NEW KID IN TOWN:Valentina Petty has had a hot dog cart in the Cherry Creek business district in Denver, Colo., for seven years. But 10 months ago, a Wolfgang Puck restaurant opened on the corner where she parks her cart, and the eatery demanded that the city force her to move because the restaurant’s “business is being adversely affected by the presence of a pushcart that sells comparable items,” its attorney claimed. City officials refused the request, and the cart’s regular customers say they will boycott Puck’s place. The best part is the restaurant’s attempt to convince city officials that it slaps together junk food meals from bins of pre-heated ingredients.DRY RUN:“If there was an award for the dumbest crooks,” said a spokesman for the police in Gronau, Germany, “they would certainly be in the running.” That would be armed robbers who held up a courier, chasing him at high speed and forcing him to stop. They then grabbed a case from the trunk and ran. But instead of the suitcase full of cash they were after, the gunmen got the courier’s first aid kit. (PA)
