Picking up the tab

Mike Hammond had no trouble finding respondents to a poster advertisement he pinned up in his village post office in southern England. In the ad, Hammond sought a drinking buddy for his 88-year-old retired father who resides in a nursing home. Bonus: Hammond offered not only to pay for the pub beer, but also $14 an hour for the companion's time. After being inundated with responses, Hammond chose a retired doctor and a former military man to be his father's paid drinking pal.

Out of sight

Though legally blind, Allan Kieta said he knew something was up when his poodle went crazy during his day off from work on April 21. That's when he discovered 25-year-old Alvaro Castro in his house in what police describe as an attempted burglary. "I just kind of panicked and just kind of went crazy after that," Kieta told the Indianapolis Star. Kieta used skills he learned from his Marine father and from wrestling in high school to subdue the intruder until police arrived. According to police, Kieta surprised the young Castro, tackling him and then dragging him to the kitchen where he fumbled for a knife that he held to the intruder's neck while he attempted to dial police. "Being visually impaired, I couldn't get the buttons because I was using my left hand," he explained. "It took me about 20 tries." It may take Castro more tries than that explaining to his cellmate how he was caught.