It’s not just the greater Atlanta-area where wannabies are trying to trade on the rock-star status of public health inspectors.

In India, the Oshiwara police have arrested two men for allegedly posing as Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials and trying to extort Rs 50,000 from a bakery in the area.

Police officers said the incident took place on Friday afternoon when four men entered the bakery shop on SV Road in Jogeshwari West and complained about the quality of food. They told the owner of the bakery that they were officers from FDA and had been getting complaints from its customers about the inferior quality of products.

They demanded Rs 50,000 from him to shut the case and not seize his shop and goods in it. Sensing foul play, the owner asked them to show him their identification cards.

The men presented their ID cards, but the owner found them suspicious. He immediately alerted the police patrolling the area. On the arrival of the police, two of the fake FDA officers managed to flee, while the other two were nabbed and arrested.

A 59-year-old paani puri vendor in Naupada (near Thane, that’s in India) was detained on Thursday for peeing into a small utensil that he otherwise used to serve his customers.

Consumer video cams rule.

The Mumbai Mirror reports that Rajdev Lakhan Chauhan, who has been serving chaat in Bhaskar Colony in Naupada for four years, was picked up by cops after a resident captured the rather disgusting act on camera from a nearby balcony.

Whistle-blower Ankita Rane, a 19-year-old student, was shocked when she first spotted Chauhan urinating into his lota. “His stall is right below our building. Though there were rumours of him being quite gross, his stall was always flooded with customers,” she said. “Since I had nothing to do after my exams, I started keeping an eye on him.

“Every day, he’d pee into the utensil and then use the same to pour tangy water into the ragda or stir the paani puri mix. Some customers even used that lota to drink water once they had finished eating.”

When she told her family members and neighbours, however, they refused to believe her. When residents in the area saw the video she had recorded, they first beat up Chauhan before taking him to the police station.

“Residents of Bhaskar Colony came up with a video clip that showed Chauhan urinating in one of his utensils. We arrested him on Monday night and he confessed. His excuse was that he had nowhere else to pee as there was no urinal around,” Police Inspector Hemant Sawant said, adding that Chauhan said he felt uncomfortable peeing on the streets as Bhaskar Colony was a clean, residential area.

Around 50 doctors from the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad fell sick from food poisoning after consuming tainted sandwiches, leaving a critical shortage in the gynecology wing.

That’s what MedIndia reported.

The doctors, who had assembled for a continuing education program in gynecology, apparently ate snacks from a bakery. The eatables were purchased from Mac Allen Bakery at Padmarao Nagar.

The doctors ate the snacks on Friday, but fell sick on Sunday and only then realized that it was in fact the food, which was an issue.