Thieves flushed

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado -- Thieves who took a truck in Seattle may have looked a little flushed when they found out what was in the back: a 2-meter-high, 2-meter-long soapbox racing car shaped like a toilet.

Five friends built the racer in Colorado Springs for an event in Seattle in late September. It was stolen when the truck it was sitting in was swiped from their hotel parking lot late last month.

Neither the truck nor the toilet-shaped racer have been found.

"We're laughing about it," soapbox driver Tom Valentine said Friday. He just wishes he could've seen the thieves' faces when they opened the back of the truck.

"My guess is (they said), 'Oh, crap, it's a giant toilet."'

The soapbox car did not win any races but was second in the people's choice competition.