NEWSQUIRKS

Curses, foiled again

Police spotted a thief leaving a Wal-Mart store in Alliance, Ohio, and gave chase but lost him. Less than an hour later, dispatchers received a call from a man reporting that a friend called to say he’d been hiding in a dumpster behind a Wal-Mart when a trash truck emptied the dumpster and began compacting him. “He had been compacted several times,” an officer said after police located and rescued suspect James Michael Brienzo, 37. “He was just begging us to empty the truck.” (Cleveland’s WKYC-TV)

Be seeing you

A British venture is enlisting citizens with laptop computers to monitor closed-circuit surveillance cameras in businesses. Monitors who spot suspicious behavior notify businesses and send a photo image of the potential crime. Monitors who catch offenders in the act can win up to 1,000 pounds ($1,600) in cash from Internet Eyes, which distributes the streaming footage. The monitors pay a fee to subscribe, must be over 18 and aren’t able to choose which footage they see or view premises in their local area. (Reuters)

Second-Amendment follies

When Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies responded to a liquor store robbery, the store manager met them and began pointing behind the deputies to indicate the direction the robbers fled. One of the deputies, a trainee, mistook the manager’s index finger for a gun aimed at them and fired eight rounds at the manager. All the shots missed. (Los Angeles Times)

Eighth-Amendment follies

Jail officials in Bradley County, Tenn., admitted issuing new inmates used underwear. Sheriff’s Department official Bob Gault said the jail’s policy is to issue everything incoming prisoners wear, take it back when they’re released and re-use it. Gault insisted the used underwear is thoroughly washed. (Associated Press)

Sitting pretty

German scientist Risto Koiva invented the “Intelli Chair,” which warns sitters who’re sitting wrong or have sat for too long. “Four touch-sensitive sensors in the seat of the chair and another four in the back of the chair detect how the user is sitting,” Koiva explained. “The data they collect is sent to a computer via a Bluetooth module.” The chair then alerts the sitter to change position. (Reuters)

Serenity now

Hoping to calm people who receive parking tickets, city officials in Cambridge, Mass., began including yoga poses on the back of tickets. Susan Clippinger, who heads the city’s transportation department, explained the 40,000 tickets were part of a public art project intended “to debunk the idea that all parking tickets are a hostile action.” (Boston Herald)

Compiled from the nation’s press by Roland Sweet. Authentication on demand.