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TIANJIN, China (UPI) – The parents of a 2-year-old in China who smokes at least a pack of cigarettes a day say they are seeking advice to help the toddler quit.

Toddler Tong Liangliang of Tianjin, China, was allowed to begin smoking by his father more than a year ago to help control pain from a hernia with which he was born, but his parents say the toddler’s habit has gotten out of control, China Radio International reported Tuesday.

The boy’s father said he made the decision because the toddler is too young to have an operation to correct the hernia.

However, the parents told the Bohai Morning Post Liangliang’s habit has gotten out of control and they are seeking methods of helping the toddler quit.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

ANDERSON, Ohio (UPI) – A young Ohio man allegedly broke into a Cincinnati-area house while the owners were on vacation and stayed there for a week.

Nicholas Truesdell not only slept in the master bedroom of the four-bedroom house in Anderson, he watched television and spent time on the computer, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office said. He effectively “used the residence as his own,” investigators said.

While he was at it, Truesdell allegedly drove the owners’ car, a 2007 Nissan Altima. Investigators said he entered the house by forcing a rear window open.

Truesdell, who lives about 2 miles away, was arrested Friday on charges including second-degree burglary and misuse of a motor vehicle.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (UPI) – Police in Massachusetts said a 31-year-old pregnant woman was miraculously unharmed after accidentally backing her car off the fourth story of a parking garage.

Springfield Police Lt. Rupert Daniel said the woman, who was alone in her car at the time, accidentally put her Hyundai Sonata in reverse and drove off the fourth story of the downtown garage, plunging 40 feet to the sidewalk below, WWLP-TV, Springfield, reported Tuesday.

The woman was treated for minor injuries at Baystate Medical Center and released.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

GUILDFORD, England (UPI) – Three jewelry robbers have been sent to prison thanks in part to a getaway driver who repeatedly slowed down during a high-speed chase, police in Britain say.

Police said despite being behind the wheel of an Alfa Romeo sports car 34-year-old Neil Murray followed road regulations during a police chase in the county of Surrey, slowing down repeatedly when entering restricted areas, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The police chase occurred after Murray’s two accomplices stole $99,000 in jewels from Simon Pure Jewelry Design in the town of Guildford, police said.

Thanks to witnesses who wrote down the fleeing car’s license plate number, police were soon in hot pursuit.

Murray’s cautious approach to getaway driving allowed police to stop the car within a half an hour and arrest the three suspects.

The Mirror reported Murray and 31-year-old Bradley Jayes were sentenced to five years in prison Friday for the theft, while a third accomplice, Darren Tomlinson, received 10 years after pleading guilty to an additional jewel theft.

The dates of the chase and the defendants’ trials weren’t reported.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

CHICAGO (UPI) — Chicago authorities say an error while testing equipment led to a man with a license plate reading “0″ receiving about 170 tickets he did not deserve.

The Chicago Department of Revenue said it has been using “0″ as a placeholder license plate for testing parking ticket equipment and officials were unaware Tom Feddor had that number as his official plate, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Feddor said that beginning in 1997, his mailbox has been filling up with citations for violations, including parking at expired meters, parking during street-cleaning hours, running stop signs or traffic signals, and parking a truck, recreational vehicle, bus or taxi on a residential street.

Feddor said he went to the Revenue Department and the Department of Administrative Hearings for help, but was unable to resolve the issue. Hearing officer Zipporah Lewis made several calls to officials in an attempt to help Feddor, but he said “the people she encountered at the other end of the phone seemed to be annoyed and bothered by her. Most tried to quickly end the call.”

Revenue Department spokesman Ed Walsh told the Tribune officials were unaware there was a “0″ plate in circulation — Feddor’s family has been using it for 40 years — or that he was receiving tickets from the equipment testing. He said the tickets would be wiped out and any fines paid by Feddor would be refunded.

“The test violations should have been dismissed in the database. The majority of the cases (Feddor) contested successfully. But we are taking steps to rectify the situation so in the future an actual registered plate number will not be used to do the testing,” Walsh said.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

NORTHOLT, England (UPI) – A British woman said her 10-week-old puppy survived a trip through her house’s plumbing after her young son accidentally flushed the small dog down the toilet.

Alison Blair, 40, said her young son, Daniel, dropped the puppy into the commode at their Northolt, England, home for a bath after he became muddy during a walk and the dog disappeared down the drain after Daniel hit the toilet’s flusher, The Sun reported.

Blair said she was afraid the family had seen the last of the puppy but she called the fire department after hearing the pooch’s muffled cries coming from a drain.

The firefighters brought in specialist Will Craig, 22, of plumbing firm Dyno-Rod to locate the puppy using a special camera and nudge him toward a spot where he could he freed.

“I pushed him really slowly and watched the poor thing wriggling around,” Craig said. “Eventually I pushed him far enough for the firemen to grab. Suddenly everyone started cheering.”

Blair said her family is ecstatic that the puppy — named Dyno in honor of his rescuer — received a clean bill of health after his ordeal.

“I never thought a dog could survive being flushed down the loo. He’s a real little fighter,” she said.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

SAGE, Calif. (UPI) – A California woman said a mountain lion that wandered onto her property was cornered by a gang of unlikely guardians — her trio of toy chihuahuas.

Ana Lee Spray, 23, said she was awakened Saturday morning by the sound of her three chihuahuas barking at the top of their tiny lungs at the opening of the garage at her Sage home, KTLA-TV, Los Angeles, reported.

Spray said she looked out her daughter’s window to investigate the ruckus and was shocked to see her gang of 3-pound dogs had cornered an angry-looking cougar in the garage.

The homeowner said the chihuahuas’ barking kept the animal, which appeared to be foaming at the mouth, at bay for 45 minutes until Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies arrived.

“When they saw the dogs they said ‘These little things?’ When they saw the mountain lion their jaws dropped,” Spray said. “They radioed, ‘This is a full-size mountain lion and it is not happy to see us.’”

Spray said the cougar made a run for it after officers from the Department of Fish and Game shot it with tranquilizers and she did not see the eventual capture. Authorities have not said whether the cougar was killed or released into the wild.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

CHICAGO (UPI) – A Chicago-area woman who dropped out of high school in her senior year to help her parents during the Depression has received a diploma 73 years later.

In the intervening years, Eleanor Benz, 90, married, studied typing and bookkeeping and produced 15 children, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Saturday. She has 54 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren.

Benz said she wanted to stay at Lake View High School but felt she had no choice.

“I only had a few months left, but a job opened up where my sister worked, and that was a rare thing in 1936, to find a job before you finished high school,” she said. “It was turn your paycheck over … keep a couple of dollars for yourself. Then with getting married and raising kids, I never did go back.”

Benz’s children arranged the diploma after she told one of them that not graduating from high school was her greatest disappointment. Karen Siciliano, a secretary at the school, found an old yearbook showing Benz as a sophomore and other records.

Benz received the diploma, the yearbook and a cap and gown — with a class of 1936 tassel — at her 90th birthday party May 30.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

CHICAGO (UPI) – A Lisle, Ill., woman who found $5,000 in the back seat of a Chicago taxi says the driver began running up the fare once she told him what she’d found.

“He wouldn’t let me out of the car,” Ginny Narsete told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Narsete, 57, was taking the cab to the train station in Chicago Thursday night when she noticed a bag with the logo of La Bamba, a Mexican restaurant with 19 locations, including one in downtown Chicago. Inside the bag, was a deposit slip and $5,000 in cash, she told the Sun-Times.

Narsete told the driver to take her to a police station so she could drop off the money. The driver, however, just kept driving while insisting the money should be left at a cab stand.

Narsete called her husband, who yelled at the driver and threatened to call 911 if the driver did not immediately drive to the police station, the Sun-Times said. At the station, the police determined the bag had been forgotten by a restaurant manager, said Ramiro Aguas, co-owner of the restaurant chain.

“It was very nice of her to bring that money back,” Aguas said.

As for the cab driver, he took Narsete’s last $20 for his fare and disappeared, leaving police to get her to the train station.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

ALBUQUERQUE (UPI) – A pair of New Mexico fast food workers were hoodwinked by a prank caller into stripping to their underwear and breaking the restaurant’s windows, sources said.

The sources told KOAT-TV, Albuquerque, that the two male What-A-Burger employees received a phone call Monday night at the restaurant from someone claiming to be a representative of the fast food chain’s corporate office.

The caller told the men to test the fire suppression system and warned them to shed their clothes after they were covered by the yellow powder released by the system. The caller then told the men to break the restaurant’s windows for ventilation, the source said.

Some witnesses dialed 911 while the men used rocks to smash the windows.

“He was actually talking to somebody on the phone and he looked like he was nervous. He said, ‘OK, hold on’ and he threw the first rock,” one 911 caller said.

What-A-Burger manager told police $10,000 worth of damage was done to the store.

“This situation is completely unacceptable,” the vice president of What-A-Burger said in a statement Tuesday. “What-A-Burger is working with the Albuquerque Police Department to identify the individuals responsible for these actions and will pursue full compensation for damages.”

Copyright 2009 by United Press International