Oddity Central

Oddity Central

In Switzerland You Can Rent Fake Police Cars to Keep Burglars Away

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 04:08 AM PDT

Who needs an expensive home security system when you have a police car parked right outside your home? That’s what Swiss entrepreneur Andras Birrer thought when he decided to rent out fake police cars to people who travel a lot or go away on long holidays.

It all started out as a gimmick ad for a local newspaper in Andras Birrer’s home town of Sursee, near Lucerne. The owner of a local car rental firm, Birrer had the brilliant idea to paint a Hyundai i40 in the colors of the Swiss police, fit it with warning lights and advertise it as an effective way to discourage burglars. The newspaper ad read: “Don’t want your home broken into? Are you leaving on vacation soon? Rent our police car, we leave it parked outside your home the entire time”. It was meant to be a publicity stunt, but the ad got people so interested that the Swiss mechanic decided to actually provide the unusual service. Now he has a whole fleet of police car replicas available for 250 francs ($270) a week. Birrer is raking in a small fortune as his idea seems to have become a hit with frequent travelers and summer vacationers who truly believe the fake police cars can keep burglars away.

fake-police-car

Swedish Train Conductors Wear Skirts to Fight Shorts Ban

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 02:18 AM PDT

After their company decided to ban shorts during work hours, thirteen Swedish train conductors decided to wear skirts during the hot summer months. They’ve become the talk of the internet after photos of them dressed in female attire went viral.

“Of course people stare at you a little when you are on the platform, but you just have to put up with it,” Martin Åkersten, one of the bold conductors, told Swedish newspaper, Mitti. It can get pretty hot in a train cabin during the summer, with temperatures reaching 35 to 40 degrees Celsius, but the Arriva company’s uniform regulations state skirt or long trousers. Faced with a choice, some of its male employees have opted for the skirts as a way to cool off. Åkersten and some of his colleagues got the green light from their manager a couple of weeks ago, and since then others have joined in the protest, while others have gone back to their usual uniforms. Mainly it’s the train conductors who don skirts, but a few members from the passenger car staff have also oped for them.

train-conductor-dress

Japanese Prosthetic Expert Makes Fake Fingers for Ex-Yakuza Members

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 01:26 AM PDT

Shintaro Hayashi, a prosthetics maker from Japan, is helping out former members of the Yakuza, or Japanese mob, by creating fake fingers they lost during their life of crime, so they can get normal jobs easier.

The Yakuza organized crime syndicates are renowned for their strict codes of conduct and organized nature. When a member causes serious offenses, he is required to perform a ritual known as “yubitsume”, which implies cutting off his own fingers as a form of atonement. Usually, the left pinkie is the first one to go, but repeated mistakes can cause a sloppy Yakuza to lose several digits. It becomes a stigma that signifies current or former membership in the Japanese mafia, and those who manage to leave their troubled past behind and become reformed citizens have a hard time finding jobs because of it. Most Yakuza try to conceal their missing fingers in public by keeping a fist, but there comes a time when they can’t hide their defects anymore, and that’s where prosthetics maker Shintaro Hayashi comes in. For the last 10 years, he has been creating fake fingers to mask Yakuza amputations.

yakuza-fingers

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