To Catch a Thief

A billboard company in New Zealand is taking an interesting approach.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A thief caught on camera stealing expensive equipment picked the wrong target if wanted to keep a low profile: a billboard company that has plastered his image around New Zealand's largest city seeking his capture.

The unidentified thief was photographed by a suspicious onlooker as he uncoupled 15 electrical transformers used to boost the lighting on a billboard in Auckland.

The photographer knew the pillaged sign belonged to Mark Venter, who runs OTW Advertising, one of New Zealand's oldest billboard companies.

So when the photographer offered pictures of the thief in action it cost Venter nothing to mount the images on four city billboards with the inscription: "Who is this Thief? Reward $500."

The photo of "the ratbag" was "too good an opportunity to let go," Venter told The Associated Press. "We've all had stuff stolen ... but usually they don't leave this calling card."

He said he had received more than 100 calls since the photograph was posted six days ago, though most were calls supporting his campaign rather than offering information on the crime.

Wellington has a population of 400,000 give or take a little. With all the publicity this gets and the use of the creative use billboards, I'm betting the thief gets caught.

The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is the New Zealand group ASH aka Action on Smoking and Health. They get the award for the adjoining advertising. To say it is in bad taste doesn't do it justice.

Andrew Sullivan writes- "The anti-smoking nannies hit a new advertizing low."

Wonkette writes- "This smokin' hot new anti-smoking ad for ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) is, well, very very inappropriate!"

Doug at Below the Beltway writes- "Truly Tasteless Advertising"

I can agree with all the above and further add ASH aka Action on Smoking and Health is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Nothing works

An unusual immigration related story.

A New Zealand woman who married an American man with “ambiguous genitalia” has had her marriage licence quashed and been refused permission to stay in the United States.

The woman, who has not been named, married Stephan Thomas Calewarts - also known as Stephanie Tia Calewarts - in September 2006.

Then in October 2006 Stephanie Calewarts - whose name was legally changed in 2000 - asked a Brown County, Wisconsin circuit judge to change his birth certificate back to a male gender.

When the judge refused, the county revoked the couple’s marriage licence because Mr Calewarts’ birth certificate listed him as female because same-sex marriages are illegal in Wisconsin.

Because the marriage was null, the New Zealand woman couldn’t get a visa to stay in the United States, Mr Calewarts told the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

“Oh God, no,” Mr Calewarts said when told of an appeals court decision released today.

“I am scared to death right now. I am not going to see my wife. She is the only thing that means anything to me. I am a nobody right now.”

He had claimed that the 2000 court order changing his birth certificate to female was an error based on mistakes and misunderstandings.

Mr Calewarts, 58, said he had some surgery done for health reasons, not to change his sex.

But the District Court of Appeals ruled that Mr Calewarts had run out of time to appeal or challenge the earlier court decision.

*****

According to court records, he was born with “ambiguous genitalia” - tissue for both a penis and a vagina - because of birth defects, but his birth certificate identified him as male.

He had surgery in July 1999 to remove his testicles and after gender reassignment surgery in Montreal in 2000, asked for his birth certificate to be changed to female, court records said.

“I thought I was going to have two birth certificates. One of each. Big deal. I was born with two genders,” Mr Calewarts said today.

“I can’t have sexual intercourse because nothing works."

I have some sympathy for Mr. Calewarts. Children born intersexed or with undescended testicles, can end up be labeled the wrong gender at birth.(Sometimes with the parents making the choice.)

However once Calewarts had GRS surgery, I just don't understand how they could think they'd have two birth certificates and the ability to choose between male and female. I do however wish Mr. Calewarts and his wife well. Maybe he should look into immigrating to New Zealand. That may up working for the couple.

Hat tip- Ann Althouse
Linked to- Right Wing Nation, Rosemary, The World According to Carl, Yankee Sailor,

Give us your poor, your tired, your skinny

From The Guardian-

New Zealand has added another cruel cut to the myriad indignities visited upon those of larger girth: anyone with a dangerously high body mass index (BMI) is likely to be denied permission to emigrate there. Richie Trezise, 35, a Welsh submarine cable specialist, was initially rejected because of a BMI of 42 (25 or higher is regarded as overweight); he lost weight, but his wife Rowan, 33, has not found it so easy. For months she has tried to slim down enough to join her husband; if she can't do it by Christmas, he will have to give up his job and come home.

The government's reasoning is simple: it will take only immigrants of an "acceptable standard of health", ie those "unlikely to impose significant costs or demands on New Zealand's health or special education services" (a requirement that raises the even more controversial possibility of applicants being turned down for mental health reasons). Obese people are more likely to suffer from heart disease, diabetes, strokes and high blood pressure; ergo, obese people are not allowed.

*****

It can work the other way. Australia, famously strict with its entrance requirements and literalist about BMIs, last year refused citizenship to a healthy British woman who wasn't heavy enough.

If they're worried about a person's health, why isn't all potential immigrants required to have a comprehensive health screening? How about MRIs, Cat scans, Pet scans. No one should be allowed in if they have cancer. How about this- Tanned people aren't allowed. They are at risk for skin cancer.

Some will say a country has the right to choose who immigrates there and who doesn't. I'll also admit that yes, overweight people are costlier health maintenance wise. Do you think what New Zealand is doing is correct?

Hat tip- Overlawyered
Linked to- High Desert Wanderer, Perri Nelson, Pursuing Holiness, Right Wing Nation, Rosemary,

Sales Demonstration

Some news from New Zealand. Did the store buy the defibrillator afterwards?

Hat tip- Below the Beltway
Linked to- Bullwinkle, Jo, Point Five,

An elderly New Zealand man who suffered a heart attack at a hardware store was revived by a salesman who just happened to be demonstrating a defibrillator to store staff.

The man, who was in his 80s, collapsed in an aisle of the Placemakers store in Albany, near Auckland, and his heart was not beating when salesman Gavin MacDonell attached the machine to his chest.

It was the ultimate sales pitch demonstration for Mr MacDonell, who has been a St John Ambulance volunteer paramedic for 20 years.

"Once we got a shock into him he started to gag, and we thought 'this bloke's coming back'," he told the New Zealand Herald newspaper.

"The people in the shop that were working there were just blown away."

The victim was expected to recover, the paper said.

Trotter, Pacer, what's the difference?

A very weird incident took place in the world of New Zealand harness racing last week.

A decision about charges being laid over a horse mix-up could be made by the end of the week, says Harness Racing New Zealand chief executive Edward Rennell.

At a Forbury Park meeting in Dunedin last week a pacer ran in a race for trotters after being confused with another horse.

For those not knowledgable about harness racing, here is how to tell the difference.

Pacers move both legs on the same side forward in unison. Most wear hopples - straps connecting front and rear legs on the same side. Hopples help the horse keep stride without limiting speed. Trotters move left front and right rear legs forward almost simultaneously, then follow suit with right front and left rear.

Usually trotters do not wear hopples, so tend to go off stride in inexperienced or trying to trot too fast. This is called 'breaking.'

My father owned harness horses off and on for thirty years. Most were Pacers. The only trotter I remember Dad owning was one named Charlie Zam. He raced in the early 70's at tracks like Freehold(NJ), Atlantic City and Brandywine(DE).

The two horses were from the Canterbury stable of Murray Edmonds and it wasn't until after the pacer ran in the trotting race that the error was realised.

Edmonds did not attend the meeting himself and left the horses in the care of fellow trainer Darryn Simpson.

One report said the identities were switched when the horse covers, which carried the horses' names, were placed on the wrong horses by the driver of the truck that had transported them to Dunedin. In the race itself, the pacer refused to trot and was pulled up soon after the start.

The trotter that was meant to have run in the race was reasonably well supported to be the seventh favourite in a field of 14.

Rennell said investigations were under way and a decision would be made in a few days.

AdvertisementIt appears there was nothing sinister in the mix-up and Rennell said it was unlikely any charges would be in the category of serious, which would attract a very heavy penalty.

I'm, pardon the pun, betting there was nothing sinister in what happened. The other drivers probably said nothing because it meant one less competitor to beat.(The pacer would have been disqualified if he hadn't been pulled up.) Why the pacer's driver didn't notice, is a whole other matter. I've never been in a sulky for a race, but I was around horses often enough when age 10 or 11 to see the obvious difference. Was the driver inebriated or daydreaming?

As to the bettors, were their tickets refunded? If I had to make a guess, I'd say no.

Linked to- Adam, Big Dog, Bullwinkle,

Did she use her Secret?

Some news out of Australia

Hat tip- Poliblog
Open Post- Jo's Cafe, Freedom Watch,

A woman who flew from Auckland to Sydney is accused of hiding cocaine in her armpits.

The 54-year-old Sydney woman was searched at Sydney International Airport when she returned from New Zealand yesterday morning.

An Australian Customs statement alleges she had about 200g of cocaine strapped in her armpits and traces were detected in her baggage.

She is due to appear in court late next month charged with importing a border-controlled drug.

King Rat or a Tall tale?

I'll let you decide after reading this news. Hat tip- Truth Laid Bear

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A rat released on a deserted island off New Zealand outsmarted scientists and evaded traps, baits and sniffer dogs before being captured four months later on a neighboring island, researchers have said.

Scientists from the University of Auckland in New Zealand released the Norway rat on the 23.5-acre island of Motuhoropapa to find out why rats are so difficult to eradicate.

They got more than they bargained for...

Despite all their efforts, including fitting the rat with a radio collar, they couldn't catch the crafty creature.

After 10 weeks on the island the rodent decided it had had enough. It swam 400 meters, the longest distance recorded for a rat across open sea, to another rat-free island where it was eventually captured in a trap baited with penguin meat several weeks later.