QUIRKY WORLD ... San Fran cops investigate Smart car flipping spree

Four Smart cars were flipped over in an apparent vandalism spree in two San Francisco neighbourhoods.

Police said they didn’t know whether the attacks were a prank or another episode in escalating tensions among some residents who blame the tech industry for rising rents and cost of living.

“It’s hard to determine a motive without any suspects identified or in custody,” said Gordon Shyy, a police spokesman who said the culprits would face vandalism charges.

The first car was found flipped on its roof around 1am, and a second was spotted on its side about 10 minutes later in the city’s Bernal Heights neighbourhood, he said.

Police then discovered a third Smart car flipped on its trunk around 1:30am in the Portola neighbourhood.

A fourth car was found flipped on its side shortly after 9am, also in Bernal Heights.

The tiny lightweight cars all had shattered windows and some body damage, Shyy said adding that police were looking for multiple suspects wearing black hooded sweatshirts who were in the area at the time of the destruction.

Residents losing sleep over ‘naked butlers’

CLAMPDOWN URGED

ENGLAND: Sleep-deprived Poole residents could “take the law into their own hands” after being disturbed at weekends by “naked butlers” and “prostitutes”, a Conservative MP has warned.

Poole MP Robert Syms has urged the Government to clamp down on raucous stag and hen groups who besiege the affluent Sandbanks peninsula area in Dorset.

Mr Syms said that the so-called “party houses” were ruining his constituents’ lives.

He said: “The reality is that we have to do something about this, because it’s making people’s lives a misery.”

SHOTGUN DIVORCE

ENGLAND: A wealthy couple’s 43-year marriage “irretrievably broke down” when a businessman with a passion for shooting “put to death” his wife’s pet ram, a High Court judge has said.

The animal was killed as the “very rich” 68-year-old man and his 70-year-old Austrian wife had a “most animated argument”, said Mr Justice Mostyn.

The judge said both had subsequently filed for divorce. The details emerged after the couple fought over money at a private hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

HEART THE KEY

ENGLAND: A study of the world’s highest-flying bird has shown how it manages to survive at extreme altitudes as it soars above the Himalayas.

The bar-headed goose literally puts its heart into the challenge of breathing air consisting of just 7% oxygen, scientists found.

Available oxygen is channelled to the bird’s heart, which beats fast to pump oxygenated blood to the rest of its body.

In this way, the bar-headed goose is able to cross the Himalayan mountain range on its migratory flights between India and China, reaching heights of almost 24,000ft.

POTTY CASE

USA: Police in east Texas have arrested a woman after she called them to complain about the quality of the marijuana she had bought from a dealer.

Lufkin Police Sergeant David Casper said an officer went to the home of Evelyn Hamilton, 37, to hear her complaint that the dealer refused to return her money after she objected that the drug was sub-standard.

Mr Casper said she pulled the small amount of marijuana from her bra when the officer asked if she still had it.

She was arrested on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia. Mr Hamilton said she spent $40 on “seeds and residue”.

She said she called police when she got no satisfaction from the dealer’s family.