Quick Takes

Race for life

Clawing for freedom, a pack of lobsters high-tailed it out of an Asian supermarket in the early hours of Oct. 21 in Stuttgart, Germany. According to police, the crated crustaceans cut through a mesh fence before scurrying through a door a grocer accidentally left cracked. German night owls reported seeing a pack of fugitive crustaceans moving slowly down a street. "The breakout was successful," a police spokesman told Der Spiegel. Police rounded up the lobsters and turned them over to a local animal shelter.

Dishonest gain

With the help of an Oklahoma business, skipping work just got easier. Forget ethics, says the owner of an internet business specializing in forging doctors' notes and other official-looking excuses for missing work. "Millions of Americans work dead-end jobs, and sometimes they just need a day off," reasons John Liddell, who helped found Vision Matters, which sells the notes as part of its Excused Absence Network. "People are going to lie anyway," he said. Dishonest employees can also buy a fake jury summons or a funeral program with their name listed among the pallbearers. "I can't speak for doctors in general, but for me this practice sounds awful," said Dr. John Z. Sadler, director of the University of Texas-Southwestern's Program in Ethics in Science and Medicine.

Tough on crime

Ogden, Utah, Mayor Matthew Godfrey proved you can't fight city hall-even if it's occupied by a 135-pound mayor. Godfrey awoke in the early hours of Oct. 24 to discover a burglar trying to break into his house. When Godfrey confronted the burglar outside, the mayor discovered Curtis Poorman, 20, riding across his lawn on a bicycle owned by Godfrey. The mayor chased down the perpetrator, tackled him, and threw him in a headlock until police arrived.

Soft landing

If all your friends drove through construction barricades and sank into freshly poured concrete, would you follow? Up to 10 vehicles did just that in Mequon, Wis., when one car blew through barricades and tape and drove into a cement nightmare. Several cars were able to navigate back onto dry ground, but police say a 2004 Lexus and a 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis got stuck in the hardening concrete.

Second-hand toke

A Bradenton, Fla., school bus driver said there could be only one reason why a recent urine test showed she tested positive for marijuana: second-hand smoke. Rosemary Pevy told a Florida radio station that up to nine of her students routinely smoked marijuana during rides to and from school. But school district officials don't seem to be buying her story, saying the woman never reported the drug-using teens.

Housing crisis

If home is where the heart is, Robert Burke (above) might just have a case. Burke, 70, filed a lawsuit against the city of Portsmouth, Maine, for bulldozing his home. Then again, Portsmouth might have a case too: Burke is homeless. When the city tore down the temporary campsite in a wooded area in the city, Burke claims the city took his foreign coins, a walker, personal papers, and an expensive leg cast. "A lot of this work was done by hauling the special materials from a distance via bicycle, and at times, hand carried with a broken leg through the forest," Burke wrote in a letter to the court. "You can't drive there."