Cops Dress Down to Beef Up Patrols

A roundup of unusual news stories from around the globe, compiled from Times wire services:

Will Make Arrests for Food: Many police departments have plainclothes officers, but filthy-clothed?

Jacksonville, Fla., has dressed down some of its officers to resemble homeless people as part of an undercover campaign to curb speeding and traffic violations. The cops call in suspected lawbreakers by radio.

On a recent Tuesday, they wrote more than 100 tickets in just four hours. Operation You Never Know has also disguised police as construction workers and as stranded motorists.

“I think it’s entrapment, but I guess they have to do what they have to do,” said Dennis McGuire, who was fined $115 for driving 49 mph in a construction zone.

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This Is, Like, Kinda Interesting, You Know?: Nebraska high school senior Jessica Reinsch won $1,000 for taping a 15-minute radio interview during which the annoying phrase “you know” was uttered 61 times.

The contest, open to Nebraska students from kindergarten through 12th grade, was set up to raise awareness among young people about the meaningless phrase. It stems from the morning that Nebraska native Barney Oldfield heard 117 “you knows” during a 60-minute radio show.

“It was an oral abomination,” said Oldfield, a 1933 University of Nebraska School of Journalism graduate who now lives in Beverly Hills.

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Cats Punished for Upstaging President: Two cats that pranced around the central hall of India’s parliament during a televised presidential address last month are to be punished with sterilization, a newspaper said.

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Celebrity Cannibal: A self-confessed cannibal has shocked and fascinated Venezuela by dishing up almost daily revelations about his gruesome recipes to the local media.

Dorangel Vargas, who claims he’s eaten about 10 men during the past two years, has become a national celebrity since his arrest two weeks ago in the city of San Cristobal, near the Colombian border.

“Sure I eat people,” he told reporters. “Anyone can eat human flesh, but you have to wash and garnish it well to avoid diseases.”

News McNuggets:

* A woman in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan who said she was unable to afford funeral costs has been arrested after mummifying her dead mother and three other relatives.

* Two planes were forced to circle an airport in southern England after the only air traffic controller on duty went to make a cup of coffee and fell down a flight of stairs, shattering his right ankle.

* A 35-year-old New Jersey man charged with the attempted murder of his wife told police that side effects from the sediment in a bottle of iced tea made him do it, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

* A 29-year-old man suspected of drunk driving led California Highway Patrol officers on a freeway chase that ended when he stopped at his Winnetka home, ran inside, disrobed and tried to take a shower.

* Britons may have the smelliest homes in Europe, according to a survey by a U.S. cleaning products manufacturer.

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Wide World of Weird is published on Sundays. Off-Kilter runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.