News of the Weird

About a year ago, Les and Paula Ansley of Mossel Bay, South Africa, stumbled upon a novel idea for a new type of spirit, which they call Indlovu Gin, the Associated Press reports. During a safari, they learned that elephants eat a wide variety of fruits and flowers, but digest less than a third of it. "As a consequence, in the elephant dung, you get the most amazing variety of these botanicals," Les Ansley said. "Why don't we let the elephants do the hard work of collecting all these botanicals and we will make gin from it?" Why, indeed? They collect the dung themselves, by hand, and describe their gin's flavor as "lovely, wooded, almost spicy, earthy." ("Indlovu" means elephant in the Zulu language.) Each bottle's label notes where the dung was gathered and when. "Most people are very keen to actually taste it," Ansley said. A bottle sells for about $32. [Associated Press, 11/12/2019]

Fine Points of the Law

After losing in district court, convicted killer Benjamin Schreiber took an unusual claim to the Iowa Court of Appeals, but was shut down again on Nov. 6, according to The Washington Post. Schreiber, 66, was sentenced to a life term in 1997, but in March 2015, he suffered a medical emergency in his prison cell that caused doctors to have to restart his heart five times. Schreiber thus claimed he had briefly "died," and therefore he had served out his life sentence and should be released. The district judge didn't buy it, though, saying the filing proved he was still alive, and the appeals court agreed, saying, "Schreiber is either alive, in which case he must remain in prison, or he is dead, in which case this appeal is moot." [Washington Post, 11/8/2019]

Higher Education

A Dutch university now offers students a turn in the "purification grave," a hole dug in the ground where students can lie down and reflect on their lives for up to three hours. The student chaplaincy at Radboud University initially offered the experience in 2009 as a temporary experiment, but due to increased demand, it's back this year, according to Vice. Students are not allowed to bring their phones or a book with them into the grave. "You can see it as a special place of meditation: below you the earth, above you the sky," the university website explains. "You will then automatically notice what is going through your mind." If you're skittish about entering the grave, you can sit on the bench nearby. Radboud also offers a finals-season "crying room" and nap pods. [Vice, 10/24/2019]

The Continuing Crisis

Female employees in Japan who wear eyeglasses are seeing red after some companies there have reportedly banned eyewear for their women workers, according to the BBC. While some retailers have said women in glasses give a "cold impression," the hashtag #glassesareforbidden has been trending, and Kumiko Nemoto, professor of sociology at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, spoke out against the "outdated" policies: "It's all about gender. It's pretty discriminatory. ... The company values the women's appearance as being feminine and that's the opposite to someone who wears glasses." Japanese women have also rebelled against policies that require them to wear high heels. [BBC, 11/8/2019]

Bright Idea

Subhash Yadav, 42, of Jaunpur, India, visited a market to eat eggs with a friend, News18 reported on Nov. 4, but the two fell into an argument. To settle the dispute, police said, Yadav accepted a challenge to eat 50 eggs in exchange for 2,000 rupees. He ate 41 eggs, but just as he began to eat the 42nd, he collapsed, unconscious. He was rushed to the hospital but died a few hours later. Doctors claimed Yadav died of overeating, but family members would not comment. [News18, 11/4/2019]

Least Competent Criminal

On Oct. 30, Hudson, Florida, resident Michael Psilakis, 21, lost $1,000 in a card game to an unnamed man, which a witness told police upset Psilakis, reported the Tampa Bay Times. When the man was reported missing, Pasco County Sheriff's deputies started their investigation with Psilakis, who told them the victim had dropped him off at his mother's house after the card game, so when the man turned up dead in a burned-out Ford Taurus, police visited Psilakis' mother. During her interview, Psilakis called his mother, according to court documents, and officers recorded the conversation. In it he told his mom he had burned his legs throwing gas on the car and they needed to coordinate their stories so he was coming right over. When he arrived, police found a stolen handgun in his car along with a cellphone containing internet searches for "can u shoot through a seat" and "how to treat burns." Deputies arrested him on weapons charges on Nov. 2 and later added first-degree murder, grand theft of a motor vehicle and resisting arrest. [Tampa Bay Times, 11/12/2019]

Oops!

The Northern Echo, a newspaper in northeast England, is catching it from an area family after it ran an obituary on Nov. 10 for Charlie Donaghy, a local sports enthusiast and teacher -- who is not dead yet. In fact, his son, Ian, reports that Charlie is "alive and well," according to Fox News. The Echo published an apology the next day, but Ian posted on Facebook that "you can't UNHEAR or UNREAD that your Dad's dead! ... Northern Echo website arseclownery!" A statement from the Donaghy family said the mistake has "caused immeasurable distress" and is "unforgivable." [Fox News, 11/13/2019]

Government in Action

Residents of a small Canadian island off the coast of Maine are up in arms and demanding that the province of New Brunswick either establish a year-round ferry service or build a bridge to the mainland because their mail keeps getting opened by U.S. Customs. Mail to Campobello Island has to cross the border by sealed truck into Maine before it reaches the island, which rarely caused problems, reports Fox News, until last year, when Canada legalized recreational cannabis. Since then, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been searching for marijuana ordered from Cannabis NB, the only authorized seller of cannabis in the province. Cannabis NB has now stopped shipping packages to the island, but U.S. customs officials continue to search the mail, and the island's residents are fed up. "Expectations of privacy that the rest of Canada has just don't exist on Campobello," said Justin Tinker, a local engineer. Politicians are said to be open to the idea of the ferry, but there are no plans in place to fund the project. [Fox News, 11/14/2019]

Cold

Hot Springs, Arkansas, paramedic Lisa Darlene Glaze, 50, was arrested on Nov. 11 after she allegedly cut a 1.7-carat diamond ring off the finger of a dead woman and sold it to a local pawn shop. The patient, Gloria Robinson, had been transported to a medical facility on Oct. 16, where she later died. When her personal items were returned to her family, they noticed three of her rings were missing, according to arrest documents. KTHV reports two of the rings were found, but investigators say Glaze sold the third ring at Hot Springs Classic Gun and Pawn for $45, and the band had been cut. Robinson's sister retrieved the ring from the pawn shop and had it appraised, revealing it was worth almost $8,000. Glaze was charged with felony theft and misdemeanor unlawful transfer of stolen property. [KTHV, 11/13/2019]

Awesome!

For the person on your gift list this year who can't get enough ranch dressing, Hidden Valley comes to the rescue with a decorative plastic stocking full of its creamy nectar. FanSided reports the Hidden Valley Ranch Custom Holiday Stocking measures 105 square inches festooned in red and green and filled with 52 ounces of Original Ranch. It comes with its own mantle holder and has a handy pouring spout at the toe. All that ranchy fun costs just $35. Time to get dippin'! [FanSided, 11/13/2019]

Doctors at Westmead Hospital in Sydney, Australia, documented a case in the British Medical Journal's Case Reports that has at least one nose out of joint. A 48-year-old former prison inmate had been suffering from sinus infections, nasal congestion and headaches for years, United Press International reported. Doctors treating the man performed a CT scan and discovered a rhinolith -- a stone made of calcium -- in his nasal cavity, which, when removed, was found to have formed around a small balloon with cannabis inside. The patient then recalled that when he was in prison about 18 years earlier, his girlfriend had smuggled in the balloon during a visit, and he had inserted it in his nose to hide it. But he pushed it too far in and assumed he had swallowed it. The unnamed man is surely breathing easier these days. [United Press International, 10/31/2019]

His Patriotic Duty

Astronaut and Neshannock Township, Pennsylvania, resident Andrew Morgan, who is currently aboard the International Space Station, cast his absentee ballot this Election Day from his perch 250 miles above the planet, the New Castle News reported. Ed Allison, Lawrence County's director of voter services, received Morgan's application for an absentee ballot and went the extra mile for the spaceman, coordinating with IT for a fillable, secure PDF file that Morgan could use to register his selections. "Astronaut Morgan got the ballot, voted it and sent it back," Allison said. "No problem at all. In the 11 years I have been here, it is certainly unique." [New Castle News, 11/4/2019]

Bright Idea

Brice Kendell Williams, 32, was hoping to avoid getting a DWI early on Nov. 3, CNN reported, so rather than driving his car from one bar to another in Houma, Louisiana, Williams stole a motorized shopping cart from Walmart and toddled more than a half-mile to his destination, according to authorities. He carefully parked the scooter between two cars in the lot and went inside, where officers from the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office found him and arrested him for felony unauthorized use of a moveable. Williams' bond was set at $2,500. [CNN, 11/5/2019]

Rules We Didn't Know We Needed

North Carolina's Madison County Public Library system has had a loosely enforced rule against bringing pets into its branches. But on Oct. 8, Interim Director Peggy Goforth appeared before the county's board of commissioners to request a new policy that tightly restricts animals to only service dogs. Goforth felt she had to advocate for stricter rules after a man brought a bag full of snakes into the library, reported the Citizen Times. "He said, 'My pets are harmless. Here, let me show you,'" Goforth said. "And he poured them out on the front desk. They just wriggled everywhere." When told pets weren't allowed in the library, "He was really nice about it. He just bagged up all the snakes and left," she added. She said another man brought in an ant farm and took the top off to feed them, then forgot to put it back on. "The ants got everywhere." The library's new policy excludes all animal species except dogs that are trained to help a person with a disability. [Citizen Times, 10/22/2019]

Ironic

-- A passenger on New York's MTA train system noticed a couple of suspicious packages at the Metro-North New Rochelle station on the afternoon of Oct. 28 and did what any conscientious rider would do: alerted authorities, using the new Help Point intercom system in the station. It turned out the boxes contained more of the MTA's Help Point devices -- they just hadn't been installed yet. The alert only briefly shut down the station, WNBC reported, as police quickly removed the boxes. [WNBC, 10/29/2019]

-- In Crystal City, Missouri, police are on the lookout for a man who broke into a vending machine at the Twin City Coin Laundry on Oct. 22, pocketing about $600 in change. KSDK reported that he ought to be easy to find: He committed his crime in full view of security cameras, and he was wearing a T-shirt with the motto, "It's not a crime unless you get caught." [KSDK, 10/30/2019]

Dang

Talk about bringing down the room. Late on Nov. 2 in Hattingen, Germany, about 300 patrons of a swingers' club were interrupted mid-party when carbon monoxide alarms sounded and several began to feel unwell. Firefighters escorted the swingers, many clad only in bathrobes, to safety, with about 10 people requiring treatment, reported the Associated Press. However, firefighters could not detect any dangerous level of carbon monoxide once they arrived on the scene. [Associated Press, 11/3/2019]

Entrepreneurial Spirit

-- Belinda Gail Fondren, 52, of Evans, Louisiana, was charged with filing or maintaining false public records on Oct. 23 after it was discovered that she was writing fake doctor's notes for high school students so they could get out of class. Fondren, who worked at a medical clinic, charged $20 for each excuse, Vernon Parish Sheriff Sam Craft told WTAP. He also said it was common knowledge among students that the excuses were for sale. Two students obtained excuses on 14 occasions, he said. Fondren's fraud came to light when someone from the Vernon Parish School Board called a doctor about the notes, which he denied having authorized. Her bond was set at $15,000. [WTAP, 10/30/2019]

-- Workers at a branch of Pinnacle Bank in Lincoln, Nebraska, were stymied on Oct. 28 when a man arrived hoping to open a checking account with a $1 million bill, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. Bank employees argued with him that it couldn't possibly be real (the largest denomination bill ever minted was for $100,000), and eventually he left, with his bill but without an account. Lincoln police are hoping to identify him from surveillance video so they can check on his welfare. [Lincoln Journal Star, 10/31/2019]

Awesome!

When Coco the shiba inu was hit by a car on Oct. 28 in Schenectady, New York, the driver stopped and noticed some damage to her car, but couldn't see what she had hit, so she drove on. About an hour later, Rotterdam Police Lieutenant Jeffrey Collins told WNYT, the driver stopped again when she heard noises. This time, she saw Coco, who was lodged in the car's bumper. "It was like the perfect fit," said Noella LaFreniere of the Hernas Veterinary Clinic where Coco was treated. "She ... came out alive, and it's shocking to us." Coco suffered a broken elbow but no other serious injuries. Police have located her owners. [WNYT, 10/31/2019]

Weird Weather

-- CNN reported on Nov. 6 that thousands of smooth, egg-shaped ice balls have accumulated on a long stretch of beach in Hailuoto, Finland, on the Baltic Sea. The icy balls form when turbulent water near the shore breaks up a layer of slushy ice. The ice sticks together, and as waves crash the shore, they spin the clumps of ice, smoothing them into balls. Sirpa Tero, a visitor to the beach, told CNN she's seen the phenomenon before, but never covering so much area. [CNN via CTV 11/6/2019]

-- Residents of Kansas City were puzzled by a foul smell in the air, similar to funky feet or manure, on the evening of Nov. 6, according to KSHB. Meteorologists at the National Weather Service came to the rescue with an explanation: A cold front that moved into the area from the north included a shallow mixing layer that had trapped the odors in Minnesota and Iowa. As they put it: "Strong winds ... transported in an 'agriculture' smell from farms north of here." [KSHB, 11/6/2019]

Mothers Lounge, a company catering to new mothers, has conceived some awkward conversations for women on the receiving end of a recent marketing campaign. The company sent out maternity congratulations cards signed by "Jenny B" that included gift cards and coupons for products attractive to pregnant women. The problem is, as the BBC reported, many of the recipients aren't pregnant. A woman in Memphis, Tennessee, tweeted: "Who the hell is Jenny B and why did she send me $245 in gift cards to my childhood home congratulating me on my pregnancy?! This is literally how my mother thought she was finding out that I was pregnant. I'm calling the FBI." Another woman's mother was "immediately so excited and freaked out ... I had to quickly tell her I am not in fact pregnant." Mothers Lounge spokesman Scott Anderson explained that a third-party marketing company provided the mailing list. Sounds like a false-positive to us. [BBC, 10/29/2019]

Awwwwwww

Faith the one-legged mallard duck, of Gardner, Maine, will soon have more than one leg to stand on, thanks to Loni Hamner. Faith lost her leg in a fox attack last year but has been making do, Hamner told the Bangor Daily News: "She has taught herself how to stand and balance on that one leg, [and] she can sort of hop and hobble around." But Hamner wants a better quality of life for Faith. "So I started doing some research and found an online post about someone getting a prosthetic leg and foot for a chicken [that] was made in a 3D printer," Hamner said. That led her to Paul Bussiere, 3D lab manager at the University of Maine Advanced Structure and Composites Center. Bussiere, a "pet-lover," has eight 3D printers at his home and promised Hamner he would make a prosthetic leg and foot for Faith in his spare time. Hamner is also working with Michael Anfang, whose Washington State-based company makes splints and foot prosthetics for ducks and chickens, along with a human occupational therapist who has offered to help develop a physical therapy regimen for Faith. Faith is a lucky duck! [Bangor Daily News, 10/27/2019]

Putting Off the Inevitable

Convicted bank robber and career criminal Michael Jauernik, 71, received a sentence of more than 12 years in prison in Germany on Oct. 7, but managed to stall his incarceration by delivering a five-day-long closing statement that included anecdotes about his career in crime and details about his fitness routine. Twenty hours into the soliloquy, the judge finally cut him off, saying she wished she had done so earlier in light of his "excessive digressions," The Guardian reported. Jauernik, who wore sunglasses throughout his trial, told the court, "I am more intelligent and clever than any employee of the criminal police agency, that much is sure." [The Guardian, 10/7/2019]

It's Hard to Find Good Help

After six years of litigation, six men were found guilty of attempted murder in late October in Guangxi, China, for participating in a chain of subcontracted murder-for-hire plots that never resulted in a death. Businessman Tan Youhui started the chain by hiring a hit man to "take out" a rival identified only as Mr. Wei, reported the BBC. That hit man then subcontracted a second hit man to do the dirty deed. Hit man No. 2 subcontracted with hit man No. 3, who then reached out to hit man No. 4. After getting the nod from No. 4, hit man No. 5, Ling Xiansi, decided on a different scheme: He contacted the target, Mr. Wei, and proposed they fake the murder and take the cash, which by this point amounted to 100,000 yen. Wei agreed, then reported the case to the police. Tan and the five hitmen will serve sentences ranging from 31 months to five years. [BBC, 10/22/2019]

Least Competent Criminal

Miguel Angel Reyes-Avila, 23, of Half Moon Bay, California, waited patiently until his neighbors took their dog for a walk on Oct. 6, then pounced, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office. The San Jose Mercury News reports Reyes-Avila then allegedly entered their home through an open window and lifted about $4,000 worth of jewelry, plus the keys to their 2009 Mitsubishi. When the neighbors returned home and found their car gone, they called police, who asked neighborhood folks to share their security footage. Most helpful was the video from Reyes-Avila's own home, provided by another resident who was happy to help law enforcement. The camera caught a suspect driving away in the car, and sheriff's office spokesperson Rosemerry Blankswade said officers recognized Reyes-Avila from earlier incidents and arrested him on Oct. 10 on charges of felony burglary and grand theft auto. [San Jose Mercury News, 10/17/2019]

Precocious Pet

Archie, a French bulldog/Boston terrier mix who lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his human, Dee Borkowski, is in the doghouse after a fiery event on Oct. 16. As Borkowski watched Archie via her home security camera, he contentedly lounged on the couch, chewing on a cigarette lighter. Suddenly, United Press International reported, the lighter ignited, and her couch burst into flames. Borkowski called the fire department, and the 10-month-old puppy escaped unhurt, although her apartment suffered thousands of dollars of damage. Borkowski has changed Archie's Instagram handle to "Archie the Arsonist." [UPI, 10/28/2019]

Unconventional Sports

Housekeepers from The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas took first place in the Las Vegas Housekeeping Olympics on Oct. 23, beating out second- and third-place teams from The Mirage and Circus Circus, United Press International reported. The competition, which took place at the Mandalay Bay resort, included bed-making contests, vacuum races and a toilet paper toss. Mandalay Bay President Chuck Bowling said the Olympics are a way of celebrating overlooked workers in the hospitality industry. [UPI, 10/25/2019]

People With Issues

Residents of the Oakland neighborhood in Topeka, Kansas, called police just after midnight on Oct. 27 to report that someone was driving construction equipment around the area. The Topeka Capital Journal reported that when officers arrived, they found 46-year-old Shane Dee Funk behind the wheel of a loader, a piece of heavy equipment, driving it through yards and streets and damaging property. Police Capt. Colleen Stuart said Funk refused to stop for officers, and "numerous residences in the loader's path were evacuated for safety purposes." When Funk turned the loader toward police, they fired nonlethal bean bag pellets at him to disable him. Funk was treated at a hospital, then booked into the Shawnee County Jail on charges of felony theft, criminal damage to property, aggravated assault to a law enforcement officer and fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement. [Topeka Capital Journal, 10/27/2019]

Compelling Explanation

An unnamed resident of the Wilson Lane apartments in Elkins, West Virginia, told police she left her home for a few minutes on Oct. 18, returning a short time later to find a neighbor, Ronald L. Thorne Jr., 52, “standing in her apartment eating her lasagna from the refrigerator.” He went on to tell her he “just wanted to talk and maybe more,” and then he returned to his own apartment, carrying the lasagna and one of her forks, according to the police report. The Inter-Mountain reports the woman also told Randolph County Sheriff’s officers that her home had been ransacked and $20 was missing from her purse. When officers confronted Thorne, he told them he “had been sleepwalking and had woke up standing in his neighbor’s apartment,” the complaint stated. The officers also noticed a pan of lasagna on his table, and Thorne told them “she could have it back.” Thorne was arrested and charged with burglary; as he was being processed, a $20 bill was found in his wallet. [The Inter-Mountain, 10/22/2019]

Smooth Reaction

In Shelbyville, Kentucky, on Oct. 28, a female customer picking up her food at a KFC drive-thru became angry when she realized she didn't have a fork and a napkin, witnesses told WLKY, so she pulled out a gun and shot out the drive-thru window. KFC released a statement expressing gratitude that no one was shot, and Charlene Witt, the manager of the Subway restaurant across the street, is using the incident as a teaching moment in her own store: "If someone comes in irate, just give them what they want. ... [G]et them out of the store as quick as you can." Police are still searching for the woman. [WLKY, 10/28/2019]