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Absurd News

April 1st, 2010

And these are not April fool's jokes.

Bureaucratic madness - Selling a goldfish – a serious crime

A 66-year old great-grandmother has a criminal record for unwittingly selling a goldfish to a 14-year old boy in her pet shop. She has to pay a £1,000 fine and wear an electronic tag for two months. The 14-year-old boy was taking part in a trading standards 'sting' operation.

Have the authorities so little to do that they waste time on an unethical undercover entrapment operation, using a 14-year-old who looks like a 16-year-old to fool a great-grandma.

Entrapment is when a person is encouraged by someone in some official capacity to commit a crime. What did the 14-year-old learn, being used by the authorities to break the law? Surely this should be illegal in Britain. If I as a private person encourage someone to commit a crime, then I am also guilty and will be taken to court.

With the cases of child neglect and child abuse that social workers turn blind eyes to, it is obviously easier to harass little old ladies than pathologically dysfunctional young adults with children.

There have been many reports recently in British media, of cases where social workers have let seriously dysfunctional parents abuse their children, who finally died as a result of that abuse.

From absurd to weird.

A tramp known as Tin Can Kurt in the Swedish city of Skelleftea has left a fortune of nearly £1million in stocks and shares and gold bars worth £240,000 was revealed after his death.

The 60 year-old spent his days picking up tins to sell to shopkeepers for recycling and to a recycling plant.

What nobody knew was that he was a shrewd investor who, over three decades, made a fortune buying stocks and shares after saving his recycling savings.

When he was not collectiing tin cans and scavenging for food, which mostly consisted of old sandwiches and half-eaten burgers in fastfood restaurant wastebins, Kurt would spend his time in the city library studying the financial pages. He also saved by not buying the newspapers.

Kurt had a good relashionship with a cousin. The rest of the family did not want to be associated with the destitute tramp. That is until the contents of his will became known. Then the family creapt out of the woodwork and tried to scavenge from Kurt's estate. Kurt left it all to his friendly cousin.

Finally it went to court. Fittingly, outside the courthouse, on the sidewalk, the cousin and an uncle agreed to share Kurt's wealth.They both said that they were "satisfied" with the outcome of their settlement.

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