Fluting motorist

Canadian police stopped a distracted driver Oct. 20. He wasn’t busy on his cell phone—he was playing his musical instrument. Police spotted the driver in the Canadian city of Burlington playing a flute at a red light. But when the light turned green, the driver pulled away while continuing to play with both hands on the woodwind. After stopping the car and conducting a brief investigation, the traffic officer determined the unidentified man had been playing along to the music from his iPod.

Burglar’s bad review

A disappointed burglar left an angry note for homeowners after breaking into a home. On Oct. 10, police in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh said they were investigating a break-in at the home of a government official. Police said the burglar made off with the equivalent of about $400 cash and some jewelry but was hoping for more. According to authorities, the burglar left a note behind for the homeowner condemning him for locking his doors even though there wasn’t much hidden cash. Police say the burglar wrote the note with a pad and pen belonging to the government official.

Lost in the woods

Police in Northern Michigan say Kevin William Tighe broke into a home in Williamsburg, Mich., on Oct. 6 before residents chased him away. Later, when police discovered him in the backyard of his parents’ home nearby, he escaped into the nearby woods. But then Tighe apparently got lost and phoned 911 for help. Police rescued him before placing him under arrest. Tighe faces charges of breaking and entering as well as resisting and obstructing police.

Backyard airstrip

Officials in Washington County, Minn., recently cited Jeffery Walker with five misdemeanors after discovering he built a 2,200-foot-long airstrip in his backyard. According to the aviation enthusiast, he laid down the airstrip in 2003 for personal use and even registered it with the Federal Aviation Administration as a private airport. After officials spotted a plane taking off in early October, they moved to enforce the city’s ban on planes taking off and landing inside city limits.

Lucrative sphinx hijincks

A British family won an unexpected payday when what they thought were 18th-century replicas of ancient Egyptian statuettes turned out to be the real deal. Mander Auctioneers auctioned what a Sudbury, Suffolk, family described as garden ornaments during the family’s process of thinning out their belongings prior to a move. They had purchased the statues at an auction 15 years ago for a few hundred dollars. One statue had its head reattached with cement. At first, the family and the auction house expected to get about $500 for the heavily weathered statues depicting a pair of sphinxes. “And then the auction just went crazy,” auctioneer James Mander told CNN. Apparently, several bidders had discovered the statues were bona fide treasures of ancient Egypt rather than eroded copies. The two statues sold for $265,510 plus a 24 percent buyer’s premium to an international art gallery. Experts are tracing the age of the statues, which could be thousands of years old.

Pop Tort

An Illinois woman has filed a lawsuit against Kellogg’s for misleading advertising. According to a lawsuit filed by plaintiff Anita Harris in an Illinois federal court in August, Kellogg’s marketing tricked customers who purchase strawberry-flavored Pop-Tarts into believing there was more strawberry in the fruit filling than in actuality. According to the nutrition label, the Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts contain 2 percent or less of “dried strawberries, dried pears and dried apples.” She claims the red food coloring misleads consumers about the strawberry contents of the breakfast offering. Harris is seeking at least $5 million.

Breaking the ice record

A Lithuanian endurance enthusiast has reportedly broken a record for longest time submerged in ice. On Oct. 23, Valerjan Romanovski climbed into a glass container beside a public street in Lithuania’s capital of Vilnius for the attempt. His aides filled the container with ice cubes until Romanovski stood neck-deep in the ice. From there, the record-seeker needed only to wait. Just over 2½ hours later, Romanovski seemingly shattered the previous record time for being submerged in ice. The Lithuanian finally emerged after 3 hours and 1 minute, an apparent new world record. Officials with Guinness World Records said they needed time to verify Romanovski’s feat.