A stray rescued on the day he was due to be put down is retiring following a successful career as a police drug detection dog.
Cocker spaniel Griffin was adopted by Wiltshire Police in 2008, aged two, and has since clocked up an impressive 500 detections. Griffin had been rescued as a stray by the Blue Cross in Ireland on the day he was due to be put to sleep.
One career highlight was sniffing out a wanted man, later found to have 450 LSD tablets hidden in his underwear. Pc Marie Poole hailed Griffin, her eighth police dog, as one of Wiltshire Police’s “most successful” passive drugs detectors. Griffin will now live with Pc Poole and her other retired police dog, Frank.
Rock veterans launch own beer
Status Quo are trying their hands at a new skill – by releasing their own brand of beer.
The rock veterans, led by Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi, are launching their Piledriver beer in hundreds of pubs. Quo follow bands such as Iron Maiden and Elbow, who have also developed beers.
They teamed up with the Wychwood Brewery to create their drink, named after their 1972 album, which will become available in more than 900 Wetherspoons.
Rossi said: “Music and beer go well together. Anyone denying that has never been to a gig – and certainly not a Quo show.”
Pants and jeans cause blockage
Pants and even jeans are causing blockages after being flushed down the drains and clogging the sewer system, a water company said as it highlighted the £7 million annual cost to taxpayers.
Around 80% of the 40,000 blockages last year were caused by people putting the wrong things down sinks and toilets – from nappies to cooking fat, and even pants and jeans, according to Scottish Water.
The utility company is running a broadcast campaign to help people understand how they can play a part in keeping the system flowing while saving on house-hold bills.
Record cemented in Los Angeles
A Los Angeles project laying the foundation for the tallest building west of the Mississippi has broken the world record for the longest continuous concrete pour after 18-and-a-half hours, a Guinness World Records adjudicator said.
Adjudicator Michael Empric said 21,200 cubic yards of concrete were poured, beating the existing record of 21,000 cubic yards set by the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas in 1999.
The record completion was marked by blaring horns. Mr Empric monitored the pour overnight by smartphone before meeting contractors and engineers. Sean Rossall, spokesman for the New Wilshire Grand, said 208 trucks made more than 2,100 trips and poured 82 million pounds of concrete.
Mobile phone ‘contraband’
Prison officials in Florida and nationwide are fighting a different type of contraband being smuggled to inmates – mobile phones.
They are being hidden in babies’ nappies, noodle soup packages, footballs, soft drinks cans and body cavities.
Last year, two murderers used mobile phones to plan their escape from a prison in Florida, where the state confiscated 11 mobile phones per day in its prisons. Even infamous murderer Charles Manson, imprisoned in California, has been caught with a mobile phone, twice.
And two Indiana prisoners were convicted of using mobile phones smuggled in by guards to run an operation that distributed methamphetamine, heroin and other drugs.