Graffiti vandal told to return to Singapore to receive his caning

by Scott Carmichael on

A British Graffiti artist is wanted by Singapore to face charges of vandalism. Lloyd Dale Alexander sprayed his tags on a Singapore tube train, but fled the country after a warrant for his arrest was issued.

Singapore does not take kindly to graffiti – and if convicted, Alexander could face a $1500 fine, three years in jail and three to eight strokes of a cane.

The caning wouldn’t even be the first for a vandalism case – in 1994, American teenager Michael Fay was caned four times. His sentence was reduced from 6, after a plea by President Clinton. And don’t underestimate how effective caning is:

Fay revealed that, at the end of his punishment, his buttocks were bleeding only slightly, that he needed no immediate medical treatment, and that he was able to walk, albeit with “a lot of pain”.

So, next time you are guest in Singapore, remember to respect their laws or you too might be on the receiving end of a caning.

Man fined $65 for letting pet python crawl around Holiday Inn hallway

by Scott Carmichael on

A 25 year old man from Mason City, IA has been fined $65 for letting his pet snake crawl uncontrolled through the hallways of the local Holiday Inn.

The man was a guest at the hotel, and apparently felt that his 5 year old pet python needed some exercise. What convinced him to let the snake loose in the hallway is a mystery, but the hotel manager says the man was apologetic about the incident.

Now, I’m not a pet owner myself, but I do understand people who love their pets a lot – but to let a python loose in a hotel hallway just boggles the mind.

The Holiday Inn manager did remind guests that the chain is pet friendly, but that their hospitality ends with cats and dogs. So, next time you take a trip, you may want to find a pet-sitter for your python.

Fake pilots try to smuggle cocaine through airport

by Sean McLachlan on

Spanish police have arrested two men who tried to smuggle cocaine through Madrid’s Barajas airport while dressed as pilots.

The two men boarded a flight from Bolivia and then changed into pilot uniforms. So far, so good, but once they landed in Madrid they joined the queue with the rest of the passengers. This struck the airport police as a wee bit suspicious. When asked for ID, they produced IDs from a different airline than the one they arrived on. Strike two. The cops then questioned the real crew of the plane and found out these folks were, in fact, passengers. Strike three. The daring duo then had their bags searched and were found to be in possession of 55 kilos (121 lbs) of Bolivian marching powder.

This video (in Spanish) shows just how good their disguises were. It is unclear at this point whether the uniforms are brilliant fakes or real ones they acquired somehow. Too bad for them they hadn’t thought out the rest of their plan as carefully. Perhaps they read how Gadling caught the cops at Barajas “allegedly” playing solitaire and figured it was an easy target.

Hop on the Stalin bus!

by Sean McLachlan on

A lot of visitors to Russia like seeing some Soviet-era nostalgia, but old monuments and ugly apartment blocs now have to compete with the latest kitsch–a bus painted with the likeness of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

The bus is the initiative of Stalinist blogger Viktor Loginov, who raised money for the project in order to celebrate the upcoming anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. The 65th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi forces is on May 9.

The bus may not make it to the celebration, however, as it has already been vandalized once.

Loginov says he only wants to celebrate Stalin’s role in defeating Hitler, but human rights activists are appalled at seeing the Soviet leader’s face on the streets of St. Petersburg. Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union during World War Two and was instrumental in destroying the German army. American war propaganda fondly referred to him as “Uncle Joe”. Stalin killed millions of his own people by sending them to gulags, torture chambers, or, in the case of a rebellious Ukraine, starving an entire province into submission. While the exact number of his victims will never be known, some historians say he killed more people than Hitler. The Stalin bus highlights how today’s Russia is of two minds about its tumultuous past.

Women try to smuggle dead relative onto flight

by Sean McLachlan on

We talk a lot here at Gadling about annoying airline passengers, from the guy who smashes our knees by reclining his seat back as far as it can go, to the self-righteous fellow who simply must convert us before the plane lands.

Two women in England have them all beat–they tried to smuggle a dead body on board. The unnamed women were stopped at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport on Saturday as they wheeled their “sleeping” relative up to the gate for a flight to Germany. Airport officials became suspicious and when they began to ask questions about the 91 year-old man, the duo’s story quickly unraveled.

By covering the man with a blanket and putting sunglasses on him, they apparently thought they could slip by security. Perhaps they were inspired by the Australian who got a bag labeled “bomb” past security or the United flight that had a stowaway scorpion.

The two suspects, who the police have identified only as women aged 41 and 66 from Oldham in Greater Manchester, have been charged with failing to report on death and have been released on bail pending an investigation and, most likely, a trial.