Man found sleeping with dead cow

Health officials in Romania who were called to investigate a strange smell of gas by an angry 74-year-old pensioner found he was storing a dead cow in his living room.

Gyenge Lajos refused to believe that the rotting cow was the cause of the smell.

He said the cow was his meal ticket for weeks to come, as he cut off a strip and cooked it every time he was hungry.

The pensioner claimed he had been given the cow by a friend and had started eating it after waking up one day

and finding it dead.

In the end police in the town of Aita Media had to be called to force Lajos to part with the cow, and he was cautioned for refusing to let authorities take it.

A police spokesman told the daily National: "The animal was already in putrefaction and the old man was telling us he was still eating from it from time to time and so he wanted to keep it.

"He was really angry when it was taken away."