The Odd Truth, Sept. 19, 2002

The Odd Truth is a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world compiled by CBSNews.com's Brian Bernbaum. A new collection of stories is published each weekday. On weekends, you can read a week's worth of The Odd Truth.

Play It Again Sam - Or Else

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil - A gun-toting musician forced a southern Brazilian radio station to play his debut album for more than an hour after failing to break into show business by more usual routes, the man's father said.

Marcus Vinicius dos Santos, 27, the vocalist for the rock group ACC -- a Portuguese acronym for "Beyond the Gray Sky" -- stormed disc jockey Marcio Paz's booth at Atlantida FM and forced him to play his album "Phases of Life."

"He is a quiet boy," his father Getulio dos Santos said. "I'm surprised by what happened."

The incident ended after about 70 minutes when Vinicius dos Santos surrendered to police. Nobody was injured and Paz later informed listeners where they could buy the band's album. (Reuters)

When In Rome...

ROME - Italy is famous around the world for strikes in every sector from transport workers to doctors, from teachers and even prostitutes.

Now the first "pizza strike" has been called for Saturday.

The consumer group ADUC says the price of a pizza is just too high and disproportionate to the cost of ingredients.

The group estimates that the ingredients for a classic Pizza Margherita -- tomato, mozzarella and basil -- cost a mere 49 euro cents (about 50 U.S. cents), but restaurant goers are charged an average of 5 euros, an increase of some 1,000 percent.

Using the same proportions, the group says, a dish of choice fish in a good restaurant would cost a consumer some 150 euros, but in reality it costs only a fraction of that.

In order to protest against the high cost of the national staple, the group has called on consumers not to buy pizzas all day this Saturday, September 21. (Reuters)

Dog Doo Becomes "Silent Witness"

SYDNEY - A glob of dog excrement on a Queensland robber's shoe has been used as evidence to identify him, landing him with a 10-year stretch for a betting shop hold-up on Australia's Gold Coast.

Police said Thursday they had used enhanced photos from a security camera to match the pattern of excrement found at the crime scene to that on 26-year-old Jacob Smith's shoe.

"It's not rocket science. It's as plain as poo on your shoe," police sergeant Alan Piper, a veteran scientific officer, was quoted by local media as saying.

"It could have been one of a thousand or ten thousand shoes, but because that poo was there it was creating a great big feature that allowed us to go to a positive identification."

"I'd say there has been some more poo on the shoe but it has worn away," said Piper, who admitted to also doing a smell test.

Smith, who had wrapped a sheet around his face to hide his identity during the heist, was jailed in June for 10 years and 10 months on charges of robbery, being armed and in company and unlawful use of a motor vehicle. (Reuters)

Stupid Criminal I

LONDON - Patience may be a virtue, but it doesn't always pay off.

A man suspected of trying to steal jewelry from one of Britain's poshest stores was arrested after police discovered him concealed behind a false ceiling where he had been hiding for several hours.

A police spokeswoman said on Thursday officers from the Metropolitan force had gone to Harvey Nichols in London's swanky Knightsbridge on Wednesday morning to investigate an overnight break-in.

They left only to be called back in the afternoon by shop staff who noticed a ceiling panel moving. Police officers then discovered the man in a false ceiling cavity.

"The man, who is of East European appearance, is being questioned at Notting Hill police station," the spokeswoman said.

The police refused to say how much the jewelry, which has been recovered, was worth or to speculate on how long the suspect had been hidden.

The Times however said the jewels were worth about 100,000 pounds and that the man had been hidden for more than 12 hours. (Reuters)

Stupid Criminal II

MILWAUKEE - If you're going to court -- you might want to leave the cocaine at home. Authorities in Milwaukee say they found 28 rocks of crack cocaine in the braided hair of a 16-year-old girl.

Deputies say they searched the girl after one saw a plastic bag sticking out from the back of her hair. According to prosecutors, the girl claimed she found the illegal drugs in the bathroom.

Authorities say they don't know why the teen had gone to the courthouse in the first place. She now faces felony drug drug possession charges. (AP)