Crazy World: Real arrest, false teeth...

Real arrest thanks to false teeth

RIO DE JANEIRO:  Brazilian authorities seeking to take a bite out of crime caught a lucky break when a purse-snatcher unwittingly left behind key evidence that led to the thief's arrest: his own dentures.

The robber grabbed a woman's handbag in the small town of Severina, about 430 kilometers (265 miles) from Sao Paulo, and managed to escape, victim Silvina Julieta Ferreira told local media on Friday.

The news quickly spread within the community, and the thief would have remained at large had it not been for an alert farmer who found the dentures and turned them in to police.

Investigators promptly showed up at the home of 34-year-old Milton Cesar de Jesus, who was missing most of his front teeth.

"He was told to put on the dentures and they fit perfectly. You couldn't say they weren't his," town commissioner Aparecido Martins said.

The accused was left without his false teeth once again, television stations showed on Friday, as police had taken the dentures into custody as evidence. 

Farmer advertises against advertising

France: A French organic farmer has forked out 3,000 euros $4,300 for a series of billboard advertisements that denounce the evils of advertising.

Twenty-five of the giant ads went up this week across the southwestern town of Agen showing a human brain stuffed with advertising images and carrying the slogan "Advertising is manipulating you - React!"

Fifty-six-year-old farmer Pierre Kung explained that he was implementing the martial arts technique of "using the strength of the adversary to floor him."

"My aim is simply to get people to ask themselves questions. Because we've been brainwashed into thinking that happiness lies in consuming ever more," he told AFP.

Kung said he sympathised with but was not a member of an 'anti-advertising' militant group in Paris who attack billboards and other advertising they say blight the landscape and render the population consumerist sheep. 

Gladiator police 1 - Thieving gang 0

ROME: Italian police have arrested 20 gladiator impersonators in an undercover sting aimed at ending a violent racket operating around Rome's most famous tourist sites, Italian press reported on Thursday.

Police disguised as gladiators, dustbin men and members of the public raided the gang made up of seven families working with five tourist agencies.

The modern gladiators are accused of attacking and intimidating competitors for a lucrative business in which gladiators collect up to 10 euros ($14) for having their picture taken alongside tourists in front of attractions.

The police officers disguised as gladiators were beaten up by the alleged criminal gladiators before other undercover officers swooped in.

"Gladiators" are a feature of the Roman landscape for tourists, with men decked out in bright red capes, helmets with plumes of red feathers and sandals while carrying swords and round shields.

They can be found outside the Colosseum, Castel Sant'Angelo, Piazza Venezia and even in front of St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, preying on the millions of tourists who pass through Rome every year.

Criminal gangs had divided up these tourist sights and were defending their territory with violence, the police said.
Five competitors who had been chased away alerted police to the gang's activities, leading to the sting operation.

Pink-slipped tech workers win lottery

OTTAWA: A group of Canadian technology workers won a $7.1 million lottery this week on the same day they lost their jobs at an Ottawa manufacturing plant.

The 18 workers won the Lotto 6/49 prize on Wednesday, the same day their company, Smart Technologies, announced massive layoffs, starting in September, a company official told AFP.

The Calgary-based company said it is shifting its manufacturing to Mexico.

Ten of the 18 who will share in the lottery prize received pink slips.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.