Leprechaun Holds Up Laundromat

A leprechaun sure didn't bring any lucky charms to a Butte, Mont., laundromat.

The Montana Standard reports that a man dressed as one of the wee folk held up the Front Street Laundromat on Wednesday, the eve of St. Patrick's Day.

"It is Butte," Don Heffington, the hapless laundromat owner, told the newspaper. "Butte gets pretty crazy on St. Patrick's Day, and it was probably someone who needed a little bit more money for stimulants."

According to police reports, the evil elf — sporting a black plastic derby, green kilt and fake beard — strode into the laundry shop as it closed and pulled out a pistol.

"Give me all your money or I'll shoot," Heffington said the leprechaun ordered, apparently without a brogue.

Heffington handed over the $322 in the register, and the elf, described as actually about 5-foot-9, went on his merry way, presumably looking for more pots of gold.

— Thanks to Out There reader Heather K.

Toilet Crisis Grips Buffalo Building

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — It was BYOTP time in Buffalo: Bring Your Own Toilet Paper.

A county budget crisis has left the bathrooms in a municipal office building uncleaned, with waste piling up in the toilets, empty soap dispensers, paperless towel holders and no toilet paper.

"It's almost humorous, but it's disgusting," said Bob Fioretti, who has worked in Erie County's Rath Building (search) for 21 years.

"When people got to bring their own toilet paper and soap to wash their hands, it's like working in another country — a bad country," he told WGRZ-TV.

A county environmental health crew went through the building Wednesday and said many of the bathrooms were clean and on the way to being restocked.

Erie County (search) has had to slash 2,000 jobs and cut back on services in order to close a more than $100 million budget shortfall.

— Thanks to Out There readers Steve M., Christina N., Beth M., Katherine M.

... Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?

GREENWICH, Conn. (AP) — A former Stamford police officer has been charged with lewd conduct involving a toy banana.

Arthur Bertana, 62, who had been on probation for lewd conduct more than four years ago, was arrested Saturday after police said he placed a toy banana in his pants and flashed people.

Bertana was charged with breach of peace and interfering with a police officer.

"Over a span of time, there were several reports of a subject wearing extremely tight pants with an obvious bulge stuffed down his pants," Sgt. Roger Petrone Jr. said Wednesday.

Bertana would allegedly greet passersby on the busy street while trying to draw attention, Petrone said. At times, he placed a bag in front of his pants, then moved it and show the bulge, he said.

"It was a yellow, plush, child's toy banana," Petrone said. "It had a smiley face on it."

Bertana was released on a $5,000 bond for a March 21 appearance in Stamford Superior Court (search) in Stamford.

— Thanks to Out There readers Matthew N., William D.

Drunk Drives Off in Wrong Car

OSLO, Norway (AP) — A 79-year-old Norwegian might have gotten away with a quick but drunken drive to the gas station to buy tobacco, except for one thing.

He drove off behind the wheel of someone else's car, the local Internet newspaper Vesteraalen Online reported Thursday.

A court this week handed the man, whose name was not released, a three-week suspended jail sentence and a $2,125 fine and revoked his driver's license for three years.

In the incident, which occurred last year, the Norwegian arrived at a gas station in an aging Opel from the 1980s. When he left in a different and newer Opel, gas station staffers got suspicious and called the police.

Police found the car about 1 mile away, with the man sitting in the back seat not far from his home in Boe, on the Vesteraalen Islands (search) off northwestern Norway. He had realized that the car wasn't his, the report said.

Kissing Cousins Denied Marriage Permit

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A county judge refused to make an exception for two first cousins who want to marry, even though the couple assured the judge they don't want to have children.

Blair County Judge Jolene Kopriva on Thursday denied the marriage license application for first cousins Eleanor Amrhein, 46, and Donald W. Andrews Sr., 39, of Logan Township.

The couple say they have been together for several years, but Kopriva said state law bars first cousins from marrying because of an increased likelihood their children will have birth defects.

The couple petitioned for an exception after a court clerk rejected their license application earlier in the week. The couple told Kopriva their mothers are sisters.

Kopriva told the couple her ruling would not prevent them from being married in another state that permits it.

About half of the states allow first cousins to marry, according to stateline.org, a research site on state laws.

Kangaroo Tears Through Kentucky Town

POOLE, Ky. (AP) — A strange sight from Down Under startled residents of this western Kentucky community.

Members of the Poole Homemakers Club (search) were at a meeting downtown March 8 when they looked out and saw what they thought was a kangaroo.

Nedra Wilson, first to spot the animal, said it hopped up a driveway and around a carport. He then headed south on U.S. 41-A, she said.

"I bet it was going 25 mph," she said. "He was really getting it. We haven't had that much excitement in Poole in a while."

Actually, the animal the eight club members saw was a wallaby, a small kangaroo that is native to Australia. There were two of them on the loose after they escaped their pen.

The animals belong to the family of Stephen and Betty Bell. The family moved to Poole about six months ago. Stephen Bell is from Australia.

The Bells said the animals escaped sometime the previous day. One was later recaptured and the other returned on its own.

Compiled by FOX News' Paul Wagenseil.

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