Iowa Bar Busted for Mouse Racing

Police acting on a tip busted an illegal mouse-racing operation in an Iowa tavern. The owner, cited for allowing gambling without a license as well as health code violations and serving alcohol to minors, says the rodent races, in which patrons levied bets of $1 to $2 per mouse, were just for fun and the mice are well treated. "It's not like they are getting ate, if you're a loser you die. Not like that at all," he told WQAD. "There's no meth heads or makers around here, you just gotta mess with the mouse racers," he added.

And the Bucktail Lounge had at least one slightly unintelligible rule in place to keep things clean: "Nobody gets beyond the pool table if drinking a beer, so if a mouse can jump out of there [the race track] go run and drop a turd in his beer he's doing something." When not racing the several dice mice live in aquariums, say their owners. (And in other weird crime news...)