Crazy True News and Crazy True Laws

The government of China executed twelve male and six female factory managers by firing squad at a refrigerator plant just outside Beijing in 1989 because the poor quality of their products constituted "unpardonable crimes against the people of China." Customers had complained for years about having to wait for refrigerators that were usually unusable when delivered.

Darrel Brown, 53, was convicted of defrauding the Veterans Administration of more than $700,000 by feigning paralysis for more than twenty years. He had been faithfully reporting to VA facilities during that time in a wheelchair after having bound his arms and legs tightly for days before visits so they would temporarily atrophy.

Farmers in an eastern Indian state have asked their unmarried daughters to plow parched fields naked in a bid to embarrass the weather gods to bring some badly needed monsoon rain, reported officials.

A Mississippi judge ordered an attorney to spend several hours in jail Wednesday after the attorney chose not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in court. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported that Chancery Judge Talmadge Littlejohn told a court audience to rise and say the pledge. People in the courtroom said Danny Lampley of Oxford stood but did not say the words.

A horrified 8-year-old boy watched as his pet turtle disappeared into an alligator's jaws at an aquarium in the Florida Panhandle. Colton Guthrie had donated his pet red-eared slider, Tomalina, to the Gulfarium in Fort Walton Beach when the turtle outgrew her home aquarium. Colton's mother told the Northwest Florida Daily News Tuesday that the family saw workers place Tomalina in an exhibit Thursday with other red-eared sliders and an alligator.

Although the alligator had long ignored the other turtles, Brenda Guthrie said the gator ate Tomalina as Colton shouted, "Oh no, alligator, let it go!"

10 Crazy U.S. Laws

In Bozeman, Montana, a law prohibits all sexual activity from the front yard of a home after sundown.

In Salt Lake County, Utah, it’s illegal to walk down the street carrying a violin in a paper bag.

In San Francisco, it’s illegal to pile horse manure more than six feet high on a street corner.

Devon, Texas, it is against the law to make furniture while you are nude.

In Oklahoma, you can be arrested for making ugly faces at a dog.

In California, it is illegal for a vehicle without a driver to exceed 60 miles per hour.

In Florida, men seen publicly in any kind of strapless gown can be fined.

In South Carolina, it is legal to beat your wife on the court house steps on Sundays.

In Tennessee, you are breaking the law if you drive while sleeping…

In Pennsylvania, it’s against the law to tie a dollar bill on a string on the ground and pull it away when someone tries to pick it up.