Objects made of metal are being stolen by people looking to cash in on the increase in raw metal prices. Church roofs, statues, drain covers and even tweezers have been stolen in the city of Paris.

Thefts of copper, aluminum, zinc and nickel were up 144 percent in France last year.

“We are witnessing a real pillage of companies’ assets,” Colonel Philippe Schneider, who heads a police division that specializes in countering such crime, told reporters.

“Everything can be stolen, everything can be sold — cables, drain covers, sculptures,” Schneider said. “We even had 300 kilograms of tweezers stolen.”

Other targets included plane doors, phone booth floors, car wheel rims, cemetery gates and a church roof made of zinc.

Copper, widely used in construction and industry, became a big target for thieves last year as prices of the metal doubled to $8,800 a tonne at one point due to booming Asia demand.

Schneider said stealing cable from a building site or hijacking trucks loaded with scrap metal could pay more than robbing a cash machine or a bank and was far less risky.

“Stealing 10 tonnes of copper is simple,” he said.

“Alongside the traditional petty thefts are methods typical of organized crime, such as … armed robberies, often by international networks.”

However, the number of incidents reported had dropped around 40 percent since October, partly due to a fall in prices and partly because of police efforts to break up organized gangs, he said.

World copper prices have tumbled over the past few months but remain around 20 percent higher than at the same time last year.

Schneider said thieves often sold metal to recycling companies. However, of the 2,500 to 3,000 recycling firms in France, a maximum of 100 were involved in metals trafficking.

According to police in Corapolis Pa, and elderly woman gave a bank robber a lift, unbeknownst to her at the time of course. Juanita Bland, 75, had been stopped at a post office in Coraopolis just before noon, two weeks ago, when suddenly the sliding door of her minivan became stuck. Her van is equipped with an electric door and ramp for her wheelchair.

“I couldn’t get out of the van, so I waited a few moments hoping somebody would walk by who might be able to help,” said Bland. “Then I saw this fellow walking my way, so I beckoned him over and asked if he could please help with the door.”

According to the police the man that Juanita beckoned over had just robbed a PNC Bank. The man got into the passenger seat asking for a ride after he slid the stuck sliding door closed.

“He didn’t seem threatening or anything, so I said ‘OK’ and drove off,” she said. He exited a few blocks later, got into a white sedan and drove off.

One of Bland’s friends called her later that day wondering if she’d been abducted because another one of the ladies acquaintances had been listening to the police scanner and had heard that the suspect had gotten into her van.

“When I think back now of what could have happened, I feel blessed that I’m OK,” Bland said.

She sure is lucky. It’s probably a good thing that she didn’t suspect anything otherwise things might have turned out very differently.

I know that many of you are looking for ways to save money and keep more of it in your current accounts - am I right? You’d rather spend your extra money on your kids or family I’m sure than pay extra bank charges or higher rates.

I know I feel that way and I can’t be the only one out there that does. I just found a site called the Thrifty Scot and while it’s aimed more for people living in the UK the tips and links on the site can be used by most everyone. I’m sure if I apply some of the advice that I found on the site I’ll end up with more money in our savings accounts.

Wouldn’t you like to find out how to get credit cards with lower rates so that you can keep your savings in your bank accounts rather than paying extra user or interest fees? I even found information on the site on how to help protect yourself from credit fraud. And speaking of credit cards, rates and possibly debts - if you are in need of a loan or information on getting loans you’ll find some great links that will lead you to places offering lower loan rates, and information on getting a loan in the loans section of the Thrifty Scot.

Of the many links on the site I found the sections on home insurance, and the areas that discussed mortgages and remortgages most helpful at this time. We just renewed our mortgage but when it rolls around again I’ve got some new information up my sleeve.

Check out the Thrifty Scot if you are in the UK or if you just want to find ways to save some money on things we all need and use - like home insurance, loans, mortgages, and credit cards.

The London Review of Books published a compendium of the weirdest and funniest advertisements from the eccentric readers who write to it’s personal column in seek of love, sex, or friendship with like minded people. You know- serial embezzlers, beardy physicists known as Naughty Lola, or self-harming flautists.

The book is called “They call me Naughty Lola”, and it proves that the English are not all stiff-upper lip with this strange collection.

Here’s an example of what you might find in Naughty Lola:

“Woman, 32, needful of the finer things in life seeks stinking rich bloke, 80-100,” one ad says. “Must be willing to fibrillate his ventricles when he becomes tiresome or bankrupt or both. Also interesting thirtysomethings for illicit, immoral affair to be conducted concurrently with the above.”

Or maybe this guy’s more your style? “Bald, short, fat and ugly male, 53 seeks short-sighted woman with tremendous sexual appetite.”

The column began in 1988 and was meant to be a genuine lonely hearts column, however after his first submission arrived - “67-year-old disaffiliated flaneur picking my toothless way through the urban sprawl, self-destructive, sliding towards pathos, jacked up on Viagra and on the lookout for a contortionist who plays the trumpet.” David Rose, the columns creator, decided to create his column as a a notice board for the strange, hilarious and downright bizarre.

Surprisingly entries such as - “You were reading the BBC in-house magazine on the Jubilee Line (12 November). I was coughing hot tea through my nostrils. Surely you can’t have forgotten? Write now to smitten, weak-kneed, severely burnt, bumbling F (32, but normally I look younger). I’ll be quite a catch when my top lip has healed. And this brace isn’t forever.” have often resulted in marriages, children, at least one divorce and countless liaisons.