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News of the Weird: Week of 07/17/25

Questionable Judgments

• Well, it’s that time of year again, when people with less sense than animals head into the wild and carelessly approach large, dangerous wildlife. So it was in Yellowstone National Park last month, when 1) a 30-year-old New Jersey man was gored by a bison on June 10 after getting too close, and 2) bystanders caught a video of a woman walking a toddler right up to a grazing bison at the same park on June 2, according to KDVR-TV. The New Jersey man was treated at the scene for minor injuries. The bison, thankfully, ignored the adult and toddler. “Bison will defend their space when threatened and have injured more people in Yellowstone than any other animal,” wildlife officials said. [KDVR, 6/12/2025]

• Fox2-TV in Detroit reported on June 9 about a Zoom court hearing that went viral. The hearing was overseen by 36th District Court Judge Sean Perkins, who was talking with Asja Outerbridge about her misdemeanor open container violation. On the Zoom video, Outerbridge could be seen wearing a robe and making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while she spoke to the court. “Put whatever you’re trying to prepare down,” Perkins instructed her. “Put your proper dress on. I don’t do robes.” Outerbridge explained that her 3-year-old daughter was home sick from school and the sandwich was for her, then showed the judge that she was dressed in a T-shirt and pants. But he wasn’t having it: “Bye, Ms. Outerbridge!” he said before booting her off the call. Outerbridge said she “could have came dressed better and more prepared. I do genuinely, with a serious face, apologize to the judge.” [Fox2, 6/9/2025]

Kindness Counts

A woman stopped an Osceola County (Florida) Sheriff’s deputy on June 9 to report that her brother had been stabbed with a machete, WESH-TV reported. Oh, also, that the assailant was driving the victim to the hospital. Sure enough, officers found Angel Ramos-Arce, 35, at the hospital, where his truck yielded the victim’s blood and the machete. The two men had gotten into an altercation over Ramos-Arce repeatedly harassing the victim’s sister at the Circle K where she worked. He was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon; it’s unclear whether he’ll get any brownie points for transporting the victim to the hospital. [WESH, 6/10/2025]

Bright Idea

Tiron Alexander, 35, of Florida is facing up to 30 years in federal prison after being found guilty on June 5 of wire fraud and unlawfully entering a secure airport area under false pretenses. CBS News reported that between 2018 and 2024, Alexander falsely claimed to be a flight attendant with seven different airlines to take advantage of free flights. He created about 30 different badges and boarded 34 flights without paying. He will be sentenced on Aug. 25. [CBS News, 6/12/2025]

Heh, Heh, They Said ‘Naked’

At a public bathhouse in Incheon, South Korea, stickers in the elevator direct guests to the men’s or women’s baths, which are on different floors. The Korea JoongAng Daily reported that on May 27, a woman in her 20s entered the elevator around 2 a.m. and pressed the button corresponding to the women’s bath, but when she exited the elevator, naked, she entered the men’s bath. CCTV footage showed two men, believed to be in their 20s, switching the stickers in the elevator around 11 p.m. Police said they are tracking the suspects. [Korea JoongAng Daily, 6/12/2025]

Saw That Coming

The Madison (Wisconsin) Fire Department responded to a boozy blaze on June 15, WMTV reported. Someone reported an oven fire around 6 p.m.; the caller told firefighters they had been cooking a turkey for about eight minutes when the oven door blew open. First responders removed the oven from the apartment, and the fire went out. They later learned the turkey had been marinated in tequila, and they believe the accumulated vapors from the alcohol were not properly vented from the oven, which caused the fire. No one was hurt (except the turkey). [WMTV, 6/16/2025]

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News of the Weird: Week of 07/10/25

News That Sounds Like a Joke

Police in Jacksonville, Florida, are looking for a suspect who “fondled” a $650 ferret for some time at a Petland store, then shoved the animal down his shorts, and walked out. The Smoking Gun reported that on May 27, the man “browsed the ferret section of the store” before he left, holding “the crotch area of his shorts to support the ferret.” A Petland manager tried to chase him but couldn’t get the license plate number of the van he was driving. [The Smoking Gun, 5/29/2025]

Unclear on the Concept

At Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on May 17, a lost DoorDash driver made it past a security gate and onto the tarmac, driving a significant distance before being stopped by airport personnel, WKRC-TV reported. The 36-year-old driver stopped near a grounded aircraft and showed the food receipt and meal he was trying to deliver; he was released without any citations. However, the security employee at the gate was relieved of her duties after letting the car pass through her post. [WKRC, 6/7/2025]

That’s Punny

In London’s Brockwell Park, the annual Lambeth Country Show kicked off on June 7 with livestock competitions, sheep shearing and, most notably, a vegetable sculpture contest, the Associated Press reported. “Every year, this is what we get so excited about, is the vegetable sculptures,” said fair-goer Maddy Luxon. “We love the political ones.” And her friend Marek Szandrowski added, “The puns.” For example, one sculpture featured Catholic cardinals made of corn: “Cornclave.” Another called “Cauli Parton” was shown in a scene from “9 to Chive.” President Donald Trump was depicted in butternut squash form. [AP, 6/8/2025]

To Your Point

Lake of the Isles, a neighborhood in Minneapolis, marks the start of summer by sharpening a pencil — a 20-foot-tall wooden pencil sculpted from a tree damaged in a storm several years ago. The Associated Press reported on June 7 that residents John and Amy Higgins wanted to give the tree new life, so they enlisted wood sculptor Curtis Ingvoldstad to fashion a No. 2 pencil. “Why a pencil? Everybody uses a pencil,” said Amy. Every year, they sharpen it with a custom-made sharpener carried up to the point on scaffolding, taking off 3 to 10 inches. The Higginses know that one day, their pencil will be a stub, but they’re okay with that. They just want the ritual to pull the community together. The party includes entertainment and music, and people dress as pencils or erasers. [AP, 6/7/2025]

The Golden Age of Air Travel

At Milan’s Malpensa Airport on June 8, a Chinese woman went full-on toddler tantrum after being told her carry-on bag was too heavy to fly, news.com.au reported. The woman was boarding a flight when staff tried to check her carry-on suitcase, but when they told her it was over the weight limit, she hit the floor, rolling around, stamping her feet, and yelling. Authorities eventually removed her from the flight, and she later rebooked after calming down. Videos of her antics have since gone viral, provoking comments such as “This is shameless and disgraceful behavior” and “This is so embarrassing.” [news.com.au, 6/11/2025]

But Why?

A woman shopping “in aisle 18 at Sam’s Club” in Orlando, Florida, got an eyeful on May 30 when she caught Patrick Mitchell, 70, urinating on two pallets of canned Spam and Vienna sausages, The Smoking Gun reported. Police said the witness snapped a photo and reported the incident to store employees, who confirmed that the pallets, worth $10,584.54, had been “contaminated with bodily fluids.” After relieving himself, Mitchell strolled around the store and tested some patio furniture before checking out and leaving. Mitchell was arrested at his home in The Villages, a retirement community, and charged with disorderly conduct and criminal mischief. [The Smoking Gun, 6/11/2025]

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News of the Weird: Week of 07/03/25

Florida

No Longer Weird: alligators in Florida. BUT this story caught our eye: Not one but two motorcyclists were injured on May 31 in Volusia County, Florida, after they hit an alligator crossing I-4, WFOL-TV reported. Cameron Gilmore, 67, said he and Brandi Goss, 25, were riding with a larger group when he saw a “big blob in the road.” Goss elaborated: “I just seen something and … it was too late,” she said. Goss sustained a concussion and cracked wrist bone; Gilmore had a broken foot and toes. The alligator’s fate is unknown. [WFOL, 6/2/2025]

Animal Antics

A 30-year-old elephant named Plai Biang Lek escaped Khao Yai National Park and went shopping on June 2 in Bangkok, Thailand, the Associated Press reported. The enormous male pachyderm ducked through the door of a grocery store and helped himself to snacks while park workers tried to shoo him out. When he was ready to go, he backed out the door, still holding a bag of treats with his trunk. The only damage to the shop was mud tracks on the floor and ceiling. Kamploy Kakaew, the owner, said he ate nine bags of sweet rice crackers, a sandwich, and some dried bananas. This isn’t his first offense: He’s been known to enter homes in search of food. [AP, 6/4/2025]

The Continuing Crisis

The Montclair Elementary School in Oakland, California, is celebrating 100 years, and as such, the school’s PTA historian dug back into the archives to find historical items for the 2025 yearbook. But, as ABC7-TV reported, she might have been a little lax in her editing. One photo in the yearbook distributed to kindergartners through fifth graders shows a picture from the 1940 carnival, held annually at the school. “Boy and Girl Scouts will have charge of booths and many attractions,” read the caption, before providing one example: a game named after a racial slur. What?! Principal David Kloker sent an apology to families and suggested parents remove that page or put a sticker, supplied by the school, over the photo. The historian explained that she “made the critical error of only reading the first paragraph before including it.” The PTA will offer refunds for the yearbook to families. The historian said she will pass the baton to another volunteer for next year. [ABC7, 6/2/2025]

Bright Idea

Here’s one way to disrupt government: At a Mecklenburg County (North Carolina) commission meeting on June 3, a protester released an “unknown” number of crickets, WBTV reported. “She dropped something from the balcony,” one commissioner said. Crickets were “everywhere on the walls, on the stairs,” and “in the balcony,” commissioners said. Board Chair Mark Jerrell stopped the meeting, saying, “It’s shameful. Shameful. You can leave, thank you very much, we appreciate it.” After protesters were removed, the meeting continued, but commissioners were forced to take a 10-minute recess so the environmental services staff could come in and vacuum up the critters. Jerrell said the commission was familiar with the protesters but that they lost all credibility with the stunt. [WBTV, 6/4/2025]

Weird in the Wild

On May 29 at Wekiva Island, Florida, one man was transported to the hospital after suffering a bite from … nope, not an alligator, but rather an “aggressive” otter. WSVN-TV reported that after biting the victim, the otter ran off, and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers couldn’t find it. Megan Stolen, a senior scientist at the Blue World Research Institute, advised area residents to keep their distance. She said the otter may have felt the person was too close or it could be suffering from rabies, which makes them more aggressive. [WSVN, 6/4/2025]

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News of the Weird: Week of 06/26/25

Trouble Brewing

ChatGPT can perform many impressive tasks — sometimes with amusing results — but it may need to stay out of tasseography. Greek City Times reported on April 26 that a Greek woman recently filed for divorce from her husband after the OpenAI chatbot asserted that the man was having an affair and that his mistress was intent on destroying their home, a conclusion the bot came to upon “reading” the coffee grounds in the couple’s mugs in a photo the woman uploaded to the app. “I laughed it off as nonsense,” the husband said, “but she took it seriously. She asked me to leave, told our kids we were getting divorced, and then I got a call from a lawyer. That’s when I realized this wasn’t just a phase.” The husband’s lawyer maintains that ChatGPT’s claims have no legal standing. 

[Greek City Times, 4/26/25]

Wait, What?

Turkmenistan’s top tourist attraction is the Gateway to Hell, a huge gas leak that has been burning since 1971 in the Karakum Desert, Yahoo! News reported on June 5. The fire started when Soviet scientists accidentally drilled into an underground pocket of gas and then ignited it, starting a blaze that could be seen from several kilometers away. Officials announced this week that the fire has been reduced three-fold. “Today only a faint source of combustion remains,” said Irina Luryeva, a director at the state-owned energy company Türkmengaz. Wells have been drilled around the site to capture the methane from the leak, she said. 

[Yahoo! News, 6/5/2025]

Great Art

Amsterdam has out-Amsterdammed itself with a new exhibit at the Rijksmuseum, the Associated Press reported on June 3. As part of an exhibition called “Safe Sex?” the museum is displaying a condom from 1830 that is enhanced with erotic art. The prophylactic is made from a sheep’s appendix and, the museum says, “depicts both the playful and the serious side of sexual health” with its image of a nun and three clergymen. The phrase “This is my choice” is written in French along its length, which may refer to the Renoir painting The Judgment of Paris. Historians believe the condom might be a souvenir from a brothel. You can see it until the end of November. 

[AP, 6/2/2025]

Saw That Coming

After performers debuted Westphalia Side Story on Paterborn Cathedral’s altar in Berlin, Germany, on May 15, more than 22,000 people signed a petition demanding that the archbishop apologize and reconsecrate the cathedral. The Associated Press reported that the production included a song and dance which featured two shirtless men and one woman displaying raw, plucked chickens wearing diapers while singing “Fleish ist Fleish” (“Meat is Meat”). The song was part of a larger production celebrating the 1,250th anniversary of Westphalia, Germany, a region in the country’s northwest. The finished show will premiere in September. 

[AP, 5/30/2025]

Least Competent Criminal

Richard Pruneda, 42, of Edinburg, Texas, managed to get himself arrested twice over the Memorial Day holiday in Eddyville, Kentucky, the West Kentucky Star reported. The Lyon County Sheriff was called on May 25 to a business where Pruneda was allegedly intoxicated and making “alarming” statements to an employee. The next day, after bonding out of jail, Pruneda called the sheriff’s office to ask about retrieving personal items from his impounded car. When the officer picked up and inventoried the items, he found cocaine in the trunk. Eddyville Police assisted as they went to Pruneda’s motel and arrested him for a second time. 

[West Kentucky Star, 6/3/2025]

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News of the Weird: Week of 06/19/25

You Again?

Rescues are not uncommon on Mount Fuji, but one climber may have used up all the good will of the Shizuoka prefectural police, who were called to save the man near the mountain’s peak twice in a span of four days. The imprudent adventurer, a 27-year-old Chinese student living in Japan, began suffering from altitude sickness and was airlifted to safety after calling authorities on April 22; the Associated Press reported that he returned to the mountain on April 26 “to look for his cellphone and other belongings left behind,” according to police. When another climber found him suffering altitude sickness and unable to move, authorities were called in to rescue him once again. There is no penalty for climbing Mount Fuji during the offseason, and no charge associated with being rescued — even twice in the same week. [The Associated Press, 4/28/2025]

Lay Off Me, I’m Starving

Anyone familiar with A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories knows bears love honey and will go to great lengths for the sweet stuff. So it’s not exactly surprising that Jeff Bonner of Bazetta, Ohio, recently caught a bear on the motion-activated cameras he had set up to protect his apiary. What was surprising, Bonner told WFMJ-TV, was what little remained in the aftermath of the bear’s late-night snack attack. “He ate the frame, the wax that was there, and the bees,” Bonner said. “He literally ate a whole hive of bees.” Bonner estimated the hive had held some 10,000-50,000 bees. He expects the bear to return to the newly found food source, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources recommended that he increase the apiary’s security with more cameras and an electric fence. [WFMJ-TV, 5/8/2025]

That’s a First

Team members at New Zealand’s department of conservation recently bore witness for the first time ever to the egg-laying process of Powelliphanta augusta, a large, carnivorous, hermaphrodite snail that mates and lays eggs through a hole in its neck. Ingrid Gruner, the department’s regional biodiversity liaison, told The Guardian that the team had “struck lucky” when video taken during a routine weight check of one of the snails captured the moment the small white egg emerged. “In all the years we’ve been doing that [work], we’ve never encountered it,” Gruner said. The snails are a threatened species, and the department has been caring for several thousand snails and eggs since 2006, when Solid Energy coal mining began an operation in the snails’ sole habitat. [The Guardian, 5/7/2025]

She Has the High Ground

A judge in London, England, recently awarded Lorna Rooke, former training and practice supervisor for the National Health Service’s Blood and Transplant division, a whopping $38,729 for being compared to Darth Vader, The Guardian reported on May 7. In 2021, Rooke and her co-workers were asked to participate in a team-building exercise featuring a Star Wars-themed questionnaire that would reveal which character from the sci-fi fantasy franchise their personality most resembled. Rooke didn’t participate but found out later that co-workers had filled it out for her, and the result came up Sith Lord. Though the quiz described Vader as a “very focused individual,” Rooke called the comparison “highly unflattering” and said it made her “super unpopular” around the office, leading her to resign a month later. [The Guardian, 5/7/2025]

Taking It For the Team

In an effort to build up an immunity to the venom of lethal snakes, herpetologist Tim Friede, 57, of Wisconsin allowed himself to be bitten over 200 times and self-administered more than 650 venom injections over 18 years while steadfastly documenting the effects, The New York Times reported on May 2. Now, as described in a study published in the journal Cell last week, scientists have used the unique antibodies in Friede’s blood to create a drug that fully protected mice from the venom of 13 deadly snake species. Researchers hope Friede’s work (and blood) will lead to the creation of a universal anti-venom. “I’m really proud that I can do something in life for humanity,” Friede told the Times. [New York Times, 4/25/2025]

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News of the Weird: Week of 06/12/25

Rare Sight

Customers at the upscale Treehouse Studios hair salon in the Hollywood Hills had a hair-raising experience on April 26, when a coyote climbed onto the building’s roof and lapped at water that had collected in the skylight, in full view of the patrons below. Owner Travis Ogletree shared footage of the unusual encounter on TikTok, with the caption, “Just another day at the Treehouse.” USA Today noted that while it is not uncommon for coyotes to adapt to and survive in urban areas like the Hollywood Hills, it is unusual for the animals to be in populated areas during daylight.

Look Out Below

Carletta Andrews was just about to take a sip from her margarita at Patron Mexican Restaurant and Cantina in Sandston, Virginia, on April 16 when something struck her on the forehead, reported WRIC 8News. “I looked at my husband like what was that,” Andrews said. “When I turned around, I saw the snake in my margarita.” The baby snake, which had fallen from the ceiling, wriggled in the glass and wrapped itself around the straw as restaurant workers attempted to remove it with a stick; finally, another customer was able to grab the snake and set it free outside. The staff offered to move Andrews to a booth, but the shaken patron chose to leave instead. The owner of the restaurant suspects the snake entered through the AC unit. But Andrews was left to wonder: “If that was the baby … is the mom there?”

Seen It All

Police in Akron, Ohio, caught body cam video of a bandit behind the wheel with a meth pipe in his mouth during a traffic stop on May 5. But Chewy, the bandit in question, did not face arrest, because Chewy is a pet raccoon. WLWT 5 reported that as the driver of the vehicle, Victoria Vidal, 55, was detained for having an active warrant and driving with a suspended license, officers returned to Vidal’s vehicle to find Chewy in the driver’s seat with the drug paraphernalia. “While our officers are trained to expect the unexpected, finding a raccoon holding a meth pipe is a first!” the Springfield Township Police Department said in a Facebook post, adding, “No raccoons were hurt or injured in this incident.”

Sweet Tooth

Holly LaFavers of Lexington, Kentucky, tried to cancel an Amazon order placed by her second-grader son, Liam, over the weekend, but it was too late; when the pair arrived home on May 5, WKYT reported, Liam yelled, “My suckers are here!” and LaFavers was greeted by 22 large cases of Dum-Dums lollipops lining her front porch. Liam, who placed the order while entertaining himself with his mother’s phone, actually had ordered 30 cases — each containing 2,340 lollipops, for a total cost of more than $4,000 — but eight of the cases wouldn’t scan and were returned to sender. “He told me that he wanted to have a carnival,” LaFavers said, “and he was ordering the Dum-Dums as prizes for his carnival.” Amazon fully refunded the order, and LaFavers vowed to change the access settings on her phone.

Joyride

A stray bull in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India, became an internet sensation when CCTV caught the bold bovine taking a spontaneous ride on a motorized scooter. In the video, which was posted on X and reported on by NDTV, the bull casually strolled down a street before taking an interest in a parked scooter. As a prescient mother scooped up her child and ducked out of harm’s way, the bull hopped onto the scooter with its front legs, somehow perfectly balancing the scooter and setting it in motion. The ride covered about 50 feet before the scooter fell over and the bull nonchalantly walked away. One user on X summed it up: “No one would believe if it wasn’t captured by CCTV.”

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News of the Weird: Week of 06/05/25

Saw That Coming

Hey, they say you shouldn’t let coming into money change you, right? On April 28, James Farthing, 50, of Kentucky, was presented with an oversized check for winning the $167.3 million Powerball jackpot. The next day, Farthing was arrested on felony and misdemeanor charges after an incident at the TradeWinds Resort in St. Pete Beach, Florida, that included kicking a sheriff’s deputy in the face and attempting to flee. The Smoking Gun reported that Farthing, an ex-con whose record includes convictions for theft, drug trafficking, and engaging in an organized criminal syndicate, got into a drunken argument with a male patron at the resort and punched that man in the face, then assaulted the deputy as he attempted to break up the fight. The police report said Farthing “appeared very intoxicated and was yelling, screaming, and making incoherent statements.” The newly minted millionaire’s bond was set at only $10,000, but he remains behind bars on felony and misdemeanor charges for violating his parole.

Shell on Wheels

When staff at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax, Nova Scotia, recently noticed that Root, a wood turtle who has been in captivity for 20 years, was beginning to show signs of wear on his bottom shell after years of walking on a front leg that is missing a foot, it was time to get creative. CBC/Radio-Canada reported that’s when naturalist interpreter Tessa Biesterfeld, inspired by a recent Lego exhibit at the museum, crafted a wheeled platform made of Legos to fit under the turtle and enable him to tootle around while saving wear and tear on his underside. “We thought that’d be so great because we know it’s nontoxic,” said Biesterfeld. “We know that we can replace the parts as we need, and should his shell change or grow, we can change the shape and size of that. It’s very modular.”

Tough Cookies

As Kristen Savage was walking her dog near her home in Sanford, Florida, on April 25, the pair were beset upon by a black bear, WKMG News 6 reported. While the bear made every effort to snatch Ringo, a 13-pound Chihuahua mix, away from his owner, Savage spun around, dangling Ringo in the air, and fell to the ground before using the only weapon she had at hand: a bag of cookies she had just been given by her mother, who lives down the street. “I whacked the bear across the face with it, and then I threw it,” said Savage. “She put her head down and sniffed the cookies and we ran to the front door.” Both owner and pet — as well as the bear — were safe after the run-in. Bear encounters are fairly common in Savage’s Markham Woods neighborhood, with more than 300 reported so far this year; Savage herself has doorbell video of a bear on her front steps. “From now on, I will always carry something,” Savage said. “An air horn, whistle, something that can scare her off.”

Déjà Vu

Ewan Valentine, 36, of Solihull, England, was devastated to discover on the morning of Feb. 28 that his beloved black 2016 Honda Civic Type-R had been stolen overnight. Determined to replace it with an identical ride, Valentine told the BBC that he searched until he found a perfect match — same color and year, even the same custom exhaust system, but obviously a different VIN number — for sale from a Honda garage, and shelled out $26,000 for it. But as he drove it home, he noticed several familiar artifacts in the car, including candy bar wrappers and a tent peg; investigating further, Valentine found that the car’s GPS had logged stops at his home and those of his partner, his parents, and his partner’s parents. Technicians at a Honda dealership were able to confirm that the VIN was fake and that Valentine had, in fact, purchased his own stolen car. The police are working with Valentine’s insurance company to straighten the whole situation out.

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News of the Weird: Week of 05/29/25

They Did What?

One of the latest advancements in the field of nanomedicine was announced near the end of March in the journal Nano Letters, and it came with a bit of a hardcore theme. Vice reported on April 28 that researchers in China had dehydrated and cooled tardigrades, the famously resilient micro-animals known colloquially as water bears, and used an electron beam and a coating of a compound called anisole to tattoo microscopic patterns on their bodies. According to the abstract, the experiment “has potential applications in cryopreservation, biomedicine, and astrobiology.” Forty percent of the creatures survived the process, and the researchers hope to improve the survival rate in future tests. 

Awwwww!

Pat DeReamer of Louisville, Kentucky, and Mary Wheaton go waaaaay back — all the way to 1944 in Indianapolis, when Wheaton gave DeReamer a birthday card for her 14th birthday on April 1. When Wheaton’s birthday came around a month later, DeReamer added her own message to the same card and gave it back to Wheaton. For the last 81 years, they’ve been sending the card back and forth, WLKY-TV reported. “We never said, ‘We’re going to do this,’” DeReamer said. “It just happened.” Now in their 90s, the old friends don’t get together as much, but they remain “really good friends.”

The Passing Parade

• Delhi, India’s “Potty Badmash,” a 27-year-old pickpocket named Deepak, was finally arrested on March 24, The Times of India reported. Deepak is famous for committing thefts and knife-related crimes, then soiling his pants, creating a stench so terrible that it kept officers away from him. This time, however, they armed themselves with gloves and masks. “Team gave him chase and pinned him down,” said an officer. “As expected, Deepak deployed his famous ‘filth plan’ but the officers … thwarted his last-ditch effort and took him in custody.” When they searched him, they found a knife, which Deepak described as his “lucky charm.” During questioning he admitted to multiple mobile phone thefts and other crimes.

• A 56-year-old Warsaw, Poland, cleaner is facing up to 20 years behind bars after she was caught putting cleaning fluid in a co-worker’s drinks, Oddity Central reported on March 28. The 51-year-old victim visited the doctor with stomach pains and was told her internal injuries were consistent with poisoning. She couldn’t think of anything that might be causing her discomfort, but then remembered that her morning cup of tea had tasted odd in recent weeks. She installed a hidden camera and saw that her co-worker was spraying corrosive substances in her tea and on her soda bottle. The perpetrator had been talking with another woman while poisoning the drinks; both of them said they just didn’t like the victim. The accomplice could get three years in prison.

That’s Some Reach

Earth-shaking is one thing, but space-shaking? A new study published April 3 in the journal AGU Advances concluded that the January 2022 eruption of the underwater volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, which registered as one of the most powerful in modern history and blasted ash and gas 31 miles into the atmosphere, actually produced secondary gravity waves that reached the edge of space — you know, where the satellites we rely on for GPS technology, communication, and tracking the weather are in orbit. MSN reported that the findings are “prompting scientists to reassess the potential impacts of volcanic activity on our technological infrastructure.”

Nightmare Travel

A recent Southwest Airlines flight was met by law enforcement after landing in Chicago, where police removed a passenger who had stripped naked and defecated on her seat, NBC Chicago reported on April 25. The plane was taken out of service to be cleaned. Southwest, just the latest airline to be put in the unenviable position of apologizing for the bizarre behavior of an unruly passenger, issued a statement: “Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees, and we appreciate the professionalism of our flight crew.”

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News of the Weird: Week of 05/22/25

Surprise!

When a babysitter in Great Bend, Kansas, helpfully looked under the bed to check for “monsters” on March 24, she actually found one, NBC News reported. The Barton County Sheriff’s Office was called to the home, where the babysitter had come face-to-face with a man hiding under the child’s bed, around 10:30 p.m. After a short altercation with the babysitter, the man fled the home. The suspect, who was captured the next morning, was Martin Villalobos Jr., 27, who once lived in the house. Villalobos was under a protection order and had been warned to stay away from the home. He was arrested on charges of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary, aggravated battery, child endangerment and other offenses and held on $500,000 bond.

Alarming Headline

Felipe Hoyos-Foronda, 38, of Queens, New York, was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport on March 28 after a medical procedure at his home went south, CBS News reported. According to police, a 31-year-old woman went to Hoyos-Foronda’s home to have her butt implants removed. When the woman suffered complications, he called EMS and then took off, intending to flee to Colombia. First responders found the woman unresponsive. The criminal complaint said Hoyos-Foronda admitted to performing the procedure without a license and administering lidocaine, “causing her to go into cardiac arrest.” Officials said the victim was hospitalized with no brain activity, and she showed signs of lidocaine toxicity.

Animal Antics

Mail carrier Wayne White was on his route in Hyannis, Massachusetts, on March 28 when he ran into a flock of troublemakers, WHDH-TV reported. As he got in and out of his truck and delivered mail, three wild turkeys followed and harassed him while he tried to fend them off with a box. “Every time I moved the truck, the turkeys followed,” White said. One encounter with the birds was caught on a home’s surveillance video and showed White trying to do his job as they gobbled at him. “I do a lot of stuff on Nantucket, so I see deer all the time, but this is my first time with turkey,” he said.

A Cautionary Tale

Minot, North Dakota, mayor Tom Ross resigned on April 1, which some might find a fitting date for his ignominious downfall. KMOT-TV reported that Ross was the subject of a complaint made in late January by the city attorney, Stefanie Stalheim, who said she had received a sexually explicit text from Ross. Ross admitted he had made a video of himself masturbating during his lunch
break, intending to send it to his romantic partner. “I do take responsibility for this mistake,”
Ross said. “I tried to immediately correct it and was unable.”

Least Competent Criminal

Crush Comics in California’s Castro Valley was burglarized on March 22, CBS News reported. The thief took a display of the store’s most valuable comic books, said owner Josh Hunter. He figured they were gone for good, but then, just 12 hours later, one of his employees stumbled upon an eBay listing for a very specific comic book from the store. “I’m just going to buy that and see what happens,” Hunter said. When he got the seller’s name and address, he searched on Instagram and saw the burglar’s offer to buy, sell, or trade Lego sets. Next, Hunter called another comic shop and a toy store that had also been broken into and shared his findings. When the sleuths turned their results over to police, Alameda County Sheriff’s officers served a search warrant at the home of Noorullah Amiri, 29, of Livermore, where they found tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of comic books, collectibles, and Lego sets. Amiri was taken into custody on March 27.

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NEWS OF THE WEIRD
© 2025 Andrews McMeel Syndication.
Reprinted with permission.
All rights reserved.

Categories
Fun Stuff News of the Weird

News of the Weird: Week of 05/15/25

Irony

Daniel Murillo, 44, was arrested on March 16 in Kissimmee, Florida, accused of repeatedly punching a 24-year-old female acquaintance as they sat in a car, The Smoking Gun reported. Things had gotten tense between the two after they traveled from Tampa but ran out of money; a verbal argument, the victim told police, led to the battery. Strangely, though, in Murillo’s mugshot, he is wearing a black shirt with bold white letters reading: “I NEVER ARGUE.” He was charged with misdemeanor battery.

Oh, By the Way …

Passengers aboard the Cunard Line’s cruiser Queen Anne received an alarming message from the ship’s captain on March 13, the Independent reported. “This area is known for piracy threats,” the announcement said as the ship traveled between Australia and Manila. It went on to say that the external promenade deck would be closed overnight and “deck lights will be on to reduce the ship’s external lighting.” Passengers were also asked to turn off stateroom lights and keep their window shades down. A representative for Cunard said there was “no specific threat to the ship or its guests, and our onboard experience remained uninterrupted.”

Most Precious Criminal

Thomas Talbert, 18, was charged with felony robbery, theft, reckless endangerment, and possession of an instrument of crime on March 24 in Duncansville Borough, Pennsylvania, WJAC-TV reported. Talbert allegedly entered the Smokers Express Store brandishing a gun, with a face covering and gloves on, and demanded a carton of cigarettes and cash from the register. But Talbert’s “gun” was an airsoft gun, and he fled the scene on an e-bike, having only collected about $200. When authorities caught up with him, he initially denied the robbery, then admitted, “I did it.” He was held in the Blair County Prison on $50,000 bail.

Weird in the Wild

Napa County, California’s Morning Glory Spillway, a passive spillway in Lake Berryessa, hadn’t been used since 2019, IFLScience.com reported on March 25. But starting in February and continuing through March, the so-called “glory hole” has been busy draining excess water from the lake into Putah Creek. When lake levels exceed 440 feet, the water spills into a vortex that looks like a giant sink drain from above. The water falls 200 feet before rushing into the creek. Large amounts of rainfall have contributed to the higher lake levels.

It’s a Dirty Job

Maybe Deon De Groot, 26, is the Easter Bunny’s little helper. The Guardian reported that De Groot was seen stuffing about $283 worth of Cadbury Creme Eggs into a duffel bag at a Tesco Express in Peterborough, England, on March 22. He also concealed some in his jacket. After store staff flagged down officers, PC Guy Cunningham asked De Groot, “What have you got in there?” to which De Groot replied, “Creme Eggs.” De Groot was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison, suspended for a year, and was banned from Cambridgeshire for the next three months.

Americans Abroad

Ukrainian American national Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, was arrested on March 30 after he made a visit to a remote island in the Indian Ocean, the New York Post reported. North Sentinel Island is home to a hostile, isolated tribe called the Sentinelese, and traveling there is banned. Polyakov was seen taking off in a small boat around midnight on March 29, with his only cargo a coconut and a can of Coke, which he intended to present as “offerings for the Sentinelese.” H.S. Dhaliwal, the director general of police on the Andaman Islands, said officials were trying to find out more about Polyakov. He did make it to the island but appeared to be ignored by the natives. He left his offerings on the beach and collected sand samples, then returned to South Andaman. Police say in January, Polyakov filmed another remote tribe, the Jarawa, while visiting the Baratang Islands. An American missionary, John Allen Chau, was killed with an arrow by the Sentinelese in 2018.

NEWS OF THE WEIRD
© 2025 Andrews McMeel Syndication.
Reprinted with permission.
All rights reserved.