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29 March 2024

800 teens gatecrash party after Facebook invite

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UK: In a birthday bash, literally, about 800-odd teenagers decided to gatecrash a house birthday party that was advertised on Facebook.

A 14-year-old was celebrating her special day at her three-bedroom home in Billericay, Essex when a huge crowd of mostly strangers, who were drunk, damaged their home as they smashed holes in the ceiling, drew on walls and ripped doors off their hinges.

This, despite the presence of the birthday girl's mother at the party to stop things from getting out of hand, reports The Sun

As the number of guests swelled, the party spread outside the house as well. Police had to be called in eventually after the neighbours complained about the loud noise.

The teenager had invited about 30 friends for an early celebration of her 15th birthday next February. However, she posted the full details of the event on her facebook page. The girl's mother ignored warnings from her colleagues when they saw the open invite on their Facebook pages.

The family has been told that insurance will not pay for the damages as they were technically 'invited' to their home.

Despite the massive damages sustained by the family, the parents refuse to ground their daughter for inviting the world to her party.
 
Three women called 'fat girls' on restaurant bill

NEW YORK: Three customers at a restaurant in California were shocked to find that they were referred to as 'fat girls' by the waiter.

The offensive words came to their notice when they asked for the cheque after finishing their meal at Chilly D's Sports Lounge in Stockton. The offensive bill had the words printed on it and the diners were visibly taken aback to find  it a cruel joke. The three friends refused to believe what the receipt said.

The waiter who served the bill claimed innocence. In all probability it was the job of the person who had taken their order, reports NY Daily News.

Obviously a disgruntled server chose to degrade the female customers with message on check.

The trip asked to see the manager who outraged the women more when she offered 25 per cent discount to them with a smirk on his face and even offered to up the discount to 50 per cent. It was quite evident that he was trying not to laugh.

The manager claimed later that he was "appalled" by the incident in the restaurant.
 
Mystery man falls from the sky

LONDON — Police believe he was from Africa, probably from Angola, but they don’t know his identity.

The mystery began in September when residents of a suburban street in the Mortlake neighborhood of West London woke up on a quiet Sunday morning to find the crumpled body of a black man on the sidewalk of Portman Avenue, near a convenience store, an upscale lingerie shop and a storefront offering Chinese medical cures.

Detectives believed at first the man was a murder victim and cordoned off the area.

Within a day, however, police concluded the man — probably already dead — had fallen to the ground when a jet passing overhead lowered its landing gear as it neared the runway at nearby Heathrow Airport.

The apparent stowaway had no identification papers — just some currency from Angola, leading police to surmise that he was from that African nation, especially as inquiries showed that a plane from Angola was beginning its descent into Heathrow at about that time.

The macabre explanation made perfect sense to residents, who are familiar not only with the roar of the jets descending, but are also able to see the planes lower their landing gears as they pass overhead, said Catherine Lambert, who lives a few doors down from the spot where the man landed.

“You could see him, his body was contorted,” she said. “It was a beautiful blue day, really sunny, but we had to keep the children inside. I didn’t want the children to see, and to have to explain to them and put fear into them every time a plane goes over.”

A post mortem conducted two days after the body landed listed the cause of death as “multiple injuries.”

In the days afterward, some neighbors put flowers on the spot where the stowaway was found, and a small group of Angolans who live in the London area came to place more flowers and to pray.

Lambert, 41, said there is lingering sadness, since the man has not been identified and there has been no way to tell his family he is gone.

“I felt, what was he running away from? What made him think he could he could? And how will his family ever know? He’s a lost soul now; his father and mother are probably waiting for him to make contact,” she said.

A London police spokesman, who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record because of force policy, said Sunday that police are appealing to the public for help identifying the man based on a composite image of his face and a photo of a tattoo on his left arm.

The tattoo showed the letters “Z” and “G” inked on his upper arm, with a horizontal line through the “Z”.

Police also said attempts to identify the man with the help of Angolan authorities had been unsuccessful.

They stressed there is only “circumstantial” evidence linking the stowaway to that country.

In a statement, police said the man is believed to be an African of slight build between the ages of 20 and 30.

He was wearing jeans, white sneakers and a gray sweatshirt when he was found on Sept. 9, police said.

Although firm figures are not available, in recent years there has been a rise in the number of stowaways trying to get to Western Europe by hiding in the undercarriages of passenger planes.

Aviation safety specialist Chris Yates of Yates Consulting said Sunday that poor airport perimeter security at a number of airports in Africa — including the main Angola airport at Luanda — and in other parts of the world has made it easier for people to stow away on planes, but that most attempts fail.

“They so often end in fatality because more often than not stowaways climb into the wheel base or cargo hold, and those areas are not necessarily pressurized,” he said. “

When you start moving beyond 10,000 feet, oxygen starvation becomes a reality. As you climb up to altitude, the issue becomes cold as well, the temperature drops to minus 40 or minus 50 degrees centigrade, so survival rates drop.”

He said the man who crashed to the pavement in Mortlake had probably lost consciousness and died within the first hour of his flight.

Police said the body is being held for possible repatriation in case the man’s identity is established.

Mortlake residents and business people speak of a similar death in recent years, but disagree about the timing and the details.

“People say the same thing happened a few years ago a few blocks away” said Jay Sivapalan, 29, who works at the Variety Box convenience store half a block from where the body landed. “We are near Heathrow and when they lower the landing gear, the body falls out.”

Others believe the incident may have happened 10 years ago. Police said they had no information about other stowaway deaths.
 
Mutts pass doggie driving test with flying collars

WELLINGTON - A pair of highly trained canines guided a modified car along a New Zealand race track Monday, passing their doggie driving tests with flying collars on live television, despite the odd off-road detour.

In a heartwarming project aimed at increasing pet adoptions from animal shelters, a group of cross-breed rescue dogs from Auckland were taught to drive a car - steering, pedals and all - to show the potential of unwanted canines.

Footage of the motorised mutts learning their skills has proved an Internet sensation but their ultimate test came on Monday, when the two best performers, Monty and Porter, were put through their paces on national television.

Monty the giant schnauzer cross was first up, driving the modified Mini down the straight by himself, in what is claimed to be a world first.

"It's all the dog doing it," trainer Mark Vette said as Monty cruised along the track looking relaxed with one paw resting on the steering wheel before coming safely to a halt.

"He's started the key, put the paw on the brake to allow it to go into gear, put it into drive, paw on the steering wheel, accelerator on, and off he goes down the track."

Vette, who has worked with animals on numerous film sets, admitted he had his doubts when the project was first mooted.

"I must say, this has been the toughest assignment we've had," he said after two months of intensive training.

"We've done 'Lord of the Rings', '(The Last) Samurai', many of the big movies but to actually get a dog in a car with no trainer and it does the whole gig itself, I tell you what, it's been a real challenge.

"No one's in the car, no tricks, it's all Monty driving - he loves it."

He said the car, which has handles fitted on the steering wheel and dashboard-height brake and accelerator pedals, also came with a speed limiter to restrict it to walking pace, although there was a mishap Monday morning.

"The knob came off this morning and he was off down the road at about 30 kilometres an hour (19mph) and we had to chase after him."

Porter, a bearded collie-cross, then tried the trickier manoeuvre of steering the car around one of the racetrack's bends while a television reporter sat in the passenger seat.

He was largely successful, but ran off the track onto a grass verge at one point as the reporter nervously asked Vette "can we stop now?"

Clips of the motorised mutts undergoing training have attracted more than 700,000 hits on video-sharing website YouTube and featured on news bulletins worldwide.

US talk show host David Letterman introduced a segment on the dogs last week saying "I love this more than life itself", going on to list 10 signs your dog is a bad driver, including "insists on driving with head out the window".

Hollywood actress Denise Richards, who has a brood of rescue dogs in her Los Angeles home, tweeted "this is hysterical!!!"

Auckland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) chief executive Christine Kalin said she was stunned at the global response and thrilled the shelter's message had reached such a wide audience.

"Some people think that by getting a shelter dog they're somehow getting a second class citizen, we're with these dogs every day, we know how wonderful they are," she said.

"This was an opportunity to show New Zealand, and as it's turned out the world, how amazing these animals are."

The driving dogs were the brainchild of Auckland advertising agency DraftFCB, which was commissioned by Mini, which has worked with the SPCA previously, to come up with a campaign that would challenge preconceptions about shelter dogs. (AFP)

(Home page image courtesy Shutterstock)