Crazy Lotto News: Lotto fever burns in Italy for C131.5 million jackpot; lucky Germans flown in to buy tickets!!

Oh, God, why wasn't I born in Italy...?

ROME - Germans, Austrians and other foreigners are heading into Italy to play the lottery ahead of a record C131.5 ($186 million) jackpot, including some who flew into Milan for a few hours just for a chance to win Thursday night.

Germany's top-selling Bild newspaper said 140 passengers aboard a chartered Air Berlin jet won a phone-in contest for free airline tickets aboard an early afternoon flight from Berlin to Milan's Malpensa airport.

Besides the free seats, the winners were being treated to a heaping plateful of pasta, a cup of espresso and the opportunity to buy Superenalotto tickets at a smoke shop at the Milan airport.

Later in the afternoon, without ever leaving the airport, the passengers were flying back to Berlin, "just in time for dinner and to find out if they've won," said Italy private Canale 5 TV.

The six-number combination will be announced by about 8:30 p.m. No one has picked the winning numbers since January, and now the Superenalotto jackpot is Italy's biggest ever - and, according to Italian news reports, the biggest in Europe, as well. Drawings are held three times a week.

Austrians, Croats and Slovenes living close to Italy were "storming" across the border to try their luck, the Austria Press Agency reported on Thursday.

Many of them were packing restaurants and hotels in Italy's German-speaking Alto Adige, or South Tyrol, region, which borders Austria.

French visitors have also been driving into neighbouring northwest Italy for a chance to play the numbers lotto, many Germans have been sighted in resort towns of Lake Maggiore buying tickets, and Superenalotto tickets appeared to be as popular as postcards in many Venice souvenir shops.

Other foreigners catching lotto fever were enjoying already planned vacations in Italy. Nicola and Peter Minchella came from Edinburgh, Scotland.

"I never thought to play in another country before, but since it's making headlines, we'll probably buy a ticket," said Nicola Minchella, as the pair dipped into gelato and sipped coffee at Castellino's, an outside cafe at Piazza Venezia in the heart of Rome.

At a counter inside the cafe, customers waited in line to buy lotto tickets. What if Peter Minchella picked the winning numbers?

"I'd travel the world and keep buying lottery tickets," he said, smiling.

The cost is C1 ($1.42) for the chance to choose two combinations of six winning numbers.

In places like Naples, where a favourite pastime is interpreting dreams in terms of numbers, many people prefer to choose their own. But players can also purchase tickets with two random sets of numbers already printed on them.

With many smoke shops closed in Italy for vacations, those open bustled with players. At Castellino, one customer spent C2,000 (some $2,800), a drop in the bucket against the 1 in 622 million odds, said manager Stefano Menchetti.

Not all have dreams of riches only for themselves.

The mayor and some of his employees in one small town in northeast Italy have chipped in to buy tickets, pledging to use any winnings to build a theatre for Ceneselli's 1,900 citizens.

"We've played our ages, our birth dates" as the lucky numbers, said Mayor Marco Trombini in a telephone interview. "There's no logic in luck anyway."

I know that the chance to win this is actually, really, really small, and with so many people going crazy over buying a ticket, it's probably going to make the odds even smaller, but still, people are flocking to Italy from ALL OVER EUROPE just for this.

I don't know whether to find it sad or exciting.

Find the original article here.

Greek woman sets man's penis on fire!

A 26-year-old woman is being hailed as a national hero after belying the conventional wisdom that revenge is a dish best served cold.

The unidentified female from the Mediterranean island of Crete set fire to a drunk 23-year-old Briton's genitals after he allegedly tried to sexually assault her in a crowded bar, London's Daily Telegraph reports. She earned further accolades from her countrymen for turning herself over to the police following the incident.

According to a police report, the intoxicated party-goer had taken down his pants and was waving his genitals at women in the bar. He then "forcefully fondled" the 26-year-old woman and asked her to take hold of his genitals.

She responded by soaking his genitals in a liquor. When this failed to cool off his advances, she reportedly grabbed a lighter and set his nether-region on fire.

The alleged sex assailant is hospitalized with what the Telegraph describes as "considerable damage" to his penis and testicles.

The woman will face a magistrate this week to determine if her case will go to court. She asserts she acted in her "right to self-defense." A magistrate and prosecutor both agreed to let her free remain free pending a trial, a possible sign they agree with her self-defense claim.

The incident, the police report says, took place in Mallia, a spot notorious for attracting young Britons eager to turn the seaside resort into their own 24-7 Bachanal.

First of all, let me start by saying that the guy totally deserves it. It doesn't matter how drunk you are; if you harass a woman by flaunting your junk around, you most likely deserve whatever you're getting.

That being said, I can't help but feel sorry for the guy. I mean, Damn! Talk about karmic punishment!

Now the girl is facing charges and whatnot, but honestly, she shouldn't go to jail for this. That girl is a fucking hero as far as I'm concerned, and this should serve as lesson to all drunken fratboys all over the world. Next time you might wanna think it over before deciding to act like a douchey rapist at a bar, because you might just get your schlong burned off.

Read the original article here.

76-year-old man tased by policemen for recklessly driving a tractor...?

GLENROCK, Wyoming - A 76-year-old U.S. man shot with a Taser by police while driving an antique tractor in a small-town parade says it hurt but he's OK.

Retired truck driver Bud Grose of Glenrock told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Wednesday that he has a heart condition but didn't require any medical attention.

Investigators say police in Glenrock used a Taser on the man after he disobeyed orders. They say the tractor may have hit a car.

Two officers were placed on paid leave and state agents are investigating, but the police chief says it doesn't appear any policies were violated.

Grose wouldn't discuss specifics of the incident until he speaks to his attorney.

I'm kind of torn on this one. It's kind of hard to tell who's to blame for what happened here because, on the one hand you have these officers trying to prevent a potential accident from occurring at this parade thing; but then, on the other hand you have a 76-year-old man! I think anyone with a bit of sanity will agree that tasing old people is not a good idea since, you know, there's a good chance they might just die on you.

But then again, that also begs the question of why a 76-year-old man was allowed to drive this tractor in the first place. Old people and vehicles don't really go hand in hand, even if it's an experienced truck driver like this guy. It's just logical to assume that their reflexes and their attention span won't be the same as they were when they were younger. Furthermore, most people know that operating any kind of motor vehicle is regarded as an activity that entails a certain amount of perilousness, so one could argue that it's almost like carrying a gun.

So I don't know. Personally, I wouldn't trust someone so old with a gun, or a vehicle, but then, I wouldn't go as far as tasing them over it.

Link to the article here.

Unemployed Graduate Sues College

NEW YORK (AFP) - A US student who recently graduated from New York's Monroe College said Monday she had filed a complaint with the school accusing it of being responsible for her inability to find work.

Trina Thompson, 27, who graduated with a degree in information technology in April at the school in northern Manhattan's Bronx district, asked the state supreme court to award her 70,000 dollars to reimburse the tuition costs.

The former student said she had been unable to find employment to support herself since graduation.

"I need full-time job placement and that's what they said they were going to help me with and they didn't," Thompson told NY1 television.

"The IT career counselor sent me about three emails saying 'Oh, I have this job opening, you should apply for it.' That's it."

A Monroe College spokesman said the lawsuit was "completely without merit."

Honestly? That's one giant act of desperation right there. Seriously, it's pretty pathetic. I've heard of people who blame their financial troubles on W, on Obama, on illegal immigrants, on the War on Terror, on Wallstreet, on the Banks, even on Europe and Asia. But this has got to be the first time for me that I find a person with the nerve to blame their situation on their education, and the institution that provided it for them.

To me it feels very ungrateful, because first of all, your ability to find a job depends solely on yourself, degree or no degree. And second, her school has absolutely no obligation whatsoever with her after graduation (yet, they were still trying to help her somehow, which is nice, really, and all they got was a slap in the face).

Seriously. Instead of wasting time filing lawsuits she should be filling résumés. This girl needs a reality check.

You can find the original article here.

Stolen' car found 2 years later accidentally parked in neighbour's garage

BERLIN - An Audi sedan written off by an elderly German woman as stolen two years ago has resurfaced - in her neighbour's garage beneath a thick layer of dust.

Police said Thursday the 82-year-old from the northern city of Hildesheim took the car in for repairs two years ago and had the mechanics drive it back to her house and park it in her garage.

She got the keys and papers from her mailbox, but when she went to get the car it was nowhere to be found. So she reported it stolen.

Fast forward to Wednesday when her neighbour went to clean up his unused garage so it could be rented. He found the car under "a centimetre-deep coating of dust."

It didn't take police long to piece together that the mechanics had parked it in the wrong garage.

LOL! I can't imagine the face of the guy when he found the car, or the policemen when they determined that it had just been misplaced for TWO YEARS! How the hell is that even possible? How can you go two years without knowing that your neighbor's car is parked inside your garage?

Original article found here.

Man charged with having sex with horse... twice?!

I've seen and heard a lot of weird stuff in my life, and being so prone to spending time online has exposed me to some freaky things (2 girls 1 cup, anyone?), so it should come as no surprise that I'd stumble upon something like this while visiting one of the many sites I frequent...

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A South Carolina man was charged with having sex with a horse after the animal's owner caught the act on videotape, then staked out the stable and caught him at shotgun point, authorities said Wednesday.

Yeah, that's pretty average considering the kind of sick, twisted material that can be found scattered throughout the web. Seriously, it's just like "Okay, so this guy's a freak... Hhmmm, I'm kind of hungry, I think I'll have a sandwich now", because it's very easy to lose one's sense of shock when one's been exposed to so many shocking things over the years. What got to me about it was not the fact this due was doing a horse, but rather, this...

But this wasn't the first time Rodell Vereen has been charged with buggery. He pleaded guilty last year to having sex with the same horse after owner Barbara Kenley found him in the same stable and was sentenced to probation and placed on the state's sex offender list.

I'd be willing to concede that some people... strange people, feel sexually aroused by horses, and even that some of them will feel inclined to act on such... urges? What I cannot grasp is what in the name of all that is sane would possess a person to go after the same horse twice, after being caught and sentenced for it just a year before? You have to be really stupid to go after the same horse, because after having such a bizarre experience, the horse's owner has to have learned a thing or two about keeping his or her animals safe. And that's exactly what happened.

Now the dude's little misadventure is caught on tape and he's most likely facing jail time (because, by the way, the first time he just got probation. lol!). Why couldn't he just go after another horse? What's so special about this particular one that he had to risk going to jail?

Love...? God, I hope not.

And to finish, another quote from the article that made me laugh:

"I couldn't believe that there were two guys going around doing this to the same horse."

You can find the full article here.