‘Is this your turd?’: Missouri city’s cleanup flags dog poop
Springfield, Mo. (AP) — Officials in a southwest Missouri city are planting small flags in piles of abandoned dog poop as part of a campaign to get residents to clean up after their pets downtown. The Police Department in Springfield, Missouri, posted photos of the flags in use on its Facebook page Wednesday. The flags contain messages such as, “Is this your turd? ‘Cuz that’s absurd” and “This is a nudge to pick up the fudge.” The campaign started this week and the department noted on Facebook that leaving behind a pet’s mess in many cases violates a city ordinance. The flags are made of bamboo and recycled paper. The city said it picks up nearly 25 pounds (11.34 kilograms) of poop a week from downtown parks and parking lots, costing $7,500 annually.
German restaurant accidentally serves hash cake at funeral
Berlin (AP) — Police say a funeral in eastern Germany ended on an involuntary drug high when mourners were accidentally served hash cake. Rostock police said Tuesday after the burial in Wiethagen, the funeral party went to a restaurant for coffee and cake, as is customary in Germany. But after eating the cake, 13 people experienced nausea and dizziness and needed medical treatment. A police investigation revealed that the restaurant employee in charge of the cakes had asked her 18-year-old daughter to bake them. However, the mother accidentally took the wrong cake from the freezer to the funeral. She took a hash cake that the teenager had made for a different occasion. Police said the 18-year-old is under investigation. The incident happened in August but wasn’t published earlier out of respect for the mourners.
Drunk Austrian policeman suspended
after crashing into car
Berlin (AP) — Austrian authorities say an allegedly intoxicated off-duty policeman has been suspended after crashing into a car that was being checked by other officers. Police said the incident happened at around 1 a.m. Monday in Tyrol province. Officers were able to get out of the way as their 55-year-old colleague drove into the back of the car they were checking, but both he and the two people in that vehicle — an Iraqi man and an Italian woman — were injured. The Austria Press Agency reported that authorities said a breathalyzer test was positive, but wouldn’t say how far over the limit he was, citing data protection reasons. His driver’s license was taken away on the spot. The officer was suspended from work and faces disciplinary proceedings.
Crafty move: German spies take foreign agents to Oktoberfest
Berlin (AP) — The German government has acknowledged that it picked up the tab when the country’s spy agency recently took dozens of foreign agents on a trip to the Munich Oktoberfest. News of the spies’ visit to the world-famous beer festival came to light in a government response to an opposition lawmaker’s questions and was first reported over the weekend by German weekly Bild am Sonntag. A spokeswoman for Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency declined Friday to comment on the trip, which reportedly involved more than 100 German spies and their guests, and cost over 30,000 euros ($33,460). It was unclear whether the entire sum went toward beer, which has a reputation for loosening tongues. Left Party lawmaker Diether Dehm, who had requested the government’s response, called the spies’ Oktoberfest excursion “cheeky.”
German swingers’ club evacuated after carbon monoxide alarm
Berlin (AP) — Authorities say a swingers’ club in western Germany had to be evacuated mid-party after a carbon monoxide alarm went off and several guests reported feeling unwell. Firefighters in the town of Hattingen, between Dortmund and Duesseldorf in North Rhine-Westphalia, told the dpa news agency Sunday that about 300 swingers were brought to safety after the alarm went off late Saturday night. The swingers, many clad just in bathrobes as they left the club, were taken on buses to be examined by first aid workers. About ten complained of feeling unwell and needed treatment. The fire department says no dangerous levels of carbon monoxide were detected once they had arrived. In all, about 160 emergency workers were involved.
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