Many funny stories happened in Carnival 98, but this one definitely takes the cake. Barata Ribeiro 200 is a sort of a legendary building in Copacabana's Lido. They even changed the number after a theatrical play was named after it the 70's. But the building remained there, almost next door to Copa's subway station. There are dozens of tiny apartments on each floor and tenants of all persuasions.

A transvestite lived happily with her three poodles in one of the small studios. She always made it big at Carnival, and this year she had finally made it to a float of a special group samba school. The costume had to be perfect, and it took her weeks for the last touch-ups. All she had to do on the big day was put on some make up, and a generous sprinkle of glitter to better catch the lights. Her 15 minutes of glory were guaranteed! Everything went perfectly well at the Sambodrome and she arrived at home in high spirits.

As she opened the door she was shocked to see her apartment had been turned upside down! Her antiques, stereo, video and other valuables had disappeared. The walls, mirrors and carpet had been sprayed with paint and graffiti. "Death" and "We will be back and get you!" were among the endearing messages. To add insult to injury her three lovely poodles had been died neon pink, the poor things!

Terribly upset our float queen called the police, which promptly arrived. The first thing they noticed was that the house had not been broken into - the door latch was intact. The place was really a mess, though. There was so much paint, glue and glitter everywhere... but hey! Apparently some of it had splattered on the intruder's foot! They started following a trail of clear footsteps that went out the door, and led them directly to another apartment on the third floor of the very same building.

The tenant, a retired 74-year-old man, opened the door and Bingo! There were all her missing objects! The senior claimed some man named Amauri asked him to keep his stuff for a while because he was moving out of the building.Well, it turned out that this Amauri person was one of the closest friends of the victim! He had even helped her get dressed for the Samba Parade. Apparently later he went back and flipped out. "It seems we never really know people..." she said.