News of The Weird

2019-01-11 News of The Weird

Sat, 12 Jan 2019 12:14:35 GMT

KION TV reported on Jan. 7 that a Salinas, California, family's Ring doorbell camera captured video of a man licking the doorbell for more than three hours. The homeowners were out of town during the encounter, which took place around 5 a.m., but their children were inside. Sylvia Dungan, who was alerted to the activity at her front door on her phone, said, "I thought, boy there's a lot of traffic. ... Who the heck is that?" Salinas police identified the man as Roberto Daniel Arroyo, 33. Arroyo also relieved himself in the front yard and visited a neighbor's house. "You kind of laugh about it afterwards because technically he didn't do anything," Dungan said, although police later charged him with petty theft and prowling. [KION, 1/8/2019]

Super Fan

Dale Sourbeck, 49, of Pittston, Pennsylvania, had football on his mind after his arresting start to 2019. In the early morning hours of Jan. 3, he used a hammer to break into the Rock Street Music store and helped himself to two guitars -- to start with, reported WNEP TV. Presumably realizing he was being watched by surveillance cameras, Sourbeck left and returned to the store wearing a mask and grabbed three more guitars. Police tracked Sourbeck down using the surveillance camera shot of his license plate and found the stolen guitars in his home. Upon his arrest, the only statement he made was "Go Eagles." [WNEP, 1/3/2019]

Special Delivery

Veterinarian Molly Kreuze of Springfield, Virginia, is planning to purchase an artificial Christmas tree next year after her natural one came with something extra: more than 100 praying mantises. Kreuze told WJLA-TV the leggy insects emerged from an egg sac under the tree's branches and were "crawling on the walls, crawling on the ceiling, crawling on the windows." Kreuze captured as many as she could and was hoping to find a new home for them, as it seems "people really like" the bugs. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture advised that people who find the egg sacs on their Christmas trees should clip the branch and take it outside. Otherwise, without their regular source of food, the newly hatched insects will start to eat each other. [WJLA, 1/6/2019]

That Reminds Me of a Movie ...

Eakins Oval, a Philadelphia traffic circle, was the scene of an ominous accident on Jan. 1 when a 21-year-old unnamed man tried to climb a monument to George Washington at the center of the circle. WPIV-TV reported that the man slipped while climbing and fell on the sharp antler of a large deer statue at the base of the monument, impaling his left side. He suffered lacerations and was admitted to Hahnemann Hospital nearby. [WPIV, 1/3/2019]

Unclear on the Concept

-- Three customers and staff of a Wells Fargo branch in Solana Beach, California, were stunned on Jan. 3 when 35-year-old Clint Gray entered the bank shortly after it opened and yelled, "This is a robbery! Everybody get on the ground!" a witness told The San Diego Union-Tribune. But Gray, who was unarmed, didn't follow through. Instead, he stripped down to his underwear and sat in a chair near the front door, asking bank employees to call law enforcement. He also kindly told one female customer that she could sit in a chair instead of lying on the floor. A sheriff's deputy arrived shortly, and Gray surrendered without resistance; he was later charged with attempted robbery. [San Diego Union-Tribune, 1/4/2019]

-- Students at a Fairfield, Ohio, middle school were subjected to an unexpected lesson on Jan. 8 when they reported suspicious behavior "taking place behind (the) desk" of substitute teacher, Tracey J. Abraham of Cincinnati. WHIO-TV reported that the school resource officer at Creekside Middle School received several complaints from students that the teacher was, eh, taking matters into his own hands, and he was removed from the room and building. Abraham was booked and charged with public indecency and ordered to stay away from all locations where there are children under 18 years old. [WHIO, 1/8/2019]

Smooth Reaction

A female jogger on the Goldenrod Trail in Oakland, California, used pepper spray on a dog that attacked her on the morning of Jan. 3, angering the dog's owner, Alma Cadwalader, 19. According to KPIX-TV, police said Cadwalader retaliated by tackling and punching the jogger multiple times, and finally biting the victim on the forearm, causing significant wounds. Police posted a surveillance camera photograph of Cadwalader and asked for the public's help in identifying her; she was arrested on Jan. 4. [KPIX, 1/4/2019]

Social Media Fail

Game Warden Cannon Harrison, 24, is well known around his area in Oklahoma, so when he filled out a profile for the dating app Bumble, he didn't include his profession. But when he "matched" with a woman nearby in December, he was surprised when she messaged him that she had just bagged "a bigo buck." "I thought ... it was someone who was messing with me because they knew who I was," Harrison told The Washington Post. Deer season had ended, although hunting with a crossbow was still legal, so he decided to play along. He wrote back, "Hell yeah, get em with a bow?" When the unnamed huntress demurred, he asked her if she had been "spotlighting" -- an illegal technique that involves shining a light into the animal's eyes to stun it before shooting it, and she replied, "Yeahhhh." Next she sent Harrison a photo of herself with her trophy, and Harrison went to work. He tracked her down on social media, and the following morning, game wardens appeared at her door. The woman paid a fine and will avoid jail time -- and probably a date with Warden Harrison. [The Washington Post, 1/8/2019]

Oh, Florida

Heather Carpenter, 42, was charged with damaging property and criminal mischief in Sarasota County, Florida, after expressing in a particularly gross way her dissatisfaction with the principal of the school where Carpenter was substitute teaching. Phillippi Shores Elementary School Principal Allison Foster had been helping Carpenter with a professional issue, but Carpenter was unhappy with the way it was going, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. So on Dec. 1, in a park where Foster was hosting a birthday party for her daughter later in the day, Carpenter -- whose own daughter was invited to the party -- arrived with human feces, according to a witness, which she spread on the grill and picnic tables. Carpenter pleaded not guilty, but the Sheriff's Office report stated that she admitted she "intentionally placed human waste and fecal matter on the tables at Urfer Park with the intent of disrupting the birthday party planned by Foster." [Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 1/7/2019]

Least Competent Criminal

An unidentified 39-year-old wannabe carjacker hit a bump in the road on Jan. 7 when he approached the driver of a Chevrolet Volt in San Diego, reported The San Diego Union-Tribune. The thief demanded the driver's keys and mobile phone around 6 a.m., according to San Diego police, and tried to drive off in the vehicle. But he couldn't figure out how to operate the hybrid car, and in frustration he ran away, discarding the phone and keys. Police located the carjacker a short distance away and arrested him on suspicion of carjacking and robbery. [San Diego Union-Tribune, 1/7/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2018-12-21 News of The Weird

Sat, 12 Jan 2019 12:17:34 GMT

Staff at the Martin County (Florida) Correctional Institute spied some suspicious activity on the morning of Dec. 16. Around 1:30 a.m., a drone was spotted hovering over an inmate housing center, while at the same time, a black pickup truck rolled slowly in front of the center. The Tampa Bay Times reported officers stopped the truck and questioned Concetta Didiano, 22, and her mother, Cassanra Kerr, 40, who said they had driven the 200 miles from their home in Tampa so Didiano could learn how to drive the truck. But Kerr's husband is an inmate at the facility, and after a drone and a package of contraband -- tobacco and mobile phones -- turned up near the front gate of the prison, Kerr came clean: "I did it. The remote and iPad are in the backseat." Both Didiano and Kerr have been charged with introducing contraband into a correctional center. [Tampa Bay Times, 12/19/2018]

Anger Mismanagement

-- H.W. Taylor III, 51, of Chatfield, Texas, was charged Dec. 12 with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after a parking dispute escalated outside a Domino's pizza shop in Jerrell. Determined to park his tractor-trailer in a restricted area, reported the Austin American-Statesman, Taylor removed a chain blocking the area and parked his truck there, even as store employees told him not to. Williamson County sheriff's deputies were called after Taylor pointed a gun at the chest of one the employees and then shot a 9mm round into the ground nearby, causing a small piece of the bullet to strike the employee in the ear. Having lost his appetite for pizza, Taylor returned to his truck and drove away, but officers soon caught up to him in another county. The Domino's worker had a small cut to his ear and is expected to survive. [Austin American-Statesman, 12/14/2018]

-- In Mesa, Arizona, diverging tastes in music led to a fatality on Dec. 14, reported the Arizona Republic. Officers responded to a call of shots fired at an apartment complex, where Sheldon Sturgill, 41, told them he shot his roommate after an argument and fistfight over the type of music they were listening to. Sturgill and his roommate had been drinking shots and beer before the altercation. He was held on suspicion of second-degree murder. It is unclear what the offensive music choice was. [Arizona Republic, 12/17/2018]

Alternative Medicine

Havana, Cuba, resident Pepe Casanas, 78, has discovered a tried-and-true way to treat his rheumatism pain: Once a month for the last 10 years, Casanas seeks out a blue scorpion, which is endemic to Cuba, and lets it sting him. "I put the scorpion where I feel pain," Casanas told Reuters. After the sting, "It hurts for a while, but then it calms and goes and I don't have anymore pain." In fact, researchers have confirmed that the scorpion's venom has anti-inflammatory and pain relief effects. It may even delay cancer growth in some patients. A Cuban pharmaceutical company has been selling a homeopathic pain remedy called Vidatox, made from the scorpion venom, but Casanas, a former tobacco farmer, takes the simpler route. He sometimes keeps a scorpion under his straw hat for luck, where he says it likes the shade and humidity. [Reuters, 12/14/2018]

Foul Fetish

The Daily Mail reported on Dec. 14 that a Chinese man identified only as Peng, 37, was hospitalized in Zhangzhou, Fujian province, after he complained of a cough and chest pains. As doctors examined him, Peng admitted that he is "addicted to smelling his socks that he had been wearing." The pain in his chest, it turns out, was a fungal infection he had inhaled from his socks. While Peng is expected to make a full recovery, other people 'fessed up on Chinese social media that they have the same habit: "The reason I smell my socks is to know if I can continue wearing them the next day!" one commenter said. Another pledged to "wash my socks every day now." [Daily Mail, 12/14/2018]

Creative Currency

Maybe it was the Triple Breakfast Stacks McGriddles that lured Anthony Andrew Gallagher, 23, to the drive-thru lane at a Port St. Lucie, Florida, McDonald's to satisfy his hungries on the morning of Dec. 16. But when it came time to pay, the Associated Press reported, Gallagher offered the dude in the window a bag of weed instead of cold, hard cash. The worker declined the payment, and Gallagher drove away, returning a while later. McDonald's staff called police after the first attempt, and Gallagher was apprehended for marijuana possession and driving under the influence. [AP via Yahoo! News, 12/18/2018]

Awesome!

Retired hospitality executive Rick Antosh, 66, of Edgewater, New Jersey, was enjoying a plate of oysters at Grand Central's Oyster Bar in New York City when he felt something hard in his mouth. "I just all of a sudden felt something like a tooth or a filling, and it's terrifying," Antosh told PIX11 News. But when he looked at it, he realized it was a pearl. Antosh called over the floor manager to ask how often such a discovery happens and was told he'd never heard of it before. Antosh has not had the pearl appraised, but early estimates say it could be worth $2,000 to $4,000. [PIX11, 12/16/2018]

Unusual Tastes

Karen Kaheni, 42, of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, is a heavy smoker, puffing on 60 to 80 cigarettes a day. But as she watches TV in the evening, Kaheni also eats eight cigarette butts. And, as a side dish, she eats about 9 ounces of chalk every week. Her odd addictions are related to Pica, she told the Mirror, a condition that involves eating things that aren't really food. "I have no idea what triggered it," she said. "It isn't so much the taste of the cigarette butts or the chalk that I like -- it's more the texture and the crunch." When she runs out of either item, "I get quite agitated and my mouth begins to water." Kaheni hasn't consulted a doctor about her addiction, claiming she is too embarrassed, but she has discovered a Facebook page for others who suffer from Pica: "It makes me feel like less of a weirdo -- less like I'm going mad," Kaheni said. [Mirror Online, 12/13/2018]

Redneck Chronicles

Call it a dangerous case of mistaken identity: The Helena (Montana) Independent Record reported that a 27-year-old man was shot at multiple times on Dec. 16 after being mistaken for Big Foot. The unidentified man told police he was setting up targets for shooting on federal land when bullets struck the ground nearby. He ran for cover, then confronted the shooter, who said the first man "was not wearing orange and thought he was Big Foot," said Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton. The cryptid impersonator described the shooter's vehicle to police but didn't want to press charges, asking only that the shooter be lectured about safe shooting. [Helena Independent Record, 12/17/2018]

Wait, What?

Jim Alexander, 41, and Betina Bradshaw, 54, of Torquay, Devon, England, are planning a Christmas feast for family and friends. On the menu: deer, pheasant, rabbits, badgers ... all roadkill. Alexander, a trained butcher, has collected nearly 50 fresh animal corpses over the past year. "I know people will think it's unusual, but really it just makes sense," Alexander told Metro News. Bradshaw says her family refers to him as a serial killer, but he has gradually won her over to the idea of eating roadkill. "The first few times he brought a deer home he told me it was for the dog. ... Obviously, you turn your nose up a bit at the start, but now it doesn't bother me at all," she said. Alexander said his odd collecting habits have drawn the attention of police, but "once they realize I'm doing nothing wrong, they are fine, and one even helped me lift an animal into the van," he said. [Metro News, 12/11/2018]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2018-12-28 News of The Weird

Sat, 12 Jan 2019 12:17:49 GMT

Mystery Solved

On Jan. 25, 71-year-old Alan J. Abrahamson of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, went for his regular pre-dawn walk to Starbucks. What happened on the way stumped police investigators until March, reported The Washington Post, and on July 13 they made their findings public. Images from a surveillance camera show Abrahamson walking out of his community at 5:35 a.m. and about a half-hour later, the sound of a gunshot is heard. Just before 7 a.m., a dog found Abrahamson's body, lying near a walking path. Police found no weapon, no signs of a struggle; he still had his wallet and phone. Investigators initially worked the case as a homicide, but as they dug deeper into the man's computer searches and purchases over the past nine years, a theory developed: Abrahamson had tied a gun to a weather balloon filled with helium, shot himself, and then the gun drifted away to parts unknown. A thin line of blood on Abrahamson's sweatshirt indicated to police that "something with the approximate width of a string passed through the blood on the outside of the shirt," the final report says. As for the balloon, investigators said it would likely have ascended to about 100,000 feet and exploded somewhere north of the Bahamas in the Atlantic Ocean. [The Washington Post, 7/15/2018]

People Different From Us

Metro News reported on Feb. 20 that travelers "remained silent" for 20 minutes while a fellow passenger on a Ural Airlines flight from Antalya, Turkey, to Moscow used the air vent above her seat to dry a pair of underwear. Witnesses reported that the woman showed no shame and that "everybody was looking with interest and confusion." Debate raged later, however, after video of the woman was posted online, with one commenter speculating that "maybe the takeoff was sort of extreme, so now she has to dry those." [Metro News, 2/20/2018]

New World Order

Taisei Corp., a construction company based in Tokyo, announced in December 2017 that it would use autonomous drones called T-Frends to combat karoshi, or overwork death, reported The Independent. The drones hover over desks of employees who have stayed at work too long and blast "Auld Lang Syne," a tune commonly used in Japanese shops getting ready to close. A company statement said: "It will encourage employees who are present at the drone patrol time to leave, not only to promote employee health but also to conduct internal security management." Experts are skeptical: Scott North, professor of sociology at Osaka University, told the BBC that "to cut overtime hours, it is necessary to reduce workloads." [The Independent, 12/10/2017]

Wait, What?

-- Ikea took advertising in a whole new direction with its print ad for a crib. The ad, which appeared in the Swedish magazine Amelia, invited women who think they might be pregnant to urinate on the paper to reveal a discounted price. "Peeing on this ad may change your life," the ad read at the top of the page. "If you are expecting, you will get a surprise right here in the ad." Adweek reported that the agency behind the gimmick adapted pregnancy test technology to work on a magazine page. [Adweek, 1/9/2018]

-- Police in Mainz, Germany, responded to an apartment building after cries were heard from within one unit early on Feb. 17, The Associated Press reported. When they arrived, officers found two men, the 58-year-old tenant and a 61-year-old visitor, "hopelessly locked up" with a mannequin dressed as a knight and a large remote-controlled car. The men were too drunk to explain how they had become entangled, and one officer remarked that "the whole thing would have remained a funny episode" if the younger man had not become "more than impolite." He now faces a charge of insulting officers. [Associated Press via The New York Times, 2/17/2018]

Armed and Frustrated

Linda Jean Fahn, 69, of Goodyear, Arizona, finally succumbed to a frustration many wives suffer. On Dec. 30, 2017, as her husband sat on the toilet, she barged in and "shot two bullets at the wall above his head to make him listen to me," she told Goodyear police when they were called to the scene. Fahn said her husband "would have had to be 10 feet tall to be hit by the bullets," ABC15 in Phoenix reported, but officers estimated the bullets struck about 7 inches over the man's head as he ducked. She was charged with aggravated assault. [ABC15 Arizona, 1/8/2018]

News That Sounds Like a Joke

In Turkmenistan's capital, Ashgabat, drivers of black cars faced high costs to repaint their cars white or silver after President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov banned black vehicles because he thinks the color white brings good luck. Police began seizing dark-colored vehicles in late December 2017, and owners had to apply for permission to repaint and re-register them. The average wage in Ashgabat is about $300 a month (or 1,200 manats); one Turkman told Radio Free Europe that he was quoted 7,000 manats for a paint job, but was told that the price would rise within a week to 11,000 manats. "Even if I don't spend any money anywhere, I will be forced to hand over pretty much my entire annual salary just to repaint," the unnamed man said, adding that his black car had already been impounded. [Radio Free Europe, 1/8/2018]

Just. No. Words.

If you've been wondering whatever happened to Barney the Dinosaur, the Daily Mail had the answer for you. David Joyner, 54, romped inside the big purple suit for 10 years on the 1990s "Barney & Friends" show on PBS. Today, he's a tantric sex guru in Los Angeles who says he can unite a client's body, mind and spirit through tantric massage and unprotected sex. Joyner credits his tantric training with helping him endure the 120-degree temperatures inside the Barney suit. While "surprised," Stephen White, former head writer on the show, said he sees Joyner's new vocation as the "'I love you, you love me' deal, but different. I don't judge or anything, but that's a side of David I didn't know." [Daily Mail, 1/23/2018]

Compelling Explanation

A woman claiming to be on a mission from God led a Kentucky State Police trooper on a chase at speeds up to 120 mph on Feb. 10, stopping only when another trooper pulled in front of her car. According to the Elizabethtown (Kentucky) News-Enterprise, Connie Lynn Allen, 52, of Goodlettsville, Tennessee, told officers that she was Mother Mary, en route to pick up Baby Jesus, and that God had given her permission to speed. She also said that she had died six years ago. She was charged with several offenses and is being held in Hardin County. [News-Enterprise, 2/12/2018]

Want to Get Away?

Many citizens of the world are weary of the war and strife that seem to be consuming the news, and nearly 300,000 of them have already signed up to put it all in the rear-view mirror by becoming citizens of Asgardia. This coming-soon colony on the moon is led by Igor Ashurbeyli, a Russian engineer, computer scientist and businessman who was inaugurated as its leader on June 25 in Vienna. Asgardia's parliament plans to set up "space arks" with artificial gravity in the next 10 to 15 years, where its projected 150 million citizens can live permanently, Reuters reported, and Ashurbeyli hopes settlement on the moon will be complete within 25 years. Asgardia is named after Asgard, a "world in the sky" in Norse mythology. Its leaders hope to attract a population from among the "most creative" in humanity, perhaps using "IQ tests," according to Ashurbeyli. [Reuters, 6/25/2018]

Hey, It's Florida

Indian River County (Florida) sheriff's officers stopped Earle Stevens Jr., 69, on June 27 after another driver called 911, complaining that Stevens' Mercury Grand Marquis kept tapping her bumper in a McDonald's drive-thru lane. The officers noted "a strong odor of alcoholic beverage emitting from his breath ... His speech was slurred and his eyes were red and glossy." He also had an open bottle of Jim Beam bourbon in a brown paper bag on the passenger seat. Stevens, of Vero Beach, struggled to produce his ID and said he's never had a valid Florida driver's license, according to Treasure Coast Newspapers. Stevens argued that he hadn't been drinking while driving, but when the officer asked where he had been drinking, Stevens said, "Stop signs." After failing several field sobriety tests and a breath test, Stevens was charged with driving under the influence and driving without a license. [Treasure Coast Newspapers, 7/12/2018]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-01-04 News of The Weird

Sat, 12 Jan 2019 12:18:00 GMT

Rakhi Desai of Houston didn't think much at first of the gift she brought home from a white elephant party in mid-December -- a brown stuffed bear with a stitched-on heart. As she looked it over later, Desai noticed the words "Neptune Society" stitched on its foot "and then I started to feel, and it's almost like little pebbles or rocks" inside, she told KTRK-TV. That's when it hit her: The bear was filled with someone's cremated remains. The friend who brought the bear to the gift exchange got it at an estate sale, so Desai called the Neptune Society, hoping to reunite the bear with the family it belongs to, but the organization doesn't track the bears. However, there is a name on the bear's tag, and Desai is hoping to find the owner through that. "(T)his bear is very special to somebody and belongs in somebody's family," she said. [KTRK, 12/28/2018]

Weird Roundup

On Christmas Day, Deadspin.com shared a "verbatim" list from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission of emergency room visits paid by Americans who inserted items into various body parts, and shouldn't have. An edited sampling: Into the ear: "Popcorn kernels in both ears, 'feeds her ears because her ears are hungry'"; "Was cleaning ear with Q-Tip, accidentally walked into a wall, pushed Q-Tip into ear"; "Placed crayon in ear on a dare." Into the nose: "Sneezed and a computer keyboard key came out right nostril, sneezed again and another one almost came out"; pool noodle; piece of steak; sex toy. Into the throat: mulch; "Swallowed a quarter while eating peanuts"; plastic toy banana. And finally, into the rectum: "Significant amount of string"; cellphone; Christmas ornament ball; "Jumped on bed, toothbrush was on bed and went up patient's rectum." [Deadspin.com, 12/25/2018]

Likely Story

Vanessa Elizabeth Helfant, 38, of Knoxville, Tennessee, floated a "dog bites man" defense at her DUI hearing on Dec. 13, arguing that several parked cars struck her on March 25, 2017. The jury, however, didn't buy her story after hearing evidence: Witnesses at the scene followed Helfant to her destination, and when officers arrived and knocked on the door, Helfant called 911 to report people knocking on her door. WATE reported that she eventually admitted that she had drunk half a pint of vodka and smoked marijuana. Helfant, who had no prior offenses, was convicted and faces at least 48 hours in jail and her license will be suspended for a year. [WATE, 12/13/2018]

Which Witch?

Tiffany Butch, 33, of Timmins, Ontario, Canada, may go down in history not for her psychic gifts, but for being the last person ever charged in Canada with "pretending to practice witchcraft." On Dec. 11, Butch, whose nickname is the White Witch of the North, was charged under Section 365 of the Criminal Code for demanding money in return for lifting a curse. Two days later, that law was repealed. Marc Depatie, spokesperson for the Timmons police force, said Butch gave a customer "a sense of foreboding that a dreadful thing was about to happen to their family ..." But Butch denies the charge, saying other psychics framed her. "People proclaimed me a witch here and gave me a nickname, but I'm not a witch. I'm a psychic," she told CBC News. Butch is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 22. [CBC News, 12/19/2018]

Weird Science

On Jan. 1, Camron Jean-Pierre, an 11-year-old Brooklyn, New York, boy, lost his life after apparently suffering an allergic reaction to the smell of the fish his family was cooking for dinner, reported the New York Daily News. His parents used an unspecified medical device to try to help him, but he lost consciousness and emergency services were called. Camron was taken to Brookdale Hospital, but he couldn't be revived. Scientists have noted that people with food allergies can react strongly to odors from food, and inhaling these odors can cause extreme asthmatic reactions. [NY Daily News, 1/2/2019]

People Different From Us

Asparagus is healthy and delicious. But for 63-year-old Jemima Packington of Bath, England, the columnar vegetable is much more: Packington is an asparamancer, a person who can foretell the future by tossing the spears into the air and seeing how they land. "When I cast the asparagus, it creates patterns and it is the patterns I interpret," Packington said. "I am usually about 75 to 90 percent accurate." In fact, out of 13 predictions she made for 2018, 10 of them came true. What's in store for 2019? Packington tells Metro News that England's women's soccer team will win the World Cup; "A Star Is Born" will win an Oscar; and fears over Brexit will be largely unfounded. Oh, and asparagus will see an all-time high in sales. [Metro News, 12/31/2018]

Overreactions

Alarmed neighbors in Perth, Australia, called police after hearing a child screaming and a man repeatedly shouting, "Why don't you die?!" on Jan. 1, according to the Evening Standard. Multiple units of officers arrived at the property, only to learn that the unnamed man, an extreme arachnophobe, had been trying to kill a spider. His wife confirmed to police that her child had been screaming, and her husband apologized to police for the confusion. The spider didn't survive. [Evening Standard, 1/2/2019]

Weapon of Choice

Rogelio Tapia, 26, was arrested in Des Moines, Iowa, on Dec. 31 after a dispute at a QuikTrip around 3 a.m. The store clerk and witnesses told police Tapia chased the clerk around the store and assaulted him with a banana after the clerk tried to intervene in a domestic situation. According to KCCI, Tapia caused about $1,000 in damage; he was charged with assault and third-degree criminal mischief. [KCCI, 1/1/2019]

Bright Idea

If super-sharp shears snipping near your ears isn't enough of a rush, you might want to visit Madrid, Spain, and the salon of Alberto Olmedo, who uses ninja swords and blowtorches to cut hair. Claiming his approach is inspired by Renaissance tradition, Olmedo told Euronews that swords allow a hairdresser to cut hair from both sides of the head at once, resulting in a more even finish. He started perfecting the skill when he became "disillusioned with scissors." Olmedo also offers a cut with claws worn on the ends of his fingers, and plans are in the works to bring lasers into his work. [Euronews, 12/30/2018]

Armed and Clumsy

Despite a flood of warnings from law enforcement about the dangers of shooting celebratory gunfire into the air on New Year's Eve, an unnamed Kansas City, Kansas, man just couldn't resist. As he prepared to head outside at midnight with his .22-caliber handgun, he "sat the gun down in the couch (and) accidentally shot himself in the stomach," tweeted Police Chief Terry Ziegler. The Kansas City Star reported Ziegler's department conducted a "tweet-along" during the evening, with multiple reports of shots fired -- so many that at 11:50 p.m., officers headed to a parking garage to take cover from the bullets that were expected to rain down at midnight. At 12:01 a.m., the department tweeted, "Gunfire EVERYWHERE." Thankfully, no injuries were reported in the city as a result of the merrymaking. [Kansas City Star, 1/2/2019]

Great Art!

You've seen photo books and calendars depicting swaddled infants surrounded with flowers. In Irmo, South Carolina, on Dec. 29, photographer Stephanie Smith re-created the look using her high school friend Nicole Ham, according to FOX13 News. Ham, who is "336 months old," was swaddled in a pink blanket and wore a giant gold bow on her head as she lay within a circle of garland and flowers. A sign next to her read: "Loves -- champagne. Hates -- dating in 2018. Go Tigers!" "We couldn't keep a straight face," said Smith, adding that she and Ham are already brainstorming ideas for future funny photo shoots. [FOX13 News, 1/2/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-01-11 News of The Weird

Sat, 12 Jan 2019 12:18:13 GMT

Super Fan

Special Delivery

That Reminds Me of a Movie ...

Unclear on the Concept

Smooth Reaction

Social Media Fail

Oh, Florida

Least Competent Criminal

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-01-18 News of The Weird

Fri, 18 Jan 2019 06:08:06 GMT

When Victoria Amith, 18, headed to college last fall, she couldn't take along her beloved cats, Tina and Louise. And her dad, Troy Good, 43, couldn't keep them at his new apartment in San Jose, California. So rather than abandon them, Good did what any doting daddy would do: He rented them an apartment of their own. Tina and Louise now live the good life in a 400-square-foot studio apartment behind the Willow Glen home of David Callisch, who told The San Jose Mercury News: "They're very quiet, obviously. The only problem is they stink up the place." Good pays $1,500 a month rent, and Callisch stops in every day to feed and play with the kitties. Sounds puuuurrrr-fect. [San Jose Mercury News, 1/14/2019]

Recurring Themes

-- The first clue for police that Craig Wistar, 51, of Warren, Ohio, shouldn't have been driving was that he was behind the wheel of a car facing east in a westbound lane around 2 a.m. on Dec. 4. The second was the woman in the back seat, who mouthed "Help me" to officers as they questioned Wistar, who had a bottle of vodka at his feet. When asked what he was doing, Wistar replied, "I'm Ubering," reported WFMJ-TV. Officers moved the passenger to their patrol car and administered a field sobriety test, during which Wistar admitted, "I'm plastered. I'm talking hammered. I confess I'm drunk." Wistar's Uber passenger got a ride home from police, and he pleaded guilty on Jan. 14 to driving under the influence. Most important, he will no longer be able to drive for ride-sharing apps. [WFMJ, 1/15/2019]

-- Sunita Jairam, 48, of Lexington, Kentucky, was arrested for driving under the influence at about 1 a.m. on Jan. 13, which she explained to police by saying she did it for her son. According to the Lexington Herald Leader, Jairam told police she had been drinking all day and "drank a bunch of beer and got in her car to drive to teach her son a lesson." Her son, whose age was not reported, told police he had tried several times to get out of the BMW X1 "due to his mother's driving," but the doors were locked. Jairam was also charged with endangering the welfare of a minor. [Lexington Herald Leader, 1/13/2019]

-- In the category of Straining Logic, Jana Moschgat's defense attorney suggested at her drunk-driving hearing on Jan. 8 in Berwick, Pennsylvania, that the results of her breath test might have been compromised by the fact that, according to the arresting officer, she was nibbling on her coat before the test was administered. Moschgat, 47, smelled of alcohol, the officer testified, and failed a field sobriety test; her blood alcohol level was tested at 0.151 percent, almost twice the legal limit. Attorney Travis Petty questioned the officer about his knowledge of the fabric content of her coat, reported The (Bloomsburg) Press Enterprise, saying certain materials can alter the results of breath tests. The judge wasn't buying the argument and sent the case to trial. [Press Enterprise via TribLive.com, 1/10/2019]

Promises, Promises

On Jan. 1, Curtis Brooner filed a lawsuit claiming a Burger King in Wood Village, Oregon, reneged on its promise following a traumatic incident on Dec. 15. KATU-TV reports Brooner was having lunch at the fast-food joint that day when he became locked in the restroom. Employees provided him with a flyswatter to use to wrench the door open, but Brooner cut his hand on it, and the lawsuit says employees laughed at Brooner from the other side of the door. It wasn't until an hour later, when a locksmith arrived, that he was set free. "To make things right," said Brooner's attorney, Michael Fuller, "the Burger King manager offered (Brooner) free food for the rest of his life" at that restaurant -- and followed through for a few weeks. But eventually the regional manager stepped in and ended it. Brooner's suit seeks damages of $9,026.16 -- the price of one burger meal per week for the next 22 years. "There are funny elements of the case," Fuller told KATU, "but there is nothing funny about being locked in a dank bathroom for an hour." [KATU, 1/3/2019]

Great Art!

Namibian artist Max Siedentopf, 27, has placed an installation in the ancient Namib Desert, consisting of six speakers attached to an MP3 player projecting the song "Africa" by Toto -- over and over and over, for all eternity. The song, released in 1982, has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity, and was one of Spotify's "Top Throwback Songs" in 2018. Siedentopf told the BBC that solar batteries will keep the song playing forever: "I wanted to pay the song the ultimate homage and physically exhibit 'Africa' in Africa ... but I'm sure the harsh environment of the desert will devour the installation eventually." [BBC, 1/14/2019]

Inexplicable

Mmmm, breakfast! Around 7 a.m. on Jan. 6, at a McDonald's in San Francisco, a man carried a dead raccoon into the restaurant and lay it on a table, then sat down with it. Restaurant patron Chris Brooks captured the spectacle on Facebook Live, recording as the man stood from his seat and walked around the restaurant, talking with people. Another man, wearing gloves, then picked the raccoon up by its tail and took it outside to a garbage can, trailing blood on the floor. Fox News reported San Francisco police responded to the restaurant and released the unidentified raccoon owner after speaking with him. McDonald's closed the store immediately and reopened two hours later after sanitizing the dining room. One patron wrote on Twitter: "I've seen worse than a dead raccoon at that same McDonald's." [Fox News, 1/10/2019]

Love Gone Wrong

It was love at first ... arrest, for 27-year-old Ashley Keister of Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, when she was apprehended by a West Wyoming, Pennsylvania, police officer last year. Ever since, Police Chief Curtis Nocera told the Associated Press, Keister had been harassing the officer with sexual messages on social media and would call 911 just to talk with him. On Jan. 7, police said, Keister took her infatuation a step further, using a large cigarette butt receptacle to break through the door of the West Wyoming police station around 1 a.m., where she rummaged through filing cabinets. Keister was caught on surveillance video and was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, burglary and vandalism. [Associated Press, 1/10/2019]

Crime Report

Isaias Garcia, 30, of Garland, Texas, pleaded guilty in a Bridgeport, Connecticut, courtroom on Jan. 10 to reduced charges stemming from a bizarre kidnapping scheme last April. Garcia had abducted a 21-year-old Fairfield man and was demanding $800 in ransom, the man's aunt and father reported to police on April 6. Police told the aunt to request a photo to guarantee the young man was still alive, and when the photo arrived by text, ctpost.com reported, it showed the victim lying facedown in a bathtub with a 3-foot-long alligator on top of him, mouth open. In a subsequent phone call, the victim told his aunt: "Titi, man they got this alligator on me and they saying that if no money is given they are gonna have him chewing on me." Police and the FBI were able to trace the phone calls to a hotel room, where Garcia was apprehended. He faces a year in prison. [ctpost.com, 1/10/2019]

Bright Idea

In Williamson County, Texas, Sheriff Robert Chody has employed a new cadre of deputies to help deter speeding. Interestingly, they all look alike. The cardboard cutouts, which Chody has placed along roads where speeding is common, depict one of the department's real-life deputies pointing a radar device at the roadway. "It's a creative way to solve the problem without really working the problem," he told KTCB-TV. "Slow down because you never know if it's the real deal or not," he warned. The sheriff said he tested the idea in school zones and, "We didn't get one speeder." [KTCB TV, 1/10/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-01-25 News of The Weird

Fri, 25 Jan 2019 06:08:00 GMT

-- Because white shoes are so distracting when you're lining up your putt? According to Time magazine, Nike will be mowing over the competition with its new Air Max 1 golf shoes, which feature uppers covered with a green material that resembles grass. Matching green laces will further disguise your dogs as you play a round, but lest you think you'll disappear altogether, fear not: The trademark Nike swoosh on the sides is bright white. The sneakers, yet to be released, are expected to retail for $140. [Time, 1/14/2019]

-- Just when you thought there was nothing new under the blue jeans sun: A Ukrainian designer is asking $377 for a pair of jeans that have one fitted leg and one flared leg. Ksenia Schnaider, who calls her design the Asymmetric Jean, told DazedDigital.com: "It's good to get people talking, and they're definitely going to make people turn their heads as you walk by!" [DazedDigital.com, 1/11/2019]

People With(out) Issues

Rachel Childs, 29, of Pearland, Texas, is not autistic and doesn't have a twin autistic sister, according to the Houston Chronicle. Nevertheless, she hired a caregiver for her (fake) twin sister who is (not) autistic. The elaborate plot, which played out in early January, involved the caregiver picking up the "twin" at Childs' house and taking her to the caregiver's home, where he was hired to care for her overnight. But when Childs' "twin" exhibited sexual conduct toward the caregiver, he became suspicious and investigated Childs, then contacted police. Childs was charged with burglary of a habitation with intent to commit assault and indecent exposure. [Houston Chronicle, 1/17/2019]

Precocious

-- Employees of John J. Murphy Elementary School in Round Lake Park, Illinois, were surprised on Jan. 9 when a car drove into the drop-off lane and an 11-year-old student exited the driver's seat. Witnesses alerted police, who issued an arrest warrant for the front-seat passenger, 31-year-old Khafilu M. Oshodi of Round Lake, for two counts of child endangerment; a 9-year-old was riding in the back seat. Police Chief George Filenko told the Lake County News-Sun the situation could have "resulted in any number of tragic scenarios." The children have been placed with other relatives, and police are still looking for Oshodi. [Lake County News-Sun, 1/21/2019]

-- Alijah Hernandez of Houston is a skilled barber in her father's shop, reported KTRK-TV on Jan. 17 -- which wouldn't ordinarily be newsworthy. But Alijah is only 7 years old. Her dad, Franky, says she's been watching him since she was a toddler and started perfecting her skills three years ago. For her part, Alijah says cutting hair comes naturally to her; she practices on friends and family (with her dad supervising) and has already faced off in barber competitions across Texas. [KTRK, 1/17/2019]

What's That up in the Sky?

-- The rare super blood wolf moon of Jan. 20 was so captivating to some skywatchers on Florida's Ponte Vedra Beach, that they didn't notice when the tide rolled in and waterlogged their Honda CRV. The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office told News4Jax the occupants were able to get out of the car and move to safety, although the vehicle itself wasn't recovered until the next day. A photo showed water up to the windshield on the front end. [News4Jax, 1/21/2019]

-- Meanwhile, in West Palm Beach, Florida, two unnamed 24-year-olds chose to view the Jan. 20 eclipse by lying prone in the middle of a dark road near the Apoxee Wilderness Trail. Which would have worked out fine, except around 11:30 p.m. a West Palm Beach police officer patrolling the area ran over the pair. Fortunately, reported the South Florida Sun Sentinel, he was cruising at just 5 mph, and the human speed bumps sustained only non-life-threatening injuries. The officer was put on paid administrative leave while the incident was investigated. [Sun-Sentinel, 1/21/2019]

Terrifying Technology

Laura Lyons of Orinda, California, was in her kitchen on the afternoon of Jan. 20 when a loud alert noise blared in the living room, followed by a detailed warning from "Civil Defense" that intercontinental ballistic missiles were on their way from North Korea to Los Angeles, Chicago and Ohio. Lyons told the San Jose Mercury News the message warned residents they had three hours to evacuate. As she and her husband absorbed the news, they realized it had come from their Nest security camera -- not from the TV, where the Rams-Saints game was proceeding as normal, and news channels were not reporting anything unusual. "It was five minutes of sheer terror," she said. The Lyonses called 911 and then Nest, where a supervisor told them they had been victims of a "third-party hack" on their camera and speakers. [San Jose Mercury News, 1/22/2019]

Self-Medicating

When a 33-year-old unnamed Irish man was admitted to a Dublin hospital with swelling in his right forearm and a rash, he surprised the attending physician with the "cure" he had been using for his back pain. For a year and a half, reported Canoe.com on Jan. 16, the man had been injecting his own semen into his right forearm. X-rays revealed a pool of the fluid under his skin, which had become infected. "He had devised this 'cure' independent of any medical advice," noted Dr. Lisa Dunne in the Irish Medical Journal. He also told Dr. Dunne that his back pain had worsened after lifting a heavy metal object. [canoe.com, 1/16/2019]

Latest Religious Messages

British retailer Marks & Spencer is in hot water with Muslims who claim the store's brand of toilet paper is embossed with the Arabic symbol for the word "God." An unnamed man posted a video to social media displaying a roll of M&S Aloe Vera 3-ply tissue and urging his Muslim brothers and sisters to avoid buying it or boycott the store altogether. Metro News reports that in response, Marks & Spencer says the symbol is of an aloe vera leaf: "The motif on the aloe vera toilet tissue, which we have been selling for over five years, is categorically of an aloe vera leaf, and we have investigated and confirmed this with our suppliers." [Metro News, 1/22/2019]

Keep That to Yourself

Dennis Palmer, 31, appeared to be guilty of more than TMI on Jan. 10 when police were called to a Walmart in Stuart, Florida. TCPalm.com reported that Palmer was in the pillow aisle when he was seen exposing and touching himself inappropriately. Palmer told police "he was just itching himself because he has crabs." But surveillance video recorded Palmer indulging in "rubbing" and activities other than scratching; "this continued for several minutes," the affidavit stated. When police asked Palmer what he was thinking, he replied that "he wasn't thinking, but he should have been thinking." He was jailed for exposure of sexual organs. [TCPalm.com, 1/22/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-02-01 News of The Weird

Fri, 01 Feb 2019 06:08:05 GMT

Vaev, a Los Angeles-based internet startup, is offering consumers the "luxury to choose" when to become sick with a cold, gushes 34-year-old Oliver Niessen, the company's founder. For $79.99, Vaev will send you a box containing a petri dish, which houses a facial tissue used by a sick person. Niessen explained to Time magazine that the recipient wipes their nose with the provided tissue and contracts a cold virus to get it out of the way before, say, leaving on a vacation. But Charles Gerba, professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, debunked Niessen's theory: "There are more than 200 types of rhinoviruses ... getting inoculated from one doesn't protect you against all the others." He adds that Vaev's customers will never know what exactly is on the provided tissues, which Niessen says are produced by a "stable" of 10 go-to sneezers, some recruited on the internet. Still, Neissen claims to have sold about 1,000 used tissues, although the company's website currently shows the product as sold out. "We've had some supply-chain issues," Niessen said, without offering details. [Time, 1/18/2019]

Gift With Purchase

A shopper at a Primark store in Essex, England, was startled to discover a human bone in a sock on Dec. 10. Essex police reassured the public that the bone "did not appear to be a result of recent trauma," and it did not have any skin attached to it, according to Sky News. A Primark spokesman said the company is checking with its supplier, and "No evidence of any kind exists to suggest that any incident has occurred in the factory, so it is highly probable that this object was placed in the sock by an individual for unknown reasons." [Sky News, 1/25/2019]

Police Report

A motorist in New Canaan, Connecticut, called police on Jan. 23 after spotting a woman stopped at an intersection in the driver's seat of her car with her eyes closed. When officers arrived, they found Stefanie Warner-Grise, 50, "unable to answer basic questions," according to the arrest report. They "detected an odor of vanilla coming from her breath (and) her speech was slurred. ... In addition, several bottles of pure vanilla extract were located inside the vehicle." The Hour reported Warner-Grise failed field sobriety tests and she was charged with driving under the influence of vanilla extract. The Food and Drug Administration requires that pure vanilla extract must be at least 35 percent alcohol, which makes it 70 proof. [The Hour, 1/24/2019]

It's Good to Have Goals

Pavol Durdik added another Guinness world record to his collection Aug. 3 in Puchov, Slovakia by extinguishing 62 lighted matches with his tongue within one minute, according to United Press International. In a video posted by Guinness World Records on Jan. 25, Durdik had the matches laid out in front of him and lighted each one before putting it out on his tongue. He also holds the record for most socks put on one foot within 30 seconds. [UPI, 1/28/2019]

Gutsy

So much for advanced Russian security. As art lovers browsed an exhibition at Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery on Jan. 27, Euro News reported, a thief nonchalantly strolled in, plucked a 1908 landscape by Arkhip Kuindzhi off the wall, and walked out of the building. Police quickly viewed surveillance video and arrested a 31-year-old man, who admitted he hid the painting, worth an estimated $185,000, in an unfinished building nearby. The gallery was able to recover the painting and announced that "security measures have been reinforced ... at all venues of the Tretyakov Gallery." [Euro News, 1/28/2019]

Least Competent Criminal

Police in Austin, Texas, caught up with 19-year-old suspect Luca P. Mangiarano on Jan. 24, a month after a bank robbery in large part because of his choice in getaway vehicles. According to police, Mangiarano stepped into the BBVA Compass bank on Dec. 18 and handed a note to a teller, reading: "This is a robbery, please give me all your 100's and 50's in a envelope and everything will be ok." The employee did as directed and the robber left the building, then hopped on a Jump electric scooter and took off down the sidewalk. He perhaps failed to consider that the scooters are linked to GPS tracking systems and online accounts with phone numbers, email addresses and credit card information, which, after police obtained them from Jump, led them to Mangiarano. Austin Detective Jason Chiappardi told The Washington Post: "We had never had a scooter involved in a robbery." [Washington Post, 1/29/2019]

Bright Idea

Outdoorsman Scott Ritchie of Loveland, Colorado, has a new lease on life thanks to 3D printing. Ritchie, 52, was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer in early 2018 after noticing pain in his hip after fly-fishing. CBS4 in Denver reported Dr. Ronald Hugate of the Panorama Orthopedics and Spine Center in Highlands Ranch took an aggressive and creative approach to treating Ritchie: He made a 3D virtual model of Ritchie's pelvis, then designed an implant to exactly replace the area of bone that would have to be surgically removed. Made of titanium, the implant was produced using a 3D printer. Two weeks later after surgery, Ritchie was walking with crutches and is expected to walk on his own in a few weeks more, although he was warned he might have a limp. "If I do have a limp, it's better than nothing," Ritchie said. [CBS4, 1/28/2019]

Uh, No

On Jan. 29, the Chenoa (Illinois) Police Department put a call out for volunteers to help with a training session taking place that evening. "Officers are undergoing their annual Taser training tonight ... and are looking for members of the public who are willing to volunteer for the experience," announced WEEK-TV. Volunteers were required to sign an "exposure waiver" in order to participate, but it was unclear whether the Tasers would be live. [25 News, 1/29/2019]

Ewwww!

Penny Pospisil, 47, of Sumter County, Florida, was arrested on Jan. 25 for the alleged murder of her boyfriend, 55-year-old Anthony Mitchell, according to WFTV. Investigators believe that last August, in the Lake Pan RV Village where Pospisil and Mitchell lived, she killed Mitchell and cut his body into pieces, living with the remains in their camper. When neighbors asked about him, she explained that Mitchell had died of natural causes and she had him cremated. But they also noticed a foul odor coming from the camper and that Pospisil was regularly showering at the pool. When police arrived in December to investigate her overdue lot fee, she told them that she was a victim of domestic violence and had killed Mitchell in self-defense. She faces charges of second-degree murder and abuse of a dead human body. [WFTV, 1/28/2019]

Blame It on the Meth

Debra Lynn Johnson, 69, of Searles, Minnesota, suffered from heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and mental illnesses, according to the Mankato Free Press, and was a patient at a transitional care center before her husband took her home to have a "death party," he later told authorities. Brown County sheriff's officers responding to a 911 call from Duane Arden Johnson, 58, on Jan. 24 found the words "Death Parde God Hell" spray-painted on the front door. Duane came out of the house naked, yelled that his wife was dead and ran back inside, where officers found him in the bathtub picking "things" from his skin. Debra's body, still warm, was wrapped in a sheet. Duane told police his wife had begged him to take her home to die, so they had staged the party, "rocking out" to Quiet Riot's "Metal Health" and taking methamphetamines. After her death, Duane said he washed and wrapped her "like the Bible told me to do." Police found stolen guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in the home, and Duane was charged with felony counts of theft and receiving stolen property. [Mankato Free Press, 1/26/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-02-08 News of The Weird

Fri, 08 Feb 2019 06:07:53 GMT

In a whole new twist on stomach pumping, doctors in Quang Tri, Vietnam, saved 48-year-old Nguyen Van Nhat's life in January by transfusing 15 cans of beer INTO his stomach. As Dr. Le Van Lam explained to the Daily Mail, alcohol contains both methanol and ethanol, and the liver breaks down ethanol first. But after a person stops drinking, the stomach and intestines continue to release alcohol into the bloodstream -- even if the drinker has lost consciousness -- and alcohol levels continue to rise. In Nhat's case, upon arrival at the hospital, his blood methanol level was 1,119 times higher than the appropriate limit. Doctors administered one can of beer every hour to slow down his metabolizing of methanol, which gave them time to perform dialysis. Nhat spent three weeks in the hospital before returning home. [Daily Mail, 1/16/2019]

Names in the News

Your giggle for the week: During a Jan. 17 special program on ITV Westcountry in the United Kingdom about how police forces are suffering under budget cuts, a certain officer interviewed for the show got more attention for his name than for his opinions about the budget. PC Rob Banks has undoubtedly heard clever remarks about his name all his life, reported Plymouth Live, but Twitter users from as far away as Australia found it newly hilarious. [Plymouth Live, 1/18/2019]

Try the Decaf

Officers in Madison, Wisconsin, were called to a home on Jan. 20 by an unnamed 34-year-old male resident who went on a spree of destruction when he thought his wife had destroyed his prized collection of action figures. Madison Police Chief Mike Koval wrote in his blog that officers arrived to find an ax buried in the windshield of a car. The man explained to them he had overreacted and used the log-splitting ax to chop up a TV, TV stand, laptop computer and other items in the house before going outside to attack his car, chopping off both side mirrors and breaking out the windshield, reported WMTV. He admitted to officers that he had also been drinking too much, and he was charged with disorderly conduct and felony damage to property. [WMTV, 1/21/2019]

The Entrepreneurial Spirit

A 19-year-old man from Nice, France, has received a four-month (suspended) sentence for a clever plot he hatched in September. The man, known only as Adel, removed a PlayStation 4 from a supermarket shelf on Sept. 17 and took it to the produce aisle, where he weighed it and printed out a price sticker for fruit. Then he used the self-checkout line to pay and left the store with a $389 piece of electronics for about $10. Adel sold the PlayStation for $114 to buy a train ticket. The next day, he tried the same scheme, but police caught him in the act. He will only have to serve his sentence if he re-offends, reported Kotaku.com. [Kotaku.com, 1/29/2019]

Least Competent Criminals

-- Oh, those pesky surveillance cameras. Alexander Goldinsky, 57, had a bright idea for collecting some cash, but it was just so 1990s. While working as an independent contractor at a Woodbridge, New Jersey, business, Goldinsky scattered some ice on the floor in the company's kitchen area, then carefully arranged himself on the floor as if he had slipped and fallen, according to United Press International. Then, as the security cameras rolled, he waited to be discovered. He was arrested in January on charges of insurance fraud and theft by deception, after the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office said Goldinsky filed a false insurance claim for an ambulance ride and treatment at a local hospital. [United Press International, 2/1/2019]

-- For David Rodriguez, 28, it was his disguise of choice that tripped him up as he robbed a 7-Eleven store in Fort Myers, Florida, on Feb. 2, according to the Lee County Sheriff's Office. Rodriguez donned a gray hoodie and a wig before approaching the counter at the store, showing a gun and demanding cash, reported the Miami Herald. When officers arrived, they got a detailed description, including the wig, and "additional witness information" led them to a nearby apartment. Inside they found Rodriguez, and "in plain view, a gray hooded sweater, several wigs and a large amount of wadded up cash." Bingo! Rodriguez was charged with robbery with a firearm. [Miami Herald, 2/3/2019]

Inexplicable

-- For UNC-Greensboro student Maddie (no last name provided), there really was a monster in the closet. Or at least a guy named Drew. After returning to her apartment on Feb. 2, Maddie heard strange noises coming from her closet. She put her hand on the door and said, "Who's in there?" "My name's Drew," answered the intruder, according to WFMY TV. Maddie continued talking with him, and when she opened the door, Drew was sitting on the floor of the closet, dressed in her clothing. He also had a bag full of her clothes, shoes and socks. Andrew Clyde Swofford, 30, begged her not to call police, and she chatted with him for another 10 minutes, "everything about his life and basically how he got in my closet," she said. Swofford left when Maddie's boyfriend arrived, and police caught up with him at a nearby gas station, where he was arrested for misdemeanor breaking and entering. Maddie told reporters she thinks Swofford has been in her apartment before: "We always joke that there's a ghost in here because I've been missing clothes since I've been living here." She signed a lease for a new apartment a few days later. [WFMY, 2/5/2019]

-- Sharisha Morrison of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and her neighbors have been the recipients since Jan. 1 of an odd gift: plastic grocery bags with slices of bread and bologna inside, delivered by an unknown man. At first, Morrison told KOB TV, she thought the food deliveries were acts of kindness, until she opened the bag and smelled the contents. "It smelled like urine," she said. Morrison said she can watch the man on her surveillance camera. "He'll just walk up and drop it on the little doorknob and walk away," she said. "I just want it to stop." Police have told her they can't do anything unless they catch him in the act. [KOB TV, 1/29/2019]

The Way the World Works

Residents of the small town of Hilgermissen in northwestern Germany voted decisively on Feb. 3 against naming the community's streets. Currently, addresses are a house number and the name of one of the former villages that combined to create Hilgermissen in the 1970s, reported the Associated Press. Officials had hoped that street names would ease the jobs of emergency services and delivery drivers, but 60 percent of the 2,200 citizens rejected the council's plan. The recent result will be binding for two years. [Associated Press, 2/3/2019]

Thieving With Style

A BP gas station in Swansea, South Carolina, was the setting for a reprise of at least one iconic moment from 1984's "The Karate Kid," according to Fox News. On Jan. 26, as surveillance cameras looked on, an unidentified man struck Mr. Miyagi's signature Crane Technique pose -- twice -- before stealing a purse from a parked car nearby. The Swansea Police Department posted the video to its Facebook page, and with the public's help, officers were able to identify the man and issue warrants for his arrest. [Fox News, 2/2/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-02-15 News of The Weird

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 06:07:42 GMT

In Mumbai, India, 27-year-old Raphael Samuel, an apparent follower of antinatalism, is suing his parents (both attorneys) for giving him life. Samuel says he was conceived without his consent, so his parents should pay him for his life. "I love my parents, and we have a great relationship, but they had me for their joy and their pleasure," Samuel explained to The Print. "My life has been amazing, but I don't see why I should put another life through the rigmarole of school and finding a career, especially when they didn't ask to exist. ... Other Indian people must know that it is an option not to have children, and to ask your parents for an explanation as to why they gave birth to you." [The Print, 1/30/2019]

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

Pavlos Polakis, Greece's deputy health minister, did not take kindly to a recent reprimand from European Union Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis, who admonished Polakis for smoking in public. Andriukaitis was in Athens Feb. 4 to mark World Cancer Day, reported Reuters. He also complained that the health ministry smelled of cigarette smoke and that nobody wears ties. Polakis replied in a Facebook post about the casual dress: "That's a lie ... the security guard at the entrance wore one. I don't. It's the suits which passed through here who bankrupted our country." As for the scold about smoking, Polakis retorted: "I'll decide when to stop smoking, on my terms." Greece has the highest rate of smoking in the EU. [Reuters, 2/6/2019]

Lost at Sea(l)

When researchers at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand thawed out some frozen leopard seal excrement in January, which they use to study the animals' health, they discovered "deep inside the scat" a USB stick containing vacation photos from Porpoise Bay. Reuters reported the defrosted poo had been placed in the freezer in November 2017, and the USB stick was left to dry for a few weeks before volunteers tried it out. The only clue to its owner is the nose of a blue kayak shown in one of the photos. Should the owner want it back, NIWA has a request: more leopard seal poo, please. [Reuters, 2/5/2019]

Awesome!

Exterminators were called to the Rogers County (Oklahoma) courthouse on Feb. 4 after an attorney appeared in a third-floor courtroom with bed bugs falling out of his clothing. "Hard to imagine someone doesn't know ... bed bugs are crawling all over them, certainly in abundance," remarked Sheriff Scott Walton to KJRH TV. Courthouse officials met and decided to close the building at noon until exterminators could eliminate the pests. "I was told the individual that had them also shook his jacket over the prosecutor's files," Walton said. The buggy attorney, however, seemed unfazed by his parasitic companions, and it was not clear who would pay for the extermination. [KJRH, 2/5/2019]

People With Issues

The Harlem Romantic Depot lingerie store in New York City was the target of a vandal's political rage on Jan. 26. In surveillance video, the man can be seen pacing up and down in front of the store window, where two mannequins were on display: one of President Barack Obama dressed as a prince, and one of President Donald Trump, dressed as a princess and wearing a MAGA hat. Taking a brick or stone from a nearby construction site, the man used it to smash through the window, store owner Glen Buzzetti told the New York Daily News. Next, he yanked the Obama mannequin out of the window and threw it on the ground. A member of the store's security team was able to chase the man down the block and catch him, Buzzetti said. But Obama fans in the street weren't happy with him, either. "We had to protect him from the crowd," Buzzetti said. "He could have been killed. We had women trying to kick him in the head." He said the man kept repeating that "he hated Obama" and that "the (Obama) mannequin was looking at him bad." [Daily News, 2/5/2019]

Police Blotter

-- When firefighters responded to a house fire Feb. 5 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, resident Holly Williams, 37, was happy to tell them how it started. She and Michael Miller, 38, keep their car fuel in a container in the house, and they were arguing (about his drinking), and he was trying to take their car, so she flushed the gasoline down the toilet, reported the Altoona Mirror. Miller threw a lit cigarette in the toilet and as flames spread, Williams ran out of the house and called 911. Miller was arrested for arson, risking catastrophe and recklessly endangering another person; later Williams was charged, as well. [Altoona Mirror, 2/14/2019]

-- Phillip Lee, 27, was arrested Feb. 4 on charges of simple robbery and simple battery after his attempt to take cash from a New Orleans Popeyes restaurant went south. The Times-Picayune reported that Lee arrived at the restaurant around noon and tried to steal money, but he couldn't get the cash register open. So instead, he took some fried chicken and fled. Police caught up with him later, and the judge set his bond at $13,500. Popeyes is good, but wow. [New Orleans Times-Picayune, 2/6/2019]

Least Competent Criminal

Richard J. Betters Jr., 44, of Schenectady, New York, has encountered police detectives in nearby Rotterdam before, which explains why he had one officer's phone number in his contacts list. So on Feb. 6, The Daily Gazette reported, when a detective mistakenly received a text from Betters offering drugs, it was a law enforcement slam dunk. The detective played along with Betters, offering to meet him at the Taco Bell in Rotterdam, where he arrested Betters for criminal possession of a controlled substance (Oxycodone pills). He was held on $20,000 bail. [Daily Gazette, 2/6/2019]

Recurring Theme

It's happened again. In Fairhope, Alabama, 2-year-old Ezra Ingersoll visited Rotolo's Pizzeria with his family for dinner and game-room fun on Jan. 4. Soon, his sister alerted mom Kelsey that Ezra was in the claw machine. Ezra, hoping to get a toy, had crawled through the opening, but the flap inside wouldn't swing the other direction, so he was stuck. AL.com reported that police and firefighters responding took the machine apart to free the tyke, who received a free toy for his trouble. [AL.com, 2/5/2019]

Technology Update

And you thought smartphones were cutting edge! Samsung's Family Hub smart refrigerator offers a new app, Refrigerdating, that works something like Tinder. Instead of uploading a profile pic of yourself, according to United Press International, you lure mates with a photo of the inside of your fridge. "Let the world know what kind of person you are," the app's website suggests. "Refrigerdating will then hook you up with a variation of fridges, of different tastes, to pick and choose from." It even offers a little philosophical advice: "Remember, it's the unexpected mixes that make the three star restaurants." [United Press International, 2/6/2019]

Cabin Fever

As the polar vortex unleashed its cold fury on the middle of North America in early February, doctors switched from warning people about the cold to warning them about the dangers of flinging boiling water into the air to watch it freeze. The Chicago Sun-Times reported on Feb. 6 that eight people trying the boiling water challenge, ranging in age from 3 to 53, ended up at Loyola Medicine's Burn Center. "We strongly warn people not to perform the boiling water challenge," said Loyola burn surgeon Arthur Sanford. "There is no safe way to do it." [Chicago Sun-Times, 2/6/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-02-22 News of The Weird

Fri, 22 Feb 2019 06:07:58 GMT

Zen TV painter Bob Ross has been gone for 24 years, but his inspiration lives on -- at least at Madison Middle School in Abilene, Texas, where on Feb. 7, students in Brady Sloane's art class donned curly brown wigs, blue shirts and paint palettes for a "Flash Bob Flash Mob." Sloane's pre-Advanced Placement students were stressed about grades and projects, and she "wanted to find a way to reward them," she told the Abilene Reporter News. The students used music stands as makeshift easels, where they painted "happy little trees" and projected an episode of "The Joy of Painting" as parents memorialized the special day with photos and videos. [Abilene Reporter News, 2/7/2019]

Hangry

Asalene Branch, 29, was only defending her spot in a McDonald's drive-thru lane on Feb. 18 when she stabbed another woman in the head. Fox News reported that Branch and the other woman were waiting at a Memphis restaurant when a physical fight broke out over their places in the line; Branch took out a knife and assaulted the alleged victim, resulting in injuries that were not life-threatening. Branch was tracked down by police and charged with aggravated assault. [Fox News, 2/19/2019]

The Foreign Press

Valentine's Day is complicated in Japan. On Feb. 14, women traditionally give men chocolates: "giri choco," or "obligation chocolates," to their male colleagues, and "honmei choco," or "true feelings chocolate," to their boyfriends or husbands. (Men return the favor on White Day, March 14.) But according to Japan Today, Japanese women are rebelling against giri choco; 40 percent of workers see the custom "as a form of power harassment," and some companies have banned the practice. Women find giving chocolates to associates stressful: "Before the office ban, we had to worry about things like how much is appropriate to spend on each chocolate and where we draw the line in who we give the chocolates to," said one worker. [Japan Today, 2/5/2019]

People Different From Us

Looking for a new home? A newly listed suburban Philadelphia home offers something a little sideways from your typical basement rumpus room. The five-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath brick colonial in Maple Glen has three fireplaces, a gourmet kitchen -- and a sex basement. The finished lower level includes a bed-in-a-cage, complete with straps, whips and other accouterment for any buyer's "50 Shades of Grey" fantasies. Realtor Melissa Leonard stresses, however, that the basement "can be converted back to a typical suburban basement." Neighbors are shocked to find out what's been going on in their 'hood, but "I know it's a way of life for people," Leonard told Slate magazine. [Slate, 2/8/2019]

Government in Action

You think things are wild in the U.S. Congress? In Albania, Edi Paloka, an opposition lawmaker, was asked to leave the parliament hall on Feb. 14 and suspended for 10 days after throwing ink at Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama. It all started when Rama scolded a fellow lawmaker for making accusations of corruption against the leftist government, according to Xinhua. A statement from the center-right Democratic party explained, "The action of ink-throwing is a rejection of the bullying exerted by the PM, which is witnessed by the public opinion." Apparently, Rama had repeatedly mocked Paloka during previous sessions of parliament. [Xinhua, 2/14/2019]

The Weirdo-American Community

A dispute over a box of Cheez-Its provoked a DeKalb County, Georgia, man to do the unthinkable on Feb. 12. As Jeremy Lamar Wyatt, 32, his brother and 61-year-old mother argued over the salty snacks, Wyatt went outside, locked his family inside the home, poured gasoline on the front steps and started a fire, according to WGCL-TV. Wyatt's brother was able to lower the mother down from a second-story window, and both escaped without injury. Wyatt, who had reportedly been enjoying some adult beverages with his Cheez-Its, was taken into custody at the scene and charged with arson and criminal damage to property. [WGCL, 2/13/2019]

News That Sounds Like a Joke

At Towson University in Maryland, an unidentified woman was reported wandering around campus just before Valentine's Day, showing coeds a photo of her son and asking if they'd like to go on a date with him. Awkward! The woman, thought to be in her 50s, staked out the Cook Library and the Center for the Arts in hopes of securing a love connection for her son, reported the Baltimore Sun. Towson police are hoping to identify her, not so they can arrest her, but to ask her to stop. [Baltimore Sun, 2/10/2019]

Least Competent Criminals

-- The moral of the story? If you're going to rob a bank in February, target Florida or Texas. Jason Mackenrodt, 37, was making his getaway after robbing the Bangor Savings Bank in Waterville, Maine, on Feb. 12. He scrambled across four lanes of traffic and into a restaurant parking lot -- where he slipped on the ice and sprawled on the ground, right in front of Maine State Police Special Agent Glenn Lang, who was sitting in his parked car. Lang didn't know the bank had been robbed, but he became suspicious when "the money and the gun he had stashed in his jacket pocket spilled onto the parking lot," Police Chief Joseph Massey told the Morning Sentinel. (The weapon turned out to be a BB gun.) Lang tackled Mackenrodt and took him into custody as police were responding at the bank. Mackenrodt was charged with robbery and terrorizing. [Morning Sentinel, 2/12/2019]

-- On Jan. 31, Julian R. Mitchell, 20, tried to use a debit card from a wallet he had stolen at a Nashville, Tennessee, bar, according to WZTV. But a fraud alert tipped off bar employees that the card had been lost or stolen, so they asked for photo ID. Mitchell fished out the Tennessee driver's license from the wallet, which, according to the Davidson County arrest affidavit, made it "plainly obvious" that the photo was not of him because of the difference in height. Mitchell, who strangely resembles a Ken doll, with blond hair, a red beard and black eyebrows, was charged with identity theft; officers found several other cards belonging to the same victim in the wallet. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2/2/2019]

The Continuing Crisis

Passengers on an 12-hour Air France flight on Feb. 18 became alarmed when a man seated in the bulkhead row boarded the plane, then removed his pants and socks, settling into his seat in just his boxers and a T-shirt. Sitting across the aisle from him, passenger Lizzie Thompson took photos and posted on Twitter throughout the flight, reported The Sun. "Alerted the flight attendant. He offered to move me ... but just shrugged when I suggested he ask the man to put his pants back on," she wrote. Thompson also wrote that six hours into the flight from Paris to Los Angeles, the scantily clad passenger got cold, "so PUT ON HIS PUFFY JACKET." The man put his pants and socks back on after landing, much to Thompson's relief. "Nothing bonds a group of passengers like a man half naked in your section," Thompson wrote. [The Sun, 2/19/2019]

The Meth Made Me Do It

In Seattle, Douglas Braden Smyser, 21, boarded a plane on Feb. 13 on his way to Los Angeles and a drug rehab center in Malibu, but his behavior during the flight finally caused the pilot to land in Portland and have him removed from the plane. Smyser, from Bonney Lake, Washington, would not stay in his seat, tried to sit in first class and threw his backpack in the aisle. Passengers helped contain him until the plane could land safely. Smyser admitted later that he had eaten meth before boarding, which made him "suspicious and paranoid," reported KIRO TV. He also claimed to have a gun. He was charged with second-degree disorderly conduct and menacing, along with a federal charge of interference with a flight crew. [KIRO, 2/19/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-03-01 News of The Weird

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 06:07:48 GMT

Pastor Alph Lukau of Alleluia International Ministries in Johannesburg, South Africa, is facing lawsuits after a stunt in which he appeared to resurrect a dead man on Feb. 24. Sowetan News reported that a video of the incident shows Lukau placing his hands on the man's stomach as he lay in the coffin, when suddenly the man, identified as Elliott, begins to gasp for air and sits up. "Can you see what happened?" Lukau exclaims in the video. "This man died since Friday, he was in the mortuary. ... Devil, I told you wherever I find you I will kick you." Pastor Rochelle Kombou said the hearse driver heard noises coming from the coffin and ran away as soon as they arrived at the church. "I was screaming," she said. "I saw his tongue moving. ... The man of God completed the miracle by praying because prayer is the key." The lawsuits, meanwhile, stem from the misrepresentation of the situation to three funeral parlors, whose services were sought by church officials; a coffin was bought from one and the hearse was hired from another. Prince Mafu, who is representing the funeral homes, said the matter had been reported to the Jeppe police station for further investigation. [Sowetan News, 2/26/2019]

Least Competent Criminal

Christopher Thomas Knox, 37, of Hillsboro, Oregon, thought he was just calling for help when his car became stuck in the snow in Clatsop State Forest on Feb. 15. He didn't count on Clatsop County sheriff's deputies putting two and two together: In the car with Knox was a 13-year-old girl from King County, Washington. He initially introduced her to responding officers as his daughter, but they quickly determined the minor had been lured from her home. The Oregonian reported that Knox had started an online relationship with the girl's mother, and the girl left home without her parents' knowledge or consent. Along the way, Knox allegedly sexually abused her twice, according to the sheriff's office. Knox was arrested for attempted second-degree rape and first-degree custodial interference. [Oregonian, 2/19/2019]

People With Issues

Volleyball players at the University of Kansas had reported to Lawrence, Kansas, police a number of break-ins over 2017 and 2018, but it was the list of missing items that was most puzzling: swimsuit bottoms, socks, shoes -- and many pairs of underwear. After a spring break 2018 incident, police got a lead in the case: Surveillance video captured a suspect vehicle that had a dealership sticker in the window. The Lawrence Journal-World reported that officers worked with the local dealership, which had loaned the car to Skyler N. Yee, 23, while his own car was being serviced. Yee, a volunteer assistant volleyball coach since 2016, was arrested and charged with 15 counts of burglary, property damage and theft after police searched his home in early February, where they found a 40-drawer plastic storage container full of women's underwear, with each drawer labeled with a player's name; six other containers with underwear; and bags containing pink high heels, boots, a sundress and a jumpsuit that victims had reported missing, along with jewelry, sex toys and other items. Yee resigned from his position in mid-January; KU Athletics spokesman Jim Marchiony said, "We have taken precautions to ensure that he is not permitted to be anywhere near the volleyball program." [Lawrence Journal-World, 2/20/2019]

Bright Ideas

-- Smartmouth Brewing Co. in Norfolk, Virginia, launched a new "magically ridiculous" beer on March 2: Saturday Morning, a limited-edition IPA -- with marshmallows. Chris Neikirk, brewery spokesperson, told USA Today the beer is "brewed with in-house toasted marshmallows and bulk dehydrated marshmallow bits. ... It has a soft pillowy body with a slight cereal taste." Smartmouth hopes the beer evokes "nostalgia in adults who remember when ... Saturday mornings were a time that you sat around watching cartoons and playing games," Neikirk added, while warning that the brewery is "not marketing to children." [USA Today, 2/26/2019]

-- If you're looking for a creepy weekend getaway, The Gas Station along Texas Highway 304 near Bastrop now offers overnight stays. Why, you say? The old filling station was the setting for the 1974 film "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." The Gas Station opened as a restaurant in 2016, serving barbecue and souvenir merchandise to film buffs. Manager Ben Hughes said the Coke machine in the movie is the same one that's now in the restaurant, and they have a van parked outside that's an exact replica of the one in the film. Now, he tells KVUE TV, fans can stay in one of four mini-cabins right behind the restaurant. But Hughes promises the staff won't try to scare you: "We want to make sure that everybody that comes out has a good time ... not just freakin' out or anything like that." [KVUE TV, 2/23/2019]

Unclear on the Concept

On Feb. 13, Nina Harris of Kentucky told her husband, Allan, that she wanted tulips for Valentine's Day. As she explains it: "He wasn't paying attention. He just said, 'Yes, I know.' When I got up, I had my first cup of coffee, and he said, 'Oh, your turnips are here.' And I said, 'Turnips?!'" Nina told WPVI TV. Allan's story is slightly sweeter: "I ... put the turnips in the bucket that says 'I Love You' on it," he said. "I went in there, got her coffee -- and here you go!" Allan, who admitted he wasn't really listening when Nina requested tulips, later made it up to her by getting her the flowers AND candy and balloons. [WPVI, 2/20/2019]

Wait, What?

Filipino medicine man Angelito Oreta, 55, has an unusual method of protecting himself and his home from thieves and attackers. He and his followers raid fresh graves near Manila to steal the kneecaps from corpses. Oreta uses a scalpel to remove the patella, then soaks the bone in coconut oil for several days to dissolve the skin. Once dried, the bones can be found scattered around his home or worn around his neck. "The benefit that the guardian angels from the patellas will bring is that they will help your livelihood," Oreta explained to Metro News. "The kneecaps are used for protection. Or they also work as a shield." Oreta gifts the bones to his trusted friends and followers. [Metro News, 2/21/2019]

Rude

Detective Constable Claire Fitzpatrick is no shrinking violet, evidenced by the fact that she's in danger of losing her job at the village police station in Bedwas, South Wales, England. The 44-year-old says her inappropriate language and habit of audibly breaking wind are just part of the "culture of banter" at the station, but she faces 25 counts of inappropriate behavior, including: farting outside her sergeant's office, using the C-word with a suspect, and propositioning a junior officer (asking if he wanted an affair with a "fatter, ugly, older woman"). DC Fitzpatrick told Metro News that swearing is "just the nature of the place" and she had replaced the F-word with the C-word as her word of choice. However, she appeared to have regrets about her actions, calling them "stupid." [Metro News, 2/26/2019]

Ewwwww!

Silence of the Lambs, indeed. A Manchester, England, woman named Joan has a unique project in mind for a custom clothing designer. It seems Joan, 55, is anticipating having her leg amputated because of peripheral arterial disease, reported the Daily Mail, so she posted on Sewport.com, requesting help to "create something beautiful and useful" -- a handbag, using her own skin. She has budgeted about $3,900 for the project, which she envisions as a "medium-sized handbag with a short strap and a section down the middle that will be made from my skin," she explained in the post. "I know it's a bit odd and gross ... but it's my leg, and I can't bear the thought of it being left to rot somewhere." There are no laws against her keeping the limb, although there is paperwork to fill out. Boris Hodakel, the founder of Sewport.com, reports that no designers have come forward yet to help with Joan's request. [Daily Mail, 2/20/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-03-08 News of The Weird

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 06:07:50 GMT

Unfortunately named Johna Martinez-Meth, 46, of Clearlake, California, was sentenced on Feb. 21 for involuntary manslaughter stemming from a delivery she made to Adrian Sepulveda, an inmate at California Medical Facility in Vacaville, in May 2018. Sepulveda, who died on May 28, 2018, was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder when Martinez-Meth visited him; an autopsy showed that shortly after her visit, Sepulveda had swallowed multiple balloons filled with methamphetamine, Fox News reported. A subsequent search of Martinez-Meth's home uncovered meth and balloons. She pleaded guilty to the charges and will serve two years. [Fox News, 3/1/2019]

Legal Shenanigans

San Juan County (Washington) Sheriff Ron Krebs is on the hot seat after Superior Court Judge Kathryn Loring accidentally discovered a disturbing video. On Jan. 31, Loring was sitting at the desk of the court administrator when she noticed video from a courthouse camera on the computer screen. As she watched, the camera panned and zoomed in on the jury box and counsel tables -- settling on Juror No. 3's notes and a legal pad belonging to Public Defender Colleen Kenimond -- right in the middle of a misdemeanor assault and trespassing trial for Lopez Island resident Dustin Schible. According to the Seattle Times, Loring alerted Superior Court Judge Donald Eaton to the video, and Eaton dismissed the charges against Schible, citing government misconduct. Krebs, who controls the cameras, said he was concerned about the defendant, who had threatened to stab a Lopez Island grocer. He claimed he didn't pass on anything he saw with the camera, and County Prosecutor Randall Gaylord said no one in his office received any information from Krebs. "We are independently elected officials," Gaylord said, distancing himself from Krebs. [Seattle Times, 2/7/2019]

The Continuing Crisis

Attorneys in Maryville, Tennessee, are debating the merits of a felony case brought against Howard Matthew Webb, 31, after he -- proceed with caution here -- dipped his testicles in a takeout container of salsa that his companion was delivering along with Mexican food. As the two ferried the food on Jan. 12, Webb took his boys for a swim while he recorded the act, and the driver laughed and said, "This is what you get when you give an 89-cent tip for an almost 30-minute drive." Webb is heard saying, "Oh, oh, it feels so good." The video made it to Facebook, and Webb was arrested on Feb. 22 for "adulteration of foods, liquids or pharmaceuticals," a Class C felony. But three local attorneys told the Knoxville News Sentinel that they don't think the charge holds up. "It's doubtful under these facts, no matter how outrageous, that this criminal offense could be proven," said attorney Gregory P. Isaacs. "It appears salsa man may have committed an act for which the legislature has not yet contemplated the absurdity of." [Knoxville News Sentinel, 3/2/2019]

Bright Ideas

-- The long, harsh winter must be getting to folks in Muskego, Wisconsin, to wit: Police were called to a home on Feb. 22 after "a big teddy bear" was reported to be at a neighbor's front door. As it turned out, the human-sized panda -- not native to the Badger State -- was a 48-year-old man who had been asked to check on the dogs and thought it would be funny to prank his neighbors through their security system. "I knew my neighbors had cameras, and I thought I was going to make the ordinary extraordinary and dress up in the panda suit," the unnamed man told CBS 58. Apparently he has also picked his daughter up at school and met her at the bus stop in the suit (pandas are her favorite animal). [CBS 58, 2/28/2019]

-- Neighbors of Michal Prasek, 33, of Zdechov, Czech Republic, were rightly concerned about the animals living on his property. In 2016, Prasek bought a full-grown lion, and two years later added a lioness, for breeding purposes. He built enclosures for them, defying government regulations, and would not allow authorities onto his property to investigate. BBC News reported on March 5 that Prasek's project had met a tragic end: He was discovered by his father in the lion's cage, mauled to death. The father said the cage had been locked from the inside. Police who were called to the scene killed the two lions in order to reach Prasek's body. Presumably grasping for a silver lining, Zdechov Mayor Tomas Kocourek commented: "Today's incident will perhaps finally help to resolve this long-term problem." Cold, dude. [BBC News, 3/5/2019]

-- Judith Streng and her son, Rod, traveled to Iceland in February, where they visited Diamond Beach, in Jokulsarlon. The tourist attraction features huge chunks of ice that have broken off a nearby glacier. The Texas grandma saw other visitors having their pictures taken on a beached iceberg that was shaped like a throne, so she climbed aboard for her turn. That's when a "sneaker wave" swept in and took Streng out into the lagoon. "A very large wave came in and kind of made the throne kind of rock," she told ABC News. Streng was rescued by a boater, Randy Lacount of Florida, who happened to be nearby when she drifted away from shore. "You know I always wanted to be queen," Streng said. "That was my chance." [ABC News, 3/1/2019]

Least Competent Criminal

In the category of Unnecessarily Calling Attention to Your Criminal Self, Trinidad J. Garcia, 26, of Forest Lake, Minnesota, wins the gold. On March 1, as Garcia motored his BMW north on snow-slick I-35, police say he fired a stolen gun, without provocation, into the passenger door of a pickup truck that was passing him on the left. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported he then veered into the median ditch. Luckily for him, a state trooper was close by and stopped. Garcia, who had stuffed the loaded gun in his front pocket, was arrested; in his car, officers found a shoebox with $11,481 in cash. He was charged with second-degree assault, drive-by shooting and being a felon in possession of a firearm. [Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 3/4/2019]

Recurring Theme

Mark Anthony Jones, 46, of Marion, Indiana, is probably in the market for a nice holster after his experience on Feb. 28. Jones told police he was walking along a riverside trail in Marion early that morning when his firearm began to slip from his waistband. As he reached to adjust it, the gun discharged and, according to the police report, "The bullet entered just above his penis and exited his scrotum." WISH-TV reported that Jones did not have a license for the Hi-Point 9mm weapon. Grant County prosecutors were considering whether to charge him with any crimes. [WISH-TV, 3/4/2019]

Drinkin' and Shootin'

Ah, the pregnant possibilities of combining alcohol and firearms. In Warren County, Virginia, Mariah Smith, 38, of Arlington, and another woman were enjoying a quiet horse ride through a cemetery in Middletown on the evening of March 2, reported NBC4. But when they were asked to remove their horses from the cemetery grounds, Smith fired her .38 Smith and Wesson pistol, according to Warren County sheriff's officers who responded to a call there. Deputies found the women nearby and charged Smith with three firearms charges, including possessing a concealed firearm while under the influence. [NBC4, 3/4/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-03-15 News of The Weird

Fri, 15 Mar 2019 06:08:18 GMT

Brewery worker Del Hall of Newtown, Ohio, is taking an unusual approach to fasting for Lent this year. Hall, who works at the Fifty West brewery in Dayton, is going on an all-beer-only-beer diet until Easter. He told WKRC-TV that monks from the 1600s inspired him. "(T)hey would take a popular style of beer in Germany, bock beer, make it extra hearty and that would be their liquid bread, and that's what they call it," Hall said. He is, however, including all types of beer in his Lenten fast. "(T)his seems very daunting," Hall noted. "I'm just curious if I'm up to the challenge." He is planning to check in with his doctor during the fast. [WKRC, 3/11/2019]

Going Out in Style

Drivers along southbound Interstate 880 in Hayward, California, were pleasantly surprised on March 4 when they saw $20 bills flying through the air. Some motorists stopped to collect as many as they could, but the mystery lay in where they came from. The next day, members of a family, who wished to remain anonymous, admitted to KTVU that they tossed $500 worth of bills into the air as they drove back from a funeral; the unexpected windfall was intended to honor their deceased family member. It's an "Oakland thing," one person explained. [KTVU, 3/5/2019]

Scrooge Report

As Clayton Lucas, 25, was being transported through East Deer Township, Pennsylvania, from a halfway house to a treatment class on the morning of March 4 (69 days after Christmas), the van driver regaled him with Christmas songs. Turns out Lucas isn't a fan of holiday tunes, so he reached into the front seat and began choking the unnamed driver, who was strangled almost to the point of losing consciousness, according to police. KDKA reported that another driver flagged down a state trooper and alerted him about an altercation happening on the shoulder of the highway. After a struggle to get handcuffs on Lucas, the officer deposited him in the Allegheny County Jail, where he will face multiple charges. [KDKA, 3/8/2019]

Let's Make a Deal

In Granville County, North Carolina, Melissa Anne Godshall, 31, and her boyfriend, Robert J. Kennerley, 46, were minding their own business, panhandling at the side of the road, when a car pulled over and Godshall received an unusual proposal: Levan Lomtatidze, 44, from the nation of Georgia, would pay her $12,000, give her a car and make rent payments for her if she would marry him so he could stay in the United States. She agreed, according to U.S. Attorney Robert J. Higdon Jr., and Kennerley served as a witness at their nuptials. Alas, this romantic partnership was not to be: On March 7, Godshall and Lomtatidze were indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with conspiracy to commit marriage fraud, marriage fraud, visa fraud and making false statements in immigration proceedings, the Raleigh News and Observer reported. If convicted, the two face 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Best man Kennerley also faces prison time and fines for aiding and abetting marriage fraud. [Raleigh News and Observer, 3/8/2019]

Idiom in Action

In Ljubljana, Slovenia, an unnamed 21-year-old woman and a 29-year-old relative were arrested for insurance fraud, police announced on March 11, after the young woman cut off her hand in order to collect almost 400,000 euros in insurance payments. Two other relatives were released in the case. The four had recently signed up with five different insurance companies for life and injury coverage. "With one of her accomplices, she intentionally amputated the hand at the wrist with a circular saw, hoping to stage it as an accident," said police spokesman Valter Zrinski, according to the Daily Mail. The group left the hand behind when they went to the hospital, intending to ensure a permanent disability, said police, but doctors at the Ljubljana University Medical Center were able to retrieve and re-attach it. The woman and her accomplice face up to eight years in prison. [Daily Mail, 3/11/2019]

Anger Management: Wedding Edition

As a wedding party of 30 guests gathered on the beach at Oceanfront Park in Ocean Ridge, Florida, on March 3, Jeffery E. Alvord, 27, and his bride posed for photos before the ceremony. Trouble erupted instead when a 24-year-old man would not move from his spot on the beach to make way for the photos, the Palm Beach Post reported. In fact, Alvord told police, the man wouldn't relocate even after being offered $50 and became "very belligerent," so Alvord punched him in the nose. The victim told Ocean Ridge police a groomsman held him while Alvord punched him three times, and the police report noted that the victim's "nose appears to be out of place sitting more to the right of his face," and his glasses were broken. Alvord spent what would have been his wedding night in the Palm Beach County Jail and faces charges of aggravated battery and criminal mischief. He and his fiancee married the next day, shortly after his release from jail. [Palm Beach Post, 3/6/2019]

People Different From Us

He's been dubbed the Naked Carpenter for renovating his home wearing only a tool belt, but Robert Jenner, 43, of Snodland, Kent, England, seems to have crossed the line with local jurors. Jenner was convicted on March 12 of 10 counts of indecent exposure in Canterbury Crown Court. Jenner's nudist habits have put him on the wrong side of law enforcement before, reported Metro News, but this time his offenses included delivering packages for a courier service wearing trousers with a hole cut out of the crotch, exposing himself to a teenage girl, and running past a children's play area while wearing "see-through trousers." Jenner's attorney, Kate Chidgey, tried to explain her client's behavior: "It was not his intention that people were caused distress by what he did or didn't wear." She added that he strongly believes in "naturism." [Metro News, 3/12/2019]

Crime Report

Elysia Johnson, 21, apparently needed some alone time on March 9, so she took a full cart and a six-pack of Stella Artois beer into a dressing room at Target in Lathrop, California, where she hunkered down for more than an hour, according to police. Johnson finished all the beer and left the store -- with about $200 worth of unpurchased merchandise. A loss prevention officer stopped her and she was taken to the San Joaquin County Jail, where she was held on $60,000 bail. Johnson also had three outstanding warrants, reported KTXL News. [FOX40.com, 3/11/2019]

Bright Idea

Looking for a way to banish evil spirits? Check in to The Lighthouse, near Frome, Somerset, England, where a group called Universal Medicine will help you burp your troubles away. The Mirror reports that the group, founded by Serge Benhayon in 1999, ran up against the law last year in Sydney, Australia, where a civil court declared it a "socially harmful cult" and found that it makes false claims about healing. Members are told what to eat and who to associate with. A girl named Kasha told the BBC her mum joined the cult when the girl was 12. "She started burping ridiculously and she said, 'I'm just burping out bad spirits,'" Kasha said. "She's still my mum and I love her. But she's never going to be the person that she was." Benhayon, a failed tennis coach who claims to be the reincarnation of Leonardo da Vinci, still lives in Australia but visits The Lighthouse twice a year. [Mirror, 3/12/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-03-29 News of The Weird

Fri, 29 Mar 2019 06:08:02 GMT

Along the Iroise coast in Brittany, France, residents have been puzzled by a mysterious phenomenon for more than 30 years. Broken pieces of orange plastic landline phones in the shape of the cartoon character Garfield have been washing up on the beach. BBC News reports the mystery has now been solved: A local farmer remembered the phone parts started showing up after a particularly fierce storm in the early 1980s, and, more important, he also knew the location of a lost shipping container -- in a sea cave accessible only at low tide. Members of the Ar Viltansou anti-litter campaign climbed down to the cave and found not only the remains of the container, but also more Garfield phones, preserved better than any that had made it to the beach. The container cannot be removed, so officials have pledged to keep picking up Garfield phones as they wash ashore. [BBC News, 3/28/2019]

Unclear on the Concept

Bystanders at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport got an unexpected show on March 23 when an unnamed man made his way through Ural Airlines flight registration, then suddenly stripped off all his clothes and ran onto the jet bridge. A fellow passenger told REN TV: "He shouted that he was naked because clothing impairs the aerodynamics of the body. He flies with more agility when undressed." The nude man, who hails from Yakutsk but lives near Moscow, was intercepted by airport staff before he made it to the plane and was turned over to police, then moved to a hospital. Witnesses said he did not appear to be drunk. [The Moscow Times, 3/24/2019]

Every Day's a Holiday

You don't need to be celebrating a birthday to get a special cake these days. In Nashville, bakers at Signature Desserts made the news in early March when they filled an order for a woman trying to sweeten the deal for her husband, who was undergoing a vasectomy. FOX 17 reported the cake was decorated with lemons and read, "100% Juice, No Seeds. Happy Vasectomy!" The pleased recipient "loved it!" according to his wife. The news outlet also reports that doctors see a big spike in vasectomies during the NCAA basketball tournament, when men have a constant source of entertainment as they heal. [FOX 17, 3/9/2019]

Fashion Victim

I hate when this happens: Jarred Randal Womack, 37, agreed to exchange pants with another man in Boulder, Colorado, on Jan. 22, but after the trade, he decided he didn't like the other man's pants after all, so Womack stabbed the man in the back. Detectives investigating the incident later found the pants in question soiled with feces, which "could be the reason for the altercation," according to the police affidavit. The Daily Camera reported that Womack was eventually charged with first-degree attempted murder, two counts of first-degree assault and robbery; the stabbing victim sustained life-threatening injuries. [Daily Camera, 1/25/2019]

Seriously?

At Palapas Tacos in Anaheim, California, the menu is presented in English and Spanish, which proved to be a bridge too far for one customer on March 25. On that day, a Monday, the unnamed man saw a sign advertising "Fish Tacos for $1.99 All Day" under the heading "Especial de Viernes," or Friday Special. He became upset when he found out he couldn't get the Friday special on Monday, yelling, "That's bulls---! It says it in Mexican. We're not in Mexico. We're in America! ... I'm an American!" Palapas' owner Juan del Rio followed the man outside to talk with him, but the man pulled out his phone, saying he was going to call "Immigration! Because you're not legal!" "I just feel like it's sad that there's people (who) actually think like that," del Rio told FOX 11. "But over a taco?" [FOX 11, 3/27/2019]

Mistaken Identity

Passengers on a Melbourne, Australia, commuter train dove under seats, cried and texted their loved ones on March 28 when police locked down the Flagstaff Station in response to a report of a man with a rifle case acting suspiciously, according to the Associated Press. As it turned out, Will Austin, a busker aboard the train, was performing breathing exercises in advance of playing his didgeridoo -- an indigenous wind instrument that Austin was carrying in a long bag. Oblivious to police wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles, Austin admitted "I probably looked pretty suspicious, I suppose, just waltzing around and slowly walking out" before officers stopped him to search his bag. Nothing to see here. [Associated Press, 3/28/2019]

Suspicions Confirmed

-- Two employees of an Enterprise Rent-a-Car store in Arnold, Missouri, couldn't figure out why they suddenly felt dizzy and shaky on March 14, but after visiting an urgent care, they were transferred to a nearby hospital, KMOV reported. Police Lt. Clinton Wooldridge said officers questioned an unnamed 19-year-old Enterprise employee who admitted he put LSD in the water bottles of two of his co-workers, as well as in a third worker's coffee cup, because they had "negative energy." The two affected workers were fine after the drug wore off, and law enforcement is waiting for lab results before charging the young man, possibly with second-degree assault and possession of a controlled substance. [KMOV, 3/22/2019]

-- The nerve! Solange Troncoso paid $1.99 for a bag of TGI Fridays Sour Cream & Onion Potato Skins at a Bronx convenience store in June 2018. On March 27, she filed suit against TGI Fridays in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York, claiming that the company misleads consumers because the snacks contain potato flakes and potato starch -- but no skins. According to Reuters, Troncoso claims she and other consumers have been defrauded into buying an "inferior product." [Reuters, 3/27/2019]

Awesome!

Along the border between Mexico and the United States, the battle over a wall rages on. But one Los Angeles artist has taken matters into his own hands. Inspired to "Make America Grate Again," Cosimo Cavallaro is repurposing blocks of expired cotija, a hard cheese from Mexico, to build his own wall in Tecate, California. Cavallaro's wall is 5 feet high, and he hopes to make it about 1,000 feet long, he told the Los Angeles Times. "To spend all this money to keep dividing the countries, I think is a waste," Cavallaro said. "You see the waste in my wall, but you can't see the waste in (Trump's) $10 billion wall, which in time will be removed? It sounds cheesy, but just love one another." [Los Angeles Times, 3/27/2019]

Police Report

Seventeen Chicago police officers raided a home on Feb. 10 with a search warrant in hand as a 4-year-old child's birthday party was underway. The suspect they sought hadn't lived at that address for five years, WLS TV reported, but that didn't stop officers from smashing the birthday cake, trashing the apartment and pointing guns at the birthday boy and his 7-year-old sister, who has now developed a fear of police officers, according to her mother. None of the contraband items listed in the warrant were found at the home. On March 26, the family filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court. [WLS TV, 3/26/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-04-05 News of The Weird

Fri, 05 Apr 2019 06:08:02 GMT

Rogers, Arkansas, neighbors Charles Eugene Ferris, 50, and Christopher Hicks, 36, were hanging out on Ferris' back porch on March 31, drinking and enjoying the spring air. Ferris was wearing his bulletproof vest -- because why not? -- and invited Hicks to shoot him with a .22-caliber semi-automatic rifle. KFSM reported the vest blocked the bullet from striking Ferris, but it still hurt and left a red mark on his upper chest. Next, Hicks donned the vest and Ferris "unloaded the clip into Christopher's back," according to the police report, also leaving bruises. That's where it all would have ended had Ferris not gone to the hospital, where staff alerted the Benton County Sheriff's Office. Ferris initially told officers an elaborate story about being shot while protecting "an asset" in a dramatic gunfight, but Ferris' wife spilled the beans about the back-porch challenge. Both men were arrested for suspicion of aggravated assault. [KFSM, 4/2/2019]

Quirky

In downtown Borrego Springs, California, a curious sign tops a 5-foot-tall post in front of the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association gift shop: "This Post Not Currently In Use." Mike McElhatton, the association's education director, told The San Diego Union Tribune: "When I started working (here) I saw this post that ... had obviously been there for a long time. At first I just wondered what in the heck was the post for and then I got the idea to put a sign on it." McElhatton seemed disappointed with the response, though: "Amazingly, we don't get a whole lot of comment about it. I've seen people walk up and they just look at the sign and they just keep going." [San Diego Union Tribune, 4/2/2019]

Why Not?

Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, tried a new venue for staging an opera on March 30 and 31: underwater. "Breathe: A Multidisciplinary Water Opera" featured dancers, percussionists, singers, a flute and other orchestra instruments -- some above water, some below. Composer and musical director Loren Kiyoshi Dempster told WLUK TV he was skeptical at first. "It's been kind of one of the great surprises of my life that you could play cello underwater," he said. A device used by marine biologists to record underwater sounds delivered the music above the surface for audience members. [WLUK, 3/27/2019]

Police Report

On March 29, in a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden, an off-duty police officer was enjoying a nice sauna when he noticed that another man in the sauna was a fugitive wanted for aggravated assault, among other offenses. They recognized each other, police spokesperson Carina Skagerlind told the Associated Press, and "the naked police officer calmly told the man that he should consider himself arrested." The officer called for backup, and "the arrest was undramatic," she added. [Associated Press, 4/2/2019]

Oops!

-- Harris County (Texas) Civil Court Judge Bill McLeod, who was sworn in last November, accidentally resigned on April 1, but it wasn't an April Fools' joke. Reuters reported that McLeod shared his plan online to run for the state supreme court without realizing that such an announcement amounts to a resignation, according to the state's constitution. McLeod himself did not comment on the gaffe, but county commissioners may be able to keep him in office until a special election can be held. [Reuters, 4/2/2019]

-- Detroit police say they can't confirm what made an unnamed 50-year-old man shoot himself in the foot on March 19, but rumor has it that he was aiming for something entirely different. WDIV TV reported that the man, who uses a wheelchair, was trying to kill a cockroach by throwing his shoe at it; the shoe contained his handgun, and it fell out of the shoe and discharged, striking his foot. Police said the man was in stable condition after the incident. [WDIV, 3/19/2019]

Least Competent Criminals

-- Who has time to bother with long lines and bureaucracy at the driver's license office? Not Mr. Tang of Liuzhou, China, who was pulled over for a routine check as he rode his silver motorcycle on March 31. Tang was happy to produce his license, carried in the customary cover, reported Oddity Central. But when officers examined it, they realized it was homemade. "He behaved very calmly as he took out the license," a traffic police officer said. "But I was shocked when I saw what was inside." Tang had simply written all the pertinent information found on a standard driver's license on a piece of lined notebook paper, then glued a photo of himself to the paper. When pressed for an explanation, Tang said he was too lazy to study for the license exam and didn't want to spend the money on driving classes. He thought a handwritten license would be better than nothing at all. "I didn't expect the traffic police to be so serious," Tang said. [Oddity Central, 4/2/2019]

-- Where others see innocent little girls raising money for educational programs, some see an opportunity to pad their bank account. So it went for Brian Couture, 40, of Forest Grove, Oregon, who is accused of going to elaborate lengths to skim more than $700 of Girl Scout cookie money from his daughter. Forest Grove police responded to a 911 call at Couture's home on March 6, where the man said an intruder had entered his home and struggled with him. When police arrived, according to KPTV, Couture was "unresponsive" and was taken to the hospital with undisclosed injuries, while K9 units set out to look for the thief around the neighborhood, alarming residents. Police said Couture later admitted to investigators that he had staged the whole thing, but at his hearing on March 29, he pleaded not guilty to initiating a false report. The money, according to a Girl Scouts spokeswoman, is still unaccounted for. [KPTV, 3/29/2019]

Weird Science

In Cachoeira Alta, Brazil, Judge Filipe Luis Peruca handed down an unusual judgment in a paternity case that involved identical twin potential fathers. The mother of a young girl filed a paternity suit against Twin A, who accused Twin B of being the actual father, reported the BBC. DNA tests showed an equal probability for the two men to be the father, so Judge Peruca ordered them both to pay maintenance for the daughter. As a result, she will receive twice as much as she would with only one father. "One of them is acting in bad faith in order to hide the fact that he is the father," the judge wrote. "Such vile behavior cannot be tolerated by the law." [BBC, 4/2/2019]

Awesome!

The harsh winter left many city streets around the country riddled with potholes, but in Muskegon Heights, Michigan, one 12-year-old boy is not waiting for the slow-moving government to fix them. Monte Scott started filling potholes around his neighborhood with dirt from his own yard in late March. "I didn't want people messing up their cars like my mom did," Scott told WZZM13. They "would have to pay like $600 to $700 to get their car fixed, they would be mad." His mom, Trinell Scott, said, "That's just the type of kid he is. He's a good kid and there are a lot like him in the community." [WZZM13, 3/31/2019]

High School High Jinks

At Secaucus High School in New Jersey, two freshman boys received charges of computer criminal activity and conspiracy to commit computer criminal activity -- instead of extra credit points -- after they crashed the school's Wi-Fi network on several occasions to avoid having to take exams, authorities announced April 1. NJ.com reported that investigators believe the boys took requests from other students to jam the signals during specific times. "I was surprised on how a kid our age, or close to our age, was able to do something like this," commented one 10th-grader. She said arresting them seemed a little heavy-handed: "They are messing with people's education, but they aren't harming anyone." Superintendent Jennifer Montesano said the "system has been restored and is now fully operational." Back to the books, kids. [NJ.com, 4/2/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-04-12 News of The Weird

Fri, 12 Apr 2019 06:06:28 GMT

In Raleigh, North Carolina, residents of The Dakota apartment complex are stepping out a little more confidently after management engaged the services of a company called PawzLife. The Raleigh News and Observer reported on March 22 that residents were growing disgusted with the amount of dog feces on the sidewalks and green spaces around the complex. So management turned to a high-tech solution: Residents who own dogs are required to bring them to a "pup party," where PawzLife collects their DNA with a simple saliva swipe and creates a "unique DNA profile" for each dog. The company then visits the neighborhood to pick up any stray poop, and owners whose dogs are a match with the poop DNA are fined $100 per offense. PawzLife owner Matthew Malec said, "We are just trying to make the Earth a little bit better to live on." [Raleigh News and Observer, 3/22/2019]

Nothing Better to Do ...

Traffic on a street in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles came to a virtual stop as two cars engaged in a legendary standoff over a parking space on April 1. Fox News reported that Mariah Flores, who was positioned across the street, documented the entire two-hour dispute on Twitter, as the "black car" and the "silver car" jockeyed to parallel park in one open spot along the sidewalk. As horns honked and tensions mounted, a "plot twist" changed the whole dynamic: The owner of a third vehicle, parked in front of the empty space, left, leaving room for both black and silver to park. The drivers quickly settled their vehicles in the spaces but then sat in their cars for some time. "Like are they afraid of each other or is it just awkward now?" Flores wondered. Finally, the driver of the silver car emerged, prompting Flores' comment, "SILVER takes the gold." [Fox News, 4/4/2019]

... and Too Much Money to Do It With

A wealthy San Francisco philanthropist, Florence Fang, 84, is being sued by the city of Hillsborough over the "Flintstones" home and grounds she has created in the suburb. The oddly shaped house was built in 1976, and Fang bought it in 2017. Today it's painted purple and red, features a large "Yabba Dabba Do" sign near the driveway, and Fang has added dinosaur and mushroom figurines, along with Fred Flintstone himself, to the yard. "We don't like it when people build things first, then come in and demand or ask for permission later," huffed Assistant City Attorney Mark Hudak, who told KTVU Fang built without the proper permits and the property is subject to code violations along with offending the neighbors' aesthetic sensibilities. But Angela Alioto, Fang's attorney, said the home is Fang's "happy place." Fang doesn't live in the home but uses it for entertainment and charitable events. "She's had an incredible life, and I think it's wonderful that, at 84 years old, she has found something that makes her so happy," Alioto told the San Mateo Daily Journal. [KTVU, 3/18/2019] [San Mateo Daily Journal, 4/2/2019]

People Different From Us

Kaz James, 37, from Salford, Greater Manchester, England, has known since he was a child that he was different from other people. "I didn't ever feel like a human. I always felt like a dog that was really out of place," James told Metro News. He first started to understand his peculiarity when he gained access to the internet at 17 years old. "I was known by my friends for ... grabbing hold of the collar of their shirt in my teeth and biting or licking them, very canine-type behaviors," James said. Today he eats out of a dog bowl and owns three custom-made dog suits -- one a $2,600 fur suit shipped from Canada. "(M)y behaviors were quite dog-like in childhood, probably from the age of 6," he said. "No one ever talked about it. It was never mentioned." [Metro News, 4/3/2019]

Family Values

The Carter County (Tennessee) Sheriff's Department had some strong leads in the death of Edith Betty Ralph, 75, on April 6, but none stronger than the behavior of John Christopher Ralph, 51, Edith's son, who had been living with her and had repeatedly complained to friends and family that she was "driving him crazy." "The night of Mrs. Ralph's murder, John asked co-workers to take pictures of him at work saying that if anything happened to his mother he would need an alibi," according to the sheriff's department. ABC News reported that Edith was found deceased due to severe head trauma and several gunshot wounds. John was stopped at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, ready to board a flight for Amsterdam. He was held on a $1 million bond. [ABC News, 4/7/2019]

The Aristocrats!

-- When you purchase a new home, you need new stuff to put in it. So it was for Andrew Francis Lippi, 59, of Key Haven, Florida. Lippi purchased an $8 million private island, Thompson Island, off Key West in early April, which includes a large estate previously owned by philanthropist Edward B. Knight. But on April 6, Lippi was charged with felony grand theft for stealing $300 worth of home goods from Kmart, including two coffeemakers, eight lightbulbs and a bed skirt. His method was clever: He bought the items, then returned their boxes with other things packed inside, according to the Miami Herald. (For example, a basketball was in the Keurig box.) Lippi, speaking to the Herald, denied the charges and said, "Basically it has to do with a commercial dispute. ... It's very complicated and I'd rather not get into it." He's scheduled to appear in court on April 18. [Miami Herald, 4/8/2019]

-- Lauren Jenai, 47, co-founder (with her ex-husband) of CrossFit, has struck up a new romance with an old flame: Franklin Tyrone Tucker, also 47, who resides at the Stock Island Detention Center in Florida, where he awaits trial for first-degree murder and armed robbery. Jenai sold her CrossFit shares for $20 million after her divorce and now lives in Portland, Oregon. She and Tucker, childhood friends, reconnected on Facebook before Tucker's arrest, and she has risen to his defense, offering to put up his $1 million bond (which was denied in January) and hiring private investigators for his case. She has not been able to see Tucker in person, but they were enjoying video visitation -- until, by Jenai's admission, she "got a little risque ... I was touching my boobs." Her account was suspended, so she began using her mother's account, but it happened again: "My boobs popped out at some point, it happens." Tucker and Jenai are scheduled to wed in prison, and she told the Daily Mail she won't ask him to sign a prenup: It feels "a little inappropriate. ... I trust him. I love him. My house is his house." [Daily Mail, 4/9/2019]

What's in a Name?

The Smuggler's Inn on Canada View Drive in Blaine, Washington, sits just a stone's throw from the Canadian border. Fittingly, on April 4, a Canadian court charged its owner, Robert Joseph Boule, 69, with 21 counts of "inducing, aiding or abetting" seven people who tried to illegally enter Canada between May 2018 and March 2019. Boule had remarked to CBC News in the past that it wasn't unusual to see people with night-vision goggles sneaking across the border at night. He remains in custody in Canada. [CBC News, 4/9/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-05-03 News of The Weird

Fri, 03 May 2019 06:07:44 GMT

Police officers in Indialantic, Florida, responded to at least seven calls about a man disturbing the peace on April 7. Patrons of Starbucks and Sassy Granny's Smoothies, among others, were startled when 61-year-old Thomas Devaney Lane started yelling, calling himself "the saint" and threatening to unleash his army of turtles on the community. According to WKMG, Lane went along with an officer to the police station, where he screamed at the dispatcher and pounded on the walls, but then left the building. He was located later at a 7-Eleven, verbally assaulting customers. As officers stood by, Lane called 911 and told the dispatcher, "I need to leave now or you will all be sorry you (expletive) with the saint." Lane was charged with disturbing the peace, resisting arrest without violence and misusing 911. [WKMG, 4/12/2019]

The Way the World Works

In Nashville, Tennessee, as the NFL Draft was taking over the town, brides and bridesmaids celebrating bachelorette parties were confounded by the crowds. WZTV reported on April 25 that the influx of crazed football fans was cramping the style of several groups: "We come here to listen to country music, not hang out with football boys," pouted a bride named Cara. "I'll tell you who's going to pay for this. My husband. No football next season," threatened a bridesmaid named Cyndi. But a bride named Savannah was more Zen about the situation: "We're gonna make the best of it. It is what it is." [WZTV, 4/26/2019]

Running Out of Time

Lukas Bates, 30, of southeastern England, dreamed big while running the London Marathon on April 28, according to Fox News. In addition to finishing, Bates hoped to secure a Guinness world record as the fastest runner dressed as an iconic building. His costume, the tower known as Big Ben in London, rose several feet above his head -- and that, it turns out, is what tripped him up. As Bates approached the finish line, his costume got caught on the scoreboard structure overhead. Finally a sympathetic race steward helped Bates free himself and make it over the finish line in three hours, 54 minutes and 21 seconds -- missing by only 20 seconds the record held by Richard Mietz, who ran last year's Berlin Marathon dressed as Germany's Holstentor gate. [Fox News, 4/28/2019]

Least Competent Criminal

One way to assure a negative response to a job application is to lift a few items from your prospective employer on the way out. So it went for an unnamed 36-year-old man in Gillette, Wyoming, who visited a Sportsman's Warehouse on April 24, where he paid for some items with a rewards card but also left the store with some bullets and a pair of sunglasses. Two days later, the Gillette News Record reported, the man returned and asked to fill out a job application, then walked out with two more pairs of sunglasses worth $85. This time, workers called police, who arrested the man and recovered all the stolen items. [Gillette News Record, 4/28/2019]

Inexplicable

The Lankenau Medical Center in suburban Philadelphia was the site of a break-in on the morning of April 20, but it was the stolen loot that leaves us scratching our heads. Two men and a woman stuffed several colonoscopes worth $450,000 into three backpacks. The scopes are used to examine colons during colonoscopies. "This is not something that a typical pawn shop might accept," said Lower Merion Police Det. Sgt. Michael Vice. "My feeling would be that it was some type of black market sales." He also told WCAU that it's not yet clear whether it was an inside job. [WCAU, 4/25/2019]

Lame

Why spend all that money on a real vacation when you can just fake a trip to an iconic destination? That's the service offered by Fake a Vacation, a Nebraska company that offers to superimpose you in a photo from a popular vacation spot, such as Las Vegas or the Grand Canyon, for posting on your social media pages. According to United Press International, they'll even offer you some fun facts about the place you choose to help you make your trip stories more legit. Packages start at $19.99; no word on what it costs to get your dignity back. [UPI, 4/25/2019]

You Know You've Thought of It

United Press International reported on April 25 that the Arizona Department of Public Safety arrested yet another driver using a dummy in the passenger seat to cruise in the HOV lane along State Route 202. "Don't let this be you," the department's Twitter feed warned. The mannequin in this case was dressed as a woman. [UPI, 4/25/2019]

Awesome!

Idahoans embraced the Big Idaho Potato, a 28-foot-long steel-and-plaster potato constructed in 2012 to mark the Idaho Potato Commission's 75th anniversary. It's been traveling the country ever since, promoting Idaho's biggest crop, and the plan was for it to be retired this year, when Big Idaho Potato 2.0 arrives. But Kristie Wolfe had better idea. The tiny house builder has converted the sculpture into a single-room hotel (aptly called the Big Idaho Potato Hotel), reported USA Today. It features a queen bed, two chairs and a bathroom with a whirlpool and skylight for stargazing; Wolfe lists it on Airbnb for $200 per night. "It's a way of inviting people to experience Idaho in a unique way," remarked Frank Muir, CEO of the Idaho Potato Commission. [USA Today, 4/24/2019]

The High Price of Vanity

A "vampire facial" is a procedure during which blood is drawn with a needle and then "spun" to separate the plasma, which is then injected into the face. For customers of a spa in Albuquerque, New Mexico, though, the most lasting effects may come after a blood test. The state's Department of Health is urging customers of VIP Spa, which closed in September 2018, to undergo HIV testing after two people were infected following treatment there. Dr. Dean Bair of the Bair Medical Spa said people should always make sure they're going to a licensed facility for such procedures. "This is just the worst example of what can go wrong," he told KOAT. The spa closed after inspectors found the spa's practices could potentially spread blood-borne infections, including hepatitis B and C as well as HIV. [KOAT, 4/30/2019]

Smooth Reactions

An unnamed Ogden, Utah, woman who accused her boyfriend of cheating added emphasis to the charge in a most unusual manner on April 27, according to a Salt Lake County Jail report. The 23-year-old was with her boyfriend in the parking lot of a strip mall in Sandy when she "took her clothing off as she accused the boyfriend of cheating. ... The incident took place in a busy public area with constant vehicle and pedestrian traffic." KSL reported the woman told police she stripped because "her boyfriend doesn't want her anymore." She was arrested for disorderly conduct and lewdness involving a child. [KSL, 4/29/2019]

Family Values

A 33-year-old man from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was arraigned April 29 on two counts of abuse of a corpse and one count of criminal mischief after he flushed his grandparents' ashes down the toilet. The Tribune-Review reported that Thomas Porter Wells was living at his mother's house when she became fed up with his drinking and marijuana use and asked him to leave last September. Denise Porter told police she learned from a relative in February that Wells had disposed of her parents' remains, which had been stored in a box as part of a memorial in her bedroom, before leaving. Wells denied flushing the ashes, but he later texted his mother that he would flush her remains, too, after she died. [TRIBLive, 4/29/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-07-05 News of The Weird

Fri, 05 Jul 2019 06:05:59 GMT

Arby's has turned the trend toward plant-based "burgers" on its head with the new Marrot: a carrot made out of meat. Vice reported that Arby's has definitively rejected the plant-based meats movement. "(W)hat Americans really want ... is great, tasty meat," said Jim Taylor, Arby's chief marketing officer. "So we said if others can make meat out of vegetables, why can't we make vegetables out of meat?" The Marrot is made by rolling raw ground turkey breast into a carrot shape, cooking it sous-vide for an hour, covering it with a special "carrot marinade," and then oven-roasting it for another hour. Bon appetit! [Vice, 6/27/2019]

The Litigious Society

Tommy Martin, 58, of Mount Holly, North Carolina, hopes to see Hardee's in federal court after a "humiliating" incident at a Belmont store in which Martin was given just two Hash Rounds on his breakfast plate, rather than the half-dozen or so depicted on the company's website. Martin, who is black, told The News and Observer that he felt like he was in a scene from the segregated 1960s when he asked for more. "The manager came back and said that what you get. Got home with tear in mine eye," Martin said in the handwritten lawsuit filed June 24 in U.S. District Court in Charlotte. The cashier was prepared to give him more Hash Rounds, Martin said, but the manager, who is white, stepped in and gave him a refund instead. [Raleigh News and Observer, 6/26/2019]

Cultural Diversity

A cafe in Bangkok, Thailand, is encouraging customers to "experience the death awareness" and reflect more on their lives by inviting patrons to get into a coffin and spend some time with the lid closed after finishing their coffee. Death Awareness Cafe owner Veeranut Rojanaprapa told United Press International that the practice encourages people not to be driven by greed. "When the lid of the coffin closes ... they will realize that eventually they cannot take anything with them." (Hope there are air holes.) [United Press International, 6/26/2019]

Nightmare Neighbor

After her husband suffered a stroke in 2012, Junghee Kim Spicer, owner of the Yakima (Washington) Arts Academy, increased the number of piano students she taught in her home, angering neighbor Paul Patnode, who complained and forced Spicer to get a permit that limited the hours and number of students she could teach each day, reported the Yakima Herald. Spicer complied, according to court documents, but Patnode, unsatisfied, sued her and lost that case in 2014. Undeterred, Patnode changed tactics: From November 2015 through March 2016, he parked his diesel pickup truck next to Spicer's home, remotely revving the engine and setting off the truck's alarm each time a student walked by. Spicer and her husband won a $40,000 settlement in their resulting lawsuit, and on June 25, the Division III Court of Appeals upheld that ruling. Chief Judge Robert Lawrence-Berry wrote: "(Mr. Patnode) intended to achieve through harassment what he had been unable to achieve through legal means." [Yakima Herald, 6/25/2019]

Government in Action

Health Canada has issued a seemingly obvious warning to consumers of Venus Simply3 razors: They pose a potential cutting hazard. CTV News reported that the four-packs, sold at Walmart, have been recalled because "the blades ... can become misaligned ... and pose a higher risk of cuts during use." No one in Canada has reported being cut. [CTV, 6/27/2019]

Technotot

Two-year-old Rayna McNeil of San Diego is an early adopter of online shopping. In late June, as Rayna played with her mom's mobile phone, she managed to purchase a $430 couch from Amazon. Mom Isabella McNeil told KNSD she had been scrolling through some couches on her phone before handing it off to Rayna, but she didn't realize the toddler had made the purchase until a few days later, when she got a "Your couch has shipped" alert. "I didn't remember ordering a couch," she said. It was too late to cancel the order, so McNeil plans to resell the item locally. "Lesson learned," McNeil said. She will make sure apps are closed in the future. [KNSD, 6/28/2019]

The Classic Headline

Police officers in Manchester, New Hampshire, were called to a local hotel on June 28 after Matthew Williams, 35, of Nashua was reported to be behaving "erratically" -- shouting, throwing things and "acting aggressive," according to Fox News. Officers called in a K9 unit, and when the dog entered the hotel room, Williams allegedly "wrapped his arms around the dog and struggled with him," eventually growling and biting the dog on the top of the head, police said. Williams was charged with resisting arrest, simple assault and willful interference with police dogs; authorities said the dog was not harmed. [Fox News, 7/1/2019]

People Different From Us

-- Zack Pinsent, 25, from Brighton, England, hasn't dressed in modern clothing since he was 14 years old. Instead, he makes and wears clothes that were popular in the 1800s. "At 14, I made the symbolic decision to burn my only pair of jeans in a bonfire. It was a real turning point," Pinsent told Metro News. On a typical day, Pinsent wears a floral waistcoat and knee-high leather riding boots, along with a jacket with tails and a top hat. He explains that his obsession started when his family found a box of his great-grandfather's suits. He now researches, designs and sews clothing for himself and other history buffs, to great response: "I've been all over the world and people are inquisitive and appreciative," he said. [Metro News, 6/27/2019]

-- A baby boy born in West Java, Indonesia, in November 2018 was given a most memorable name by his parents, Andi Cahya Saputra and Ella Karin. Eight-month-old Google was so named, Saputra told Indonesian media, because "Google has a great meaning ... Google is number one in the world, the site most visited by people." The Mirror reported Saputra told his own father he hopes his son will become "a useful person" and "help" a lot of people, while also explaining that they didn't want to "dilute" the essence of the boy's name by giving him a middle or surname. He's just Google. The baby's mom wasn't really on board with the idea until about three months after he was born. She said people ask if their next child will be named WhatsApp, but it doesn't bother her because they don't understand the meaning of the name. [The Mirror, 6/26/2019]

Precocious

Little Sebastian Swenson of Blaine, Minnesota, wanted Reese's candy and he wanted it NOW. So on the morning of June 11, the 4-year-old climbed into the front seat of his great-grandfather's Hyundai Santa Fe and drove at low speeds to a nearby gas station, where police met him. To accomplish this, according to Fox9, he had to reverse out of the driveway and navigate winding residential streets before getting onto a busy four-lane avenue in rush-hour traffic. Along the way, he dinged a few mailboxes and a tree, but he arrived safe and sound. Blaine police Capt. Mark Boerboom told Fox News, "I've never seen a driver this young before operating a vehicle." [Fox9, 6/12/2019]

Extreme

Michael Wardian, 45, chose the hottest day of the year so far in Washington, D.C., to tackle a longstanding goal of his: He ran all the way around the Beltway -- 89 miles. Wardian, of Arlington, Virginia, started at 1:30 a.m. on June 29 and ran for almost 18 hours, according to Fox 5 DC. "You're like, 'I want to do this but it's never a good time,'" Wardian said. "So we just did it when we had the time." Temperatures on June 29 reached 96 degrees. [Fox 5 DC, 6/30/2019]

Fail

In Rybnik, Poland, a 68-year-old woman who was completing the "maneuvers" part of her driving exam struck and killed a 35-year-old driving examiner on June 24. Police believe the victim was testing another candidate at the time, the Daily Record reported. Deputy Police Commissioner Ryszard Czepczor said it was unknown how the accident happened; the woman was in a state of shock afterward, "and because of that, speaking to her would be quite difficult." [Daily Record, 6/24/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-07-12 News of The Weird

Fri, 12 Jul 2019 06:07:57 GMT

In Yokohama, Japan, near Tokyo, one can visit the Unko Museum -- a whole interactive experience built around "cute" poop. ("Unko" means poop in Japanese.) For example, reports the Associated Press, one can sit on a colorful fake toilet and pretend to poop as music plays, then collect a brightly colored souvenir poop to take home. An enormous poop sculpture erupts every 30 minutes, volcanolike, and spews little foam poops. In one room, visitors can play a "whack-a-mole" type game where they stomp on poops. Visitor Toshifumi Okuya was delighted: "It's funny because there are adults running around screaming, 'poop, poop,'" he said. The museum opened in March and will remain open until September. [Associated Press, 7/4/2019]

Suspicions Confirmed

In the College Station neighborhood of Pulaski County, Arkansas, traditions run deep, especially when it comes to the Fourth of July. Beneques Christopher, 19, told KSDK that the holiday "firework war" has been going on for years, and even attracts people from other neighborhoods: "They know when Fourth of July comes, this is the spot to be at." But this year, the ritual went awry, resulting in many injuries and several people facing charges. Christopher was one of the victims: "It popped right here," he said, pointing to his groin area. "And it could have been dangerous because I almost lost everything." Instead, he suffered a second-degree burn on his thigh, but he feels lucky that he didn't lose any fingers, as five others did. When police officers arrived, people started pointing fireworks at them, leaving two deputies with injuries. While a local pastor hopes to shut the tradition down, Christopher vows to continue it: "We started the tradition, and now we have to keep it going," he said. [KSDK, 7/5/2019]

Walmart Shunning

An unnamed woman pulled a stunt in a Wichita Falls, Texas, Walmart on June 25 that got her banned from the store. According to NBC News, Police Sgt. Harold McClure said a store employee reported that the woman had eaten half a cake from the bakery, then attempted to buy the other half (for half-price), saying she found the cake in that condition. While Walmart did not want to press charges, they did prohibit her from shopping at the store in the future -- a policy they're familiar with, after an incident in January at another Wichita Falls Walmart. In that case, a woman rode an electric cart around the store's parking lot while guzzling wine from a Pringles can. She was also Walmart-shunned. [NBC News, 7/1/2019]

Least Competent Criminal

A craving for cake batter ice cream brought New York City police officers to a Baskin-Robbins store in Coney Island on June 29 -- a fortuitous detour, as it turned out. The Associated Press reported that when 33-year-old Emmanuel Lovett walked into the shop and tugged on his denim shorts, a loaded pistol dropped to the floor, and officers swarmed Lovett, who, it turns out, had a robbery record that prohibited him from having a firearm. He was charged with criminal possession of a firearm. No word on whether he, or the officers, enjoyed their ice cream. [Associated Press, 7/2/2019]

Telling It Like It Is

A diner in Little Rock, Arkansas, is getting attention for a clever menu item. According to United Press International, Mama D's offers a "My Girlfriend Is Not Hungry" option, which adds extra fries, chicken wings or cheese sticks to an order to share with a dinner partner who underestimates their hunger. On its Facebook page, Mama D's said the option is "a solution for those who tend to dine with people that eat food off their plate." [UPI, 7/3/2019]

Family Values

On July 6, Okaloosa County (Florida) sheriff's deputies responded to a 911 call after a 13-year-old boy stabbed his 15-year-old brother in the arm three times with a multi-tool. The boys, from Clarksville, Tennessee, were sitting in a parked car in Crestview, Florida, when the incident occurred. Lt. Todd Watkins told Fox News that the younger boy was "tired of his brother picking on him," and he told officers he'd "rather be in jail than eight hours in the car with him." "I stabbed him and I don't care about going back to jail," he said. While the 15-year-old was in the back of an ambulance being treated, he was overheard calling some of his friends to retaliate against his younger brother. The 13-year-old was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. [Fox News, 7/7/2019]

Just Say No

An Independence Day holiday in Bodega Harbor, California, went terribly wrong for a group of six friends who rented a house there. On July 4, 32-year-old Betai Koffi of San Francisco indulged heavily in LSD, taking four doses over the course of the afternoon. He became delusional and violent with his friends, who were trying to prevent him from leaving the home. After assaulting several of his housemates and wrecking a rental car, he took off on foot and came upon a security guard. Koffi plucked a landscape light out of the ground, Sonoma County Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Crum told KTVU, "and stabs the security guard with the metal end of it," knocking the guard to the ground. Koffi then stole the guard's pickup truck and ran down two different couples as they enjoyed an evening walk. Finally, sheriff's and highway patrol officers arrived, and Koffi aimed the truck at them and accelerated. A CHP officer fired his gun, striking Koffi three times. "If this guy had kept going, who knows what he could have done to other people," Crum said. "He was just blatantly going after people, driving after them." Eight people were injured, but all are expected to recover. [KTVU, 7/5/2019]

Dumb and Dumber

According to WHDH, two men were transported to the hospital on July 6 after both were shot in the foot while they cleaned a loaded, homemade cannon in a basement in Epping, New Hampshire. Friends drove Albert Dionne, 56, of Nottingham, New Hampshire, and Christopher Krafton, 52, of Amesbury, Massachusetts, to the Epping Fire Station in the bed of a pickup truck. The cannon, made from the barrel of a muzzleloader rifle, had been loaded and failed to discharge, so they were cleaning it. [WHDH, 7/7/2019]

Redneck Chronicles

OK, the first mistake was letting Matthew Morrison, 44, sleep in a tent on your lawn. A homeowner in Crestview, Florida, allowed Morrison to bunk on the property as a favor to someone he was trying to help. But things went south on July 6, when Morrison entered the home without permission and threw lighted firecrackers under a sleeping 9-year-old girl's bed. The homeowner chased Morrison out of the house with a stick. Morrison told Okaloosa County Sheriff's deputies it was a "prank gone wrong," but the little girl was left terrified. Lt. Todd Watkins told Fox News: "I'm not sure what he was trying to accomplish. The prank thing didn't really sound like it was a legitimate reason." Well, maybe this had something to do with it: When Morrison was arrested, officers found 2 grams of methamphetamine in his pocket. Morrison had a prior criminal history, including drug charges; he was charged with burglary and possession of methamphetamine. [Fox News, 7/7/2019]

Sweet Revenge

Serina Wolfe, 24, was about $5,000 mad at her boyfriend, Michael Crane, for his refusal to buy her a plane ticket for her return trip to New York, the Tampa Bay Times reported. So she used his credit card to pay for an expensive breakfast at Clear Sky Beachside Cafe in Clearwater, Florida, on June 27 -- REALLY expensive, because she left a $5,000 tip for the waitress. Initially, Wolfe told Crane the charge wasn't hers, and he reported it as fraudulent. But the restaurant had already paid the server the $5,000. Wolfe, of Buffalo, New York, was charged with grand theft after admitting that she was the big tipper. [Tampa Bay Times, 7/3/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-09-27 News of The Weird

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 06:08:26 GMT

It started out innocently enough. A road-tripping couple stopped in Grosse Tete, Louisiana, on Sept. 18 to let their deaf pup relieve himself. As they stretched their legs, they wandered over to the Tiger Truck Stop petting zoo and an enclosure that's home to Caspar the Camel, and the man started throwing treats inside. But when their dog breached the fence to get at the treats, the woman, ignoring "No Trespassing" signs, followed. As she chased the dog, her husband shoved the camel and swatted him with his hat. That's when Caspar lost his cool, settling his 600-pound camel booty right on top of the woman; she told officers from the Iberville Parish Sheriff's Office that she did the only thing she could do: "I bit his balls to get him off of me." Deputy Louis Hamilton Jr. cited the couple for leash law violations and criminal trespassing, siding with Caspar: "The camel did nothing wrong," Hamilton told The Advocate. "The camel has never been aggressive." A veterinarian treated the camel with antibiotics after the incident. [The Advocate, 9/22/2019]

Can't Possibly Be True

A Trumbull County (Ohio) sheriff's deputy pulled over an Amish buggy on Donley Road early on the morning of Sept. 15 after the officer noticed a few oddities about the vehicle. For one, there were two Amish men inside who were drinking, and on the buggy's roof rode a 12-pack of beer. And, according to Fox 8, the old-fashioned conveyance sported an unlikely modern convenience: a stereo system with large speakers. As soon as the buggy came to a stop, the two men jumped out and escaped into heavy woods near the road. Meanwhile, the horse, trailing the buggy, took off. The officer was able to catch up with the horse and have the buggy towed; the drivers were still at large. The buggy "is a vehicle, it's on the roadway and the ... laws do apply," said Chief Deputy Joe Dragovich. "You're not allowed to drink and drive or operate a buggy." [Fox 8, 9/17/2019]

Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

-- The Tennessee Titans were all fired up for their NFL home opener on Sept. 15 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. Accordingly, so was some of their pyrotechnic equipment -- which caught fire during player introductions, spreading flames and thick, black smoke near one end zone. According to Bleacher Report, no one was hurt, and flames were extinguished quickly. But the NFL, taking its usual proactive stance, placed a ban on "all flame effects and pyrotechnics used on its playing fields" until an investigation can be completed. [Bleacher Report, 9/20/2019]

-- Police arrived at the home of Vernelle Jackson, 83, in Norway, Maine, on Sept. 17, inquiring about the whereabouts of another unnamed woman in her 80s who had reportedly lived with Jackson. As police excavated the back yard and the story unfolded, Jackson admitted to authorities and WMTW News 8 that she was the one who buried the woman, about 18 months ago. "She begged me when she passed away that she didn't have enough insurance to bury her, and I don't have it. And she said, 'Will you promise me to bury me in your yard so I'll be close?' ... I finally agreed to do it to satisfy her," Jackson explained. "I put her in a tarp. I didn't carry her. I have COPD. I couldn't breathe that good." She was surprised to learn that she would have needed a permit to legally bury her friend in her yard, and she's still unclear whether she's in trouble with the law. The State Medical Examiner's office is working to ID the body and determine the cause of death. [WMTW, 9/18/2019]

Least Competent Criminals

Two football-crazed fans of Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes couldn't quite pull off a heist in Lawrence, Kansas, on Sept. 16. Pulling up to a McDonald's, the two ran inside, grabbed a life-size cardboard cutout of Mahomes and ran out, stuffing the promotional piece into their car. Lawrence Police spokesman Patrick Compton told the Lawrence Journal-World that as they received the call about the theft, they were working a car crash nearby -- in which one of the vehicles just happened to have a Mahomes cutout in the back seat. Officers questioned the suspects and ordered them to appear for alleged theft. Flat Pat was returned to the McDonald's. [Lawrence Journal-World, 9/18/2019]

Bright Idea

Paul Nixon, 51, is sought in Harris County, Texas, on charges of felony aggravated perjury after taking a novel approach to divorce. Nixon filed for divorce in February but forged his wife's signature and the name of a notary on the legal papers, the New York Post reported. A judge declared the divorce final in April -- but the wife didn't find out until May, when she noticed strange spending habits of his. "She started finding things showing that he was spending money on jewelry, so she confronted him and he told her that they were actually divorced," Constable Mark Herman said. "They are still married. The fraudulent divorce papers have been retracted." However, Nixon, who could face 10 years in prison, had so far eluded police. [New York Post, 9/18/2019]

Compelling Explanation

Kristine, 45, and Michael, 43, Barnett of Lafayette, Indiana, adopted a 6-year-old Ukrainian-born girl, Natalia Grace, with dwarfism in 2010. Nine years later, much to their confusion, they are charged with abandoning her. Within their first few weeks as a family, the Barnetts noticed that Natalia seemed to be older than they had been told, with a sophisticated vocabulary, pubic hair and menstrual periods. A doctor ordered bone density tests to check her age, and results suggested she was at least 14. So they began to treat her like a teenager. Then, the Barnetts claim, Natalia began making death threats against them. At a psychiatric hospital where she was treated, she told doctors she was much older and wanted to kill her family. "She was standing over people in the middle of the night. We had to hide all the sharp objects," Kristine Barnett told The Daily Mail. In 2012, they legally changed her age (from 8 to 22) and helped her get benefits so she could continue to receive psychiatric care, and in 2013, with Natalia living independently in an apartment, the Barnetts and their son moved to Canada. Soon after, they lost touch with the girl. But inexplicably, a second set of bone density tests, performed in 2010, surfaced, arguing that Natalia was at that time just 8 years old, and she told police herself in 2014 that she had been "left alone" when her parents moved to Canada. Michael and Kristine Barnett surrendered to the Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Department on Sept. 18 and 19, charged with abandonment of Natalia. [Daily Mail, 9/24/2019]

Wait, What?

Paramedics responded to a home in Detroit on the evening of Sept. 21 where a man was suffering from a heart attack. But as they worked on the victim, another man took a woman into a bedroom in the home and stabbed her. Then he ran out of the house and, according to Fox2, is still on the loose. The woman died at the scene, and the heart attack victim did not survive. Police are still trying to figure out the relationships between the three people. [Fox2, 9/23/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-11-29 News of The Weird

Mon, 02 Dec 2019 16:23:04 GMT

David Paul Wipperman, 61, of Largo, Florida, was taken into custody Nov. 21 in response to a road rage altercation a few weeks before, the Tampa Bay Times reported. According to arrest reports, during the incident, Wipperman left his truck and approached a woman driving a Kia sedan. She rolled down the window and apologized to Wipperman, who then spit the food he was chewing into her face, and some of it went into her mouth, the report said. Next, he allegedly opened her driver's side door and began screaming at her, pointing his finger in her face. He was charged in Pinellas County with felony battery and burglary of an occupied vehicle and held on $12,500 bail. [Tampa Bay Times, 11/22/2019]

Picky, Picky

In Boca Raton, Florida, a robber approached a Wells Fargo bank branch teller with a very specific request on Nov. 18, reported WPLG. Sandy Hawkins, 73, entered the bank that morning and told the teller, "This is a robbery. I have a weapon," and put his hand in his waistband to indicate a gun, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office arrest report. The teller started counting out $100 bills, eventually totaling $2,000, the affidavit said, but Hawkins explained that was too much money, and he only wanted $1,100. Authorities said the teller made the adjustment, then slid the bills through the window to Hawkins, who left the bank. When detectives caught up with him the next day, he told them, "I will make this easy" and showed them a note he had written, which read, "Give me $1,100. Now, No Alarms, Hope to get caught." He was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on robbery charges. [WPLG, 11/20/2019]

Bright Ideas

-- Elementary and middle school students in Bandung, Indonesia, have been spending too much time with their smartphones, according to Mayor Oded Muhammad Danial, who has come up with a clever distraction. In mid-November, authorities began distributing 2,000 baby chicks in cages with signs that read: "Please take good care of me." AFP reports the students will be required to feed their pets before and after school and can keep them on school premises if they don't have space in their backyard. Danial said the chick project, dubbed "chickenisation," is part of a larger endeavor by President Joko Widodo to broaden students' education. "There is an aspect of discipline here," said Danial. [AFP, 11/20/2019]

-- Eighth-graders in the Payatas district north of Manila in the Philippines have come up with a way to help rid city streets of dog feces and maybe even lower local construction costs. The "bio-bricks" they've developed are made of 10 grams of poop, which the students collect and air-dry, and 10 grams of cement powder, Reuters reported on Nov. 20. The students say their bricks can be used for sidewalk pavement or small structures, such as backyard walls. They admit the bio-bricks have a faint odor, but assert that it will fade with time. [Reuters, 11/20/2019]

Compelling Explanation

In Bainbridge Township, Ohio, a 60-year-old man called police on Oct. 22 after firing two warning shots into his backyard, WOIO reported. The unnamed man told officers he was trying to scare an animal away, but when asked if it might have been a bear, he said, "It ain't no ... bear because it was jiggling my doorknob." The homeowner went on to tell police the animal had to be Bigfoot because it was 7 feet tall, and it comes to his home every night because neighbors feed it bananas. He also speculated that a woman who was missing from the area was taken by the "creature." However, officers found no large animal tracks in his yard and suggested he call again if he witnesses anything suspicious. [WOIO, 11/12/2019]

Multitasking

As college student Morgan Taylor got her nails done in a High Point, North Carolina, salon on Nov. 20, she was shocked when one of the nail technicians spread out a tarp on the shop floor and began butchering meat with what appeared to be a kitchen knife. "I asked them what it was, because just seeing them unload flesh and bones was a little bit shocking," Taylor told WFMY. "They said it was deer meat, and they were splitting it up between the workers to take home. It had already been skinned; they were sectioning it." Taylor reported the shop to the North Carolina Board of Cosmetic Art Examiners, which told WFMY its "inspectors have not received a complaint within memory of butchering in a cosmetic shop." It declined to comment further on the open investigation. [WFMY, 11/22/2019]

Wait, What?

Zhang Binsheng, 30, of Harbin, China, finally sought a doctor's attention after three months of struggling to breathe through his nose, Metro News reported in early November. Zhang told doctors at the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University that he couldn't sleep and also had a constant smell of decay in his nostrils. X-rays revealed Zhang had a tooth stuck in his nostril. The tooth, which Zhang had lost when he was 10 years old after a fall from the third floor of a mall, had somehow rerooted and continued to grow in his nasal cavity. It was removed in a brief surgery, and Zhang is said to be recovering. [Metro News, 11/11/2019]

Weird "Science"

Beware medical advice derived from Instagram, we always say. "Metaphysicalmeagan," who boasts nearly 10,000 followers on the social media site, is advocating a new "ancient Taoist practice that has been around for a while": perineum sunning. "Many of you have been asking about the benefits of this practice," she writes, "30 seconds of sunlight on your butthole is the equivalent of a full day of sunlight with your clothes on!" She goes on to say she has experienced energy surges, better sleep and more creativity, reports IFLScience.com, along with myriad other improvements. Scientists point out that while sunlight and taking some time to relax are healthful, "there is no evidence that (sunlight) has to be taken as a suppository." [IFLScience.com, 11/26/2019]

Great Art!

A Japanese man who goes by the name Kiwami Japan on YouTube has chronicled his novel approach to fashioning a very personal engagement ring, the Mirror reported on Oct. 25. For 365 days, the man collected his fingernail clippings, which he then ground into a fine powder and mixed with water in a pan. After compressing the mixture, he baked it in an oven for 90 minutes, which resulted in what looked like a lump of dark clay. The substance was packed into a diamond-shaped mold and then mounted into a four-prong silver ring (which he also made himself). The finished ring features a dull black "stone." Social media followers were unimpressed, but you can't say he didn't put a little bit of himself into the ring. [Mirror, 10/25/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-12-13 News of The Weird

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 06:08:20 GMT

Joe Rwamirama, 48, of Kampala, Uganda, has an unusually practical superpower: "He is known all over the city as the man who can kill mosquitoes with his farts," local barber James Yoweri told The Sun on Dec. 10. Rwamirama said no one in his home village has ever contracted malaria because his gaseous ejections knock out insects over a 6-mile radius. "He is respectful of people around him and will only fart when there are mosquitoes around," Yoweri continued. Rwamirama hopes to market his gas and claims that insect repellant companies have been looking into its chemical secrets, but The Sun couldn't verify those claims. [The Sun, 12/10/2019]

Undignified Death

When a Shelby, Ohio, police officer responded to a call on Nov. 13 about a sick or rabid raccoon on a residential street, he had a tough decision to make. The raccoon did seem either injured or ill, and according to WJW, the officer decided it needed to be destroyed. However, there is no area animal control department, and police officers don't have the "training or equipment to capture a potentially rabid animal," officials said. And the officer was hesitant to use his firearm because of the time of day and because some residents were outside their homes. So he decided to use his vehicle to eliminate the raccoon, running over it several times to finish the job. Unfortunately, a bystander was recording the incident, and people on social media are calling for the officer's removal. The Shelby police chief responded: "The video is disturbing to watch. ... We are having an independent group, with a prosecutor, to determine if any criminal charges are appropriate (but) ... this incident doesn't violate any wildlife laws." [WJW, 11/15/2019]

Just Weird

-- It's very cold and very dark, in an existential sort of way, in Minneapolis at this time of year. To wit: Cianna Violet, 24, passes by a certain spot, near a Broadway Pizza location, as she commutes to work. In November, she noticed a yellow traffic pylon with an extra something clinging to the top and pulled over to check it out. It was a rat -- dead, frozen, sad. Until Dec. 3, when Violet noticed something about the rat had changed. Sure enough, someone had dressed the chilly little rodent and even remembered accessories, like a tiny silver backpack and fur-trimmed boots. The outfit is "100 percent seasonably appropriate," Violet told CityPages. "I'm sorry it had to die, but in death it has brought a reason to smile to hundreds." [CityPages, 12/4/2019]

-- Meanwhile, it's warm and sunny in Las Vegas, and the pigeons are wearing cowboy hats. What? On Dec. 9, KVVU reported that pigeons have been spotted with tiny red cowboy hats on their heads. Mariah Hillman, who runs an animal rescue, at first thought the little headwear was cute, but then began to worry about how the hats had been affixed to the birds' heads. "Did they glue them? ... Is it something that's going to impede their flight or attract predators?" she wondered. Hillman and her agency have been handing out business cards and asking people who see the little urban cowbirds to "just feed them until I get here. I'm only 3 miles away and I'll come trap them." [KVVU, 12/9/2019]

Bright Idea

The Raleigh (North Carolina) News & Observer reported on Dec. 9 that a 14-year-old runaway made a logical choice when deciding where to hide. Around 8:30 that morning, as workers at Bed Bath & Beyond opened the store in Greenville, they discovered someone hidden in the store and called police. Officers responded for a "breaking and entering in progress," but found only a teenage boy who had "camped out" in the store overnight. He was returned to his home. [Raleigh News & Observer, 12/9/2019]

Great Art!

In Miami Beach, Florida, you don't even have to leave the oceanfront to get caught in a traffic nightmare. For Miami's Art Basel, Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich unveiled on Dec. 3 a masterpiece three months in the making: sand sculptures of 66 actual-size cars and trucks locked in a traffic jam, which he calls "Order of Importance." His artwork is meant to bring attention to the climate crisis, Dezeen reported. The work includes several lanes of traffic split by a traffic divider. Most of the vehicles are partially submerged in a nod to rising sea levels created by global warming. "As an artist, I am in a constant struggle to make people aware of this reality," Erlich said. It is his largest project to date. [DeZeen, 12/4/2019]

Bah, Humbug!

-- Marie Bennett, 40, and Joseph Betancourt, 24, of Woodland, California, would have made the Grinch proud, but police in Red Bluff weren't having it. On Dec. 5, the two allegedly broke into the Children First Foster Family Agency, where they stole "(a) large amount of toys that were being held there for children for Christmas presents," police told Fox News. Surveillance video showed the burglars coming and going from the home next door; officers arrested Bennett and Betancourt for burglary, theft and breaking and entering, and they recovered the stolen toys, declaring, "These 'Grinches' will not be stealing Christmas from kids on our watch." [Fox News, 12/9/2019]

-- The Bosch's Country View Nursery in Allendale, Michigan, is a longtime favorite destination for Christmas tree shoppers. But sometime in early December, the Grinch visited, lopping the top halves off more than a dozen trees, according to WZZM13. It takes a fir tree between six and 10 years to grow to Christmas tree height, explained owner Brian Bosch. "Somebody had a bad day, I'm assuming," he said. "I don't know why somebody would do that." Bosch did say that the trees might recover, although it would take a few years. [WZZM, 12/10/2019]

Police Report

-- In Turlock, California, mothers became alarmed when a man turned up at their doors, asking for "five strands" of hair and fingerprints from their children in order to collect their DNA. "He said he was with Amber Alert," Lauren Hassett told KTXL on Dec. 4, and "that he needed to finish a DNA file" on her daughter. She also said the man asked for her daughter using a name the 13-year-old girl only uses online. Hassett ordered the man off her property and called police, who were later able to catch up with him. Officers said the man's business was legitimate, but "the manner in which the information was relayed led to some misunderstanding. ... The involved adult male was passing out child DNA kits, which would be retained by the family, in the event it was ever needed for future investigations." [KTXL, 12/9/2019]

-- Operation Santa's Naughty List took place Dec. 3 to 8 in Polk County, Florida, seeking to target human trafficking and prostitution, and it was beyond successful. The sting stung 124 people, including 46 customers and numerous others for different crimes, but the standout was Rodney Davis, a 56-year-old husband and security guard at Disney World, the Tampa Bay Times reported. When Davis showed up to purchase sex from an undercover detective, he was wearing ... nothing. Not even socks. Prostitutes who were identified as victims of human trafficking were taken to shelters and offered support services. [Tampa Bay Times, 12/11/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-12-20 News of The Weird

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 06:07:56 GMT

WJAR reported that an unnamed substitute teacher was fired on Dec. 16 for smoking marijuana in a classroom at North Attleborough High School in North Attleborough, Massachusetts. Peter Haviland, principal at the school, said students reported the incident and the teacher was removed from the school premises. Haviland also said the teacher not only used the drug, but led a discussion in class about marijuana. Campuses in the district are drug-free. Well, they were. [WJAR, 12/17/2019]

Update

Last year during the holiday season, former NASA engineer Mark Rober of Santa Clarita, California, created a glitter bomb exploding package in response to having a package stolen from his front porch. This year, Rober has a new and improved version: When it is touched, the BBC reported on Dec. 17, the box explodes in glitter and emits an unpleasant odor along with a soundtrack of police chatter. As a coup de grace, it also takes a video of the thief and uploads it to the cloud. One of the sponsors for Rober's project is "Home Alone" actor Macaulay Culkin. Rober calls it a labor of love: "I have literally spent the last 10 months designing, building and testing a new and improved design for 2019," he said. [BBC, 12/17/2019]

Family Values

It may not be the oldest fruitcake still (mostly) uneaten, but it could be the most beloved. The Detroit News reported that the Ford family of Tecumseh, Michigan, has been cherishing Fidelia Ford's fruitcake since 1878 -- over five generations. Julie Ruttinger, great-great-granddaughter to Fidelia, inherited the confection from her father, Morgan Ford, who kept it in an antique glass compote dish in his china cabinet until his death in 2013. It doesn't much look, or smell, like a fruitcake anymore ("Smells like old people," Morgan once said), but Ruttinger is determined to keep Fidelia's legacy alive. Each year, Fidelia made a cake that was meant to age until the next Christmas season. But in 1878, she died before her cake could be enjoyed. When Morgan was buried, the family tucked a piece of the cake into his jacket pocket. "He took care of it to the day he left the Earth," Ruttinger said. "We knew it meant a lot to him." [Detroit News, 12/13/2019]

Irony

Two workers with the Chicago Park District were spreading salt on an icy lakefront bike path on Dec. 11 when their pickup truck hit a slick spot and slipped into Lake Michigan, the Associated Press reported. It was halfway into the water before it got stuck on a breakwall. The workers were able to escape the truck and move to the shore uninjured. Park District spokesperson Michelle Lemons reminded Chicago residents that the path slopes toward the water and lake levels are high. "It might not look like it's dangerous, but it could still be a sheet of glass," she said. [Associated Press, 12/11/2019]

No Good Deed

Virginia Saavedra, 37, ran to a home in Sophia, North Carolina, on Dec. 11, telling the resident she had just escaped being kidnapped by a stranger. When the man let her sit in his truck to warm up while he called 911, Saavedra allegedly stole the truck, according to the Randolph County Sheriff's Office. Officers responding to the 911 call spotted the truck and engaged in a 26-mile high-speed chase before trapping the truck. The Associated Press reported Saavedra then rammed a patrol car before trying to flee on foot. She was eventually charged with more than a dozen crimes, including felony assault with a deadly weapon on a government official. [Associated Press, 12/13/2019]

Bright Idea

Around 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 18, an unnamed 17-year-old girl jumped a fence at Fresno Yosemite International Airport in Fresno, California, and climbed into the cockpit of a private airplane parked there. She put the pilot's headset on and was able to start one of the engines of the small plane, but instead of flying away, she steered the plane into a chain-link fence, causing substantial damage to the aircraft, the Fresno Bee reported. Airport officials said she appeared disoriented when officers reached the plane, but no others were endangered in the incident. She was booked into juvenile hall on charges of theft of an aircraft. [Fresno Bee, 12/18/2019]

Government in Action

A sharp-eyed Twitter user spotted an unexpected country on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Tariff Tracker list: Wakanda. The fictional country from the "Black Panther" film made the list of free trade agreement partners. USDA spokesperson Mike Illenberg told NBC News on Dec. 18 the agency had used Wakanda to test the tracking system and had forgotten to remove it from the list. "The Wakanda information should have been removed after testing and has now been taken down." [NBC News, 12/18/2019]

Compelling Explanation

Police in Tooele, Utah, conducting a welfare check on 75-year-old Jeanne Souron-Mathers on Nov. 22, found the woman dead of natural causes in her apartment, but as they searched further, they came upon the body of her husband, Paul Edward Mathers, in a freezer chest. With his body was a notarized letter, signed by Mathers and dated Dec. 2, 2008, stating that his wife didn't kill him. "We believe he had a terminal illness," police Sgt. Jeremy Hansen told Fox13. Paul was last seen alive on Feb. 4, 2009, at a doctor's appointment at the Veterans Affairs hospital. Investigators are probing whether the couple made the plan so that Jeanne would continue to receive her husband's government benefits. A neighbor, Evan Kline, said: "The story ... was her husband walked out on her. ... It was probably the plan for her to keep the money because it was her only source of income." Officials believe she received at least $177,000 in benefits over 10 years. [Fox13, 12/16/2019]

Oops

A driver in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, caused an "enormous bang," according to witnesses, on Dec. 14 when he lighted a cigarette in his closed car after spraying air freshener. Nearby buildings shook from the impact, and the car's windshield was blown out, along with windows of nearby businesses, the Manchester Evening News reported. The driver sustained only minor injuries. West Yorkshire Police said the situation could have been worse and implored people to open their windows when using aerosol cans and open flames.

Holiday Shenanigans

-- A group of Santas participating in SantaCon -- a bar-hopping tradition in New York City -- brought muscle along with Christmas cheer to a Long Island Railroad train on Dec. 14. According to the New York Daily News, two men were fighting on the train around 6 p.m. when one of them, a 45-year-old, stabbed the other, 22, in the leg. Neither of the men was dressed as Santa, but the Santas on the train subdued the suspect until the train reached Queens. The victim was taken to a hospital, and the MTA arrested the stabber. [NY Daily News, 12/14/2019]

-- Security officers at Vilnius Airport in Lithuania got in the holiday spirit with confiscated items seized during the screening process, reported United Press International on Dec. 12. Apparently having a lot of time on their hands, the officers built a Christmas tree using items such as scissors, knives, lighters and other goods. Lithuanian Airports called the tree an "educational masterpiece" and warned: "If you don't want your personal, yet prohibited, belongings to land on our next year's Christmas tree -- better check out the baggage requirements before you pack for your next flight." [UPI, 12/12/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2019-12-27 News of The Weird

Mon, 30 Dec 2019 13:46:05 GMT

Asparagus is healthy and delicious. But for 63-year-old Jemima Packington of Bath, England, the columnar vegetable is much more: Packington is an asparamancer, a person who can foretell the future by tossing the spears into the air and seeing how they land. "When I cast the asparagus, it creates patterns, and it is the patterns I interpret," Packington said. "I am usually about 75 to 90 percent accurate." In fact, out of 13 predictions she made for 2018, 10 of them came true. What's in store for 2019? Packington tells Metro News that England's women's soccer team will win the World Cup; "A Star Is Born" will win an Oscar; and fears over Brexit will be largely unfounded. Oh, and asparagus will see an all-time high in sales. [Metro News, 12/31/2018]

People With Issues

Blame It on the Meth

Inexplicable

Ewwwww!

Silence of the Lambs, indeed. A Manchester, England, woman named Joan has a unique project in mind for a custom clothing designer. Joan, 55, is anticipating having her leg amputated because of peripheral arterial disease, reported the Daily Mail, so she posted on Sewport.com, requesting help to "create something beautiful and useful" -- a handbag, using her own skin. She has budgeted about $3,900 for the project, which she envisions as a "medium-sized handbag with a short strap and a section down the middle that will be made from my skin," she explained in the post. "I know it's a bit odd and gross ... but it's my leg, and I can't bear the thought of it being left to rot somewhere." There are no laws against her keeping the limb, although there is paperwork to fill out. Boris Hodakel, the founder of Sewport.com, reports that no designers have come forward yet to help with Joan's request. [Daily Mail, 2/20/2019]

Dumb and Dumber

The High Price of Vanity

A "vampire facial" is a procedure during which blood is drawn with a needle and then "spun" to separate the plasma, which is then injected into the face. For customers of a spa in Albuquerque, New Mexico, though, the most lasting effects may come after a blood test. The state's Department of Health is urging customers of VIP Spa, which closed in September 2018, to undergo HIV testing after two people were infected following treatment there. Dr. Dean Bair of the Bair Medical Spa said people should always make sure they're going to a licensed facility for such procedures. "This is just the worst example of what can go wrong," he told KOAT. The spa closed after inspectors found its practices could potentially spread blood-borne infections, including hepatitis B and C as well as HIV. [KOAT, 4/30/2019]

Free Speech

TSA agents at Juneau International Airport logged unexpected cargo on April 15 when a "large organic mass" was spotted in a traveler's carry-on bag. TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein explained to KTOO that such a flag can indicate the presence of explosives. However, when agents opened the bag, they found a plastic grocery bag full of moose "nuggets." "The passenger told the TSA officers that he collects this and likes to present it 'for politicians and their (bleep) policies,'" Farbstein explained. The passenger was not detained and was allowed to continue on with his bag of moose poop. Later that day, the Anchorage Daily News reported that a man was seen at the state capitol, handing out baggies of moose nuggets in protest of Gov. Mike Dunleavy's proposed budget. [KTOO, 4/26/2019]

It's Come to This

The Pokemon Co. has made Japanese brides' dreams come true with its announcement that it is collaborating with a wedding planner to offer sanctioned ceremonies with its characters in attendance, dressed as a bride and groom. Yes, Pikachu will stand up with you and your betrothed (as long as you go to Japan to tie the knot), and the icing on the cake is Pokemon-themed food items and a Pikachu cake topper. Finally, United Press International reports, for your scrapbook, you'll have a marriage certificate decorated with Pokemon imagery -- surely an item you'll want to preserve in a licensed Pokemon photo frame. [UPI, 5/30/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2020-01-03 News of The Weird

Fri, 03 Jan 2020 06:07:57 GMT

Kelly McGraw, 37, of Portsmouth, England, and her husband, James, 40, have enjoyed playing pranks on each other throughout their 24-year marriage. But before Christmas, as James was plotting a way to get back at Kelly for a "dodgy" haircut she'd given him, he came up with a gloriously permanent idea: He had his thigh tattooed with a less-than-flattering photo of Kelly, asleep on a plane with her mouth gaping open, as James mocked her behind her head. "I'm one up at the moment," James told the Sun, "but I'm also scared because I don't know what she's now planning." Kelly was unforgiving: "I was horrified. I couldn’t believe it. ... We do mess about anyway, but this is on another level. ... He needs to watch his back." [The Sun, 12/25/2019]

Bright Ideas

-- A romney ewe living on a farm near Auckland, New Zealand, is getting some relief from an unusual problem, thanks to a clever veterinarian and a brassiere meant for humans. Rose the sheep had suffered damage to her udders when she produced a high volume of milk during her pregnancy with triplets. "When this happens," Dr. Sarah Clews told Stuff, "the udder can hang so low that it can be traumatized on the ground." The condition can sometimes be a cause for euthanasia, but Dr. Clews thought a bra might help lift the udders and allow them to heal. Rose's owners eventually located a 24J maternity bra big enough to do the job, and it worked -- after two or three weeks of wearing the bra, Rose's udders recovered enough that surgery was no longer needed. [Stuff, 12/27/2019]

-- Justin and Nissa-Lynn Parson of McKinney, Texas, were all in when their son Cayden, 12, asked for a magnifying glass for Christmas. "We thought, 'Oh, he wants to magnify something'" to read, Nissa-Lynn told KDFW. Instead, Cayden and his brother, Ashton, used the glass to light a newspaper on fire on the family's front porch, which soon spread to the yard, eventually destroying the lawn and some of the family's Christmas lights. "We ran inside and started screaming," Cayden said. The family doused the fire with "pitchers of water, blankets smothering it, sprinklers turned on, hose turned on," Nissa-Lynn recounted, adding that now Cayden "will definitely have yard work to do once spring comes." [KDFW, 12/29/2019]

Least Competent Criminal

In Jefferson County, Colorado, would-be car thief Todd Sheldon, 36, has finally admitted it's just not the vocation for him, according to police. Fox News reported Sheldon had tried over recent weeks to steal multiple vehicles, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, but each time he was caught in the act -- first by a homeowner, then by sheriff's deputies minutes later "just down the street," shocking the deputies by telling them, "I'm trying to steal this truck." He was taken into custody and bonded out, but a week later, deputies responding to a report of someone trying to break into a car again found Sheldon. "I really suck at this," Sheldon allegedly told an officer. Sheldon remained in jail as of Dec. 27. [Fox News, 12/30/2019]

Bah, Humbug!

Poppy Leigh, 13, of Manchester, England, hoped wrapping her waist-length hair around an empty plastic water bottle and decorating it with lights like a Christmas tree atop her head would bring good cheer to her mates and teachers at Manchester Health Academy on Dec. 20. Instead, school authorities told her she had to either take the decorations off or go home. Her mom, Christie, wasn't happy about it: "It's just a bit of fun and Christmas cheer," she told Metro News. But Principal Kevin Green huffed: "The Academy has the highest of expectations around uniform and teaching and learning, and ... whilst it was a remarkably creative hairstyle, it was, unfortunately, inappropriate for school." [Metro News, 12/20/2019]

Oops!

-- As she enjoyed an Aldi mince pie in early December, caterer Angela McGill, 52, of Glasgow, Scotland, thought one bite seemed particularly "rough and really hard -- I thought it was a tough piece of pastry!" she told Metro News. Instead, McGill soon realized she had swallowed her partial dentures with two false teeth. Hospital X-rays confirmed the dentures were caught halfway down her throat, but the staff advised her pulling them out would only cause more harm. It took 72 hours for the plate to pass. "It was ever so funny!" she said. "And I was really enjoying the mince pie, too." [Metro News, 12/8/2019]

-- Sandra Smith, 59, of St. Petersburg, Florida, was cited for careless driving on Dec. 29, after crashing her 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass into a mausoleum at the Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery, damaging the facades of three above-ground graves, WFLA reported. Florida Highway Patrol troopers said Smith was driving in a grass lot at the cemetery when she "failed to avoid a mausoleum on the property." Her passenger, 63-year-old Betty Strickland, went to the hospital with critical injuries. [WFLA, 12/30/2019]

Precocious

The newest tattoo artist in the Haji Lane area of Singapore is Lilith Siow, 12. She learned the art from her father, Joseph, who has operated a tattoo business for 20 years, reported Asia One on Dec. 30. In the past year, Lilith has tattooed at least a dozen customers, although she admitted that she was nervous at first, taking 90 minutes to complete her first. "I was afraid at the beginning. ... Once a tattoo sets, it is forever," she said. As her confidence grows, so does her advocacy for the art: She disagrees that people with tattoos are "bad people." [Asia One, 12/30/2019]

Animal Shenanigans

Police in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, were called Dec. 27 to the parking lot of a CVS pharmacy over a "public menace," according to WKYT. The culprit was a "hostile chicken" that "pecked viciously" at the officers and "made some adept use of vehicles for cover" before they were able to corral it in a plastic milk crate, according to the police department's Facebook page. Officers transferred the foul fowl to "someone who can give him more suitable accommodations," then attended to their wounds with "some doughnut therapy." [WKYT, 12/28/2019]

Sour Grapes

Japanese YouTuber Marina Fujiwara has harnessed the pain she feels when she sees couples basking in their love at the holidays and developed a sort of schadenfreudean device: a light that turns on whenever anyone breaks up on social media. Oddity Central reported on Dec. 27 that Fujiwara's device is connected to the internet through a "bridge" and is set to light up whenever a breakup status is posted on Twitter. "I want to celebrate Christmas," she said. "But when you see a couple in the world going on a Christmas date and doing something like that, I am attacked by a huge sense of loneliness." While her machine is not available commercially, Fujiwara says it's easy enough to set one up for yourself. (Check her YouTube channel for directions.) [Oddity Central, 12/27/2019]

Dreams Do Come True

Joan, 89, and her friend Pauline, 84, had their wishes fulfilled in early December after asking administrators at the Glastonbury Court care home in Bury St. Edmunds, England, for an attractive man with a "large chest and big biceps" to visit. Sure enough, a male stripper dressed as a fireman arrived at the home to entertain the ladies, waving his belt around his head as he danced for them. "I wish he could visit us every day!" gushed Joan to the Daily Mail. "He made me feel like I was young again." Joan made her request through the home's wishing tree initiative, which others have used to ask for things like a shopping trip or a day at the beach. "This isn't the typical kind of visitor we have," said home manager Sharlene Van Tonder, "but based on the response, he was one of the most popular." [Daily Mail, 12/12/2019]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2020-03-13 News of The Weird

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 06:08:19 GMT

-- Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely is on trial in Athens, Alabama, facing 11 counts of theft and ethics charges related to his job. On March 6, Blakely went to the hospital, where his lawyers told the court he was being tested for COVID-19, the disease associated with coronavirus. But in a special hearing on March 7, Dr. Maria Onoya told Judge Pride Tompkins that while Blakely was indeed admitted to the hospital, and received multiple tests, none of them was for COVID-19. In fact, she said there was no evidence to suggest he should be tested for it, The News Courier reported. Judge Tompkins ended the hearing with harsh words for Blakely's defense team: "I don't know what your tactic is, but it's condemned by the court," he said. He went on to note that he was "very disturbed" by the defense's mention of COVID-19 in the motion to continue, calling it irresponsible, reckless and unfair to the community. [The News Courier, 3/7/2020]

-- Meanwhile, in Queensland, Australia, people are panicking about running out of toilet paper during the coronavirus pandemic. Which makes Haidee Janetzki of Toowoomba extra popular, after she made an error in her regular online TP order with Who Gives a Crap. "When it asked for quantity, I put 48," she told 7News, "thinking that would be a box of 48 (rolls). Turned out it was 48 boxes." At first she thought it was the online retailer's fault -- until she checked her credit card, which showed an expense of $3,260 plus almost $400 shipping. Janetzki is selling the hot commodity to friends at a slight markup, hoping to raise money to send her kids on a school trip to Canberra. She's now known Down Under as the Queen of the Toilet Paper. [7News, 3/5/2020]

-- Two state attorneys general and the Food and Drug Administration are cracking down on disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker, who is now the host of "The Jim Bakker Show" on cable TV. The New York attorney general's office on March 3 sent a cease-and-desist order to Bakker, and on March 10, the Missouri attorney general filed suit against him. At issue is Bakker's hawking of "Silver Solution," a "medication" made from silver that supposedly cures all sorts of ailments, for use in treating COVID-19. On Feb. 12, The Washington Post reported, Bakker asked a guest on his show whether the gel could cure the coronavirus. "It hasn't been tested on this strain of the coronavirus, but it's been tested on other strains of the coronavirus, and has been able to eliminate it within 12 hours," said "naturopathic doctor" Sherrill Sellman. In the letter, the "extremely concerned" Lisa Landau, chief of the attorney general's health care bureau, called the segment false advertising and said it violates New York law. She gave Bakker 10 days to comply. [The Washington Post, 3/5/2020]

-- A man in Vilnius, Lithuania, with help from his sons, reportedly locked his wife in their bathroom after she expressed worry to him that she had contracted COVID-19 from traveling to Italy, where she came in contact with some Chinese people. The husband called a doctor, who suggested she isolate herself; she contacted police because her husband wouldn't let her out. It's unclear how long she was locked in the bathroom, but Delfi.lt reported that she was tested for the virus and did not have it. [Delfi.lt, 2/28/2020]

-- The U.S. State Department has advised people, particularly older adults, to avoid cruise ships and air travel during the coronavirus onslaught. But some travelers just can't be dissuaded. Take, for example, Ben Stults, a sophomore at Florida State University, who will head out on a cruise to Mexico this week for spring break. He's hoping to "hit the sweet spot" -- get there and get home before the virus takes hold in Mexico. To be safe, however, he's bringing along a respirator face mask and a deck of cards in case, you know, quarantine. The Daily Beast asked Stults if he thought his plan was a sound one, to which he replied, "Honestly, no." [Daily Beast, 3/10/2020]

Animal Antics

Firefighters were called to a farm near Bramham, Leeds, in England on March 7 to put out a fire in a large pigpen. At this particular farm, the pigs wear pedometers to prove that they're free-range, Fox News reported, but one of those gadgets was the probable cause of the blaze, firefighters said. They theorize that one of the pigs ate one of the pedometers, then passed it in its excrement, sparking a fire in the pen's hay. The culprit was the copper in the battery reacting with the pig poo. No pigs were hurt in the fire; let's hope they're getting all their steps in as usual. [Fox News, 3/9/2020]

The Continuing Crisis

A Polish tattooist known only as Piotr A. has pleaded not guilty to causing blindness in model Aleksandra Sadowska, 25, from Wroclaw, Poland. Sadowska engaged the artist to dye her eyeballs black in 2016. Following the procedure, she had pain in her eyes, which the tattooist said could be treated with painkillers. But she lost sight first in her right eye, and doctors told her there was nothing they could do to prevent the same fate for her left eye. "There is clear evidence that the tattoo artist did not know how to perform such a delicate procedure," Sadowska's lawyers said, according to the Daily Mail. "And yet he decided to perform it, which led to this tragedy." As he awaits his trial, the tattooist continues to run his salon in Warsaw, where he mainly pierces ears. [Daily Mail, 2/27/2020]

Crime Report

On Feb. 28, fourth-grade teacher Nancy Sweeney, 45, was arrested in Niles, Illinois, for assaulting a neighbor and calling her "a (expletive) Nazi." According to the Chicago Tribune, Sweeney attacked the 87-year-old woman, who is of German descent, in the parking garage of their condominium building, where the woman was exercising. The victim was struck in the face with a purse and fell, suffering cuts and bruises. The Cook County state's attorney's office approved not only an aggravated battery charge, but also a hate crime charge, based on the Nazi reference. The Park Ridge-Niles school district placed Sweeney on paid leave on March 4 upon learning of the charges, district spokesman Peter Gill said. [Chicago Tribune, 3/10/2020]

Resourceful

Professor Peter Davies, 70, is an expert in tuberculosis at the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital in England -- and a lay leader of the Church of England. He admittedly also has a porn addiction, which caught up with him in late 2018, when it was discovered that Davies had been engaging in "inappropriate browsing activity" on his work computer -- including viewing someone having sex with a horse and a dog. According to Metro News, Davies told the Medical Practitioners' Tribunal Service: "In 2010 I made a confession to my wife. ... She put a filter on all my computers ... I had some counseling and I stopped for a period of two years. ... But when I came back to it, I realized that I was in really deep trouble." Davies was scheduled to go before the General Medical Council on March 11, which conceded that Davies had "shown insight and took some steps to remedy his conduct." [Metro News, 3/11/2020]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2020-05-22 News of The Weird

Fri, 22 May 2020 06:05:48 GMT

-- Dinner at the renowned three-Michelin-star Inn at Little Washington in Virginia can set diners back a pretty penny -- unless they're not eating. When the Inn opens on May 29, some of its patrons will be mannequins, reported the Associated Press, attired in fancy 1940s clothing and placed strategically at tables to help with social distancing. "We're all craving to gather and see other people right now," said Patrick O'Connell, the Inn's proprietor and chef. "They don't all necessarily need to be real people." [Associated Press, 5/14/2020]

Rebellion Served Cold

An unnamed ice cream shop in Hong Kong is offering tear gas-flavored ice cream in support of the region's pro-democracy movement, reports the Associated Press. The shop's owner explained he wanted "to make a flavor that reminds people that they still have to persist in the protest movement and don't lose their passion." "It tastes like tear gas," said customer Anita Wong. "It feels difficult to breathe at first, and it's really pungent and irritating. It makes me want to drink a lot of water immediately." The owner tried several different combinations to achieve the flavor and found that black pepper came the closest. Before coronavirus restrictions, he said the store was selling 20 to 30 scoops per day. [Associated Press, 5/14/2020]

Just Funny

University of Arizona wildlife biology professor Michael Bogan caught Saturday morning cartoons as they came to life in a video he recorded of a coyote chasing a roadrunner May 9 in downtown Tucson. Bogan could be heard on his recording saying, "There is literally a coyote chasing a roadrunner. I can't believe it. That is a straight-up cartoon." The reenactment of the classic setup between Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner caught Bogan's attention near the Santa Cruz River, Fox News reported. And, as life often imitates art, the real roadrunner escaped unharmed from the wily coyote. [Fox News, 5/15/2020]

The Passing Parade

Police responding to a reported shooting in Poughkeepsie, New York, early on May 17, arrived to find a very drunk 35-year-old man from the Bronx who claimed he'd been shot in the buttocks, which caused him to fall and hit his head. The Hudson Valley Post reported the unnamed victim was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for his head injury, but doctors could find no evidence he'd been shot. There was no bullet hole in his buttocks, X-rays showed no bullet lodged inside his buttocks, and his pants had no holes in them, police said. Witnesses nearby were also intoxicated and unable to provide any clarification. When officers pressed the victim about his story, he became uncooperative and said, "I didn't pull a gun." [Hudson Valley Post, 5/19/2020]

Homeschooling Gone Wild

Parents have lodged complaints with the Archbishop Sentamu Academy in Hull, England, after discovering their seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders were sent an exercise asking them to define pornography, soft pornography, hardcore pornography and other sensitive subjects, such as human trafficking and female genital mutilation. Hull Live reported on May 19 that the assignments were made as part of the school's sex education course, but one parent, identified as Mrs. Taylor, said if her daughter had searched these terms on the internet, the results would have "destroyed her mind" and "scarred her for life." The school responded saying, "Students were not directed to research these topics themselves on the internet because all the answers ... were contained in the teacher-produced materials we shared." Principal Chay Bell apologized: "I am genuinely sorry for any upset caused at this difficult time." [Hull Live, 5/19/2020]

Why Not?

In Japan, people are enlisting the help of a long-forgotten mythical creature believed to ward off plagues in their battle against the coronavirus. Amabie, a mermaidlike being, first appeared in Japanese folklore in 1846, when she was reported to have appeared to a government official and predicted a rich harvest and a pandemic. She told the man the pandemic could be thwarted by drawing her likeness and sharing it with as many people as possible, BBC reported on April 23. Now, images of the spirit are appearing over five continents, and in Japan, face masks and hand sanitizer with her image are popular. One long-haul driver painted her on the side of his truck, saying, "I travel all over the country with my (goods) and Amabie to pray for the disease to go away." Even the country's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has joined in, tweeting an image of Amabie and encouraging people to "prevent the spread of the virus." [BBC, 4/23/2020]

Going the Extra Mile

A nurse in the western Russian city of Tula has been disciplined for "noncompliance with the requirements for medical clothing" after photos appeared on social media of her wearing only a bra and panties under transparent PPE on a COVID-19 men-only ward. The unnamed nurse told her superiors at the Tula Regional Clinical Hospital that wearing clothing under the PPE was "too hot" and that she didn't realize the protective gear was see-through. The Scottish Sun reported on May 20 that patients didn't seem to mind, though one admitted there was "some embarrassment." [Scottish Sun, 5/20/2020]

Oops

On May 15, staff at a Hamilton, Ontario, retirement home transferred all of its residents to a hospital because of an outbreak of COVID-19. That is, except for one. The following evening, after repeated alerts from the man's family, he was discovered in his room at the Rosslyn Retirement Residence by a security officer who had been dispatched to look for him. He was "alert" and was subsequently transferred to the hospital, the CBC reported. "This was clearly not something anybody would have intended to do," and the lack of a master list of residents contributed to the snafu, said Winnie Doyle, executive vice president of clinical operations at the hospital where most of the residents were sent. "This was ... extremely distressing." [CBC, 5/19/2020]

Inexplicable

A Facebook group called "A group where we all pretend to be ants in an ant colony" began March with around 100,000 members, reported NBC. Then the world locked down, and membership soared to more than 1.7 million. Started by Tyrese Childs, 20, of Fargo, North Dakota, the group's purpose is to serve their fictional queen and search out food for her, and it is one of roughly 70 role-playing groups on Facebook. Members of the ant colony can post photos about being ants and others join in by commenting with terms such as "MUNCH" and "LIFT." One post featuring a photo of ice cream with ants crawling on it invited members to deliver some of the sweet treat to the queen and got more than 18,000 replies. "I think people are searching for something to do right now," Childs said. "You can only scroll so much on social media." [NBC, 5/12/2020]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2020-07-03 News of The Weird

Fri, 03 Jul 2020 06:08:25 GMT

Idle Hands

TikTok user Kevin Wise told KSLA he was looking for his five minutes of fame when he jumped into a fish tank at Bass Pro Shop in Bossier, Louisiana, in late June. "I said that if I got 2,000 likes, I would jump in the tank," Wise said. "I got way more than that and didn't want to be a liar." Shopper Treasure McGraw recorded video of Wise swimming around in the tank before he climbed out and ran through the store, soaking wet. "We heard a big splash, and I thought it was one of the fish," McGraw said. Initially, Bass Pro Shops said it would not press charges, but on June 26, the company filed a complaint with the Bossier City Police Department, noting that it had to empty the 13,000-gallon tank and clean it after Wise's swim. Wise wouldn't recommend the stunt to others. "Don't do spur-of-the-moment crap like I do," he warned. [KSLA, 6/26/2020]

Repeat Offender

Devin Roberts, 32, of Bardwell, Kentucky, caught the attention of local media after being arrested three times in one week. Carlisle County Sheriff's deputies first encountered Roberts on June 23, WSIL reported, when he called the sheriff's office to say he had taken a case he found next to a dumpster that turned out to contain items belonging to the city. When officers arrived, they determined the case had been removed from a city building. The following Saturday, Roberts was accused of fighting with a grocery store clerk and making lewd comments to female employees. Sheriff William Gilbert found Roberts at his home, passed out in a running vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. He had also left his 3-year-old son at home with another inebriated person. Finally, on June 28, deputies pulling over a car on suspicion of drunken driving found Roberts in the passenger seat, drunk and in possession of alcohol, which violated the terms of his earlier bonds. Roberts faces multiple charges related to all three encounters. [WSIL, 6/28/2020]

Questionable Judgments

-- The Sun reported on June 29 that two Ryanair pilots are in the (chicken) soup after they recorded themselves getting silly with a rubber chicken in the cockpit of a Boeing 737-800. In the video, thought to be recorded as passengers boarded the plane in Birmingham, England, the first officer and pilot trade off using the chicken to operate the airplane's throttle and making it squeak while mugging for the camera. Other crew members laugh in the background. A spokesperson for Ryanair commented: "These pictures and videos show crew on the ground in a parked aircraft with the engines shut down. While the images are unprofessional, the actions in them posed no risk and safety was never compromised. ... (Nevertheless) we are investigating the matter further." [The Sun, 6/29/2020]

-- Merseyside Police responding to the scene of a crash in Huyton, England, in the wee hours of June 28 say they arrived in time to witness a woman "finishing off a glass of wine," according to the Echo. In the collision, a white Mercedes had plowed into a parked Ford Focus, with both cars sustaining significant damage. Photographs from the scene showed the Mercedes to contain an empty wine bottle on the floor of the passenger seat, along with a wine glass, and another full bottle in a storage compartment. Police announced the arrest of two women, 33 and 35, on suspicion of unauthorized taking of a motor vehicle and drunk driving. [Echo, 6/29/2020]

This Old House

Firefighters were called to a home in Guilford, Connecticut, on June 29 where a resident had fallen through a wood floor in the 177-year-old house and down about 30 feet into a well, WHDH reported. The victim treaded water for about 25 minutes while responders worked to hoist them out. Apparently, the well had been covered over by an addition made to the home during a 1981 renovation. "Some of these older, historical homes may have hazards that were not updated by current code," the Guilford Police Department tweeted. The victim was taken to the hospital but had only minor injuries. [WHDH, 6/29/2020]

Chutzpah

Fisherman Dawson Cody Porter, 22, of Eagle River, Alaska, was arrested June 27 outside the Fisherman's Bar after arriving there driving a stolen fire truck with its emergency lights flashing, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Bristol Bay Borough police said Porter broke into the King Salmon Fire Station around 9 p.m., where he started the truck and drove it through the station's closed bay doors, making his way west on the Alaska Peninsula Highway about 15 miles to Naknek. Police Chief John Rhyshek said Porter caused about $10,000 in damage and put the fire truck out of commission while repairs are made to it. [Anchorage Daily News, 6/29/2020]

A Family Affair

Retired wheat farmer Peter Grundy, 84, of Denilliquin, New South Wales, Australia, has wanted to sell his apartment in Melbourne for the past eight years so he can move to a retirement home, but he's been foiled by his 49-year-old daughter, Katrina, who refuses to move out. Grundy has taken his daughter to court to evict her, Nine reported, but she won't budge, and Grundy is running out of options. "I'm sure it's taken the bit of youth I had left in me," said Grundy, describing his daughter as "very clever in legal terms." Katrina contends her parents gifted her the apartment, but a judge has dismissed that claim. Dad has spent about $70,000 (Australian) in legal fees. "She has an enormous capability to come up with things we never hear of," he said. [Nine, 6/24/2020]

Should Have Seen It Coming

Alexander Feaster, 44, in Hunter, Oklahoma, was arrested and charged in the June 28 shooting of an unnamed 26-year-old woman who had been attending a party across the street from Feaster's property. Garfield County Sheriff Jody Helm told KFOR that, on a dare, the woman had tried to steal one of two Nazi swastika flags displayed in Feaster's front yard, but "on the way back, someone hollered gun. She dropped the flag ... and shots were fired." Police executing a search warrant on the home found more than a dozen guns and ammunition. Feaster was charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon and shooting with intent to kill. The woman is expected to survive. [KFOR, 6/29/2020]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2020-11-27 News of The Weird

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 06:07:39 GMT

Inexplicable

Officers from Utah's Department of Public Safety were helping the Division of Wildlife Resources count bighorn sheep from a helicopter on Nov. 18 when a shiny object in the desert landscape caught their eye. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around," one of the biologists shouted, according to pilot Bret Hutchings. KSL reported the crew landed and found a 10- to-12-foot-high silver monolith planted in the ground and tucked into a red-rock cove. After joking about extraterrestrials, the crew decided it looked manmade and took pictures, chalking it up to "some new wave artist ... a big '2001: A Space Odyssey' fan," Hutchings mused. [KSL, 11/21/2020]

Collateral Damage

Police in Corvallis, Oregon, said Dylan Milota was high on marijuana when he crashed the 2019 Tesla S he was driving at more than 100 mph into a utility pole on Nov. 17, breaking the pole and spraying hundreds of small batteries through the windows of two nearby residences. One landed on a bed, starting a fire in the bedsheets, KMTR reported. A tire from the car struck the second story of a nearby apartment building so forcefully it broke water pipes inside the wall, destroying the bathroom on the other side and causing flooding in the lower level, police said. Citizens were warned not to pick up any stray batteries, which can stay hot for up to 24 hours and release toxic fumes. Milota fled on foot but was quickly apprehended and charged with various offenses. [KMTR, 11/19/2020]

News You Can Use

-- College student Benjamin LaRose of Millis, Massachusetts, is recovering from third-degree burns he suffered at an outdoor party with friends this fall when someone used hand sanitizer as an accelerant in the fire pit they were gathered around, Boston25 reported. "It was rather sudden how quick it reacted," LaRose said, "very much like napalm," catching his leg and shorts on fire and requiring skin grafts to treat the burns. LaRose's pediatrician, Dr. Lester Hartman, warned of the dangers of using hand sanitizer and then being exposed to open flames: "Alcohol is very volatile and explosive ... and people that are doing a barbecue or even lighting a cigarette or lighting a candle" need to let the alcohol evaporate first. Or, experts say, use soap and water. [Boston25, 10/5/2020]

-- "Do not let moose lick your car," say the flashing electronic signs along roads in Jasper (Alberta) National Park, where park spokesman Steve Young told CNN: "(Moose are) obsessed with salt. ... They usually get it from salt lakes in the park, but now they realized they can also get road salt that splashes onto cars." Officials say if moose become accustomed to licking cars, they'll lose their fear of vehicles, putting the animals in danger. In Jasper, where drivers often stop to get photos of the moose, officials recommend driving away if the animals start to approach. [CNN, 11/22/2020]

Awesome!

Josua Hutagalung, 33, was working outside his home in Sumatra in August when he got a surprise delivery: A meteorite crashed through his roof and landed outside. "When I lifted it, the stone was still warm, and I brought it into the house," the coffin-maker told local media. United Press International reported the 4.5-pound meteorite was a rare variety, valued by experts at almost $1.9 million, which attracted American expert Jared Collins, who paid more than $1 million for the rock. "I have also always wanted a daughter," Hutagalung said, "and I hope this is a sign that I will be lucky enough now to have one." He also plans to donate some of the funds to his local church's new building project. [United Press International, 11/18/2020]

Compelling Explanations

French police in Lannion, Brittany, became suspicious when they spotted a man lurking near a parked car at a time when France's COVID-19 lockdown rules required him to be at home on Nov. 20. Upon questioning, the 39-year-old unnamed man produced the legally required "attestation," including his full name, the time he left home and his written-in reason for being out: to "smash a guy's face in." Local police chief Daniel Kerdraon said, "He was trying to fulfill the letter of the law, in his own way," The Guardian reported, "but we told him his reason for going out was not valid." He was fined not only for violating the curfew but also for being drunk in public. [The Guardian, 11/23/2020]

Bright Idea

Matthew Piercey, 44, has been indicted on 31 federal felony counts related to a suspected Ponzi scheme, but when FBI agents tried to arrest him in Redding, California, on Nov. 16, he took off, authorities said. NBC News reported agents followed him to Lake Shasta, where Piercey pulled a $1,200 Yamaha 350LI Seascooter out of his vehicle, then disappeared into the frigid water, spending about 25 minutes "out of sight underwater where law enforcement could only see bubbles," Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Hales wrote in court papers. The agents waited him out and arrested him when he resurfaced. Piercey faces up to 20 year in prison if convicted. [NBC News, 11/17/2020]

The Way the World Works

Evidence of election rigging in New Zealand's Bird of the Year competition has set organizers all atwitter, NPR reported. Officials at Forest & Bird, a conservation organization, noticed that more than 1,500 votes in the annual event had come from one email address on Nov. 9, all in favor of the spotted kiwi. "That is an amazing bird," spokeswoman Laura Keown said, "but ... these votes had to be disallowed, and they've been taken out of the competition." The disqualification cleared the way for the competition's eventual winner: the kakapo, or moss chicken, a rare nocturnal bird and the world's only flightless parrot. [NPR, 11/14/2020]

Signs of the Times

-- Alexios Gerakis, 37, a candlemaker in Thessaloniki, Greece, has updated his Santa Claus candles for 2020 with blue surgical masks covering the big elf's beard. "Because of the times, we are trying to convey a message that health comes first, then everything else," Gerakis told Reuters Television. His snowmen candles also sport masks. [Reuters, 11/18/2020]

-- And in Lajosmizse, Hungary, confectioner Laszlo Rimoczi can't keep up with the orders after he added tiny marzipan surgical masks to his chocolate Santas. He has simplified the design, Reuters reported, and has increased production to about 100 Santas a day in his rural workshop. Father Christmas "will have to wear a mask because Santa has to show a good example to people," Rimoczi said. [Reuters, 11/21/2020]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

2020-12-25 News of The Weird

Fri, 25 Dec 2020 06:05:43 GMT

2021-01-01 News of The Weird

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 06:07:45 GMT

High Anxiety

As Delta Flight 462, en route to Atlanta, began to taxi away from the gate at La Guardia Airport on Dec. 21, passenger Brian Plummer noticed a man and woman with a service dog changing seats several times on the less-than-full plane, he told The New York Times, and heard the man say, "If I sit down, I'll freak out." Plummer soon felt the plane come to a stop, and flight attendants revealed why: The man, Antonio Murdock, 31, of Florida, had forced open an emergency exit door, causing a slide to activate, and picking up the dog, slid down to the ground with the woman, Brianna Greco, 23, according to a complaint filed in Queens Criminal Court, where the two were arraigned on a number of mischief and endangerment charges. "This doesn't happen every day at the airport," said Lenis Valens, a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. No one was injured in the incident, but the flight was delayed for hours. [New York Times, 12/22/2020]

Awesome!

Didn't get what you wanted for Christmas? The North Carolina Department of Transportation put nine vintage train cars up for auction on Dec. 15 that it purchased from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus after it ceased operation in 2017, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. NCDOT bought the cars for $383,000 to refurbish for use between Raleigh and Charlotte, but federal grants have enabled the department to buy new cars instead. "These cars have a great and amazing history," said Jason Orthner, director of the NCDOT rail division. Bidding continues until Jan. 4, but at press time, there were no bids on the cars. [Raleigh News & Observer, 12/21/2020]

Surprise!

Andrea Ellis of East Moline, Illinois, was wrapping presents on Dec. 19 when she opened a package of garden flags she intended to give her grandmother and noticed something extra in the bottom of the padded envelope. It turned out to be a biohazard bag containing a Virginia woman's COVID-19 test. Ellis told the Quad City Times that when she failed to reach the woman, she called police, who sent an officer to retrieve it, but 15 minutes later, he returned with the bag, saying, "I was told to bring it back to you." A representative of the Rock Island County Health Department picked up the sample the next day and will try to return it to the Virginia patient. Ellis has also heard from a vice president at Kohl's, where she bought the flags, who said the company is working hard to find out what happened and prevent it from happening again. [Quad City Times, 12/20/2020]

Perspective

Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, is asking luxury goods company Louis Vuitton to stop selling a yoga mat made partially of leather, calling the product "hugely insensitive" because Hindus regard cows as sacred. In a Dec. 22 statement, Zed said the idea "of yoga ... being performed on a mat made from a killed cow is painful," The Associated Press reported. The mat retails for $2,390 online; Paris-based Louis Vuitton has not responded. [Associated Press via WJLA, 12/22/2020]

Great Art

-- French artist Gaetan Marron presented a new performance piece in December titled "Non-Essential," in which he locked himself for 10 days inside a clear Plexiglas cube at a shopping mall in Marseille. Euronews reported the artist described his work as an attempt to "bring culture, which clearly saved us during this lockdown, back to the center of the subject." The cube, large enough for Marron to stand up in, also contained a few nonessential items, including a TV and coffee machine; Marron left the cube to use the restroom. "I have the feeling that ... we miss what is really the real human contact ... we have really lost social links in this period," Marron said. [Euronews, 12/12/2020]

-- Police in Perth, Western Australia, are asking for the public's help in locating a thin, well-dressed man with olive skin and short black hair who was captured on surveillance cameras using an electric bicycle to draw lewd pictures of a penis on a city sidewalk on Nov. 30. "The man has appeared to spin the wheels ... in order to draw explicit images with the rubber from the tires," Crimestoppers WA announced. A police Facebook post about the incident drew scorn, news.com.au reported: "Whatever his punishment," one user wrote, "I'm sure he will have to write it out on the board 100 times at recess." [news.com.au, 12/22/2020]

Oops!

The 69 passengers who boarded Buddha Air Flight U4505 in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Dec. 18, expecting to fly to Janakpur, about 140 miles southeast, were surprised when they arrived instead in Pokhara, about 125 miles in the opposite direction. Weather and flight delays may have been factors, an airline spokesperson told The Kathmandu Post, resulting in "a miscommunication between the ground staff and the pilots." The passengers were promptly flown to their preferred destination a few hours behind schedule, and Buddha Air Managing Director Birendra Bahadur Basnet announced that a committee has been formed to investigate the incident. [The Kathmandu Post, 12/20/2020]

The Passing Parade

Police were called to a home in Tijuana, Mexico, to break up the fight that broke out after a man identified only as Jorge discovered a tunnel leading from his home to that of a neighbor, Alberto, who had been having an affair with Jorge's wife. Trouble began, reported the Daily Mail, when Jorge arrived home early from work and surprised his wife and Alberto, a bricklayer who was also married. Alberto hid behind a couch before disappearing down the tunnel, which appeared in photos to be professionally constructed. Jorge followed Alberto down the tunnel, eventually confronting him in Alberto's house. [Daily Mail, 12/29/2020]

News That Sounds Like a Joke

Micheline Frederick of Queens, New York, is still recovering from the wounds she suffered in what she described as a brawl with a squirrel on the front stoop of her home just before Christmas. "This was an MMA cage match!" she told WLNY. "And I lost!" Several neighborhood residents have reported run-ins with aggressive squirrels, including Vinati Singh, whose husband has been attacked twice, and Licia Wang, who was bitten on the arm while walking home. A trapper has been hired to capture the rodents, and while squirrels are rarely found to have rabies, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Health is advising victims to contact their doctor if they've been bitten. [CBS2 New York, 12/31/2020]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.