A surprised young mother has launched an internet campaign to track down the generous stranger who was kind enoughto leave her a handwritten note in which he described her as a “credit to her generation”.
Sammie Welch was travelling with her three-year-old son on a busy First Great Western train from Birmingham to Plymouth when a man handed her a note as he got off the station in Bristol.
The mystery passenger, who signed the message “Man on train at table with glasses and hat”, also left the woman a £5 note to buy herself a drink after apparently being impressed with the way she spoke to her son.
The note, in capital letters, read: “Have a drink on me. You are a credit to your generation, polite and teaching the little boy good manners.
“PS I have a daughter your age, someone did the same for her once. Hope when she has children she is as good a mother as you. Have a lovely evening.” (PA)
Foxy guest turned away from hotel
A mysterious blue fox has been spotted at a Travelodge in Greenwich, the News Shopper reports
A worried guest noticed and photographed the creature while at the hotel bar.
Luckily, a man in the bar was able to entice the fox with crisps and it was escorted away from the hotel. (PA)
Concern at ‘pot’ culture on Twitter
Experts have raised concerns about a thriving Twitter cannabis culture.
During a single month, researchers identified more than seven million tweets referring to marijuana, with “pro-pot” messages outnumbering those opposed to the drug by 15 to one.
Most of those sending and receiving “pot tweets” were under the age of 25, and many in their teens, said the team. (PA)
Brides-to-be in brawl over dress
Cut-price bridal gowns brought wedding organisers in Romania more than they bargained for, when two brides-to-be scrapped over a lavish dress.
They tugged on the delicate lace and yelled at each other at a wedding fair held at the Palace of the Parliament, a giant building that itself looks like a Stalinist wedding cake.
The gown was ripped by the two young women each determined to claim the cut-price, off-white concoction.
An organiser said a guard was called to resolve the spat and the women were ushered out of the fair.
Spokeswoman Dora Patrascu said the dress was “totally ripped”, and the two women were banned from the fair. As for the dress, organisers have written it off.
Bingo granny caught with cocaine
Helen Heaphy’s number came up at the bingo hall. The prize was a trip to court.
The 50-year-old grandmother pleaded guilty on Wednesday to two counts of possessing cocaine for sale or supply after Irish police caught her with the narcotic outside a Cork bingo hall.
Cork District Court Judge Leo Malone accepted her lawyer’s plea for clemency citing her family obligations and her possession of a relatively small amount of the drug worth €350 (£260).
Heaphy insisted she was holding the cocaine for an unspecified friend.
Malone fined Heaphy €750 (£565) but gave her no jail time, despite having two prior convictions for drugs possession and obstructing a police narcotics unit. She even was allowed to go back to playing bingo at the hall after the owner relented. (PA)
‘Trusted’ cars attract drug dealers
Drug smugglers are turning “trusted travellers” into unwitting mules by placing containers with powerful magnets under their cars in Mexico and then recovering the illegal cargo far from the view of border authorities in the United States.
One motorist spotted the containers while filling up with petrol after crossing into southern California this month, and thought it might be a bomb.
His call to police prompted an emergency response, and then a shock – 13 pounds of heroin were packed inside.
There have been four such incidents in San Diego since January 12, all involving drivers enrolled in the federal “trusted traveller” programme, which enables hundreds of thousands of people who pass extensive background checks to whizz past inspectors with less scrutiny. (PA)