NEWSQUIRKS

Curses, foiled again

A German teenager caught shoplifting in Verden found himself in even more trouble because the address he gave police turned out to be the home of one of the investigating officers. “It was a complete coincidence,” a police official told Reuters after the 18-year-old boy admitted lying.

“The thief gave that address because he’d once lived in the house. The policeman was the guy who moved in afterwards.” When Allahmanamjad Barbel, 21, walked into a police station in Barnstable, Mass., asking for help removing a pair of handcuffs, he explained that his sister had slipped them on him at a child’s birthday party as a prank. The Cape Cod Times reported that before confirming his story, officers ran a check and, according to Sgt. Sean Sweeney, discovered Barbel had at least four outstanding warrants. He was promptly arrested.

In-and-out ups and downs

Eighteen years after Russia stopped giving medals to women who bore at least 10 children to serve the nation, the government has resumed rewarding fertility.

Facing a potentially disastrous population decline, the government launched a publicity campaign urging people to have larger families. In a live television broadcast from the Kremlin, President Dmitry Medvedev awarded the Order of Parental Glory to eight families he congratulated for “setting an example for all society.”

Following an announcement that Singapore would double government spending on incentives to boost the birthrate, lawmaker Loo Choon Yong told the legislature that because people were not taking advantage of their free time to produce more babies, more of them should work six days a week instead of five. “We should accept that, as a people, our procreation talent is not our forte,” Loo said.

Loophole of the week

Cleveland attorney Blake Dickson appealed a ticket he received for a violation recorded by one of the city’s 41 redlight and speed cameras by pointing out the law specifies that the “owner of the vehicle shall be eligible for the penalty.”

Dickson was ticketed for driving a leased vehicle and argued in Ohio district court that “the lessee of the vehicle is not liable under this Cleveland code section.” He won.

Compiled from the nation’s press by Roland Sweet. Submit items, citing date and source, to P.O. Box 8130, Alexandria VA 22306.