Christmas Spirit

A 31-year-old German had a rude awakening on Saturday evening when the police found him asleep in his car at a parking lot off of Autobahn 30 in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

There are no rules in Germany preventing drivers from taking a nap in their car on a parking lot, unless, of course, they doze off in a puff of smoke and leave packages of hashish and marijuana on the seat next to them.

The police had no choice but to wake the driver out of his stoned stupor, search the car and write up a report.

But, as the Münster police reported on Sunday: "After the report was written, the man could go back to sleep."

It has not been reported whether the police officers wished the man happy holidays after ruining his evening nap.

Everybody loves Christmas

On Sunday evening, two German teenagers -- who either missed out on the whole Christmas message of peace and love this year or got the whole concept of Christmas gifts seriously wrong -- tried to rob a taxi driver in the western German town of Bielefeld.

"Oh, for Christ's sake, it's Christmas Eve," the taxi driver shouted when one of the two teenagers opened the door and put a gun to his head, demanding money in exchange for life.

The 18-year-old and his 16-year-old accomplice didn't know that playing how the Grinch did his awful deed can be a dangerous thing. Nobody wants to have their Christmas stolen, not even the grownups.

It's a question of perspective

The taxi driver jumped out of the car and nobly fought for his right to work on Christmas Eve. The gift extortionist and the gift denier brawled a bit before the thief ran away.

"The taxi driver's resistance and reference to Christmas evidently unsettled the bandit," police spokesman Michael Mehler said on Monday.

The two teenagers were eventually arrested, probably wondering -- in their own way -- whatever happened to the spirit of Christmas.

But that's the nice thing about Christmas. There's always next year.