Frequent Flyer
Mittens the cat gets around, to wit: On Jan. 13, the 8-year-old Maine coon was booked on a one-way flight from Christchurch, New Zealand, to Melbourne, Australia, Sky News reported. But in Melbourne, Mittens was never unloaded from the baggage compartment. Instead, three hours later, the airline revealed that Mittens had flown back to New Zealand — about 7.5 hours in the air. Owner Margo Neas was told a wheelchair in the cargo area had obscured Mittens’ cage from the baggage handler’s view. “It was not a great start to our new life in Melbourne because we didn’t have the family, we weren’t complete,” said Neas. After arriving back in Christchurch, Mittens was loaded onto another flight to Melbourne, where she was reunited with her family. She “ran into my arms and just snuggled up in here,” Neas said. “It was just such a relief.”
Unclear on the Concept
Drug counselor Alvin Lewis Jr., 54, was arrested in Wappingers Falls, New York, on Jan. 14 after he sold crack cocaine to undercover agents on multiple occasions, Mid-Hudson News reported. Community members had alerted the Dutchess County Drug Task Force that Lewis was selling drugs while using multiple aliases. He worked the overnight hours at an inpatient recovery facility, Arms Acres. After executing a warrant, agents discovered crack packaged and ready for sale in his home. He was held in the county jail without bail.
Awwwww!
A sunfish at the Kaikyokan Aquarium in Shimonoseki, Japan, has a new lease on life — or at least, new “friends” to share it with. The New York Post reported that the sunfish, who is the sole occupant of its tank, became depressed and stopped eating after the aquarium closed for renovations in December. “One of the staff members said, ‘Maybe it’s lonely because it misses the visitors,’” said an aquarium worker. “We attached uniforms of the staff members to the tank with a little bit of hope. Then, the next day, it was in good health again!” Workers say the sunfish tracks the uniforms and face cutouts with its eyes as it swims by, and those still in the building wave to it every time they pass the tank.
News You Can Use
A23a, an enormous iceberg that broke away from Antarctica almost 40 years ago, has been spinning around the Antarctic Ocean for a year, caught in a vortex, the Mirror reported. But now it’s on the move again, headed roughly toward South Georgia, a British-owned island that is largely uninhabited. A23a, at more than 1,200 feet thick and 1,400 square miles, can be seen from space. Sea captain Simon Wallace, stationed on the Pharos vessel in South Georgia, told the BBC: “Icebergs are inherently dangerous. I would be extraordinarily happy if it just completely missed us.” A collision could threaten wildlife on the island, including penguins, seals, and sea birds. The iceberg’s fate depends on currents and whether it gets “stuck” on the continental shelf around the island.
The Golden Age of Air Travel
On Jan. 17, as a Ryanair flight prepared to leave Lanzarote, Spain, and fly to Santiago de Compostela, a male passenger insisted that he was a United Nations diplomat and had a seat in the front row of the aircraft, the Mirror reported. When flight attendants asked to see his boarding pass, he said his friend had it. Once he was removed from the front row, he tried to sit in an exit row. An airport worker boarded the plane to say that “there was a ticket that hadn’t scanned properly,” and that’s when the flight crew decided he had to go. Police boarded the plane and had to drag the man off the aircraft as he said, “I have paid to travel” and “I am not going to accept this.” The flight was delayed about 40 minutes.
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NEWS OF THE WEIRD
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