Woman calls police after hubby, 82, takes Viagra

An 82-year-old Italian man who took a Viagra pill scared his wife so much she called the police.

Giovanni di Stefano, from Palermo, was so excited his wife thought he would have a heart attack and dialled 999.

"The police didn't do anything but their presence had the desired effect. He lost interest in his love life pretty quickly," said a family friend.

Terrified wife Carla, 69, told police: "He is 82-years-old and so I thought so much love could have lethal consequences."

Bankrobber was cardboard cutout

A SWAT team stormed a US bank to end a 90-minute stand-off - only to find their suspect was a cardboard cutout.

Police had responded to an alarm going off at a branch of the PNC bank in Montgomery Township, New Jersey, and spotted a menacing-looking figure inside.

The shadowy image was behind the closed blinds of the bank, which was closed for Thanksgiving, reports the Star-Ledger.

Police sealed off the area to traffic and evacuated three nearby apartment buildings, while trying to make contact with their suspect by megaphone and telephone.

A SWAT team finally decided to end the impasse by storming the bank but found no one inside except the life-sized cutout.

Sperm donor fathers 46 children

A Dutchman who has fathered 46 children without having sex is said to be Europe's most committed sperm donor.

Ed Houben, who was until recently single but has now started a long-distance relationship, has never taken any payment for his services, reports the Daily Telegraph.

He first volunteered his services through an IVF clinic but had to stop a few years ago because he had reached his quota of 25 donations.

Now people find him on the internet and through word-of-mouth. Families he has helped vouch for him by telling of their own good experiences.

Mr Houben has travelled to hotels across Europe to perform his duties as a sperm donor, which is done by self-insemination by the mothers.

"I receive expenses and still travel to meet couples sometimes when it suits them," he said. "But generally people come here to see me."

Because each child will grow up knowing Mr Houben is their biological father, there is no danger of any of his offspring ever meeting and having a relationship.

A group of families including 12 of his children recently attended a reunion at Mr Houben's home.

"The kids had the chance to play with their half-brothers and sisters, which was nice," said Mr Houben. "The families also got to know each other.

"Some of them introduced me to the kids and said this is your real dad. But to be honest it didn't mean much to the children. They just looked at me and smiled and then carried on playing."

Caught short shopper banned

A desperate shopper got himself banned from a bathroom shop in Germany when he got caught short and used a display toilet.

Heinz Kessel, 39, dashed into the store in Bochum and relieved himself before realising the lavatory wasn't connected to the drains.

Furious staff gave him a cleaning bill and a lifetime ban from the shop.

Shop assistant Simone Fiedler, 32, said: ?I was talking to another customer when I suddenly realised there was a terrible smell in the shop.

"I called the manager and we went around the shop looking for it and then behind a screen where we had some toilets on display there was this red-faced man trying to flush a display toilet. He thought it was hooked up to the mains and couldn?t understand why it wasn?t working.

?He apologised and told us what had happened but in the end we had to shut the shop until it was all cleaned up because the smell was so bad customers would have been driven away anyway.?

Woman finds 14 snakes in her bedroom

An Australian woman thought she was having a nightmare when she found 14 snakes in her bedroom.

Esther Honegger, of Fannie Bay, Northern Territories, says she was "horrified" to see the 14 carpet pythons.

"I thought 'Oh my God, how many of them are there?'," she told the Northern Territorian. "I hate snakes and as I walked backwards and forwards I would see another one."

"They were everywhere - there was one curled around my bedhead, another around the bottom of the chair, and when I went outside there was one in the hallway, another on the railing and another on the step.

"It was like I was having a nightmare. Everywhere I looked they just kept popping up."

The self-employed driving instructor called friends, who she says didn't believe her, and then called the police who told her to call the 24-hour snake hotline.

Snake catcher Geoff Brouff came out to her home and managed to catch seven of the young snakes.

But the next morning he received another frantic call from Ms Honegger who had found five more. And that afternoon she found another two.

She is now desperately hoping that all of the snakes have now been caught.

Couple wait for wedding to kiss

A Chicago couple have kissed for the first time - at their wedding.

Claudaniel Fabien, 30, and Melody La Luz, 28, teach abstinence courses in schools and wanted to practice what they preach, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

So they agreed not to even touch lips until the minister said: "You may now kiss the bride" at their wedding.

"It was surreal," said Mr Fabien of the big moment. "It was like, my other self came out and said, 'Look dude, you're kissing her!'"

His bride described the kiss as "magical". "It feels like such a gift," she said. "When you value a kiss, it becomes something of worth."

The couple met on their way to a mission trip in Uganda in 2006. Miss La Luz had taken a seven-year vow not to date until June 2007, and the two lived in different cities, she in Chicago and he in Tucson.

After the trip, they talked on the phone, visited, and became friends. A year ago, Mr Fabien got a job in Chicago, and the two began dating. He proposed last July, writing "WYMM" in sand on a Miami beach.

Revellers to be asked to blow bubbles

Drinkers coming out of a town's pubs and clubs are to be asked to blow bubbles to try and reduce violence.

Revellers in Bolton will be handed children's bubble-blowers to channel boisterous behaviour into harmless fun, reports the Daily Mail.

The blue and orange toys, which double as pens, will be handed out by police community support officers on Saturday nights throughout December.

But the scheme, being rub by the Be Safe Partnership, involving Bolton council, the police and fire service, has been criticised as a waste of tax-payers' money.

Shop owner Elizabeth Edwards said: "We often have shop premises damaged by aggressive drunks and I don't think blowing bubbles is going to help, they'll only end up chucking the soapy liquid at each other.

"I resent having to pay business rates and council tax when the local authority spends it on such hare-brained schemes. It is appalling."

But Coun Elaine Sherrington, of Bolton Council, said: 'The bubble pens are a great idea to keep things light-hearted. Town centre revellers will have something fun to focus on as they leave pubs and clubs."

New ad campaign is barking

Russian dog owners are being collared by advertising agencies to turn their pets into walking billboards.

The Promo Dog project in Novosibirsk, Siberia, pays owners a fee in return for their pooches wearing specially designed clothes with ads on them.

A spokesman for the Promo Dog project said: "We have launched this project in a time of financial crisis as an alternative to traditional advertising.

"Obviously companies are now reviewing their finances and are asking how they can keep their products visible and well advertised without having to spend vast sums of money on expensive multi-media campaigns.

"Dogs go everywhere and are highly visible on the streets. There is also the novelty value of seeing a dog wrapped in an advertisement so people will stop and look. It is an excellent way of raising the profile of a company or product."

Local dog owner Natalia Mishkova, 28, who has a pet poodle said: "I signed up straight away. I walk my dog three times a day anyway so why not get paid for it?"

Man wakes wife from coma - by biting her toes

A Chinese man successfully woke his wife from a coma after 10 years - by biting her toes.

Zhang Kui, of Shenyang, says he tried everything he could think of to wake his wife after she suffered a head injury in an industrial accident.

"I played the radio, sang and talked to her, even tickled her, but nothing worked," he told the Liao Sheng Evening Post.

"I then recalled someone saying that the feet are the home for many nerves. I wondered if I could wake her up by biting her feet."

He started gently biting her toes and has been doing so regularly for the last 10 years - until she suddenly squeezed his wrist.

"I got goose bumps. It was like a dead person suddenly gripping your hand," he said.

His wife, Lv Fengshuang, can now move her arms and smile, although she is still unable to speak.

The couple have been married for 27 years and Zhang is now hoping for another miracle - to hear her voice again.

Readers Comments (2)

Show/Hide comments

Show/Hide comment form