LA county pulls Nazi camp item from auction

LA county pulls Nazi camp item from auction

LOS ANGELES -- A body marker from a Nazi concentration camp was removed from a public auction here after complaints from leaders at the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The 2-inch, round limestone tag from the camp at Dachau in Germany was to have gone on the block Saturday at a monthly county auction. "It's ... what amounts to a toe-tag from a person, probably of Jewish ancestry, who was undoubtedly gassed and incinerated at the Dachau concentration camp," said Craig Hendrickson, chief of public administrator operations in the county's treasury-tax collector's division Friday.

Dog caught after 2 years of high-, low-tech hunts

STRATHAM, N.H. -- After two years on the run, a dog named Sam is headed back to his owners. The golden retriever first ran away in May 2004, three weeks after he had been adopted by Peg and Dennis Sklarski. Since then, it was spotted by neighbors and Dennis Sklarski spent many nights driving around looking for the dog. Animal experts from Boston tried using infrared cameras to find the dog, and a local SPCA officer failed repeatedly to get the dog with a tranquilizer gun. At one point a friend of the Sklarskis even lent his helicopter for an airborne search. In the end, it was a ham dinner and a remote-controlled net that brought Sam in from the cold.

Frail male jailed for failing to deliver mail

LONDON -- A mailman who hoarded thousands of letters and parcels at his home was jailed for four months. Christopher Meek, 19, admitted hoarding 13,819 postal items, saying he had taken them home because his bag was too heavy to carry. He was arrested in December after the Royal Mail received complaints, prosecutors said. Meek opened more than 1,400 of the items and stole the contents, prosecutors said. Meek's lawyer, Peter Thubron, said his client -- who is short and slight -- had struggled to carry his mailbag and had taken the mail items home to deliver later but then let the situation get out of control.

-- From wire reports