Ananova quirkies

Crossing the (fake) border

A new theme park gives thrill-seekers the chance to play at being desperate Mexicans trying to illegally cross the border to the US.

Visitors to the Parque EcoAlberto are put in the position of workers struggling to escape across the Mexican border.

They must hike through undergrowth, dash down steep hills and across rivers, and slip under barbed-wire fences, reports Metro.

Also, they must stay out of the crossfire of watchful border guards during the four-hour night-time ordeal known as ‘caminata nocturna’.

Each visitor pays the equivalent of £10 for the privilege at the theme park in Hidalgo, actually a comfortable 700miles from the US border.

Some groups have criticised the theme park organisers for trivialising the plight of those trying to escape to the US.

But according to Alfonso Martinez, who plays a people-smuggler in the game, the mock-escapes ‘let people get a glimpse of the suffering that migrants endure’.

The theme park also offers river-rafting and more comfortable cabin accommodation, but more than 3,000 people have tried out the caminata nocturna so far.

Singleton advertises for tomb-mate

A single Chinese man is advertising on the internet for a female tomb-mate so he won’t be alone after death.

Mr Li, 45, of Nanjing city, said: “I was chatting with friends in a bar, and we were talking about life and death. They said it’s sad to be all alone, even after death.

“That night I came back home, and thought about it seriously, and came up with the idea of finding a tomb-mate.”

Li posted a message online, saying he is single but sociable and wants a female to share his tomb, and left his mobile phone number.

His ad attracted a lot of comments but Li says a curious journalist from Jinling Evening Post was the first to call.

“I only want to have a try. If I fail, I can take it, as long as I’ve tried,” he said.

“I don’t want a relationship with her. I just want to find someone to share the lonely tomb.”

Pizza head!

A Welshman has had a slice of ham and pineapple pizza tattooed on the back of his head.

A tattoo of a slice of ham and pineapple pizza on the back of Colin Helsby’s head to raise cash for a cystic fibrosis charity and to celebrate the opening of his takeaway pizza shop in North Wales

Colin Helsby’s tattoo took three hours to complete and features three types of ham, chunks of pineapple and strands of cheese dripping down his neck.

The 45-year-old had the tattoo to raise cash for a cystic fibrosis charity and to celebrate the opening of his new business – a takeaway pizza shop.

Mr Helsby, from Penmaenmawr, north Wales, said he had a bit of a headache but was happy with his new look, reports CBBC News.

He said: “I’m really pleased with it, and I’ll keep my head shaved at the back for a few weeks to show it off.”

Tattooist Blane Dickinson, who tattooed a full English breakfast across the top of a man’s head last month, said he liked the result: “It’s really colourful, and I’m very proud of it.”

Bag snatcher’s gaffe

An Austrian handbag snatcher was shocked to find himself being chased by 27 police patrol cars and police using sniffer dogs.

The 17-year-old had grabbed a pensioner’s bag outside a field where local police were staging a road safety day.

A bus driver who witnessed the attack raised the alarm, and minutes later all the police at the event at Traun in Austria were off in pursuit.

The thief, who suddenly found the whole area full of police cars, was caught as he tried to hide in a multi-story car park.
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Chess champ, 15, found with nightclub dancer

A 15-year-old Peruvian chess player who didn’t come back from a tournament in Argentina has been found – living with a nightclub dancer.

Emilio Cordova left Lima to play at the South American Chess Championship in Argentina, which he won.

But instead of returning home he went to Brazil and kept asking his family to send him money, saying he was ill.

After a few months his family grew suspicious and asked the police to find the boy.

Emilio was found living with 29-year-old Adriana Oliveira, who works as a dancer at a nightclub.

Emilio told his father, who brought him home to Peru, that Mrs Oliveira was only one of his girlfriends.

He told the press: “I play chess, study chess but this doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy myself. I’m young and I want to do this. I have to live.

“To be locked up in my room all the time depresses me.”

The fictional enemy within

Hungarians polled for their views on asylum seekers from a made-up country wanted the ‘scroungers’ thrown out.

The country of Piresa was made up to test people’s tolerance to foreigners.

Hungarian opinion research institute Tarki said: “We were surprised that two thirds of the interviewees demanded absolutely no asylum for Piresans, accused them of being spongers and agreed they should be sent home immediately.”

Hungary is repeatedly listed as one of the most xenophobic countries in the Europe, 90% of the population strictly rejected the idea of any further immigration in a recent poll.

Mum dumps baby with tramp

A mum has been arrested after dumping her baby with a tramp while she went shopping.

The woman put the homeless man in charge of the eight-week-old girl after spotting him outside a Sainsbury’s store and then wandered off with her boyfriend, reports the Daily Mirror.

After waiting outside the supermarket for more than an hour, the concerned down-and-out handed the child to shocked store staff – who called police. The pair were arrested at the scene.

As officers were interviewing staff, the 35-year-old woman and her 26-year-old partner finally returned looking for the baby.

After examining the baby in the office of the supermarket in Bromley, Kent, ambulance staff took the child to hospital for a check-up before putting her in the care of social services.

A Sainsbury’s spokesman said: “The baby was taken care of in the store until the police were called.”

The mum’s boyfriend was later released without charge.

Police email boob

Police chiefs in Australia are investigating after a photograph of a policewoman’s breasts was circulated by email.

The police constable was in her uniform with her name badge visible, her shirt undone and her breasts exposed when she was photographed.

She had sent it to her boyfriend as a get well message from her mobile phone, reports Sky News.

But the image also found its way to the inboxes of senior officers and detectives in the ethical standards department in the state of Victoria.

“She has sent an image to her boyfriend and obviously he has done the wrong thing and forwarded it on,” a Victoria Police spokeswoman said.

“The ethical standards department has been notified.

“They are aware of the incident, which involved the circulation of a photograph, and they are examining it to see if an offence has been committed.”

Beeb’s mixed signals

A BBC children’s TV presenter has been accused of getting his sign language embarrassingly wrong.

CBeebies character Mr Tumble – aka presenter Justin Fletcher – aims to greet hard-of-hearing tots by signing: “I’m happy to see you.”

But angry parents say the BBC is mixing up its signals and broadcasting something much more offensive.

Jamie Miller, who works for the Royal National Institute for the Deaf, says he was stunned when he watched Something Special with daughter Kate, five.

Mr Miller, 32, from Northallerton, North Yorkshire, said: “The signs for ‘happy’ and ‘f***ing’ are quite similar but it was an awful mistake to make.

“Katie, who is learning sign language, asked what the gesture meant. I didn’t know what to tell her.”

The BBC denied making a mistake and said they were using Makaton signals which are different to British Sign Language.

But RNID spokeswoman Kate Sidwell said: “Makaton is used more for children with learning difficulties – it is essentially a different language.”

Rustlers gave cows wellies

Romanian cattle rustlers put rubber boots on two cows they had stolen so police couldn’t follow their hoof marks.

But they were caught because a pig followed them and left a clear trail of trotter prints.

The three men, from Burila Mare in Mehedinti county, raided a woman’s stable during the night.

The owner, Mioara Fratila, from Hinova village in Mehedinti county, called the police.

She told Gazeta de Sud newspaper: “When I woke up in the morning to feed my animals they were all gone… just disappeared.

“There were only boot marks outside. But I looked closer and saw some pig tracks. It seems they ran out of boots or just couldn’t find any for the pig.”

Police tracked the 14 foot marks and four hoof marks for over 18 miles and arrested the three men for theft.

Naked OAP joyrider

Police are hunting for a naked pensioner spotted joyriding around a bowling green on a Shopmobility scooter in Scotland.

A passer-by was stunned to see the man – thought to be in his seventies – on the vehicle, which has a top speed of 3mph.

The witness, concerned that the naked pensioner would be seen by children at a neighbouring play park in Perth, called police.

A spokesman for Tayside Police said: “When the complainer called the police, the pensioner put his clothes on and drove off.

“The area was searched but there was no trace of the male involved.”

Man cuts off genitals in drunken rage

A Polish man cut off his own genitals in a drunken fit of rage after his wife left him.

Tadeus Konopizc, 40, from Zakopane, slashed off his penis and testicles with a six inch kitchen knife after downing more than a bottle of vodka.

He managed to call doctors to tell them what he had done and they sent a special helicopter rescue team to fly him to the northern town of Bialystok where surgeons specialise in sewing back severed organs.

But heavy fog on the way delayed the helicopter and by the time they reached the hospital doctors said it was too late to reattach the man’s private parts.

He is now expected to undergo months of surgery as doctors attempt to re-build his penis using skin from elsewhere on his body.