Talk about explosive developments! In Holladay, Utah, authorities were summoned to a home on April 23 to advise a homeowner on how to dispose of "a lot" of explosives, including "ancient dynamite" that had been in the family for "generations and generations." Capt. Tony Barker of the Unified Fire Authority said the collectors did not appear to have malicious intent. KUTV reported that multiple agencies descended on the home, where it was determined that they would have to conduct a controlled explosion. "The house will be uninhabitable at the end of this event," Barker said. The homeowner was allowed to remove some possessions before the detonation. The neighborhood was evacuated, and the detonation took place after midnight on April 24, causing damage to some neighboring properties, including blown-out windows and minor fire damage. The former homeowner told police that her husband, who had recently died, had inherited the explosives from his father more than 40 years ago. The dynamite was estimated to be 60 to 80 years old. [KUTV, 4/24/2024]

Awesome!

-- Mount Erebus, on Ross Island in Antarctica, is one of three volcanoes on the island, United Press International reported. Erebus is quite active, emitting plumes of gas and steam along with partially molten boulders. Scientists are particularly intrigued, though, with the sprays of tiny crystals of metallic gold -- around 80 grams per day, worth about $6,000. Traces of the gold dust have been found 621 miles away from the volcano. [UPI, 4/25/2024]

-- Robert and Betty Fooks of West Dorset, England, were deep into renovating their 400-year-old farmhouse when they decided to tear up the concrete floor to increase the height of their kitchen, the Daily Star reported. As Robert wielded a pickax, they came upon a treasure 2 feet below the floor: $75,000 worth of ancient coins. The currency, which dated to the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I, King James I and King Charles I, were in pristine condition. "I presume they were buried during the English Civil War and the person intended to retrieve them but never got the chance," Betty said. A coin specialist said the coins were probably left there on one occasion around 1642. [Daily Star, 4/24/2024]

Unclear on the Concept

A Scottish woman, Moira Gallacher, 72, and her friend, Charmian Widdowson, were touring Romania in April, enjoying a drive through the Carpathian Mountains, People reported. They happened upon two brown bears and stopped the car to get a picture with them. Then Widdowson turned the car around and pulled up to the bear for another photo op. "I went down the window; I thought he wanted to be friends," Widdowson told STV News. "He started getting into the car and bit my friend." She said she thought the bear approached because he heard the women talking about getting something to eat. "I think he ... decided he had to eat my friend." Gallacher was wearing a thick jacket with two layers underneath; although the bear clamped down on her hand with its jaws, she escaped with minor wounds. "I've been very, very lucky," she said. [STV News, 4/24/2024]

Inexplicable

-- Parisians woke to an odd development on April 25: The red blades of the Moulin Rouge windmill, mounted on the tourist attraction's roof, had fallen off and were lying on the sidewalk below, Sky News reported. The first three letters of the club's name in its sign had also tumbled to the ground. General manager Jean-Victor Clerico said that, fortunately, "the boulevard was empty of passers-by" when the objects fell. He said insurers would investigate the cause of the damage. [Sky News, 4/25/2024]

-- The Pink Sponge Home Cleaning service in Glendora, California, was the site of some dirty shenanigans on April 20, KTLA-TV reported. Vandals broke into the parking lot and damaged the business's iconic pink VW Bugs, kicking in headlights and carving gang symbols into the hoods. Surveillance cameras also caught them standing on cars, blasting fire extinguishers and twerking. Pink Sponge's Jennifer Ahlgrim said the teenagers caused more than $25,000 in damage. "To see our hard work vandalized was just completely disheartening," Ahlgrim said. "Our Pink Sponge team is strong, but it's been very sad." [KTLA, 4/23/2024]

Least Competent Criminals

Twenty inmates of a prison in Maracaibo, Venezuela, didn't get far after tunneling out of their cells on April 17, Metro News reported. Waiting at the outside wall of the tunnel were a group of police officers who had been doing a training exercise. They had to help the prisoners out of the tight space before returning them inside; the police commissioner said they are investigating the breakout with the goal of preventing similar situations in the future. [Metro News, 4/24/2024]

But Why?

The Northview Cemetery in Dearborn, Michigan, has an unwanted frequent visitor: a serial pooper. The Detroit Free Press reported that Dearborn police have been called to the graveyard seven times since Feb. 25 after human feces were found among the gravestones. A city spokesperson said the pooper doesn't favor one particular gravesite and has not sullied the resting place of actor George Peppard, who starred with Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's." A source said the pooper always visits in the dark, wears dark clothing and a hoodie and leaves a big mess, including used toilet paper. A police spokesperson said the department "continues to work on identifying and locating the person responsible." [Detroit Free Press, 4/23/2024]

Mistaken Identity

Faraj Allah Jarjour, 68, of Laval, Quebec, Canada, passed away suddenly while vacationing in Cuba in March, the Associated Press reported. There were no medical facilities nearby, his daughter said, so his body was left covered on a beach chair for more than eight hours until a car arrived to take it to Havana. Miriam Jarjour followed the directions of the Canadian consulate and paid $10,000 to have the body returned home. But when the casket arrived, the man inside was not her father. Instead, it was a Russian man who was younger, had a full head of hair and tattoos. (He was returned to his family.) Jarjour has been in touch with the Canadian consulate in Cuba, which blamed the company that coordinates such returns, and other agencies. "I'm honestly destroyed," she said. "Up until now we have no answers." [AP, 4/22/2024]

Ewwwww!

Think you've tried all the exotic foods? Visitors to the Mercado Republica de San Luis Potosi in Mexico will find a particularly disgusting option: rat meat and rat broth. Oddity Central reported that in the region, rat meat is coveted for its flavor and alleged medicinal properties. Each bowl of rat broth includes vegetables and spices and a whole field rat for the low, low price of $5.80. The vendor, Jose Remedios Hernandez, inherited the booth from his mother; he's the last rat meat seller in the market. His rats are caught in the surrounding countryside; they reportedly help people with anemia, diabetes or cancer. [Oddity Central, 4/25/2024]

Sweet Revenge

Oddity Central reported that in late April, a person suspected to be a scorned ex placed more than 50 cash-on-delivery orders on a food delivery app, all to be delivered at the same time to a woman's home in Izmir, Turkey. The food was ordered from different restaurants, and the prankster used a conspicuously fake phone number, but many of the restaurants didn't confirm it. Passers-by took videos of the more than two dozen delivery drivers crowded at the apartment building's entrance around 9 p.m., waiting for payment. All the orders were returned, but most of the food had to be discarded. [Oddity Central, 4/26/2024]

Larry Doil Sanders, 55, of Allen, Oklahoma, was convicted on April 17 of first-degree murder in the killing of his friend, Jimmy Glenn Knighten, 52, in July 2022. The Ada News reported that Sanders and Knighten were fishing together when Sanders believed he saw three sasquatch-looking figures near the river. After strangling Knighten, who he thought had been acting suspiciously, Sanders told relatives that he believed Knighten was trying to summon the sasquatches so they could feast on Sanders, and he killed Knighten in self-defense. Witnesses said Sanders is a regular user of methamphetamine, which ramps up his Bigfoot rhetoric. His defense was that having used meth three or four days before the murder, he was in a drug-induced psychosis. He'll be sentenced in June. [The Ada News, 4/17/2024]

Animals Going Rogue

-- Butte, Montana, residents -- no strangers to big animals -- got a surprise on the morning of April 16 when they spotted an elephant strolling down Harrison Avenue, NBC Montana reported. "Pretty exciting," said Josh Hannifin, co-manager of the Civic Center Town Pump. "Man, they move fast when they just walk." The Jordan World Circus was in town, and surveillance cameras caught Viola escaping from her pen after being startled by a car backfiring during her bath time. Handlers were able to catch Viola with no trouble after about 20 minutes. [NBC Montana, 4/16/2024]

-- Suburban residents in Cape Town, South Africa, had a close encounter with a hippopotamus in the wee hours of April 14, Independent Online reported. The hippo broke through a fence at the Rondevlei Nature Reserve after getting into a scuffle with a dominant male there. Resident Ashraff Schwartz said that when police cornered the animal, it ran into his yard. "My 74-year-old mom watched ... as the hippo came straight for our door. It then turned around and ran up the road, but before then, it broke my wall as it jumped over it." While no one was hurt in the incident, hippos "are responsible for more human fatalities in Africa than any other large animal," the Cape of Good Hope SPCA Wildlife Department noted. [Independent Online, 4/15/2024]

Suspicions Confirmed

NASA revealed on April 17 that the object that crashed through the roof of a home in Naples, Florida, was indeed space trash -- specifically, garbage jettisoned from the International Space Station in March 2021. United Press International reported that on March 8, a 1.6-pound, 4-inch-long cylindrical object came through Alejandro Otero's roof. NASA said the object was what remained of a 5,800-pound pallet of depleted nickel hydride batteries. "The hardware was expected to fully burn up during entry into the Earth's atmosphere," NASA said. "However, a piece of hardware survived reentry." [UPI, 4/17/2024]

It's a Mystery

-- A 19th-century fortress in Antwerp, Belgium, undergoing archaeological excavation turned up a mysterious finding: a British train car from around 1930. United Press International reported on April 16 that the wooden London North Eastern Railway car was originally used for "removals" -- moving property from one residence to another. "It's a mystery as to how the carriage came to be in Antwerp," said consultant archaeologist Femke Martens. "Unfortunately there's very little left of the relic as it disintegrated while being excavated." [UPI, 4/16/2024]

-- Jessica Daley, a toll worker along the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey, called in sick to work on April 12 because she had "a gut feeling that something was going to happen. Like something terrible was going to happen," she said. She felt the premonition was about a car accident, NBC New York reported. Sure enough, about four hours later, a garbage collector's truck slammed into a tollbooth -- the one Daley is usually in, she said. The toll collector and truck driver both suffered serious injuries. "I dropped to my knees and just started crying," she said. "I was praying for everybody involved." She was back at work the next day. [NBC New York, 4/17/2024]

Crime Report

On April 9, investigators caught their targets in a puzzling money-making scheme in Rochelle Park, New Jersey. NBC New York reported that Detective Nick Mercoun and his partner arrested 77-year-old Alfredo Rodriguez and 54-year-old Hector Cortes, whom they dubbed the Shopping Cart Bandits. The two had stolen at least 140 carts from the ShopRite grocery, which Mercoun believes they were selling for about $200 wholesale. "It was about $28,000 worth of shopping carts," he said. The Food Marketing Institute estimates that 2 million shopping carts are stolen each year. Who knew? Rodriguez and Cortes are rolling along at the Bergen County Jail. [NBC New York, 4/13/2024]

Haute Couture

It wasn't an April Fools' joke: Independent Online reported on April 1 that fashion house Balenciaga has introduced a clear plastic bracelet that resembles a roll of packing tape, to the tune of about $3,000. The "Gaffer Bangle" includes an inside label that reads "Balenciaga Adhesive -- Made in France." The company reportedly unveiled the bracelet at Paris Fashion Week, and reviews are sticky: One Reddit commenter noted, "When will people learn Balenciaga's schtick is to generally make a fool of its consumers?" Another said, "Rich people want to feel poor so bad." [Independent Online, 4/1/2024]

Parenting Goals

Lakesha Woods Williams, 29, was arrested on a felony child abandonment count in Houston after leaving her 8- and 6-year-old children home alone while she went on a cruise, The Smoking Gun reported. Neighbors saw her leaving her luxury apartment on April 4 with "luggage and bags" and didn't see her return. When police were summoned on April 9, they found the two children in the apartment, which was "in complete disarray and had trash and leftover food all over the unit." The kids said their mom was on a cruise and they didn't know when she would be back. Officers found a webcam that Williams was using to "watch and talk to the children." When she appeared in court on April 12, the judge noted that witnesses had said it was "not the first time something like this has occurred." The kids are with their aunt while Williams is held in jail. [The Smoking Gun, 4/17/2024]

Mistaken Identity

A man with the Facebook name Grampian Stormtrooper was on his way to a DeeCon on April 6 at the University of Dundee in Scotland when the train suddenly stopped shortly after leaving Aberdeen station, Fox News reported. A guard approached Grampian, who was in full stormtrooper gear, and asked about his blaster. "Apparently someone reported it to the police," Grampian posted on Facebook. "Met by two firearms officers." Grampian was removed from the train, asked to return home and get a bag for the blaster and instructed not to wear his stormtrooper armor on the train. "Crazy world we live in," he noted. [Fox News, 4/10/2024]

Irony

Things got a little heated at the Good Will Fire Co. Station 69A in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, on April 18, WFMZ-TV reported. The cabin of a fire engine parked in the station caught fire. Crews were able to extinguish the fire quickly, but smoke damaged two ambulances, a fire rehab unit and the truck bays. One firefighter was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Pottstown fire officials are investigating the cause of the blaze. [WFMZ, 4/18/2024]

Police in Rose, Idaho, revealed on April 10 the names of the victim and suspect in a home invasion that took place in March, EastIdahoNews.com reported. Officials said that around 2 a.m., 85-year-old Christine Jenneiahn was sleeping in her home when she awoke to a man shining a flashlight and pointing a gun at her. Derek Ephriam Condon, 39, allegedly then handcuffed Jenneiahn and moved her to the living room, where he cuffed her to a chair and asked her where the valuables were. She told him there were two safes, and he left to investigate. While he was out of the room, Jenneiahn dragged herself and the chair into her bedroom and got her .357 Magnum revolver, which she hid on a nearby couch after returning to the living room. Ultimately, she made a "now or never" decision and drew the gun, fatally striking Condon with two shots. He returned fire, hitting her multiple times, but Jenneiahn survived and has already left the hospital. The case, said Bingham County Prosecutor Ryan Jolley, "presents one of the most heroic acts of self-preservation I have ever heard of." Officials said the two knew each other and it was not a random incident. [EastIdahoNews.com, 4/11/2024]

Rectum? Killed 'im

A 24-year-old man, Yogesh R, in Bengaluru, India, died on March 25 of massive intestinal damage after a friend, Murali, 23, playfully inflated his rectum with a powerful car wash blow-dryer. The friend, an employee at a motorbike service center, had finished washing and drying the vehicle of the victim when horseplay ensued, the Times of India reported. The dryer's wand was not close to Yogesh, but the pressure was such that the victim collapsed and was rushed to the hospital, where doctors were unable to repair his exploded colon. Murali was arrested for culpable homicide. [Times of India, 3/29/2024]

Animal Antics

-- In the wee hours of April 10 at a train station in Sydney, Australia, an unexpected commuter showed up, United Press International reported. A horse, wearing a blanket, appeared on the Warwick Farm station platform during heavy storms and tried to board the train. The escapade was captured on security camera video. The horse trotted up and down the platform and chased another rider before its owner was summoned to collect it. Transport for New South Wales declared that the would-be rider was "only horsing around" and was returned to his residence. [UPI, 4/10/2024]

-- On April 8 in Kansas City, Missouri, police were summoned after someone saw a mountain goat standing on a ledge under a highway overpass bridge, United Press International reported. Authorities tried using a rope to rescue the goat, who ended up hanging from the rope for a short while. Finally a veterinarian on the ground sedated the animal, and it was taken to a local animal shelter to recover. Apparently, the goat had recently been adopted by a nearby resident and had escaped its enclosure. [UPI, 4/9/2024]

Precocious

At the Country Oaks Elementary School in Hendry County, Florida, two 10-year-old boys were trading more than Lunchables on March 27. ClickOrlando reported that one of the boys had agreed in February to sell a handgun belonging to his father, who had recently died, to another for $300. The gun was located under a shed in the boy's backyard, along with a baggie containing 74 grams of marijuana. Both boys were arrested -- one for selling a firearm to a minor, the other for purchasing a firearm as a minor. The seller's mom is a sheriff's deputy; she was put on administrative leave while the investigation continues. [ClickOrlando, 3/28/2024]

Holier Than Thou

Peter Owens, 35, of Ellenton, Florida, went to a Walgreens store in Clearwater on Easter Sunday to buy some headphones, The Smoking Gun reported. While there, he got into an argument with an employee of the store, and the manager, 36-year-old Nicole Merck, tried to intervene, asking Owens to leave the store. That was when Owens, according to police, struck Merck in the face with his Bible. Authorities tracked him down, and he admitted striking her "because she was being rude to him." The charge was bumped up to a felony because of Owens' 2020 conviction in Michigan for assault and battery. WWJD? [The Smoking Gun, 4/2/2024]

Overserved

-- Anna Louise Keller, 49, of Seminole, Florida, was shocked -- SHOCKED! -- on April 8 when Pinellas County Sheriff's deputies stopped her because she was driving recklessly and, critically, missing her right front tire. Fox13-TV reported that officers smelled alcohol, and Keller admitted that she had been drinking and was unaware of the missing tire. She tested over the legal limit, and deputies found four empty Busch Light containers in the car. She was charged with DUI. [Fox13, 4/10/2024]

-- When police came across Wyly James Weeks, 35, on April 5 in St. Petersburg, Florida, he was sitting in a trash can, on a sidewalk, and completely naked. The Smoking Gun reported that Weeks told cops he "was allowed to be drunk and disorderly and sit naked in a trash can on the public sidewalk." Indeed, they found him to be unsteady on his feet and smelling of liquor. He also told them he didn't have to provide his "name or demographics." He pleaded guilty to disorderly intoxication and resisting an officer without violence and was fined $520. [The Smoking Gun, 4/8/2024]

Total Eclipse of My Parts

In what is apparently a regular prank in Mexico, someone submitted an adults-only video clip of their view of the eclipse on April 8 to an RCG Media news program, the New York Post reported. But this particular clip was of a man blocking out the sun with his testicles. While the male anchor read on from a list of locations where people could watch the celestial phenomenon, one of the two female anchors gasped as the crude image flashed on the screen. The male anchor then apologized; an X user with the name Rhevolver took gleeful responsibility for the joke. [New York Post, 4/9/2024]

Bright Idea

At the home of Omar Gabriel Munoz in Sacramento County, California, on March 29, a package was delivered, Fox News reported. But when Munoz got home, it wasn't there. When he checked his doorbell video, he found out why -- and he had to give credit to the porch pirate, who he said showed "a lot of creativity." The thief shuffled up to Munoz's front door dressed as a bag of trash, with only their feet showing, stood over the box and picked it up, then shuffled away. Munoz said the box contained only two iPhone chargers; he didn't report the theft to the police because "they have more important things to do." "At first I was kinda angry but when I saw the video again, I was laughing," Munoz said. [Fox News, 4/4/2024]

Oops!

The U.S. Navy is the subject of much ridicule after it released a photo online depicting Commander Cameron Yaste, the captain of the USS John S. McCain, shooting a rifle -- with the scope mounted backwards and the lens cap still on. The Telegraph reported that the image also accompanied an official press release and was captioned, "From engaging in practice gun shoots, conducting maintenance, testing fuel purity and participating in sea and anchor details, the #USNavy is always ready to serve and protect." One commenter on X noted despondently, "We're going to lose a major war." [Telegraph, 4/11/2024]