Violent, drunken 'Bad Santas' wreak
havoc worldwide
Tue Dec 20, 2005 9:07 AM ET
By Erik Kirschbaum
BERLIN (Reuters) - Drunken Santas on a rampage in New Zealand,
armed German robbers in Santa disguises, a British St. Nick wanted
for flashing, and a Swedish vandal in a Santa outfit are giving the
big man in red a bad name this year.
Reports of "Bad Santas" breaking the law or otherwise wreaking
havoc have been circulating around the world.
Armed with a gun, a man in a Santa outfit held up a furniture store
in the German town of Ludwigshafen on Saturday and forced two
cashiers to open the safe. He filled his sack with cash, locked the
two women in the safe and escaped.
He is still on the loose, but police in Tuebingen were able to nab
a bank robber armed with a machine gun in a Santa costume with the
aid of an infrared camera and helicopter. They found him hiding in
a ditch in a nearby forest.
"The machine gun was fake," a police spokesman said. Dressed in a
Santa cap, beard and wearing sun glasses, he was wanted for
stealing 500,000 euros in four separate bank robberies.
One Santa was stopped by police for driving 150 kph (90 mph) on a
northern German motorway, 50 kph over the speed limit.
"He said he was in a rush because he still had packages to
deliver," said a spokesman for the police. They gave Santa a fine
and took away his license.
Last week an inebriated half-naked Santa disrupted a Christmas
market in Dabringhausen before police intervened.
That incident paled in comparison to what happened in Auckland on
Saturday when 40 drunken Santas rampaged through the city center,
stealing from stores and assaulting security guards in a protest
against Christmas becoming too commercial.
In Britain, police said they were looking for a Santa acting
suspiciously -- a flasher who exposed himself to women.
Officers in Swanage on the south coast of England said the flasher
had struck a number of times since December 6, and a week later
exposed himself whilst wearing a Santa Claus outfit.
A British agency recently issued a code of conduct to root out
substandard Santas. "Santa is a magical and cuddly man, not a fat,
smelly slob," said James Lovell of the Ministry of Fun agency in
London. "He must not smell of drink or body odor."
Last Christmas, a shopping center in south Wales installed a webcam
dubbed "Santacam" in his grotto to overcome parents' concerns after
several high-profile paedophile cases in Britain.
(Additional reporting by Daniel Frykholm in Stockholm and Jeremy
Lovell in London)
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Errr... any comments ? 
Oh my goodness......