Eideard

A metal thief was caught after leaving a can of Polish lager covered with his DNA on the roof of a church he was raiding.

Saulius Ciuzas, 39, stripped £10,000 worth of lead from the 12th century church but left a near full can of Lech beer on the roof of the church.

He made off with 13 strips of lead from St Peter and St Paul Church in Algarkirk, Boston, Lincs., but church warden Peter Wilson found the can the morning after the theft on April 24 this year, Lincoln Crown Court heard on Friday.

Phil Howes, prosecuting, said: “Next to where the lead had been removed was a Lech beer can. It was upright and still had liquid in it. The can was linked to Ciuzas because his DNA was found on it.”

Lithuanian migrant Ciuzas lived 40 miles away in Lincoln but was tracked down and arrested…

He was jailed for 12 months after he was found guilty of the lead theft.

Tidying up after stealing includes a lot more than fingerprints on the chimney nowadays.

What began as a fun night on the town ended in death Sunday after a 24-year-old Clinton Township man pushed through a hatch on a party bus and hit his head on an overpass, Michigan State Police said.

The incident is being investigated as “an extremely tragic accident,” Sgt. Sheila Shields said.

“People don’t realize how dangerous a moving vehicle is,” she said. “People have to think.”

According to a preliminary investigation, Salvatore Talluto was among a group of about 25 people on the party bus returning from an outing in downtown Detroit.

Scott Wanagat, Talluto’s brother-in-law, said the group was having a bachelor party and hired the motor coach to make plans easier.

Police said the bus was heading east on Interstate 94 near Van Dyke on Detroit’s east side about 2 a.m. when Talluto left his seat and put his head through an emergency exit hatch. Soon after, he struck an overpass, Shields said.

The bus was traveling about 55 mph at the time; the force of the impact knocked Talluto back into the bus, Shields said. It was unclear if Talluto had been drinking alcohol or if the bus driver would face charges. Police were called and the man was transported to St. John Hospital in Detroit. He was declared brain dead that evening, Wanagat said.

Ayup.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

A 60-year-old man has been found on the roof of his floating house nearly 10 miles out at sea, two days after the tsunami that devastated the north-east coast of Japan.

Hiromitsu Shinkawa must have resigned himself to his fate when he was swept away by the retreating tsunami that roared ashore in his home town of Minami Soma in Fukushima prefecture…

Incredibly, he was spotted by a maritime self-defence force destroyer taking part in the rescue effort as he clung to the wreckage with one hand and waved a self-made red flag with the other. He had been at sea for two days.

Reports said that on being handed a drink aboard the rescue boat, Shinkawa gulped it down and immediately burst into tears. His wife, with whom he had returned home as the tsunami approached, is still missing.

He was quoted as saying: “No helicopters or boats that came nearby noticed me. I thought that day was going to be the last day of my life.”

Officials said Shinkawa was in good condition after being taken to hospital by helicopter.

“I ran away after I heard a tsunami was coming,” he told Jiji Press. “But I turned back to fetch something from home and was swept away. I was rescued while hanging on to the roof of my house.”

The self-defence forces said the good weather and calm waters had allowed Shinkawa to stay alive during his 48-hour drift.

We’ve had this discussion before. Some days you have good luck. Some days you have bad luck.

The only silliness that gets added on top of that is prattle about some invisible being or spirit guiding your destiny. Poisonally, I would save up to prepare a hell of a thank-you meal for the folks aboard the Choukai who finally spotted me.

Vacaville Fire Department officials are blaming pigeons for the collapse of a gas station awning Monday that nearly struck a woman who had just finished filling her tank. Vacaville resident Chris Doss had stopped at Quick Way Gas located in the 400 block of Merchant Street when a quarter of the station’s metal roofing came thundering down next to her under the weight of several inches of bird droppings.

“It just went ‘boom’ and then it all came down,” said Doss, who had just finished putting gas in her silver 2007 Mazda 3.

She had just gotten back into her car on one side of the island at about 2:21 p.m. and hadn’t even had a chance to put the key in the ignition when the entire roofing section on the other side of the island collapsed, giving way to an avalanche of bird droppings.

Doss sat there in shock for a moment, not knowing what to do, she said…

According to Vacaville Fire Battalion Chief Brian Moore, the section of the roof was brought down by the weight of the pigeon droppings that had accumulated over the years…

For Chris Doss though, it was definitely her lucky day.

“I’m glad that I parked on that side,” she said. “I should go get a lotto ticket.”

Get two!

Swedish company, Soltech Energy, recently received the gold medal for this year’s hottest new material at the Nordbygg 2010 trade fair in Stockholm, Sweden. The award was fitting because it was for the company’s home heating system that features roof tiles made out of glass. The tiles, which are made from ordinary glass, weigh about the same as the clay roof tiles they replace but allow the sun to heat air that is then used to heat the house and cut energy bills.

Thankfully, although the tiles themselves are transparent, they are backed by a special black absorption fabric so sticky beaks won’t be able to sit on the roof and watch what’s going on inside. This fabric absorbs the sun’s rays, which heats the air underneath, with the air formed into columns by beams within the roof to ensure it is heated sufficiently.

The most common way to connect the system to a house’s existing heating system would be to a water based heating system via an accumulation tank but the system is also designed to be integrated with both air and water based systems, such as a ground source heat pump, air heat pump, pellet boiler or electric boiler – the only requirement is some form of central heating system.

This setup allows the system to heat the house during winter and transfer the heat absorbed in summer to a ground heating system through a heat convector and a fluid based system to help achieve a cooling effect.

Delightful, attractive – and I wonder about the cost vs. the usual clay tiles?

A driver ended up parking her car in the roof of this Italian house after she forgot to put on the handbrake.

Maria Rizzo, 34, stopped to admire the spectacular view from the street above the house in Alassio in northern Italy. But she was so intent on taking a snap that she forgot to put on the handbrake, and her car rolled away, smashing through a barrier and plunging down the hill onto the house below. It broke through the roof and landed in the bathroom, with the front end wedged in an iron bath which broke the fall and stopped the Fiat Panda plunging further into the house.

Har!

Spidey he ain’t. Or wasn’t.

New York police said a man fell 11 stories to his death while trying to climb down to his girlfriend’s apartment from the top of her building.

Investigators said Steven Wright tried to climb from the roof of the building to his girlfriend’s 13th floor apartment at about 5:30 a.m. because he was locked out after an argument, the New York Daily News reported.

Police said Wright tied his shoelaces and belt to a pipe and tried to inch down to the top-floor window of the apartment belonging to his girlfriend, Lanecca Austin, 31, but he instead fell to a second-floor patio roof.

Officers said they do not suspect foul play in the incident and Austin, who was asleep with the TV on, was not aware of Wright’s fall until police knocked on her door.

Cops woke her up and told her what happened.

Not the best part of the gig.

Brenda Gardenhire shows off her new home with pride. It looks like an oversized shopping cart covered with a khaki canvas. But to her, it’s “wonderful” — a stepping stone to get her off the streets and get her life back in order. “It’s like your own home, your own apartment, your own room,” she said, showing off the 7-foot-long living space on wheels. “No one else can come in here but me.”

Gardenhire is talking about her makeshift home called an EDAR, which stands for Everyone Deserves A Roof. The units are being distributed to homeless people in the Los Angeles area by the Everyone Deserves A Roof nonprofit organization.

It’s the brainchild of “Revenge of the Nerds” movie producer Peter Samuelson, who has spent much of his life working with charities to help impoverished children. He got the idea to help the homeless in recent years as he rode his bicycle from Los Angeles to the beach at Santa Monica.

On those bike rides, he began seeing more and more homeless people. But he didn’t just whiz by. He stopped to talk with them — 62 people in all. One by one, he listened to their needs and what they wanted most: a roof over their heads. And the idea for the EDAR was born.

“If you had to define the value of a civilization, it’s not how many SUVs you’ve got,” Samuelson said. “To me, I think it’s how well do we take care of our children, our homeless people, our mentally ill, those less fortunate.”

The four-wheeled home has an expandable base that stays off the ground and is covered by a canvas, giving it the feel of a tent. It extends 86 inches and is 32 inches wide, thin enough to fit through standard doorways. Each unit has a mattress and sleeping bag to provide comfort. It’s also flame-retardant and sturdy enough to keep its occupants dry during heavy rains. A braking mechanism prevents the unit from rolling away at night. They also come with a chain and padlock to prevent it from being stolen.

Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose…

RTFA. Samuelson is “doing something about it” instead of playing at debate society with the ideologues of America.

The man, 20, was trying to repair the roof of his home in Beijing’s Shijingshan district when the wind caught him.

According to the Beijing Morning Post, he was trying to repair loose slates when a strong gust blew him off the rooftop.

“Luckily I was blown onto a nearby tree, otherwise who knows where I would be,” the man reportedly told rescuers.

For a while he was left clinging to the 45ft tree with both arms, legs dangling in the air: “I was terrified and kept shouting for help,” he said.

OK, so he was blown “onto” a tree instead of “up” a tree– you gonna fire me over one lousy preposition?

Shiver me timbers.

An unholy row is threatening one of the most sacred places in Christianity – the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

The centuries-old site, where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, is visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and tourists every year.

A recent survey says that part of the complex, a rooftop monastery, is in urgent need of repair, but work is being held up by a long-running dispute between two Christian sects who claim ownership of the site.

Various Christian denominations – Greek Orthodox, Armenians, Catholics, among others – have always jealously defended and protected their own particular parts of the site.

Disputes are not uncommon, particularly over who has the authority to carry out repairs.

For example, a wooden ladder has remained on a ledge just above the main entrance since the 19th Century – because no-one can agree who has the right to take it down.

As someone who generally chuckles at the superstitious premises used to validate all religions, I find this an especially droll example of ideologies professing to lead in “brotherly love” – and unable to sort out something as simple as fixing the roof.

Religion wastes more energy conjuring up silliness than accepted market leaders like politics or war.