Two thieves posing as police officers gained access to a French pensioner's home on Wednesday and robbed him of 13 gold bars worth 450,000 euros ($510,000). 

The fake officers showed up on the 69-year-old's doorstep in a Parisian suburb and told him they were investigating a gold robbery, a police source said.

A watch collector spotted a rare Swiss timepiece in a Phoenix secondhand store, bought it on sale for $5.99 and then sold it for $35,000.

Zach Norris said he went to a Goodwill store in January to look for a golf cart but took some time to peruse the watch section.

Too busy to stop in for an Ash Wednesday service? Some churches are offering drive-by ashes.

Clergy at Advent Evangelical Lutheran Church in Upper Arlington, Ohio, applied ash to the foreheads of anyone who stopped in the parking lot of the church for two hours Wednesday.

Boston residents overwhelmed by massive snowfalls the last month have been recording videos of themselves jumping out of windows and into snowbanks, and Mayor Marty Walsh wants them to cut it out.

Walsh chastised thrill-seekers who've been filming themselves performing the frosty feat and then posting the videos on social media websites.

A man poured water onto a freezing road to try to fool police officers into thinking the cause of his drunken car crash was black ice, authorities said.

Bryan Byers hit a guardrail after running a stop sign in a BMW early Saturday morning, police said. Shortly after the crash, they said, a friend, Alexander Zambenedetti, showed up in his own car and they then dumped 5-gallon buckets of water onto the road to create black ice, a thin film of ice that's transparent enough for the roadway to be seen through it.

A former Romanian tourism minister in detention on corruption charges has asked to be allowed to wallpaper and paint her cell walls.

Marius Stribulea, lawyer to Elena Udrea, said his client, one of the most influential Romanian politicians in the past decade, wanted to renovate her current accommodation.

It may stand as the dizziest dozen minutes in first lady Michelle Obama's reign. But she appeared to be having a ball while she put the word out: Kids and parents should eat healthier by adding fruits and vegetables to their daily menu.

To raise awareness for her "Eat Brighter" campaign, Mrs. Obama joined zany quizmaster Billy Eichner for a special edition of his "Billy on the Street" comedy game show, posted on the Funny or Die website.

A Indian baby survived a shocking birth when he slipped down a train toilet and landed on railway tracks just moments after his mother delivered him, police said Tuesday.

The 22-year-old woman fainted in the tiny toilet cubicle on Monday after giving birth on the train, which had briefly halted before reaching Hanumangarh station in western Rajasthan state. 

A campaign has forced British police to scrap plans to give one of their horses a more heroic-sounding name than "Brian" -- a humdrum moniker which has won hearts and celebrity endorsements.

Brian is being trained for use in riot control by Thames Valley police in southeast England and would usually have been given a new name "as it is tradition in the force if he passes the test," a police spokesman told Agence France Presse. 

Authorities in Brazil have got hold of a valuable Twitter account to publicize next year's Rio Olympics, after a humble Spanish shoeshine man surrendered the rights to it for free.

Javier Castano, 50, handed over the password for the Twitter name @riodejaneiro to Rio de Janeiro city hall -- and said Monday he now wants to do the same with the handle @japan for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.