Magazine
In Magazine: a runaway truck crashes nine cars, a thief calls the police to resolve an argument with his accomplice, the theft of a steam locomotive from the Jaromeř museum, and a twelve-year-old Czech boy learns English so as to be able to answer a message found in a bottle.
Two thieves who worked as a team to rob several shops failed to agree on how the loot should be divided among them and in a fit of rage one of them called the police. The officers failed to resolve the conflict arresting them both on the spot and charging them with several previous thefts. The 50,000 crowns they fought over – less than two monthly average salaries -may now send them to jail for up to five years.
Earlier this month police in the town of Jaroměř were alerted to what appeared to be the theft of the year. A veteran steam locomotive weighing 70 tons disappeared without a trace from the local rail museum. The veteran was worth 30 million crowns and there was no sign of a break-in. Shortly after, the police found the locomotive parked behind some old carriages at the Jaroměř railway station. It emerged that the veteran had been stolen during the night by the museum’s previous management and a number of steam engine enthusiasts who wanted to operate the locomotive and organize what they called “nostalgic trips in time”.
Czech MEP Edvard Kožušník has set off on a lone run across the Czech Republic as a way of propagating a healthy lifestyle. The MEP plans to cover 1,300 km in 43 days without the help of a support team stopping in around 300 places. He set off on Thursday from Ostrava and will pass through Brno, Pardubice, Hradec Kralove and Liberec, among others, before reaching Prague on September 5th.
A twelve-year old Czech boy has made headlines after spending two years learning English so that he could answer a message in a bottle that he came across while on holiday in Denmark. Gabriel Fabian discovered the bottle on the Danish coast just three months after it was thrown into the sea in Yorkshire by three children. Not speaking English at the time he decided to tackle the language barrier so as to be able to write back a proper answer. The British family who had long forgotten the incident said they were astounded to get a reply two years later.
Fruit dumplings are a popular Czech dish in the summer months and because they are a hot favourite with so many people they have become an obvious choice in various eating competitions. The town of Miroslav holds an annual contest in the number of apricot dumplings people can consume in twenty minutes – an event held within the apricot harvest festivities. This year’s winner managed to consume a staggering portion of 102 apricot dumplings, the most anyone has ever managed. His was not the only record set - this year the festivities attracted over 7,000 visitors, the most in their 24-year-history and local restaurants served recipes with apricots as an opener, main course and desert. The local brewery brewed apricot beer for the occasion and anyone who visited the town had their fill of apricots for a long time to come.
The Moravian gallery in Brno has acquired a precious porcelain breakfast set as a gift from its Czech owner. The Merkur porcelain set was designed by Josef Hoffmann and its owner, who emigrated to Great Britain in 1968, took it with her as virtually the only reminder of home. The set was made between 1910 and 1920 in the Pfeiffer and Lowenstein porcelain factory in Ostrava and then decorated in Vienna. Similar sets are hard to find at auctions and cost between 3,000 and 5,000 euro.