Skip to main content

Dangerous contents

Car thieves in the Russian city of St Petersburg may have got more than they bargained for when they stole a Mercedes SUV. The vehicle owner and his driver were settling his pet Asian Leopard Cat into the rear of the car when the thieves struck.
February 28, 2012 Read time: 1 min
Car thieves in the Russian city of St Petersburg may have got more than they bargained for when they stole a Mercedes SUV. The vehicle owner and his driver were settling his pet Asian Leopard Cat into the rear of the car when the thieves struck. The car owner has offered a reward of US$91,000 for the return of the leopard but said that as long as the animal is returned he will not press charges and is not asking for the vehicle to be returned. The rare breed of Asian Leopard Cat is worth around $350,000 and was a gift from a Moscow businessman he had dealings with. The animal is native to Russia's southern border with China and across Southeast Asia but although only a few thousand of the species remain, it is not considered endangered.

Related Content

  • CECE 2018 conference Rome: the sector powers up for digitisation
    March 20, 2019
    Getting the human-machine interface for equipment automation right is a lot trickier than expected. David Arminas reports from the CECE conference in Rome For many contractors, digitisation is key for improving on-site operational efficiency. But it may be time to take stock of progress and examine what does and doesn’t work. That is not to say that the anchors should be thrown out to halt development. Far from it. In the past eight months, the CECE - Committee for European Construction Equipment – led
  • Develop the Silk Roads, boost economic growth
    February 28, 2012
    Tony Pearce, honorary life member and former director-general of IRF Geneva, recalls the history of the Silk Roads, highlights their continued economic relevance and introduces IRF's active long-term commitment to their rehabilitation. The Silk Roads had their origins in a Chinese military mission in 138BC to purchase horses in Central Asia's Fergana Valley that were reputed to run so fast that they sweated blood. When General Chang Ch'ien reached Fergana, now in Uzbekistan, he found that the fabled horses
  • Russia new programme for developing high-speed roads
    January 14, 2019
    Russia has approved a new state programme for the development of its high-speed road network – Eugene Gerden reports The Russian government has officially approved a new state programme, which is aimed at developing the federal high-speed road network in the country. This programme will run until 2030, according to recent statements by the official state press-service. According to some leading Russian experts in the roadbuilding sector, the need to implement these plans is acute. At present the tota
  • Parking problems
    March 21, 2012
    An Italian woman ended up parking her car on the roof of a house when she accidentally forgot to use its handbrake. The woman had stopped to photograph a scenic view but as she stood to one side and adjusted the settings on her camera, the car rolled from the road, through a barrier, down a hillside and onto a house below.