Authorities in Zhuhai City, China, said that they found heroin on a Nigerian man’s person after his unusual sandals got their suspicions up.

The unidentified man was arrested last week at the Gongbei Customs, according to China’s official news agency Xinhua. Police said that the sandals attracted their attention, and a search of the man’s luggage revealed another pair just like the one that he was wearing.

A search of all four sandals led to the discovery of more than two kilograms of heroin hidden inside the heels, police said.

Customs officials told Xinhua that traffickers have become increasingly clever about transporting their contraband, forcing officials to become more alert.

Even police chiefs are not safe from home burglaries, as a chief constable in Lothian and Borders, Scotland, found out when thieves broke into his $2 million home.

Police said that they were investigating the break-in of Chief Constable David Strang, who reported that household items and his wife’s purse were stolen during the weekend heist, the Scotsman reported on September 25.

Detectives said that they believed that the thieves climbed a stone wall to gain access to the home at the end of a row of Victorian properties. The robbers avoided setting off a burglar alarm and got inside after circumventing a barred window.

Burglars in Des Moines, Iowa, working to cut their way through a roof and into a tobacco and liquor store there earlier this month misjudged their location and spent much of their time drilling a hole to the sidewalk outside the store.

“They forgot to take into account the overhang,” said Rich Bartlett, owner of Southside Tobacco & Liquor, 2424 S.W. Ninth St.

Scott Austin, with Bailey Roofing Contractors, was repairing the roof in two places on September 25. The burglars attempted to drill a second hole closer to the middle of the roof but apparently gave up before completing the job.

Many businesses have alarms at ground level, police say. So some burglars try going through a roof.

A woman walking her dog saw the would-be burglars on the roof of the store on September 17 and told them to get down, adding that she would call the cops if they didn’t listen. The teens jumped down, right in front of a surveillance camera.

“Right here is where he jumps down,” said Bartlett, as he reviewed a surveillance tape. “And right here,” he said, pausing to wait for the right frame, “is where he looks right into the camera.

“I told the cop, ‘You don’t spend your days chasing geniuses, do you?’ ” he said.

Police Detective Ron Foster said September 25 that he charged the two teens, identified as 17-year-old Zagory Harris, and 15-year-old Taylor Kraus, with third-degree burglary and criminal mischief.

“They have a hell of a good camera at that store. Very clear pictures,” Foster said.

An escaped convict has been recaptured in Xinzhu, Taiwan — at a barbecue organized at the local police station.

Police there invited residents to celebrate the Moon Festival with them.

But cops thought that they were imagining things when they saw an escaped drug dealer, identified only as Chen, who had just been listed as one of the city’s most wanted criminals.

“I saw a man dressed in an eye-catching yellow windbreaker enter the place and sit in the corner,” said Police officer Cai Zhengtong, who was in charge of the barbecue.

“He was enjoying the barbecue with the others. I really couldn’t believe my eyes, since the man was just the criminal we were seeking.”

Police at the party quickly arrested Chen. He told cops that he thought that it would have been the last place that police would have thought of looking for him.

A man in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has been arrested for trying to pass a counterfeit $100 bill in a strip club there. “There was some blurring of the ink” on the bill that police Lieutenant Dan Kaiser alleges that the man, identified as 32-year-old David Eugene Hayes, attempted to use.

Police said that they also found methamphetamine on him.

Authorities also received another report of counterfeit money in Sioux Falls. A clerk at a convenience store there accepted a fake $20 bill on September 21. The person who passed the bogus bill got away.

That bill was also of poor quality, Kaiser said. “It was very fuzzy and blurry looking,” he said.

There have been several instances in the last week or so of counterfeit money being passed in Sioux Falls.

A man in Oley, Pennsylvania, whose loud obscenities drew a visit from the police has more than just a disturbance charge to worry about.

Police there say that they found almost 100 cannabis plants at the house near Reading, some measuring as much as nine feet tall.

The man, identified as 50-year-old Scott Boyer, of Alcase Township, is charged with drug possession and related offenses after the weekend police visit.

Police say that they found Boyer yelling in his backyard among about 45 tall pot plants. According to police, he told them that the plants were for his personal use.

Boyer was arraigned in Reading.

A farmer’s son in Wigan, England, who was being pursued by police attempted to outrun the cops’ car — in a tractor.

The drunk man, identified as 36-year-old Thomas Kirkham, refused to stop the tractor, which was pulling a plow, despite police chasing him with flashing blue lights and twice pulling next to him ordering him to stop, a court heard.

The pursuit, which occurred along roads in Tyldesley, ended with Kirkham driving the tractor off-road by smashing through a fence and into a field. Police eventually had to spray him in the face with pepper spray to get him out of the tractor, during the ensuing struggle, one of the cops suffered a broken hand.

Kirkham, of Morleys Farm on Morleys Lane in Astley, pleaded guilty to charges of driving with excess alcohol, failing to stop a vehicle for a police officer and driving without insurance when he appeared before Wigan magistrates.

Prosecutor Katie McFarlane said that the incident occurred in the early hours of February 10. Kirkham had been drinking at home and had had a fight with his girlfriend over the phone. He decided that the best solution was to hop into the tractor and drive to her house half a mile away.

At 4:20 PM police were called to reports of a disturbance and saw Kirkham driving a tractor in the opposite direction to them along Hen Fold Road in Astley. They put on their lights and siren and gave chase.

“Twice the officers pulled alongside the tractor and both shouted for the driver to stop. The tractor could not maintain a straight line so the officers had to follow behind for fear it would swerve into them,” said McFarlane.

The court heard how Kirkham, who was almost three times the legal limit, continued to drive on regardless, ending up on a road which leads on to the East Lancs Road. About half a mile down the road the tractor stopped. The officers got out of their patrol car and walked to the cabin, but as they got level with it the tractor turned sharply left and crashed through a fence and into a field.

“It tore huge tire marks through the grass,” said McFarlane.

The tractor got stuck in a pile of dirt, and two officers ran up to it. One of the officers, Police Chief Jonathan Burr, told Kirkham to turn off the engine and get out. The officer tried to open the door, but it would not open.

“The defendant was still revving the engine so the officer decided to smash the glass panel, but his baton bounced off it. There was a gap in the glass so the officers sprayed CS gas [pepper spray] in his face, but it had no effect,” said McFarlane.

The tractor got a grip in the soil and Kirkham again drove off toward the officers who had to jump out of the way. It then stopped and the officers ran over and again yelled at him to exit the vehicle.

He refused but the officers were able to drag him out. As they were doing this, Burr got his hand trapped resulting in a broken bone.

Kirkham’s attorney, Bob Toppin, said that Kirkham worked as a gas fitter and, if that he was jailed, the effects on him would be “catastrophic”. His employer was standing by him and described Kirkham as a perfect employee. It had been an isolated incident and he had acted stupidly and recklessly.

The injury to the cop had been completely unintentional.

Kirkham was sentenced to four months in prison, two years’ probation and ordered to do 250 hours of unpaid work. He was also banned from driving for two and a half years and ordered to pay Burr £1,250 (US$2,517.49) in compensation. He must also pay £43 (about US$86.60) in court costs.