and ask if she would bite," said Judi Williams, the company's office manager. "She hisses, but she doesn't bite. Otherwise, everybody thinks she's pretty cool."
Iowa Department of Natural Resources officials said geese have no teeth and don't carry rabies. They rarely nip but are known to hiss when people or animals invade their space.
There are about 80,000 Canada geese (search) in Iowa, said Guy Zenner, a state waterfowl research biologist.
"You're going to see things like this."
Compiled by FOX News' Paul Wagenseil.
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