Sideswipe: Frightening reactions

Are you sure about that? Photo / Supplied

Opinion

A reader writes: "We were walking outside Dick Smith in Botany when we saw a 3-year-old girl standing in the path of a reversing Honda. My wife ran up and grabbed the girl. The car stopped and a man and woman got out. The woman smacked the girl and put her on her lap in the front seat and they drove off."

Return to sender

"When people throw rubbish out the window, if you can, get their rego number and stop and pick it up. After checking the car owner's address, wrap up the rubbish nicely in gift wrap (even add some rubbish of your own if you wish) and mail it to them with a polite note that it was seen to fall out of their car and maybe they were wondering what had happened to it."

Strange but true

*A Spanish woman faked her own kidnapping and sent her husband a photo of herself with bound hands and feet - just to see if he would pay a ransom, say police.

*Singapore's water polo team got told off by the government for wearing swimming trunks in a likeness of the nation's flag (star and a crescent). Causing particular offence was the 12.7cm crescent placed vertically on the front. The team's manager denied even the "slightest intention" of insulting the country.

*US owners of border collies can now rent a flock of sheep for their dog. The breed are compulsive herders, with instincts so intense they sometimes search for livestock behind the television when sheep appear on screen. Left unoccupied, they'll dig up the garden, chew up the doggie bed or persecute the cat. Herding experts say it's increasingly common for people who get border collies as pets to wind up renting or buying sheep just to keep their dogs busy.