Every so often, lingerie catalogs like Victoria's Secret show up in the mail, unrequested but admittedly not entirely undesired. Recently one from Victoria's Secret's sluttier cousin, Frederick's of Hollywood, showed up.

Seeing this catalog reminded me of something I realized previously. Have a look at these quick scans:

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Can you spot the common theme? Sadly, it seems all of these women were born with bilateral athelia – the complete absence of nipples. It was noticing this plenitude of nippleless models which led me to realize that Frederick's is actually aiming their product at a very specific market.

Frederick's of Hollywood: Lingerie for women without nipples.

On a recent trip to Costco, Internet prankster Rob Cockerham of cockeyed.com noticed that the on-shelf price tags used there are rather generic. Realizing he could easily duplicate them, he decided to create a line of fictitious products. He then enlisted the help of Twitter followers to place these tags at Costco stores around the country.

I detailed my participation in this adventure for Rob, and I'm reprinting it below.

• Upon arriving, I snapped a picture of the exterior. I figured I should do this now, instead of trying to capture a blurry shot over my shoulder as I fled the rent-a-cops on the way out. Then I realized this giant big box warehouse store had a very nice view of lovely downtown Boston. When customer complaints caused by the bait and switch going on there inevitably put this location out of business, I'm planning to swoop in to buy the property, then erect luxury condominiums.

  I got in and scoped out the Wii area, but had a hard time deciding how to place the tag, so I moved on to the second tag. The infant diapers and infant formula seemed like perfect neighbors for the "Human Infant Skull Replica" tag, because I'm a terrible person.

  The first picture I snapped had the flash on, and came out poorly. It does however capture an employee back in the stocking area, oblivious and texting away.

  A close-up shows the tag in place, right next to Kirkland Signature Infant Formula. When sold next to a replica infant skull, "infant formula" takes on a more sinister tone, of a formula for producing infants. Creepy! I also grabbed a pic of myself laughing next to the tag.

  I grabbed some food, then circled back to the Wii area, which was in the center portion of the store. The problem here, aside from the area's higher exposure, was that the signs used there were much larger. There was a gap where the tag could have gone, but it would have been too small and out of place. Also, it was impossible to reach without completely blowing my perfect cover of "guy buying food at Costco". Instead, I opted to put the sign lower – I think it worked well. Close up, it seems to fit right in. I was pleased.

  After getting the tags in place, I circled around a bit and saw one woman staring, confused, at the Wii NIS sign. I chuckled, and then hightailed it to the register, as much as one can hightail it while carrying two giant boxes of Life cereal and a two pound tub of hummus. The store was fairly dead on a Tuesday afternoon, but I'm hoping the signs will last for a few days, until the weekend.

I do wish I could have seen more confused folks, but sometimes, it's enough to know that it happened. You can see many other fake tags (including my favorites, "Drunk Food" and "Genuine Poodle Hat") and read the full account, over on Cockeyed.

On the web, there are really only two kinds of sites: those with stories about stupid criminals and those with pornography. For visitors who haven't purchased access to my members-only area, this site is only the former.

Over time, however, stories of dumb criminal tend to run together into one depressing blur of stupidity. What can be more amusing is watching the official reaction to dumb criminals. When dealing with the media and filing their reports, officers must attempt to keep a straight face. Dry humor can be injected into the situation, however, often by simply reporting the facts.

For instance, last year there was a tale of a would-be ninja who wound up impaling himself on a fence. Police spokeswoman Renee Witt detailed the incident, explaining that the man "thought he'd basically be able to jump over this fence, and he didn't quite make it". Understated, to say the least. Even better, however, are the incident notes, which read "Clearly he was overconfident in his abilities".

Meanwhile in Vail, Colorado, a novelty doormat is the source of much amusement. Charles Guadalupe's doormat read "Come back with a warrant". "So," said Lt. Mike William of the Eagle County Sheriff's Office, "we did". Guadalupe was subsequently arrested for four cocaine-related charges.

Finally, while only tangentially related, this story is too good to pass up. In Wisconsin, a buck attempted to defend his territory after he spotted a rival deer. Such defense generally consists of head-butting, so the buck charged his rival. Unfortunately for the 180-pound aggressor, he sparred against a 640-pound concrete statue of a deer. Following his death (due to a shattered skull), the game warden's tag describing how the deer was killed simply read "Lawn ornament fight – lost."