Bin Laden or bin Drinkin'??

Bin Laden joker shot
From correspondents in San Jose, Costa Rica
December 15, 2004

OSAMA bin Laden take note: You wouldn't be safe in Costa Rica.

A startled taxi driver shot and wounded a jokester wearing a plastic mask of the al-Qaeda leader, police said today.

Leonel Arias, 47, told police he was playing a practical joke by donning the bin Laden mask, toting his pellet rifle and jumping out to scare drivers on a narrow street in his hometown, Carrizal de Alajuela, about 35 kilometres north of San Jose.

Arias had startled several drivers that way yesterday afternoon. But when he jumped out in front of taxi driver Juan Pablo Sandoval, the motorist reached for a gun and shot him twice in the stomach. He was taken to hospital, where his condition was described as stable.