Odds and Ends: Burglar plays dead to hide from police at funeral home

By The Associated Press

MADRID, Spain – A burglar who broke into a funeral home tried to fool police by playing dead, but two things gave him away. First, he breathed. Plus, he wore grungy clothes rather than the Sunday best of those settling in for eternal rest.

Police and the Crespo Funeral Home said they had no idea what the 23-year-old Spanish man was trying to steal in the March 17 break-in at Burjassot, a small town just outside Valencia.

Neighbors alerted police when they heard the front door of the business being forced open in the middle of the night.

Police officers arrived with the owner, and eventually found the suspect lying on a table in a glassed-in chamber used for viewings of deceased people during wakes, a local police official said.

“He was trying to fake being dead, but he was breathing,” the officer said.

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Politician proposes special day to kill toads in Australia

BRISBANE, Australia – An Australian politician on Wednesday proposed designating a special day for residents to hunt and kill what he called one of the world’s most disgusting creatures: the poisonous cane toad.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has said it backs the plan by Queensland state lawmaker Shane Knuth to launch “Toad Day Out,” but only if the creatures are killed in a humane way, such as euthanizing.

“Obviously we’re not idiots. We understand a lot of people will be highly reluctant to fill their fridges and freezers with dying cane toads, but at the moment, that is the only humane way that we can recommend,” said Michael Beatty, the society’s spokesman.

The toads were imported from South America in 1935 in a failed attempt to control beetles. They now threaten many local species.