CARLISLE, Pa. -- A man who, as a practical joke, re-created an $853,000 winning lottery ticket on his home computer and then left it in the lunch room at work, slightly hidden under some newspapers, in the hopes that one of his co-workers might claim it so that he could then embarrass them with the bad news, got a surprise himself.

What the prankster hadn't counted on is one of his co-workers secretly pocketing the fake ticket and then actually trying to redeem it with lottery officals. Of course, in the endless list of practical jokes gone bad, that's exactly what happened. Not knowing the ticket was a phoney, the co-worker attempted to cash the ticket at lottery headquarters and told inquiring lottery investigators that he had purchased the ticket himself thinking that their questioning was an attempt to establish a de facto ownership right to it. To his dismay, rather than receiving his winnings, he was instead promptly arrested for trying to pass a fake lottery ticket. He was later charged with providing an unsworn falsification when the criminal investigation revealed the joke. A jury has since acquitted him.

As for the practical joker, well he got a year of probation and a $2,500 fine for creating the fake ticket and masterminding the prank.

Copyright (c) 2006 Blah Blah Blawg.com

ROCK HILL, South Carolina -- A local mother here had her 12-year-old son arrested after he opened one of his Christmas presents early.

The boy's great-grandmother had wrapped the Christmas present, a Nintendo Gameboy, and placed it under the Christmas tree telling the boy not go near it. I guess the anticipation was just too much for the boy as the next morning his great-grandmother discovered the present opened and Gameboy missing from its box. The great-grandmother called the boy's mother who then confronted the boy about the missing present. True to 12-year-old form, the boy denied having any knowledge of the missing gift. After her interrogation was getting nowhere, the frustrated mother threatened to call the police if the boy didn't come clean and produce the gift. In view of mom playing the "police card," the boy confessed and then went into his room and emerged with the pilfered Christmas present.

Now, one would think that a month's restriction or some other punishment would end this story. To the contrary. After the Gameboy was relinquished to his mother, she STILL went ahead and called the police and had her son arrested contrary to her statement which proferred the boy's confession. The Rock Hill Police took the 12-year-old into custody, booked him for petty larceny, and released him that same day back into his mother's custody.

The mother told the arresting officers that her son was a troublemaker, had been kicked out of school, and recently even assaulted a police officer for which he had a court date pending. She further advised them that she has simply had it with the boy.

The moral of this story -- Don't say anything without an attorney present, and for God's sake never confess!

Copyright (c) 2006 Blah Blah Blawg.com

GRAYTOWN, Ohio -- Imagine this (if you can). It's Mother's Day. You and your children decide to treat mom to a nice dinner out of the house. After an enjoyable dinner, you and your family pile back into the family's Ford Explorer. It's a beautiful evening. The windows of your SUV are open as is the sunroof in order to enjoy the evening air. You traverse up the on-ramp of the freeway enroute home. Freeway traffic is heavy and you notice that a bus is in the slow lane headed right for the open spot on the freeway that you want. You accelerate -- as does the bus. Upon reaching the freeway's slow lane, to your dismay, the bus has beaten you and now, almost along side of it, you are forced to fall in behind it. Woe is you -- or so you would think. Now imagine the worst possible scenario taking place. No, the bus doesn't slam on its brakes. No, someone else doesn't agressively cut in front of you. Instead, the bus opens it sewage tank (all 45+ gallons of it) showering the family SUV with all of its contents (yuck!), including the industrial deodorizer "Inca Liquid Gold II" (the blue chemical liquid found in commercial toilets). Oh! Did I mention that the windows and the sunroof of the SUV are wide open? Happy Mother's Day indeed!

As reality would have it, this was Mother's Day 2005 for the Stokes family of Graytown, Ohio, who recently filed a lawsuit against Greyhound Bus Lines after their encounter with a wayward bus and its semi-liquid cargo. The lawsuit is seeking over $300,000 in damages. The family says they were covered with toilet paper and -- well, everything else that would get flushed down a toilet. Robert Bryce, the family's attorney, said "My client was driving in heavy traffic. They had nowhere to go. What can you do?" (Oh, I don't know counselor, how about STOPPING!?) Instead, the crap covered Mr. Stokes (now presumably blue and looking like a Smurf thanks to the Inca Liquid Gold II) bravely accelerates back into the deluge (windshield wipers blazing) in order to get the Bus's license plate number while his wife feverishly dials 911 on her cell phone.

Excerpt from the 911 call: (By Mrs. Stokes) "We're driving down the expressway and this Greyhound bus, all of its waste. He just evacuated his stuff all over our car!"

"We first went to the emergency room under the advice of our doctor, and then she ordered follow up tests. We had to have baseline tests for AIDS, Hepatitis, and a whole manner of things," said Mr. Stokes. Meanwhile, even after three professional steam cleanings, the family's SUV has been deemed to be a total loss by their insurance company as the stench could not be removed from the vehicle's interior (not a glowing endorsement for the advertised "pleasant 'airy' scent" of Inca Liquid Gold II).

Greyhound, as of this writing, has yet to file a response to the family's lawsuit. Maybe they're just waiting to impress everyone with their new stationary -- "Go Greyhound, and Leave the Crap to Us!"

Copyright (c) 2006 Blah Blah Blawg.com

BULGARIA -- A woman who was sentanced to 15 years in April 2005 for killing her 29-year old son with a garden hoe was released from prison last month because she was in the final stages of cancer. A spokesperson for the Bourgas regional police said she was presumably in pain and not expected to live much longer.

The 57-year old woman, upon returning home, immediately killed her husband by stabbing him in the throat. She was re-arrested and currently remains in jail pending yet another murder trial.

Copyright (c) 2006 Blah Blah Blawg.com

HANOI, Vietnam -- A female inmate on death-row and being held in solitary confinement for the past year has requested a pardon so that she may give birth. (Oops!)

Nguyen Thi Oanh, 39, was convicted of trafficking over 600 grams of heroine and sentanced to death last year. Pending her appeal she was placed in solitary confinement. After her appeal was denied and Oanh was being scheduled for a date with a firing squad, news of her pregnancy broke. Authorities say that they are investigating how the pregnancy could have happended (doh!). One thing is certain though, the father of the child isn't Oanh's husband -- he's in jail in another province.

Copyright (c) 2006 Blah Blah Blawg.com