-- Commuters in Berlin, Germany, are required to wear masks on public transportation, and are subject to fines if they don't. Despite that, reports Deutsche Welle, so many people wear their masks incorrectly (covering the mouth but not the nose) that Berlin's transport company, BVG, is now suggesting that riders skip deodorant when they're getting ready for the day, in hopes that the body odor on crowded trains will keep those masks in place. "Given that so many people think they can wear their masks under their noses, we're getting tough," read a bright yellow posting from July 1 on Twitter. "The BVG is calling for a general deodorant waiver. So now do you still want to have your nose out?" [DW, 7/3/2020]

-- Farm families in Botswana living beside the Chobe River have long battled herds of elephants that often pass through their fields at night, trampling crops as they move toward the river. Barking dogs and fences have failed to stop the elephants, the BBC reported on July 7, but farmers are having remarkable success with a new weapon: disco lights. Scientists from Elephants Without Borders placed solar-powered strobe lights that flash color patterns along the sides of fields elephants are known to walk through, frightening the elephants away. One farmer reported that before he had lights, "I had more elephants raid ... but in these two seasons with lights I have harvested successfully." [BBC, 7/7/2020]

News That Sounds Like a Joke

A man attempting to elude police in a stolen Toyota Land Cruiser on July 5 in Newberg, Oregon, crashed into a woman driving a Buick Regal that had been reported stolen three weeks before, giving police a two-fer. Newberg-Dundee police said they arrested the driver of the Toyota, Randy Lee Cooper, 27, and then found the driver of the Buick, Kristin Nicole Begue, 25, to be under the influence of intoxicants and arrested her, too, KOIN reported. Neither driver was injured [KOIN, 7/6/2020]

Suspicious

Liberty County (Georgia) sheriff's officers who found a body lying next to a railroad track in Allenhurst on July 14 followed protocol by covering the body with a sheet and waiting for the coroner. When the coroner arrived, detectives looked for injuries and quickly discovered the body was a female sex doll. WSAV reported that the doll was fully clothed and was anatomically correct. Officials think they may have been victims of a prank. [WSAV, 7/15/2020]

Least Competent Criminal

Wendy Wein, 51, of South Rockwood, Michigan, was arrested July 17 after offering an undercover state trooper $5,000 to kill her ex-husband and giving him money for travel expenses, WXYZ reported. Wein met the trooper after allegedly visiting the fake website rentahitman.com, where she completed a form requesting a consultation and named her ex-husband as the target. The owner of the website contacted Michigan State Police, who sent the undercover officer. "I'm very surprised that someone thought this website was a true website," said state police spokesman Lt. Brian Oleksyk. The website owner said over the last 15 years he's been contacted a number of times by people wanting someone killed, and he turns all of those requests over to law enforcement. [WXYZ, 7/21/2020]

Wait, What?

Iceland is offering a stressed-out world a unique way to blow off some steam, reports Sky News -- scream therapy. The country's tourist board is inviting people worldwide to record their screams to be played over loudspeakers in one of seven remote locations. "You've been through a lot this year," says the project website, "and it looks like you need the perfect place to let your frustrations out. Somewhere big, vast and untouched. It looks like you need Iceland." Psychotherapist Zoe Aston approves: "Using a scream as a way to release pent-up emotion allows you to ... reclaim the power that is inside you." Iceland has suffered relatively little during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1,905 cases of the disease and 10 lives lost. [Sky News, 7/15/2020]

Compelling Explanation

What started as a report of a naked man running down a road hitting cars in Owensboro, Kentucky, on July 16, soon turned into a home burglary in progress, reports WFIE. Daviess County Sheriff's deputies said they arrived at the home around 1:30 a.m. to find John Stefanopoulos, 41, standing inside, naked and covered with mud and blood. Authorities said the suspect rushed the officers while repeatedly telling them he had used "mushrooms with Jesus and that they were playing a virtual reality video game together." Stefanopoulos was eventually tased and taken into custody. [WFIE, 7/17/2020]

"Incorrigibel"

Robert Berger, 25, of Huntington, New York, was scheduled to be sentenced last October after pleading guilty to possession of a stolen Lexus and attempting to steal a truck, but in an effort to avoid jail, he tried faking his own death, prosecutors charged on July 21. The scheme, they said, unraveled when authorities discovered a spelling error and inconsistencies in the font styles and sizes on the fake death certificate submitted by his lawyer. Further, The Associated Press reports, while Berger was "dead," he was arrested in Philadelphia for providing a false identity to police and stealing from a Catholic college. "It will never cease to amaze me the lengths some people will go to to avoid being held accountable on criminal charges," Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said. "It's never a good idea to submit phony documents to the district attorney." [Associated Press, 7/21/2020]

Suspicions Confirmed

Andrea Balbi, president of the Gondola Association in Venice, Italy, announced on July 22 that the organization is reducing the maximum capacity allowed on the iconic boats from six persons to five, CNN reported. The change comes not because of social distancing, but because "over the last 10 years or so, tourists weigh more," Balbi said. He noted that heavier loads often mean the boats take on water, which makes it harder for the gondoliers to navigate in heavy traffic. "Going forward with over half a ton of meat on board is dangerous," remarked Raoul Roveratto, president of an association for substitute gondoliers. [CNN, 7/22/2020]

The Passing Parade

Fashion designer and activist Vivienne Westwood, 79, dressed in canary yellow, perched on a swing inside a giant metal birdcage outside London's Old Bailey court on July 21 and led a crowd in chanting, "Free Julian Assange!" Fox News reported Westwood said freeing Assange would mean "journalists can continue to tell the truth." The Wikileaks founder is being held in London awaiting an extradition hearing now scheduled for Sept. 7. [Fox News, 7/21/2020]

Justin Couch, 25, of Spring Hill, Florida, who sports a tattoo of a machete under his left eye, was arrested June 13, according to the Hernando (Florida) County Sheriff's Office, for allegedly attacking a man with a machete. The unnamed adult male victim told officers Crouch forced him out of the home where he'd been living and began arguing with him "for no reason," reported Fox13 News. As the man attempted to gather his belongings from the home, deputies said, Couch allegedly hit the victim with the flat side of the machete's blade, "then swung the machete at the victim's face," striking his arm with the blade as the man tried to ward off the blow. "The victim is currently unable to use or move his left hand due to the severity of the injury he sustained," investigators said. Couch was arrested for aggravated battery. [Fox 13 News, 6/19/2020]

Sign of the Times

A perfect storm may be brewing to strike down the long-maligned one-cent coin, the penny. Earlier this year, the U.S. Mint cut back on coin production to keep its workers safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic, reported NPR's Planet Money. At the same time, people stopped spending, especially with cash, and word of a coin shortage spread, prompting some stores, such as Kroger, to start rounding their prices to avoid making coin change. Last year, the mint made more than 7 billion pennies, almost 60% of its total coin production, and each one-cent coin cost TWO cents to produce, putting the loss at more than $72 million. Still, the mint has no plans to eliminate the coin. It's been up and running at full capacity since mid-June, and according to spokesman Michael White, about 40% of the coins it has produced since then have been pennies. [Planet Money, 7/14/2020]

Angry Animals

-- At Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California, five acres around Manzanita Lake were shut down after a man was attacked by an otter on June 25. Park Superintendent Jim Richardson told the Redding Record Searchlight the unnamed man was swimming in the river and came too close to the otter's offspring, known as kittens. "It is significant anytime an animal attacks a human," Richardson said. He did not believe the man was seriously injured, and he said the otter would not be relocated. "It's the protective momma (doing her job), and the attack came as a surprise," he said. [Record Searchlight, 6/30/2020]

-- Neighbors on Occidental Street in a North Oakland, California, are at odds over the presence of Bruce, aka Paco, aka Peter, aka Pierre, aka Abraham ... a peacock. While some residents are happy to welcome him, SFGate.com reported on July 15, others want him to move on and have lodged a complaint with the city. "For the past 15 weeks or so he has screamed relentlessly, every day," Jesse T. wrote on the Nextdoor app. "It literally feels like he is inside my house." The peacock is believed by Animal Control to be feral. But Dennis Fett of the Peacock Information Center in Minden, Iowa, thinks Bruce/Paco/Peter is providing a service. "They're like a watchdog," Fett said. "They have keen hearing. (The neighbors) should count their blessings." [SFGate.com, 7/15/2020]

Chutzpah!

Amber Gilles made news in San Diego, California, in June when she posted a photo of Starbucks barista Lenin Gutierrez, complaining that he "refused to serve me cause I'm not wearing a mask. Next time I will wait for cops and bring a medical exemption." In response, KGTV reported, Matt Cowan of Irvine started a GoFundMe page to collect tips for the barista who "faced ... a Karen in the wild," and soon raised more than $100,000, which Gilles now claims she should get half of. "I've been discriminated against," Gilles said, noting that hiring a lawyer to help her get her half was too expensive, so she has started her own GoFundMe page to raise money. Gutierrez said he plans to use the money to further his education and follow his dream of being a dancer. [KGTV, 7/15/2020]

Latest Religious Message

Maintenance workers pruning trees in Itaquirai, Brazil, on July 9 discovered a compelling image in a fresh cut from a willow tree. Some of them were convinced that Jesus Christ was depicted in the wood grain of the branch. Oddity Central reports Odimar Souza, who was overseeing the work, posted the image online and explained that just before the image was discovered, the chain on the worker's chainsaw broke and had to be replaced. Back at work, "we cut this same trunk in two pieces and that was when this perfection appeared," Souza wrote. [Oddity Central, 7/15/2020]

Inexplicable

An unnamed 37-year-old man driving along a Lincoln, Nebraska, street on July 14 came upon Dominic Kinser, 20, beating a car with a shovel, KOLN reported. After the man pulled over and got out of his car, Kinser turned his anger on him, according to police, yelling at the man and then going into his garage, where he grabbed a rifle, which he pointed at the passerby. Kinser, who police determined owned the car, was charged with making terroristic threats and possession of a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony. [KOLN, 7/15/2020]

Animal Lovers in Maine

-- At the Inn Town Motel in Norway, Maine, manager Andrew Coombs was not happy when he entered the room rented by Sean Schoomaker and his girlfriend July 11, hoping to collect payment, and discovered more than 50 large spiders, most of them tarantulas, in plastic boxes. "I booted him," Coombs told the Sun Journal. "He must have snuck them all in at night. We never would have allowed that in our motel." Animal Control officer Robert Larrabee responded to the motel, and the Maine Warden Service confiscated the arachnids, taking them to a facility for exotic animals in Lewiston. Schoomaker was cited for possession of three tarantulas that are illegal in the state. [Sun Journal, 7/15/2020]

-- Officers from the Somerset County (Maine) Sheriff's Department and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency searched the apartment of Jessica Hutchins, 36, looking for drugs on July 13, which they found, according to Sheriff Dale Lancaster. "We also got an alligator out of her home," he told the Morning Sentinel. The 2-foot-long gator was being kept in Rubbermaid tubs, but, Lancaster said, having an alligator in Maine is illegal without proper permits. Officers seized a total of $12,000 worth of drugs along with the alligator, and Hutchins and several accomplices were charged with a number of drug-related crimes. The gator was removed by the Maine Warden Service. [Morning Sentinel, 7/16/2020]

The Cheyenne (Nebraska) County Commissioners vented their frustration on July 6 over an alarming threat posed by a native species in the state's panhandle. The Scottsbluff Star-Herald reported that commissioner Philip Sanders told the gathering that prairie dogs had caused almost $3 million in damage to 2,600 acres in the county, and pleaded with representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture: "We have a group here from Lodgepole. Their whole town is being surrounded by prairie dogs, and we heed your help." The county has contracted with the USDA to handle its animal control problems, but Sanders said the lone wildlife specialist charged with the task has been overwhelmed. "I feel like we've let Lodgepole down," Sanders said. "I don't want to eradicate (prairie dogs). ... I get it, but they're out of control." [Scottsbluff Star-Herald, 7/6/2020]

Sign of the Times

A statue of Christopher Columbus stands in Cleveland's Little Italy neighborhood, but if signers of a petition get their way, it will soon be replaced by a statue of Chef Boyardee. The petition, signed by hundreds, suggests Ettore (Hector) Boiardi, known for his "food and iconic mustache," would be a much better recipient of Cleveland's love, Cleveland.com reported. "Boiardi and his brothers built a canned food empire from the ground up," the petition argues, and "during World War II, this company produced canned food for American soldiers 24/7," earning Chef Boyardee a Gold Star in 1946. [Cleveland.com, 6/26/2020]

Surprise!

Wynn Hall of Exeter, Nebraska, might have expected to find a few beer cans or old tires at the bottom of his farm pond when he drained it for maintenance on July 3, but he discovered something entirely different: an empty, broken ATM. "I thought, who would throw a refrigerator or a stove and put it in the pond?" Hall told KOLN. "I took a picture and zoomed in on it and thought, that looks like an ATM." When authorities arrived, they had a good idea of the source of the machine, since one had been stolen recently, but the numbers didn't match up. Hall said he didn't drain the pond last year, but didn't think the ATM had been there too long. "This is by far the strangest and I was really shocked to see it," Hall said. [KOLN, 7/5/2020]

Awesome!

-- Paragliding instructor Hasan Kaval, 29, in Izmir, Turkey, took couch-surfing to a whole new level when he rigged a red leather couch, lamp and TV to a parachute harness and launched himself from a cliff at Babadag Air Sports and Recreation Center. United Press International reported Kaval videoed himself July 2 as he sailed over Oludeniz Beach on the couch, pulling out snacks and drinks, and kicking off his shoes to put on slippers as he settled in to watch cartoons. Kaval's rig landed safely, and he didn't miss any of his shows. [UPI, 7/6/2020]

-- While Americans celebrated the Fourth of July by blowing stuff up, people in Seoul, South Korea, were surprised by an unannounced high-tech aerial display of encouragement and gratitude for medical personnel treating victims of COVID-19. AFP reported that 300 unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, lit up the sky for 10 minutes over the Han River on July 4 with messages about wearing masks, washing hands and socially distancing, then shifted focus to thank frontline health care workers. It ended with a silhouette of the Korean peninsula and the message, "Cheer up, Republic of Korea." The event was not advertised in advance in accordance with social distancing rules. [AFP, 7/6/2020]

Do It Yourself

Don Peters, 44, was arrested without incident on July 4, according to Akron, Ohio, police, after forcing his way around the counter at a Subway sandwich shop and making his own sandwich. According to police, Peters was intoxicated when he entered the store demanding a meal and became belligerent, damaging some plexiglass before charging behind the counter. Cleveland.com reported officers said they found a bottle of vodka and a block of Subway cheese in Peters' pockets; he was charged with disorderly conduct, criminal damaging and open container. [Cleveland.com, 7/6/2020]

Lucky

Nathalia Bruno, 24, of Newark, New Jersey, survived a harrowing mile-long ride through the storm sewer system under Passaic on July 6 after she drove into high water during a flash flood, NorthJersey.com reported. Bruno, a driver for DoorDash, escaped her car as it filled with water, but the current pulled both her and her car into the waterway that runs under the city, Passaic Fire Chief Patrick Trentacost said. Bruno rode the wave until it reached its outlet above the Passaic River, where she was "shot out" and swam to a backyard on the other side. A homeowner called 911, and Bruno was taken to a hospital where she appeared not to be seriously injured. Her Toyota Prius was later found under a street the next day. [NorthJersey.com, 7/8/2020]

Need for Speed

Kevin Nicks, 55, of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, was up to the challenge when he was invited to a racing event for unconventional vehicles at Elvington Airfield in North Yorks on July 4. Using parts lying around his house, Nicks mounted a Honda moped engine to the back of a wheelbarrow that recorded top speeds of 36 mph. "No wheelbarrow has flown down at the speeds I was going," Nicks boasted to the Daily Star. "It's thrilling and absolutely bonkers to drive it." This isn't the first time Nicks has motorized gardening equipment. He's also the owner of the world's fastest shed, which can reach speeds of 100 mph. "I like being creative and thinking out of the box," he said. [Daily Star, 7/8/2020]

The Passing Parade

Pennsylvania State Police received multiple calls on June 21 about a Mercedes-Benz driving in reverse on the Pennsylvania Turnpike during rush hour. Troopers arriving on the scene said they found Symara Cole, 27, of Silver Spring, Maryland, passed out in the car with all the doors locked, WTAJ reported. A semi driver had stopped his rig behind her to prevent others from being harmed. First responders found that Cole was under the influence of drugs; pending charges include DUI and drug possession. [WTAJ, 7/8/2020]

Bright Ideas

-- Chen Haigang, 50, of China's Shanxi province, credits his good health and well-being to a fitness regimen he created and has been following for about 30 years. Instead of doing tai chi or heading to the gym, Oddity Central reported on July 9, Chen acts like a monkey, walking on all fours and dangling his arms, even climbing trees and swinging from branch to branch. "I often watched the monkeys at the zoo. I thought it looked so fun and I started imitating," Chen said. "Since I moved to the city for work, I've spent my free time doing the (monkey) walking exercise. ... I never need to see a doctor." Recently, Chen has added other animals' movements to his routine, such as crawling like a crocodile. He said many people have asked him about his routine but are too embarrassed to do it in public. [Oddity Central, 7/9/2020]

-- Yoshito Harada, 32, readily admitted to police in Higashiura, Japan, that he slashes women's car tires so he can then step up to "help" them fix their flats. On June 11, Oddity Central reported, a 43-year-old unnamed woman leaving a grocery store noticed that her tire was flat. As she pulled over, a man stopped his car and offered to help, but the woman had had a similar experience a year before and recognized the good Samaritan, so she contacted police. Officers viewed surveillance video from the market and saw Harada slashing the woman's tire just before she emerged from the store. Further investigation revealed Harada has a history of approaching women this way going back to 2013, and authorities believe he has pulled the stunt more than 1,000 times. [Oddity Central, 7/6/2020]