A mystery car vandal being hunted by police has finally been collared – and revealed to be a dog.
Residents were upset that car tyres had been left repeatedly punctured over the past six months so set up CCTV in the village of Brampton, Cumbria.
The culprit caught on camera was not a feral youth but a border collie called Jess. The dog had been sinking her teeth into tyres while on a daily walk with her owner, leaving slow punctures and flat tyres in her wake.
Kitten gets stuck in watering can
Firefighters have rescued a kitten that got stuck in a watering can.
One fire engine attended a property in Cleatlands Close, Tweenaway, Paignton, Devon, after reports of a small kitten being trapped. The crew rescued the kitten, which was stuck by its head in the spout, using small tools.
“One fire appliance from Paignton attended a property to rescue a small kitten who was stuck in a watering can,” a fire service spokesman said. “The kitten was unharmed. Duty of care was left with the owners.”
Giant sign appears on roundabout
A sign resembling a large, red Google Maps pin has been spotted on an Oxfordshire roundabout.
The origin of the giant ‘A’ at the Playhatch roundabout on the A4155 Reading to Henley road is not yet known.
The roundabout is near Sonning-on-Thames, where a red letterbox ‘appeared’ on a bridge last year.
Typo gets inmate longer sentence
US President Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of an inmate who got a longer prison sentence because of a typo.
Ceasar Cantu, of Katy, Texas, is serving 15 years for trafficking marijuana and money laundering but the judge based the sentencing on a mistake in his pre-sentencing report which resulted in three-and-a-half years’ extra time. The typo occurred in the ‘offence level’ – a numerical rating based on the severity of the crime and the defendant’s sentence, among other factors. The pre-sentence report specified ‘36’ when it should have been ‘34’.
Cantu pleaded guilty in 2006 in federal court in Danville, Virginia. A judge ruled that because Cantu’s lawyer did not object at sentencing, the court could not change it. The White House said it could only be rectified by the President. Cantu will now serve 11-and-a-half years. Obama commuted only one sentence in his first term but has been using the power more in his second.
T rex bones couriered to the US
A Tyrannosaurus rex is joining the dinosaur fossil collection on the National Mall in Washington DC after a 3,000-mile journey from Montana.
For the first time, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History will have a nearly complete T rex skeleton. FedEx is delivering the dinosaur bones in 16 crates.
Visitors can get their first look as curators examine each bone over the next six months. But it will take five years for the museum to overhaul its dinosaur hall with the T rex mounted as the centrepiece of a $35 million gallery devoted to the history of life on earth. The T rex was found in 1988 on federal land and was previously displayed at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana.
Casino reimbursing poker players
A New Jersey casino is reimbursing players in a poker tournament which was suspended after counterfeit chips were discovered.
More than 2,100 entrants who finished outside the top 450 and played in the same room as the North Carolina man who is accused of introducing the fake chips will get $560, including a refund of their $60 entry fees from the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa.