A woman was kneeling in prayer on the kitchen floor of her Seattle home when she felt someone grab her hair from behind. She later told police she thought it was her husband playing a joke on her, but when she turned around, she saw an unknown man. According to the police report, she yelled out, “Lord help me,” whereupon the intruder fell back, hitting his head on the refrigerator. The man then stumbled out of the house, taking only a $20 bill that had been sitting on the table, and drove off in a white Cadillac.

Dogs would be required to wear life jackets at pool-equipped daycare and boarding facilities in Colorado, according to rules drafted by the Pet Animal Care Facilities Program, a division of the Colorado Department of Agriculture. “Not every dog is a good swimmer,” program manager Kate Anderson explained.

Intending to reduce the sprawling wild boar population in Belgium’s northern forests, wildlife officials near Postel organized a hunt and enlisted 200 hunters. They managed to kill only one of the animals.

A month after the Social Security Administration reprimanded an employee for creating a “hostile work environment” by regularly passing gas at his office, the agency withdrew the action.

Curses, Foiled Again

While serving time in the Gwinnett County, Ga., jail for paying an undercover police officer $3,000 to murder his neighbor and former business partner, Joseph Memar, 65, was caught again trying to have the man killed. Police Cpl. Jake Smith said Memar spread the word among inmates, met with a plainclothes officer during his visitation time, offered the officer $10,000 to kill the man and told him where to go to collect the money. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Digital AddictionA 15-year-old girl and her 16-yearold friend in Rocklin, Calif., drugged the younger girl’s parents with prescription sleeping drugs so they could use the Internet after their 10 p.m. curfew. The suspicious parents tested themselves with a drug kit the next day and called police. (The Sacramento Bee)

Police searching for thieves who broke into a home in Gaithersburg, Md., and then stole the homeowners’ car for their getaway, spotted the vehicle at a nearby convenience store. The suspects were there because one of them, Marcus Lee, 20, stopped to use the bathroom, where he spent 11 minutes.

High-Fi Boeing engineers used sacks of potatoes to solve the problem of spotty signals with in-flight Wi-Fi. The tubers stood in for human passengers because their water content and chemistry absorb and reflect radio wave signals much the same as the human body does.

An armed carjacker, who police described as having “leathery skin,” failed to rob three women in the same shopping center parking lot in Oceanside, Calif. The first drove away. The second ignored him and proceeded to a store, where she called police.

Pennsylvania state police accused Randy R. Clinkscales, 27, of stealing a man’s identity after he applied for a credit card in the victim’s name and used it for a nose job.