LONDON – A first edition of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”, which had been kept in a bathroom bookcase for years, fetched 103,250 pounds ($171,000) at auction on Tuesday, around twice its pre-sale estimate.

Christie’s auctioneer offered the book at a sale held on the 150th anniversary of the evolutionary work’s original publication.

The copy was bought by the family of the current owners for “a few shillings” over 50 years ago, the auctioneer said.

The vendor’s son-in-law recently visited an exhibition on Darwin where he saw another first edition on display. He realised it was the same work as that in his father-in-law’s guest bathroom, and it was duly offered for sale.

Source: Reuters

LAKE WORTH, FL — This homeowner is a force to be reckoned with. He’s 91, he was buck naked, but he and his dog decided to go after a would be burglar.

He held the man at gunpoint until police arrived. Deputies say they found the would-be burglar on the back porch by the pool drunk and trembling — probably not how he thought it would all go down.

He got more than he bargained for when he decided to mess with this elderly man and his trusty rottweiler mix. Robert Thompson, 91, and his 5-year-old dog, Rett, tag-teamed a thug trying to break into their Lake Worth home Friday night.

“I think the guy was scared to death,” Thompson said. “He was screaming.”

Thompson jumped out of bed, totally naked, and went to go check things out with Rett by his side.

“I went in and got my cell phone and dialed 911 and got my gun,” he said.

Thompson said Pascual was coming toward him so he fired a shot. Authorities said he held the drunk intruder at gunpoint until deputies arrived, but he’s giving his best bud Rett all the credit for the happy ending. “He’s the hero.”

“If anyone violates my home they better be careful, that’s all I got to say,” said Thompson.

Source

An elderly man who went out to fetch a morning newspaper ended up driving nearly 400 miles after getting lost and taking a wrong turn onto a major Australian highway, police said on Wednesday. The man, 81-year-old Eric Steward, eventually stopped and asked for directions after driving for nine hours, from the New South Wales country town of Yass to Geelong in the southern Victoria state.

Steward, who did not know where he was, eventually approached a policeman at a petrol station and asked for help late Wednesday.

“This little old man came up to me saying he was lost. He handed me his mobile and asked if I could speak to his wife,” said Victorian Police Senior Constable Clayton Smith.

Steward, who was reunited with his family on Wednesday, said he took the wrong turn and just kept on going.

“I just went out on the road to have a drive, a nice peaceful drive,” he told reporters, adding he did not need a satellite navigation device as he’d only been lost once.

Source: Reuters

A thief gets himself stuck in a tiny window while trying to break into a supermarket in Almancil, southern Portugal.

He even dropped his trousers in an effort to wriggle free.

According to police, the slim 22-year-old Romanian man had spent about 11 hours stuck in the window, including the two hours it took police and the fire brigade to get him out

Source

Freaky facts:

• King Philip secretly ordered the mass
arrest of the Knights Templar in
France on Friday, October 13, 1307.

• Jesus was crucified on a Friday.

• The goddess Frigga (for whom Friday
is named) was banished by the
Christians and labeled a witch. Every
Friday, she was believed to meet
with 11 other witches plus the devil,
for a total of 13.

• Friday was Hangman’s Day in Britain.

This superstition created of loose facts
affects many people. Some Americans
avoid their normal routines on this
day, to the tune of an estimated $800
to $900 million in lost business in the
U.S.

Source

Goloski is promoting S&W’s breast cancer awareness pistol.
Source

SPRINGFIELD, Va. – A Springfield, Virginia man is facing an indecent exposure charge after a passerby spotted the man naked in his kitchen and reported it to police.

Eric Williamson, 29, is a commercial diver who grew up in Hawaii and rents home with several co-workers. Williamson told FOX 5’s Will Thomas his roommates were not home and he walked into the kitchen to make coffee about 5:30 a.m. Monday.

“Yes, I wasn’t wearing any clothes but I was alone, in my own home and just got out of bed. It was dark and I had no idea anyone was outside looking in at me,” Williamson said.

The complaint came from an unidentified woman who was walking with a 7-year-old boy. A Fairfax County Police spokesman said officers arrested Williamson for indecent exposure because they believe he wanted to be seen naked by the public.

Source: Fox news

Berlin – German police are investigating a chilli sauce to determine whether it was so spicy that it was capable of causing grievous bodily harm when used in an attack.

Police took a sample of the sauce from a kebab stand in Bremen’s central train station after a kebab salesman threw it into the eyes of a customer during a fight over napkins.

“Legally, the question of whether the spiciness of the kebab sauce constituted ‘normal’ or grievous bodily harm must be addressed,” local police in the northern city said on Friday.

Officers broke up a scuffle that kicked off after a 23-year-old wiped his kebab-soiled hands on the stand because the salesman refused to give him a paper napkin. The seller responded by flinging a ladle of sauce in the man’s face.

The victim’s eyes became bloodshot and police are investigating why the napkin dispute broke out, a spokesman said. Both men could end up facing charges, he added.

Source: Reuters

Via Fox News:

SLIDELL, La. — Police say a naked man who appeared to be drunk or on drugs broke into a Louisiana home, cooked himself a meal and took a shower before leaving, wrapped only in a sheet.

Slidell Police Capt. Kevin Foltz says a video surveillance system at the home captured the naked man using a garden hose to shower outside the house around 1 a.m.

The in-the-buff burglar then tried knocking on the front door, police said. When there was no response, he went to the back of the house and wrapped himself in a trash bag, according to FOX 8.

The man allegedly broke several windows, entered the house and ransacked it before cooking himself a meal, having several drinks and showering again.

After all these years this sort of thing just doesn’t surprise me any more.  My hunch is that the man was drunk & high and might have some other “friends” talking to him as well.  From the outside this might seem funny, but in actuality it’s really sad and scary.  This guy is really lucky that he didn’t break into the wrong house.

Via SeaCoastOnline:

PORTSMOUTH — A pizza delivery person bringing an order to a city residence on Saturday was met by a naked man for the fourth time, say police.

According to the city’s public police log, at 5:42 p.m. on Sept. 26, police were called to a Holiday Drive residence where the delivery person said “when they deliver pizza there the resident comes to the door naked.” Police Lt. Rodney McQuate said the delivery person has encountered the naked resident during four different pizza deliveries, but did not wish to press charges.

So it’s apparently 4 strikes are you’re out in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  After the first time I’d be wary of showing up again. And after the second time I’d definitely not be coming back again. But maybe that’s just me.