Jesse Johnson, 28, was arrested on Sept. 24 in Gilbert, Arizona, after three instances in which he allegedly spied on women's feet as they vacuumed their cars, AZFamily reported. Police said Johnson's M.O. at the Super Star Car Wash in Gilbert was to park next to a woman's car at the vacuum station, then slide underneath her car for a few minutes before climbing back out. One victim said she felt "very violated and I've been having nightmares." It's not the first time Johnson has been caught lusting after feet: Court documents revealed that he had been cited at least four times in Nebraska, and that he had touched a woman's ankle in a grocery store. He admitted to authorities there that he "is sexually attracted to women's feet" and "at times, can't control his sexual desires." Johnson was charged with three counts of voyeurism and three counts of disorderly conduct and held on $10,000 bond. [AZFamily, 9/26/2024]

Creepy

In late September, Derek Johnson, owner of JVI Secret Gardens in Donelson, Tennessee, was alerted by an employee that someone was walking around the garden center wearing a clown mask, WTVF-TV reported. But Johnson was not about to physically confront the creepy clown, whom he could see on surveillance video. Johnson clicked on his security system's speaker, but before he could say anything, the clown backed off: "I'm leaving." He left behind a propane tank and a saw blade that he had picked up to steal. "This is a sweet little garden center," Johnson said incredulously. Police are investigating. [WTVF, 9/27/2024]

Great Art?

A work of art at the LAM museum in Lisse, the Netherlands, was mistakenly thrown away by an elevator technician in late September, CNN reported. "All the good times we spent together" by French artist Alexandre Lavet appears to be two empty beer cans, but, the museum said, it is really "meticulously hand-painted with acrylics, with each detail painstakingly replicated." The work was displayed in the facility's glass elevator shaft, and when a technician came in to work on the lift, he helpfully pitched it in the trash. "He was just doing his job in good faith," said Sietske van Zanten, the museum director. The cans were later recovered, cleaned and returned to display, albeit in a different location. [CNN, 10/8/2024]

We Regret To Inform You ...

Tizi Hodson, 70, of Lincolnshire, England, sent off an application in January 1976, hoping to become a motorcycle stunt rider, the BBC reported on Oct. 5. Recently, the letter was returned to her with a note: "Late delivery by Staines Post Office. Found behind a draw(er). Only about 50 years late." "How they found me when I've moved house 50-odd times, and even moved countries four or five times, is a mystery," Hodson said. "I was so disappointed because I really, really wanted to be a stunt rider on a motorcycle." Instead, her life's work has included being a snake handler, horse whisperer, aerobatic pilot and flying instructor. "It means so much to me to get it back all this time later," she said. [BBC, 10/5/2024]

Awesome!

Reddit user Springchikun was doing some lawn cleanup in September when she noticed that a small hatch leading to a crawlspace under her home was unlatched. The New York Post reported that the Oregon woman investigated, finding a makeshift bed and several bags of belongings. She noted that the crawlspace was free of cobwebs, suggesting that someone had been there recently. "I'm sure someone is using the space," she said. But Springchikun didn't want to call the authorities about the squatter. "We have an option to be kind," she said. Instead, she wrote the person a note, offering support such as food, a phone or help with resources. As a result, she met her unexpected guest, whose name is Gaby, and connected her with a friend who could help her with shelter and a mental health evaluation. "I'm not without empathy," she said. "I just can't have humans living under my home." [NY Post, 9/27/2024]

News You Can Use

-- When Hannah Willow arrived at the Scottish Tree Hugging Championships in Glasgow on Oct. 6, she thought the event was a charity affair, The Guardian reported on Oct. 9. "When I was told it was a competition, my inner child took a somersault ... This was a moment of glory for me," Willow said. Now, she's on her way to the World Tree Hugging Championship in HaliPuu Forest in Finland in August 2025. She's already strategizing about how to win: "I need to step up my game for the world championships," she said. "I will have to bring out my fairy wings and my ukelele and go singing to the trees." Willow said her children were "hugely embarrassed" to learn she had won the Glasgow contest. [Guardian, 10/9/2024]

-- As if folks in Florida didn't have enough to worry about, State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis announced on Oct. 9 that after Hurricane Helene came through in September, at least 48 fires involving lithium-ion batteries had been reported -- 11 in electric vehicles. "Floridians living on the coastline who own EVs are at risk of those EVs being inundated with saltwater storm surge, which presents a dangerous fire threat to Florida families and homes," Patronis said, according to WFTS-TV. Other products like electric scooters, golf carts or children's toys also could be affected. "These compromised vehicles and devices are ticking time bombs," Patronis said. He suggested people move affected vehicles away from their homes. [WFTS, 10/9/2024]

The Neighbors

Caroline Ashley, 41, of Liverpool, England, went all out on her Halloween decorations this year, installing fake tombstones and human skulls, but the pieces de resistance were the two "body bags" hanging upside down from a tree in front of her home. But, as Metro News reported, the fun didn't last long: On Sept. 24, a Liverpool City Council worker stopped by to tell Ashley she would have to remove the body bags because a neighbor had complained. "It was the quickest the council has come out for anything," Ashley said. "I put them up, and then he was round the following day." But, she conceded, a neighbor may have been "triggered" by the display. "I don't want to offend anyone. That wasn't the intention," she said. Ashley said she'll keep the body bags in her garage going forward -- which might be creepier. [Metro News, 10/10/2024]

Family Values

Indonesian police have arrested a man near Jakarta, identified as RA, after he allegedly sold his 11-month-old baby on Facebook for $995 to fund his gambling addiction. The Telegraph reported that when the baby's mother returned home, she asked him where the child was. "RA saw on Facebook that the buyers were looking to purchase a toddler so he sent them a message and arranged the purchase," the police chief said. Police found the child in a rented home and arrested two adults suspected of human trafficking. [Telegraph, 10/8/2024]

Saw That Coming

On Oct. 6, 36-year-old Clejuan Williams of Toledo, Ohio, was teaching his 9-year-old son how to back up the car (first mistake) with another child in the backseat (second mistake). Williams was standing outside the car with the driver's door open, WTVG reported, and told the boy to hit the brake. When the child pressed the wrong pedal, Williams, who was intoxicated (third mistake), was struck and dragged under the car. He was taken to the hospital and is expected to face charges of wrongful entrustment of a motor vehicle and endangering children. [WTVG, 10/8/2024]

U.S Customs and Border Protection shuts down smuggling attempts on a daily basis, but what its officers caught on Sept. 23 at the Presidio, Texas, port of entry wasn't the usual contraband. While inspecting a vehicle being driven into the U.S., CBP personnel discovered 748 pounds of Mexican bologna. The New York Post reported that 40 rolls of the deli meat were hidden in a number of suitcases throughout the vehicle. CBP Presidio Port Director Benito Reyes Jr. said in a news release that "the concern with pork products is that they have the potential to introduce foreign animal diseases that can have devastating effects to the U.S. economy and to our agriculture industry." The driver, an American citizen, was issued a $1,000 civil penalty; the bologna was destroyed per USDA regulations. [WHAM-13, 9/28/2024]

Single-Engine Drama

-- En route from Nebraska to Oregon on Sept. 21, a single-engine plane made an emergency landing on Highway 25 north of Cheyenne, Wyoming, Cowboy State Daily reported. Levi and Kelsi Dutton, who were traveling south on the highway when the plane landed in front of them, offered assistance to the pilot, who identified himself as Steve. The pilot calmly inspected the plane’s fuel line before announcing, "I got the tools right here. I'll just open it up, figure out what's going on and get her fixed." After making the repair, Steve hopped back aboard the plane and, as the Duttons stopped traffic to free up a runway space, taxied south and took off for Cheyenne Regional Airport, where he could do a more thorough inspection. [Cowboy State Daily, 9/21/24]

-- Another single-engine plane made news on Sept. 17 when, shortly after taking off from Myrtle Beach International Airport in South Carolina, a door fell off and landed in the yard of a vacant home, WBMF News reported. The pilot and passenger on board were unharmed. Witness Wendy Hodges, who lives next door to the vacant house, hurried home after learning of the incident, and found the intact door in the neighbor’s yard. “It was definitely really lucky that there was no damage or no one was hurt,” said Hodges. “As a matter of fact, there’s a plane flying right now, but I will certainly make sure I start looking up.” [WBMF, 9/18/24]

Missed Their Exit?

WSVN in Miami reported on Sept. 21 that an SUV fell from an overpass on I-95, crashing through a fence below and narrowly missing a bystander -- and miraculously, both driver and passenger walked away, apparently unscathed. Those nearby rushed to help, including Mariah Lewis, who offered a knife from her glove box to aid in cutting the driver and passenger out of their seatbelts. “It’s just by the grace of God that the people lived, because I don’t understand how you fall from that high and [live],” she said. Both occupants were checked by paramedics, and the driver was taken to a local trauma center for observation. “It was bad, but it could have been worse,” Lewis said. “I was just telling my daughter I’m so grateful. You’ve got to be grateful for life.” [WSVN, 9/21/24

Awesome!

Reach for the stars, kids! And by “stars,” we mean “wheelbarrow.” John Loghry of Saylorville, Iowa, made his dream come true when he set a new world record -- for the fastest motorized wheelbarrow. WeAreIowa.com reported that Loghry’s vehicle reached 57 mph at an event on Sept. 21, beating the previous Guinness World Record of 47 mph. A local sheriff’s office helped Loghry confirm the speed with a lidar gun, as required per Guinness rules. “He’s been very determined on doing it,” said Loghry’s wife, Jeanne. Members of the local community came out to watch the attempt, so Loghry, a veteran, ended up using the event to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project. He said he hopes he can inspire others to pursue their dreams, even the wacky ones: “If you think you can do it, try it,” he said. [WeAreIowa.com, 9/21/24]

Kung Faux Panda

As the old saying goes, if it (sorta) looks like a panda, but walks, barks and pants like a dog ... it’s a dog. Canoe.com reported that a Chinese zoo in the southern Guangdong province has admitted what many had already guessed: that its “pandas” were actually dogs with their fur painted. Some zoo visitors used social media to share photos and videos of the critters doing very un-pandalike things, such as panting, barking and wagging long tails. Commenters had a field day: “It’s a PANdog,” one wrote, while another called it “the Temu version of a panda.” Once the posts went viral, zoo officials admitted they had painted two chow chow dogs. Some visitors have since demanded refunds. [Canoe.com, 9/20/24]

Whatever's Handy

When a British surgeon couldn’t find a scalpel, the BBC reported on Oct. 1, he reached for the next best thing: the Swiss Army knife he normally uses to slice up fruit for his lunch. The news organization has not identified the surgeon, who was operating on a patient at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton. While the surgery was reportedly an emergency -- one the patient survived, thankfully -- internal documents indicate that the surgeon’s colleagues found his behavior “questionable” and that they were “very surprised” he was unable to find a more conventional surgical tool. Dr. Graeme Poston, an expert on clinical negligence and a former consultant surgeon, told the BBC: “It surprises me and appalls me. Firstly, a penknife is not sterile. Secondly, it is not an operating instrument. And thirdly, all the kit (must have been) there.” [BBC, 10/1/24]

There Goes the Neighborhood

You can't take it with you -- which means you should be very careful what you leave behind. KSBW-8 reported on Sept. 30 that a real estate agent in Salinas, California, got a real scare when, while preparing the home of a recently deceased man for an estate sale, they discovered a 2.5-foot-long high explosive anti-tank (H.E.A.T.) rocket among the man's belongings in a closet. As the neighborhood was evacuated to a radius of 500 feet by the Salinas police, a neighbor, Rebecca Rodick, interacted with an officer on scene: "He showed me the X-ray of the missile, which is really wild. He said, 'See how it's all dark? That means there's a lot of stuff in it.'" The Monterey County Sheriff's Explosive Ordinance Unit successfully removed the rocket from the residence without incident. [KSBW-8, 9/30/2024]

Makes Sense

Kody Adams of Oklahoma was due for a court appearance in Pawnee County for a hearing on car theft charges on Sept. 27. So when Adams couldn't bum a ride from any of the patrons at a gas station in Stillwater, some 30 minutes away, KOCO News 5 reported that he improvised by commandeering an unoccupied LifeNet Emergency Services pickup and driving it to Pawnee. An Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper caught Adams after he had ditched the pickup and was entering the courthouse. "The trooper did make sure he made his court case," said Preston Cox of the OHP. Adams was then transported to Payne County and booked on new charges. [KOCO News 5, 9/27/2024]

Great Art

Two months after Rayne Beau, a Siamese cat owned by Benny and Susanne Anguiano of Salinas, California, went missing during a trip to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, the 2-year-old cat was reported found by the Placer SPCA shelter in Roseville, California -- some 800 miles from where the cat had gone missing. USA Today reported that the Anguianos had tried for several days to locate Rayne Beau, but were finally forced to leave the cat behind when their reservation ran out on June 8. But on Aug. 3, a voicemail from the shelter claimed that the cat had been located and identified via microchip, and the Anguianos were reunited with Rayne Beau. "He was really little, all skin and bones. He was in starvation mode," Benny said; but the cat recovered quickly.[USA Today, 9/19/2024]

Literally. Sean Edward Uribe, 35, was arrested on Sept. 12 in the wake of two incidents over the summer at Miami clothing stores, The Smoking Gun reported. During the first encounter, at a Ross Dress for Less in June, Uribe allegedly used a medical syringe to squirt a substance on the back of the shorts of a juvenile as he recorded with his phone, police said. Witnesses alerted store employees and the victim as Uribe fled the scene. In late August at a Marshalls store, Uribe allegedly struck again, this time targeting an adult woman to "spray an unknown substance on the victim's left buttocks area," police said. When Uribe was taken into custody, he confessed and said the liquid in the syringes was moisturizing lotion. Then he called his father, as police listened, and instructed him to go to his house and remove hard drives. "Put them under lock and key," he said. Officers got there first and seized the drives, along with loaded syringes. So far, he's been charged with battery on a child, two misdemeanor battery counts and tampering with evidence. [The Smoking Gun, 9/19/2024]

The Golden Age of Air Travel

A Scandinavian Airlines flight from Oslo, Norway, to Malaga, Spain, was diverted to Copenhagen, Denmark, on Sept. 18 after a mouse crawled out of a passenger's in-flight meal, the BBC reported. Jarle Borrestad, who was sitting next to the passenger whose meal harbored the rodent, told the BBC that people on board remained calm, but he put his socks over his pant legs so the mouse couldn't crawl up his leg. Oystein Schmidt, SAS spokesperson, said such events happen "extremely rarely"; passengers were transferred to another plane and went on their way. [BBC, 9/20/2024]

Oops

On Sept. 24, as the Kamloops, British Columbia, city council met in the council chambers, someone zooming in online queued up a pornographic video clip while sharing their screen, the CBC reported. The council's public participation segment of the meeting allows people to ask questions or comment on agenda items, but councilman Bill Sarai said Tuesday's incident was the final straw for him. "It's really swayed far, far away from what it's meant to be," Sarai said. He wants to eliminate the public portion of the meeting and ask the public to interact through email or in-person meetings. [CBC, 9/25/2024]

Awesome!

-- In November, Stack's Bowers Galleries in Boston will offer an extremely rare three-pence coin from 1652 for auction, CBS News reported. The coin, which was minted in Boston at the Hull Mint, was purchased from a shop in the Netherlands. It is one of only three known coins like it, one of which was stolen and hasn't been seen since. Store manager Stanley Chu expects it to fetch well over $1 million. [CBS News, 9/20/2024]

-- Student volunteers were helping out with an archaeological dig in Eu, France, when one of them found a small glass bottle inside an earthenware pot, United Press International reported. Inside the bottle was a message, written in January 1825, from one "P.J. Feret, a native of Dieppe, member of various intellectual societies." Feret was carrying out excavations at the same site and left the message for future explorers. "It was an absolutely magic moment," said Guillaume Blondel, head of the town's Regional Archaeology Service. Local records revealed that Feret was a well-known archaeologist of his time. Blondel said such finds are rare: "Most archaeologists prefer to think that there won't be anyone coming after them because they've done all the work." [UPI, 9/24/2024]

It's Good To Have a Hobby

Joshua Kiser of Breinigsville, Pennsylvania, was looking for something to amuse himself during the COVID shutdown in 2020 when he came across an idea: "I stumbled upon a picture of the eccentric man posing with a gigantic top hat on his head," Kiser said, referring to Odilon Ozare, who set the record for World's Tallest Hat in 2018. Kiser thought it would be easy to surpass Ozare's 15-foot, 9-inch hat, but it wasn't until this year that he managed to engineer one, at 17 feet, 9.5 inches, that could withstand a walk of the required 32.8 feet while wearing it. United Press International reported that his final, winning design incorporated lightweight guttering and a Philadelphia Eagles trash can that "looked about the circumference of my noggin." [UPI, 9/26/2024]

Freaky

A 27-foot-tall puppet in the shape of a seated baby has been installed in the center of the town of Rochdale, England, the BBC reported on Sept. 25. The baby, named Lilly, with a mouth and eyes that open and shut, is part of a council project to encourage schoolchildren to talk about the importance of the environment. Ostensibly, the kids will speak to Lilly; their conversations will be recorded and broadcast from the baby at an event on Oct. 24 at Hollingworth Lake Nature Park. But townsfolk aren't warming up to Lilly, calling it "the ugliest baby I've ever seen." One said, "It's creepy with its eyes shut, never mind open." No telling how school-aged kids will react to it. [BBC, 9/25/2024]

Overreaction

-- A 58-year-old Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, woman, Wendy Washik, was taken into custody on Sept. 1 and charged with assault with a weapon, the CBC reported. The charges stemmed from an incident at a backyard party when Washik, who was playing with a child, accidentally shot a neighbor with a water gun while he mowed his lawn. Washik said she apologized repeatedly, but the "victim" "wouldn't listen to me and ... was screaming at me." She said police "didn't ask me a single question. They didn't ask to see the water gun." Washik was due in court on Sept. 24. [CBC, 9/13/2024]

-- Socorro Camacho, 54, died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Sept. 23 after getting into a dispute with another man over a song played on a jukebox, WSVN-TV reported. The argument started in the wee hours at Antojitos Mexicanos restaurant when Camacho insulted the other man over his song choice, witnesses said. The insulted man "pulled his weapon and started shooting," Mauro Bonilla said. Fort Lauderdale police are investigating and trying to identify the gunman. [WSVN, 9/23/2024]

Bright Idea

A Florida man (of course) was rescued late on Sept. 23 after he apparently attempted to swim across the Detroit River from Windsor, Canada, to Detroit, CBS News reported. The U.S. Mail Boat J.W. Westcott II was launched after hearing of the swimmer, who was using a life ring to help support himself. "There's a very strong current, and the water temperature is about 73 degrees right now," said Capt. Neil Schultheiss. "Even with the life ring, he was struggling." The boat picked up the swimmer after about 10 minutes of searching. Crewmembers said he seemed disoriented and under the influence. "He just kind of kept pacing around the front deck, saying, 'Is this boat U.S.? Are we going back to the U.S.?'" Schultheiss said. He was transferred to an EMS unit. [CBS News, 9/24/2024]

Great Art

Residents of Everett, Washington, must be feeling so much better about themselves following the installation of the Affirmation Station, My Everett News reported on Sept. 25. Artist Timothy C. Flood of Colorado installed the sculpture, which looks like a pedestrian crossing sign, but instead delivers audio and text with messages like "Hey, you're doing a great job" and "You are strong." On the post is a sign inviting the viewers to press a button, which activates the sign. [My Everett News, 9/25/2024]