Australians may have a new excuse for infidelity: "sleep sex."
That's the diagnosis given to an otherwise respectable Sydney-area woman who snuck out at night to have sex with random strangers while her live-in boyfriend slept at home.
"Incredulity is the first staging post for anyone involved in this," admitted Peter Buchanan, the diagnosing physician and a sleep specialist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (search). "One has to maintain a healthy degree of skepticism."
But, Buchanan told the Sydney Morning Herald, the woman wasn't covering up run-of-the-mill infidelity. She was genuinely unaware of her activities. Even her boyfriend took a while to catch on.
"He was aware of some sleepwalking and there was circumstantial evidence, including the unexplained presence of condoms around the house," Buchanan explained. "On one occasion he awoke to find her absent from the bedroom and searched until he found her — engaged in such activity."
Although "sleep sex" isn't listed in the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (search), Buchanan said, the recently identified parasomnia — a sleep disorder involving wakeful behavior, such as walking or talking — was gaining recognition worldwide from specialists.
A Stanford University study published in 2002 related nearly a dozen cases of the disorder, some of which involved unconscious aggression or sexual violence towards regular partners.
None of those cases, however, involved active seeking out of new partners.
In the Sydney woman's case, Buchanan said tests showed she would often become active from a state of deep sleep without passing through the normal stages of gradually waking up, a common sign of parasomnia (search).
Buchanan told the newspaper the woman had been successfully treated through psychotherapy, and planned to relate the case to this weekend's annual conference of the Australasian Sleep Association (search).
EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — The security videotape shows it all — two masked men breaking into a store and loading a cash machine onto a truck.
Then they made a fateful mistake: taking off their masks and looking directly at the camera.
Video images from the heist at Dollar Update were released by the Snohomish County sheriff's office on Tuesday, eight days after the robbery. There was no immediate explanation for the delay, and no arrests were immediately reported.
Jan Jorgensen, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office, said the store owner called 911 about 2:20 a.m. on Oct. 4 after an alarm company monitoring his business reported a break-in.
The glass front door was found broken, and tape retrieved from motion-sensitive video cameras showed a small, white pickup backing up to the front door and the driver getting out.
He and another man broke the door, pushed the automatic teller machine outside and loaded it onto the truck.
Before leaving, both uncovered their faces and looked at one of the cameras, Jorgensen said.
CLEVELAND (AP) — A sixth-grader was held up at gunpoint at a bus stop by a man who demanded his lunch money, authorities said.
"It's an act of serious desperation," Cleveland police spokesman Lt. Wayne Drummond said. "How much money can you expect to get from an 11-year-old kid on his way to school?"
Gregory Darby, a student at Willson Middle School (search), was confronted Tuesday as he waited alone to take a city bus two miles to school.
His mother, Chery Darby, said her son takes the city bus to school because he lives too close to ride the school bus and because her van is too unreliable.
Gregory Darby said the man seized him by the left arm and asked where he lived. He eventually pointed a gun at him and demanded all of his lunch money.
Darby said he had $2 in his back pocket but forgot because he was scared. Darby said he froze and the man cursed him, then ran behind some buildings.
Darby then ran home and told his mom, who said her son is an unlikely target.
"Look at his shoes," she said. "They're K-Swiss. They're not Jordans."
Drummond said police would patrol the neighborhood closely before and after school, hoping to calm fears.
Teller to Bank Robber: Yeah, Right
ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — He put a mask on his face, pulled out a gun and demanded money.
But when the bank clerk laughed in his face, the would-be robber was so humiliated he just ran away.
The bungled holdup occurred midday Thursday at a small bank on Zagreb's main square, police said.
The 31-year-old clerk, identified only as Martina S., "laughed aloud" at the threat from the bandit because she knew she was protected by a bulletproof glass, said Gordana Vulama, a police spokeswoman.
After cackling at the thief, she coolly picked up the phone to call police, Vulama said.
Seeing that, the failed robber spun around and fled the scene. Police were searching for him, Vulama said.
Man Loses Heart on Wedding Day
DETROIT (AP) — Steven Dulka III knew Oct. 2 was going to be a big day — but he didn't know how big.
Hours after marrying Deidre Jacoboni, Dulka was at Henry Ford Hospital (search) getting a new heart.
Shortly after noon that day, Dulka, 51, who had inflammation of the heart, got a call from the hospital's transplant coordinator. He was told there was a heart for him and he had to come to the hospital immediately.
"Um, I'm getting married at 2 today," Dulka, who was released from the hospital on Wednesday, recalled saying.
The couple quickly called the Livonia Chapel to ask whether the ceremony could be moved up an hour.
After the go-ahead from the venue manager, the couple and a handful of friends grabbed cell phones to call everyone on the guest list about the new start time.
"Even though it was short, it was really romantic, really serious, really loving, really proper," said the new Mrs. Dulka about the ceremony.
Immediately afterward, the Dulkas sped to the hospital — with the groom behind the wheel.
"This is our honeymoon suite," Deidre Dulka, 52, told the Detroit Free Press, sweeping her arms around her husband's fifth-floor hospital room.
SPRING HILL, Tenn. (AP) — Katherine Williams says the yellow ducky sponge she put on sale at a flea market is merely a child's toy. City officials say the vibrator inside makes it a sex toy.
But officials in this Nashville suburb backed off from citing Williams for violating the city's sexually oriented business ordinance because she had already taken down her display by the time police responded to complaints Saturday.
Nearby vendors also refused to be witnesses in the case.
"We've declined to prosecute because of a lack of evidence," City Administrator Ken York said Tuesday.
Williams, whose Passions & Pleasures business sells lotions and adult novelties at in-home parties, described her product line as "PG-13" and said she got only two negative comments at the flea market.
"Nothing we do is nasty, unless you have a nasty mind," she said, turning a knob on the yellow ducky's tail to make the sponge vibrate. "My 3-year-old son loves to play with this duck in the bath. He puts it on his neck and on his head."
Williams said she'll be back at the flea market next year.
"If she does, she'll be cited into court," York said. "That duck is a sexual toy, and it was on display. That was a vibrator on display in public view."
Compiled by FOXNews.com's Paul Wagenseil.
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