IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED… Jennifer G. Hernandez, 58, is nothing if not persistent. On April 22, Hernandez walked through the vehicle gate at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where she was stopped by a police officer. She explained that she had an interview in the complex, but the officer discovered she had no […]
News of the Weird: A man dressed as a building fails, book a fake vacay for the ‘gram, and who says Idaho isn’t a big destination?
FLORIDA! 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 […]
News of the Weird: Defending Swastika Acres, the secret behind a ‘divine’ weeping tree, and sippin’ with alpacas
CREME DE LA WEIRD In St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, Lucas Dawe, 20, appeared in court on April 11 to face charges of possessing stolen skeletal remains. According to court documents reported by The Chronicle Herald, Dawe is suspected of stealing a skeleton, estimated to be more than 100 years old, from the All Saints Parish […]
News of the Weird: Another drunk driving cautionary tale, stay in school, and a father does his son a strange favor
ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT Scientists are aghast at an eBay listing offering a rare baby T-rex fossil for a $2.95 million buy-it-now price. Fossil hunter Alan Detrich, who discovered the fossil in 2013, is believed to have created the listing in February for the 68-million-year-old artifact, which until recently had been on loan to the Natural History […]
News of the Weird: A two-hour parking chess match, CrossFit’s co-founder gets risque, and another case of too much money
NEW WORLD ORDER 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 […]
News of the Weird: High schooler outsmarts the school’s IT, the thin mint thief, and a curious post
DUMB AND DUMBER 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 […]
News of the Weird: Slipping the co-workers some positive energy, a cheesy wall, and contentious tacos
MYSTERY SOLVED 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 […]
News of the Weird: Stay away from that cemetery, a new use for t-shirt guns, and day drinking goes wrong
PEOPLE DIFFERENT FROM US Researchers at St. Mary’s Hospital in London had been stumped how 10 British men had contracted a rare virus called human T-cell leukemia virus type 1. The men weren’t intravenous drug users and hadn’t had transfusions; none of them displayed any symptoms, but doctors had identified the virus through bloodwork. Dr. […]
News of the Weird: A side-of-the-road deal goes wrong, “naturism” will get you convicted, and it’s an Oakland thing
RELIGIOUS INTERPRETATION 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 […]
News of the Weird: Farts could get you fired, protect your kneecaps, and a handbag of horror
RELIGIOUS RASCALITY 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, […]
News of the Weird: Don’t mess with hangry people, the neighbor’s secrets, and women rebel against ‘obligation chocolates’
AWESOME! 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 […]
News of the Weird: Lost at sea(l), boiling water challenge (predictably) goes wrong, a mannequin sparks hate, and more
WAIT, WHAT? 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 […]
News of the Weird: Police officer Rob Banks makes news, the karate thief strikes, and don’t touch that guy’s toys
Hair of the Dog 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 […]
News of the Weird: A shopper with a bone to pick, drunk off vanilla extract, and the latest in incompetent criminals
WAIT, WHAT? 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 […]
News of the Weird: The internet of things is terrifying, gross self-medication, and I still wouldn’t let her near me with a straight razor
FASHION FOIBLES 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 […]
News of the Weird: What’s the worst thing you’ve seen at a McDonald’s, love at first arrest, and more
FIRST-WORLD SOLUTION 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 […]