Parents punish teen with ad for free baby-sitting, and more

Parents punish teen with ad for free baby-sitting

The parents of a Texas teenager who broke her curfew have punished her by taking out an ad in the local paper offering her services as an unpaid baby sitter. The full-page advertisement features a photo of 16-year-old Kirstin Rausch below the slogan “My pain is your gain.” Kirstin must complete 30 hours of pro bono baby-sitting, says stepmother Wendy Rausch, to atone for violating her curfew. “I was embarrassed,” says Kirstin of the advertisement. “I had no idea they had done that.”

Will Dr. Phil's 60th boost his ratings?

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Dr. Phil is planning his own “surprise” birthday party, says The National Enquirer. The TV therapist is about to turn 60, and he’s convinced that a televised birthday bash will boost his ratings. Dr. Phil asked wife Robin McGraw directly if she was planning “an event,” and upon learning that she wasn’t, he implored her to throw him a surprise party at the swanky Beverly Hills Hilton. “This is the worst-kept surprise party in Hollywood,” says the source. “Phil’s already practicing his ‘shocked look’ for when he walks into the room.”

Robber e-mails police to correct crime account

A German bank robber has been arrested after he e-mailed police to correct factual errors in their accounts of his crime, says Germany’s Bild. The 19-year-old robber, who was not named, mocked officers for having misreported his age, height, and accent, and for having thought he’d escaped on foot, when he had used a car. Police traced the suspect’s e-mail and arrested him in a gambling parlor. “His game of cat and mouse went all wrong,” a police spokesman says.