The latest plane failure story -- about the emergency slide that fell off a Boeing 767 leaving JFK Airport last week -- gets a "whodathunkit" follow-up, the New York Post reported. On April 28, the slide washed up right in front of the beachside home in Belle Harbor, Queens, of Jake Bissell-Linsk, who happens to be the attorney who filed a federal lawsuit against Boeing after the Alaska Airlines door blowout in January. Belle Harbor is about 6 miles southeast of JFK. "I didn't want to touch it, but I got close enough to get a close look at it," Bissell-Linsk said. He said a Delta Airlines crew arrived a few hours later and threw the slide into the back of a truck. "We haven't decided if the slide is relevant to our case," he noted. [NY Post, 4/29/2024]

Animal Antics

The large animals are restless lately. On April 28, four zebras made a break for it from a trailer at a highway exit in Washington State, The New York Times reported. Kristine Keltgen was hauling them to her petting zoo in Anaconda, Montana, when the latch on the trailer became loose and the zebras "bolted out." Police officers and volunteers headed up the effort to corral them, but David Danton of Mount Vernon, Washington, was a ringer: Danton is a former rodeo clown and bullfighter. He and his wife happened to be driving by and stopped to help. "It was kind of divine intervention," Danton's wife said. Danton built a makeshift chute leading to a horse pen on a nearby farm. "It's just about being quiet, working them gentle and not getting excited," he said. As of May 2, one of the zebras was still on the lam, but Keltgen was sure it would be found. [NY Times, 4/29/2024]

The Golden Age of Air Travel

Passengers aboard an American Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Phoenix on April 25 were delayed by about 90 minutes after their flight had to make an unplanned stop in Oklahoma City, Simple Flying reported. While AA's official statement called the problem a "mechanical issue," social media reports indicated that the toilets became clogged, and the plane had to land for maintenance. One traveler posted: "I was on this flight. Apparently, the lavatory tanks were NOT emptied from the previous LAX to DCA flight the night before." [Simple Flying, 4/27/2024]

Tourists Behaving Badly

Fujikawaguchiko, Japan, "is a town built on tourism," said Michie Motomochi, the owner of a cafe in the city. So it says a lot that the town began constructing a large black screen on a stretch of sidewalk that is a favorite spot for viewing and photographing Mount Fuji in the distance. The Associated Press reported that construction began on April 30; the screen will be 8 feet high and 65 feet long. "I welcome many visitors," Motomochi said, "... but there are many things about their manners that are worrying," such as littering, crossing the road in traffic, ignoring traffic lights and trespassing. The town has reportedly tried other tactics -- signs in multiple languages and security guards -- to no avail. [AP, 4/30/2024]

Suspicions Confirmed

Ashley Class of Charlotte, North Carolina, was stumped by her toddler's reports of monsters in the wall of her bedroom, NPR reported. For months, Saylor told her mom she could hear something, but Class chalked it up to the stress of a new baby in the house. She and her husband deployed "monster spray" (water) and pretended to look for the monsters. But finally, Class called a pest control specialist, who went into Saylor's room with a thermal camera. "It lit up like Christmas," Class said. "It was floor to ceiling." Behind Saylor's wall was a 100-pound honeycomb and about 50,000 bees, which the beekeeper removed. But not before the bees had done tens of thousands of dollars in damage. "It's been a nightmare," Class said. [NPR, 4/30/2024]

A Hard Act To Swallow

Parashuram, 38, a convict in a Karnataka, India, prison, acted quickly to hide his smuggled-in cellphone when guards raided his cell in early April, The Indian Express reported. Instead of stashing the contraband in a pillowcase or toilet, the convicted murderer serving a life sentence swallowed the phone. When he started complaining of stomach pain, he was transferred to Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru, where doctors did an ultrasound. On April 25, he went under the knife to remove the phone, which was stuck at the entrance of the small intestine. The phone had been inside Parashuram for 20 days when it was removed; the prisoner recovered from the surgery and was returned to his cell. [Indian Express, 5/2/2024]

Surprise!

When David Loop of Sierra Pacific Furbabies, a feline rescue organization in California, found a box dumped in front of their office in April, the attached note explained that the "kitten" was found "in Mt. Rubidoux hiking path." But when he opened the box, Loop said instantly, "I'm pretty sure this is a bobcat kitten." Sure enough, Newsweek reported, when Loop contacted a local wildlife center, they thought the bobcat kitten was 3 to 5 weeks old. The furball has been transferred to a wildlife center where it will hang out with other bobcats and eventually be reintroduced to the wild. [Newsweek, 4/30/2024]

Most Chatty Criminal

Last September, Stephanie Langley, 55, of East Farleigh, Kent, England, stepped outside the Hare and Hound pub and stabbed her former brother-in-law, Matthew Bryant, to death. She was convicted on May 1, the BBC reported. Although Langley "claimed in court that she had never intended to hurt her victim," she started that violent evening by telling pub-goers, "Get a drink while he's still alive." Then she told Bryant, "You're dead tonight." After she stabbed him three times, witnesses heard Langley say, "I hope he's dead." She told arresting officers she had killed him, was glad she had killed him, and was happy to go to jail for it. She'll be sentenced at a future hearing, probably to life. [BBC, 5/1/2024]

News You Can Use

Attention Tornado Alley dwellers: On April 30, as violent storms were coursing around the Midwest, two "rare" versions were detected near Loveland, Oklahoma, Fox Weather reported. Meteorologist Stephen Morgan acknowledged that "some strange things" popped up that night. Turns out, more than 98% of tornadoes spin in a counterclockwise direction. But that night, two tornadoes -- technically called anticyclones -- were found to be spinning clockwise. Morgan said the anticyclonic tornado "rotated around what you could call a 'normal' tornado. What we saw ... was very rare." The anticyclones are typically smaller and weaker than cyclonic storms. There were no reports of injuries in the area. [Fox Weather, 5/2/2024]

It's Come to This

Stanislav Netesov of Moscow, Russia, was attacked on April 27 at a bus stop on his way home from work, Oddity Central reported. The assailants took his phone and knocked out one of his teeth. The next day, Netesov went to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to report the attack, but instead of taking his report, they accused him of a crime: dyeing his hair yellow and blue, the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Doing so is a punishable offense against the Russian army. Police took his fingerprints, handed him a summons to military enlistment and told him they'd force him to "kiss his native soil in the trenches." [Oddity Central, 5/2/2024]

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]