In an effort to fight prostitution, Oklahoma City officials started a television channel that broadcast the pictures of men caught cavorting with the local ladies of the evening. Public shaming, it was thought, would keep potential clients away.

The plan backfired. Since the hookers' mugshots were also aired, it enabled would-be customers to identify them, facilitating future encounters. "It was almost a promotional thing for them," a spokesman said. "It wasn't a deterrent at all.'"

WHERE'D ALL THESE COPS COME FROM?

A man in Germany pulled his car over so he could snort cocaine, not realizing that he parked in a space reserved for police cars outside the Innestadt police station. He was arrested.

YOU'RE NOT EXACTLY WHAT I PICTURED

An orthodox New York rabbi went on the Internet and arranged a date with a 13-year-old girl named Katie, who he met in a chat room called "I Love Older Men."

"Katie" turned out to be a middle-aged police detective who arrested the rabbi as soon as he arrived for the tryst.

GASP, NO, WAIT, I'VE CHANGED MY MIND

An 85-year-old woman in New Forest, England, felt that simply filling out medical forms was not enough. She had the words "Do Not Resuscitate" tattooed on her chest.

JUST HOLD ME UNTIL I FEEL BETTER

In order to get attention from attractive women, a short, fat Florida man has been pretending he is choking, then - after the ladies employ the Heimlich maneuver on him - he hugs and kisses them out of ``gratitude.''

When a local newspaper printed an account of one woman "saving" him, other women came forward. He has done this at least a half a dozen times. He is described as 5-foot-6, 245 pounds, with a bald spot.

SORRY TO INTERRUPT YOUR SHOW, SIR

Police in Michigan arrested a 19-year-old driver when they saw him watching a 6-inch television mounted on the dashboard of his car.

BUT OFFICER, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND

An overzealous traffic warden in Manchester, England, immediately ticketed a driver the minute he pulled into a parking space marked "Buses Only." The recipient of the ticket was driving a bus at the time.

He said he repeatedly told the warden, to no avail, that he had every right to stop at a bus stop. The ticket was later rescinded.

SO THEY KNOW 'SHODDY' WHEN THEY SEE IT

Workers did such a bad job putting up a government building in Germany that it will cost millions in repairs. The building in question is the Ministry of Construction.

NOT MUCH OF A HONEYMOON

A 14-year-old schoolgirl went on vacation with her parents to a Mediterranean resort town in Turkey where she met and fell in love with a Turkish bartender 9 years her senior. A few months after the family returned home to Wales, she ran away to Turkey to carry on their torrid affair. They wound up getting married, but, since the age of consent is 15 in Turkey, the bartender was sent to prison.