US man fired over Packers tie in Chicago — report

CHICAGO (AFP) — A car salesman was fired for wearing a Green Bay Packers tie to work in suburban Chicago a day after the Packers ousted the Chicago Bears from the NFL playoffs, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Tuesday. John Stone told the newspaper that he wore the tie with the Packers logos to work in Oak Lawn at Webb Chevrolet in tribute to his late grandmother, a Packers fan, but was told by his boss, Jerry Roberts, to remove the tie. Roberts, fearing unhappiness from customers who were likely to be fans of the Bears and not their Super Bowl-bound arch-rivals, told the Sun-Times he offered Stone five chances to remove the tie but he refused and was fired. “If he loves the tie more than his job, he’s welcome to keep wearing it — elsewhere,” Roberts told the newspaper. Stone, who said he has already been hired by another Chevrolet dealership, says the conversation was much shorter. “He said, ‘You have two options. Remove the tie or you are fired.’ When I didn’t, he said, ‘You can leave, you’re fired.’ Does that sound fair to you?” Stone said. Roberts said Stone sold 14 cars last month and that no customers had complained about the tie, but Roberts told television station WLS that he did not want to wait until there were complaints before taking action. “I was just showing my love for my team,” Stone said. “None of the customers minded. They had a sense of humor about it.” Roberts said the dealership had staged promotions involving the Bears in the past and he did not want to risk alienating potential customers, especially one day after the Packers prevented the Bears from reaching the Super Bowl. “We spend $20,000 a month on advertising with the Bears on (radio) during the season... and here was a salesman openly undoing that work,” Roberts told the newspaper. “If he had worn the tie on Saturday I wouldn’t have minded.”

UK council plans to use crematorium to heat pool

LONDON (AFP) — A British local council is planning to use excess energy from a crematorium incinerator to heat one of its swimming pools, it emerged Tuesday, but critics slammed the proposals as “sick”. The council in Redditch, a town near Birmingham in central England, said the measure would help reduce its carbon footprint. “Redditch Borough Council, with a commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions, is considering proposals to re-use energy at its crematorium to heat a nearby leisure centre,” a spokesman said. “The heat would otherwise be exhausted into the atmosphere.” However, the Unison trade union has condemned the plans, which are due to be discussed at a full meeting of the council on February 7. “These proposals by Redditch Borough Council are sick and an insult to local residents,” said Unison regional secretary Roger McKenzie. “I call on Redditch Borough Council to apologise to local residents for the insulting and insensitive proposals.” McKenzie said the move was a sign of the “desperate policies” being pursued by local authorities as they try to deal with funding cuts imposed by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition government. If approved, the heating scheme will be the first of its kind in Britain.

Dutch police ‘bait’ bicycle thieves

THE HAGUE (AFP) — Police in a city in the bicycle-crazy Netherlands, fed up with high levels of theft, said Tuesday they are leaving out two-wheelers secretly equipped with trackers to catch thieves. “Bicycle theft is a type of criminality that often goes unpunished,” police spokeswoman Cornelie Hogeveen told AFP of the project in the central Dutch city of Amersfoort, which had a population of 144,858 and 900 bicycle thefts in 2010 — 10 percent of the city’s total reported crimes. In a six-month pilot project that started December 10, so-called “bait bikes” are being placed in different spots around town, “sometimes locked and sometimes not”, said a police statement. The lures “look just like normal bikes,” according to Hogeveen. Whenever a bike is removed, the police pick up its Global Positioning System (GPS) signal and start a trace. “Sometimes the thief is already gone, sometimes we find other stolen bikes,” the spokeswoman said. “It is a form of criminality that affects many in the Netherlands,” she added. “Not only do they risk having their bikes stolen, but also buying a stolen bike.” The Netherlands, which counts an estimated 18 million bicycles for 16.5 million inhabitants, registered a total 515,000 bicycle thefts in 2009, according to AVC, an organisation that tracks vehicle theft statistics.

Kangaroo joke rebounds on tennis star Wozniacki

MELBOURNE (AFP) — World number one Caroline Wozniacki appeared in front of media with a blow-up kangaroo and boxing gloves Tuesday, poking fun at herself after a joke about being attacked by one of the animals backfired. Wozniacki was presented with the three-foot (one metre) high yellow kangaroo after telling media she had been scratched by one of the marsupials, in a story which raced around the globe before she admitted it was false. The 20-year-old Dane good-humouredly appeared with the kangaroo and gloves after reaching the semi-finals at the Australian Open, where she is seeking her first Grand Slam win. “First of all, I want to thank you for giving me this kangaroo yesterday. I got it from one of the media. I know there were a lot of requests for me to have a picture with the kangaroo, so here it is,” she said, posing for photographs. “Now I’m actually ready to fight just in case it would actually attack me, so I have the (boxing) gloves on. It looks like it’s feeling pretty well today, so it’s okay.” Wozniacki was forced to deliver an embarrassing apology Sunday after telling journalists her leg was bandaged because an irritable kangaroo had scratched her at a wildlife park.