KEY POINTS:
Having a quiet drink outside the Mt Eden Cloakroom on Sunday, Phil from Ellerslie couldn't believe his eyes when this guy (right) rode off on a motorbike with no helmet!
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In a viral video promoting a new business venture, Marc Ellis bragged that his stunt would be on the front page of every newspaper. Not quite. Yesterday Ellis used smoke flares to simulate an eruption on Rangitoto Island, where there is a total fire ban and one of the largest pohutukawa forests in the country.
DoC is not happy. And surely council staff out west who gave Ellis the thumbs-up for his proposed Piha cafe will be reassured that one of their requirements - "to avoid harming the environment, such as the nearby Piha Lagoon and Piha's outstanding landscape" - will obviously be a priority for Ellis.
One reader who witnessed the event has some suggestions for PR stunt execution: "If you're trying to fake an erupting volcano, use grey smoke, so that your efforts are not confused with clouds. Secondly, maybe use more flares, so people don't think the "eruption" is just someone having a cigarette on top of Rangitoto. And the element of surprise can often help, so warning the public via TV ads that 'something big is going to happen in Auckland' kind of gives it away."
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Student Star Simpson, 19, was arrested at Logan International Airport in Boston when she walked past a security checkpoint wearing her own fashion creation of a hooded sweatshirt with a wired circuit board sewn on to the front, thus evoking the image of a suicide bomber.
She compounded the problem by being uncommunicative, but authorities fairly quickly decided she was just a bright but eccentric student who designed gadgets. (Source: New York Times)
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The Lancashire police concluded its probe of Constable Jayson Lobo after finding that he made a few mistakes on his expense account and was not intentionally trying to defraud them out of the £100 ($270) discrepancy. But the Times said the actual investigation into the matter cost a little more - about £500,000. (Source: News of the Weird)
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A handful of readers strenuously oppose the continuation of the "strange names" thread, so under duress this subject will be curtailed. Thanks to all the readers who contributed.
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A fantasist who twice shot himself with a nail gun to falsely claim he had been attacked by thugs has been jailed for 2 1/2 years. David Russell, 38, from Gloucester, claimed he was unable to work after being shot seven times in the chest by a gang. But police became suspicious of his account and it emerged he had shot himself with the DIY tool.
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A supermarket chain apologised to a grandmother for refusing to allow her to buy a bottle of wine because she could not prove she was over 18. Tina MacNaughton-Jones, 47, from West Sussex, at first thought the checkout assistant was joking when she asked her for proof of age. When she realised she was being serious, Ms MacNaughton-Jones' daughter Fiona, 22, tried to buy the wine but she too was refused service in case she gave the bottle to her mother, the Brighton Argus reports.
