News of the Weird

In Seminole County, Florida, Alan Davis, 69, is famous for all the wrong reasons, ClickOrlando reported. Davis' unsightly property has been the bane of his neighbors' existence for 25 years, and this year, as he celebrates the anniversary of his first county code violation, he's added another element: a 6-foot-tall fiberglass representation of a human butt. Also in his yard: stacks of scrap metal, steel drums, rusted appliances, tarps, junked vehicles and towering weeds. Davis calls the yard a "political protest" against the county government. "I pile it up intentionally to aggravate them," he said. As of mid-January, Davis owed the county $5.4 million in fines, with more accruing every day. "I'm not going to pay it," Davis said. "I do what I want on my property." Twice, the county has paid to haul away thousands of pounds of junk, but Davis just starts collecting again. "Freedom has a look. This is what it looks like," he said. [ClickOrlando, 2/6/2025]

Unexpected Guest

On Feb. 4, a guest at the Boulevard 17 hotel in Vlissingen, The Netherlands, returned to her room after taking her dog for a walk and found a gray seal taking a nap on the floor, NL Times reported. "Fortunately, she didn't try to touch it," said Valentijn Damen of the hotel ownership group Pier 7. "She walked up to the restaurant to get help." The Zeeland Animal Welfare Foundation responded, and with assistance from the Sea Animal Rescue Team Netherlands RTZ, they put the seal in a basket and removed it to the beach. Officials said gray seals "look for a place to rest and sometimes lie in the middle of the terrace or on the road." [NL Times, 2/5/2025]

Smooth Reaction

Things got heated at a Wingstop restaurant in Port St. Lucie, Florida, on Jan. 28, The Smoking Gun reported. Carnael Irene, 19, who worked at the location, told police that two customers -- one a minor -- became "loud and disruptive," and one of them pushed a container of straws off the counter. Irene responded by throwing ranch dressing at them before she went to the kitchen and returned with a bucket of hot grease, which she also threw at the victims. She was charged with aggravated battery and aggravated child abuse, both felonies. [The Smoking Gun, 1/30/2025]

The Golden Age of Air Travel

On Feb. 3, Gloria Omisore of Lagos, Nigeria, was traveling through Nairobi on her way to Manchester, England, when things went a little sideways. Omisore had planned a stopover in Paris, News.com.au reported, but as she checked in, Kenya Airways staff informed her that she didn't have the correct visa to enter France. They offered an alternative route straight to England, but Omisore wasn't having it -- she flew into a "check-in rage" during which she argued with gate attendants and threw three used sanitary napkins at them. "You will provide me a sanitary towel," she screamed. "I will speak with the minister of finance in Nigeria, you will see." An attendant shouted back, "Call the president of Nigeria. You will not fly on the Kenya Airways." "We strongly condemn such conduct," Kenya Airways said of Omisore's tirade. "Our employees deserve to work in a safe and dignified environment." Omisore was deported back to Nigeria. [News.com.au, 2/5/2025]

Suspicions Confirmed

In Douglasville, Georgia, a routine traffic stop on Jan. 29 resulted in a perplexing mystery, Atlanta News First reported. Douglas County Sheriff's officers pulled over an unidentified driver who had a dead body in the passenger seat. The deceased, 21-year-old Malachi A. Mitchell, was allegedly meeting the driver to sell him a gun, Mitchell's mother said, although police say the investigation is ongoing. After questioning the driver, who was cooperative, detectives let him go. [Atlanta News First, 2/4/2025]

Unclear on the Concept

Ashton Mann, 23, of Kearns, Utah, was arrested after shooting his unnamed friend in the chest, WAFB-TV reported on Feb. 4. On Feb. 2, police were called to a home where they found an unresponsive male. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. Mann told detectives that he and his friend had smoked weed earlier in the evening and started talking about and handling two handguns. The victim told Mann that he could dodge a bullet; while Mann said the guns were unloaded, after about six rounds of the "game," one discharged and struck the victim as he tried to "jump out of the way." Mann was expected to be charged with felony manslaughter. [WAFB, 2/4/2025]

Sign of the Times

Pennsylvania State Police are working to track down the perpetrator of a crime that's no yolk ... or joke. The Associated Press reported that on Feb. 1, 100,000 eggs were stolen from the back of a trailer in Antrim Township, and no leads have come in. "In my career, I've never heard of a hundred thousand eggs being stolen," said Trooper Megan Frazer. But then, egg prices have rarely been so high. "We're hoping that somebody knows something," Frazer said. That would be eggs-cellent. [AP, 2/5/2025]

The Passing Parade

The Harvard Crimson reported on Feb. 6 that a man has repeatedly paraded through the Comstock Hall dormitory on campus wearing nothing from the waist down. Students have seen him entering bathrooms and wandering around the floors. Resident dean Monique A. Roy said the half-streaker "did not appear to be a resident." She urged students to keep their room doors closed and locked. "The entire staff is totally doing their best to get to the bottom of this, make sure it stops, make sure we're all safe," said student Chelsea J. Bohn-Pozniak. Totally. [Harvard Crimson, 2/6/2025]

Inexplicable

A man was captured on video in Palmerston North, New Zealand, using a busy kiddie pool to give himself a bath, News.au.com reported on Feb. 6. The man, who wore swim trunks, had a bar of soap and lathered up his arms and legs before putting his hand down his shorts and vigorously washing his hindquarters. Facebook user Luminus DaGawd let his camera roll as everyone around the pool looked on, commenting, "Bro, it's not a bath. ... All right, kids, get out of the pool." People who viewed the video wondered why no one confronted the man, but others defended him, with one noting, "I've heard children laughing about taking a p--s in the same pool I watched another child drink from. Who's really the yuck one?" Another complained, "Whole pool of people and no one there in that video stood up and told him to stop!" [News.au.com, 2/6/2025]

Police Report

Mounted officers of the Jacksonville (Florida) Sheriff's Office got a taste of the wild, wild west on Feb. 4 when they chased down a man accused in a drug deal. ClickOrlando reported that 25-year-old Jordan Wilson first backed away from the coppers on horseback, then turned and ran. Officer Cassie Haire caught the chase on her bodycam as she encouraged her horse, Nash: "Get him, Nash! Get that bad man!" Finally, Haire and another officer corralled Wilson, who was visibly breathless after his dash. [ClickOrlando, 2/6/2025]

Wait, What?

Rhiannon Evans, 25, of Caernarfon, Gwynedd, Wales, pleaded guilty to sending a series of nefarious selfies to her boyfriend's ex-partner, the BBC reported on Jan. 30. In the first "inappropriate" video, Evans "proceeds to pass gas by placing the camera on her bottom and passing the gas," prosecutors said. She followed the first video with several more to Deborah Prytherch in December and January, "her face smiling at the camera. She was smirking throughout, found it hilarious, but the victim didn't," prosecutor Diane Williams said. Evans will be subject to a two-year restraining order and was ordered to pay 100 pounds compensation. [BBC, 1/30/2025]

In 2023, friends Boone Hogg and Logan Jugler found a nice stick on the side of a trail in Utah -- it had "some excellent grain on it" and a "nice grip," they said. They liked it so much, they shared a review of it with their friends, National Public Radio reported on Jan. 23. Two years later, Stick Nation has about 3 million Instagram followers from all over the world who post pictures and reviews of their favorite sticks. Some are "modded," or altered by humans; others are "natty," left in their natural state. One poster from Antarctica wondered: "There are no sticks here. ... I found an ice stick. Does this count?" Stick Nation allowed the submission. "This is an Antarctica stick," Jugler decreed. [NPR, 1/23/2025]

Nope

In November, high above Riedering, Germany, Friedi Kuhne and Lukas Irmler walked across a slackline strung between two hot-air balloons flying at more than 8,000 feet, United Press International reported. The two were awarded the Guinness World Record for highest slackline walk on Jan. 27. Irmler went first, calling the successful walk "a glorious moment." Kuhne admitted, "Watching Lukas struggle on the slackline was also very intimidating for me," noting that the balloons went up and down while they were mid-walk. "At one point we were walking kind of downhill -- the next minute uphill. The tension of the line was going up and down." He celebrated by parachuting off the line. [UPI, 1/28/2025]

It's a Mystery

The Los Angeles Times reported on Jan. 27 that police were called to a property along the Los Angeles River where Google Earth images had captured multiple HELP signs scratched into the dirt. The land is owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, and it turns out the satellite images were captured in 2023. But a KTLA-TV news helicopter flew over the property on Jan. 27 and saw that the words were still there. Jill Micek, a spokesperson for Union Pacific, said the railroad is aware of a man who has trespassed on the company's property repeatedly and who is responsible for the alarming messages. While she stressed that no one is in danger, the conspiracy theory community lit up with tales of underground tunnels: "The truth is in the tunnels," one wrote on X. But LAPD is also familiar with the individual who frequents the area, and they said he "has refused housing or a mental health evaluation. He has been at the location for a few years." [LA Times, 1/27/2025]

Weird in the Wild

In rural Willows, Australia, a man in his 50s suffered serious injuries on Jan. 29 when a "massive" kangaroo attacked him as he walked from his house to his car, The Guardian reported. Fortunately, a neighbor witnessed the attack and was able to call for help. Rick Underhill of the Willows Rural Fire Brigade said the man encountered two kangaroos, one male and one female, and the female ran off before the "other bastard turned around and attacked him." He said the male roo was about 6 1/2 feet tall and probably weighed 220 pounds. Underhill warned community members to stay at home. "A lot of elderly people live in this little community, and they like to go and walk their dogs in the morning," he said. "And that's just asking for trouble." [Guardian, 1/30/2025]

The Tech Revolution

Twelve thousand humans, alongside dozens of humanoid robots, are scheduled to compete in a half-marathon in Beijing in April, Oddity Central reported on Jan. 29. Bipedal robots from Tesla, Boston Dynamics and 1X will have to have a human-inspired appearance and be able to move on two legs. Experts say experienced human runners have the edge over robots, partially because of battery life, but battery changes mid-race will be allowed. [Oddity Central, 1/29/2025]

The Passing Parade

In the name of gender equality, Chinese influencer Zhu Miaolin is calling on her male counterparts to start wearing Adam's apple covers, analogous to women wearing bras. The South China Morning Post reported on Jan. 23 that Zhu noted the Adam's apple is a delicate, sensitive area that should be protected. The covers are made from wool, leather or lace and cost between 70 cents and $3. A 2020 census in China revealed that there are about 35 million more men than women, a result of the longstanding (but now defunct) one-child policy in the country. [South China Morning Post, 1/23/2025]

Family Values

Two mourning sisters from Clearwater, Florida, didn't even make it out of the church before getting into a scrape following their 95-year-old dad's funeral on Jan. 22, The Smoking Gun reported. As Kathleen Deegan, 66, delivered the eulogy for Dr. Arthur Deegan, she neglected to mention her niece, which upset Maureen Deegan, 60. After the service, Maureen allegedly chest-bumped her older sister; Kathleen then grabbed Maureen's hair and pulled her back. Maureen threw "strikes at (Kathleen's) face." Kathleen was arrested for misdemeanor battery; Maureen was charged with felony battery because her victim was over 65 years old. [Smoking Gun, 1/25/2025]

News That Sounds Like a Joke

Fighting a cold? If you're lucky, you can find some Progresso Soup Drops -- cough lozenges that taste like chicken noodle soup. Metro News reported that General Mills announced the limited-time product on Jan. 16: "What's a soup drop? Well, it's soup you can suck on, of course!" A can of 24 lozenges costs $2.49, but they sold out almost immediately, before a second batch was released on Jan. 23. [Metro News, 1/17/2025]

Police Report

Police pulled over Elizabeth Perez of El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 24 after clocking her driving 106 mph on I-84 near Baker City, Oregon, The Oregonian reported. Why is that weird? Perez is 94 years old. She was also cited for failing to secure a child passenger, driving without insurance and failing to yield to an emergency vehicle. [Oregonian, 1/28/2025]

What's in a Name?

Before she was born, a cosmetologist from McDonough, Georgia, told the New York Post on Jan. 27, her mom wanted to name her either Tequilla Sunrise or Shaylee Shian. After the birth, her dad merged the names and signed the papers, and Tequilla Shian was introduced to the world. Tequilla was bullied and got in trouble with teachers, who thought she was making up her name, until she started going by Shian when she was 11. As an adult, she has embraced her first name again. "I have heard the same jokes over and over again," she said. "Kids would ask if my parents were alcoholics or if they were drunk naming me." Interestingly, Tequilla is a teetotaler: "I myself don't drink -- people find that very funny, that the girl named Tequilla doesn't drink." [NY Post, 1/27/2025]

Don't Try This at Home

JAMA Cardiology published a case on Jan. 22 that might put followers of the carnivore diet off their meat. The subject arrived at a Tampa, Florida, hospital with yellow oozing nodes on his palms, elbows and soles of his feet, the New York Post reported. He told doctors that he was following a diet consisting of entire sticks of butter, 6 to 9 pounds of cheese and hamburger patties daily. He said his overall health had improved -- he had lost weight and gained energy and cognitive functioning. But the painless ooze had started nearly a month earlier. Blood tests revealed his cholesterol level was more than 1,000 mg/dL -- about five times what is considered healthy. He was diagnosed with xanthelasma, in which excess lipids ooze from the blood vessels. The report didn't reveal the man's fate. [NY Post, 1/24/2025]

A Starbucks employee in Mobile, Alabama, had to have stitches and rabies vaccinations on Jan. 10 after a pet Aotus monkey jumped out of a car at the drive-thru window and into the restaurant, according to Lagniappe. The monkey ran up the employee's arm to her head and started biting her until a co-worker grabbed it and threw it back out of the window. Mobile Police Department public information officer Blake Brown said the monkey's owner, Tammy Elaine Gardner, drove away from the restaurant before police arrived. The wounded employee said Gardner, who had another monkey in the car, later returned to the restaurant to check on her but wouldn't give her name. "The owner of the animal could face charges," Brown said. The Starbucks location has banned Gardner and her monkeys from the drive-thru. "She's welcome to come inside if she leaves them in the car," the employee said. [Lagniappe, 1/17/2025]

Wait, What?

Jose Israel Teran Jr., 21, was taken into custody on Jan. 19 in connection with a road rage incident in San Antonio, KSAT-TV reported. In that confrontation, Teran allegedly shot a man in a semitruck while driving north on I-35. But it was Teran's earlier criminal activity, on Dec. 30, that really had law enforcement's attention. He was accidentally added to a family group text string that day, in which members were discussing a 9-month-old baby's upcoming baptism. Teran replied to the text, "That's a nice Caucasian baby how much you want?" He went on to ask, "Are you not interested in selling? I'm willing to start the bid at 500k." The baby's father called Teran, who explained that he purchases babies for their organs and could pay in cash or bitcoin. Teran told police he thought the group thread was spam, but he was charged with the purchase and sale of human organs. [KSAT, 1/10/2025]

Truth Is Stranger Than Netflix

A 3-year-old girl who was visiting Fraser Island in Queensland, Australia, on Jan. 17 was bitten by a dingo, ABC reported. The Queensland Park and Wildlife Service said the girl was bitten on the back of a leg as her family strolled the beach. The family said they were regular visitors and had scanned the beach for dingoes, but "dingoes are quick and it happened suddenly," said head ranger Linda Behrendorff. Other people came to assist in fighting the dingo off using a kayak paddle. The toddler didn't go to the hospital and is expected to recover. [ABC, 1/20/2025]

Questionable Judgment

A housekeeping crew on a P&O Cruises Australia ship took passengers by surprise in December when they paraded by the ship's swimming pool wearing their all-white uniforms with pointy white hoods, News.com reported on Jan. 22. The eight crew were dressed as upside-down snow cones, but passengers were horrified and were quick to document the incident on social media. "We were like, 'are we seeing this correctly,' it was so bizarre," said one cruiser from Melbourne. Lynne Scrivens, communications director for the cruise line, said the housekeeping crew are from all over the world and had never heard of the Ku Klux Klan. "They are limited with what resources they have on ships," she said, explaining that they make do with what they can find for costumes. P&O Cruises Australia issued an apology following the event: "The crew members were horrified." [News.com, 1/22/2025]

Recent Alarming Headline

A plastic surgeon in Taipei City, Taiwan, is being called the "bravest man in Taiwan" after he shared on social media that he had performed his own vasectomy, Oddity Central reported. Chen Wei-nong recorded the surgery for educational purposes and presented the 11 steps necessary to complete the procedure. "It was a strange feeling to touch and suture my own urethra," he wrote. He reassured followers that the surgery was performed outside of work hours and under the supervision of a urologist, and while he experienced some discomfort following the vasectomy, he felt fine the next day. [Oddity Central, 1/17/2025]

Frequent Flyer

Mittens the cat gets around, to wit: On Jan. 13, the 8-year-old Maine coon was booked on a one-way flight from Christchurch, New Zealand, to Melbourne, Australia, Sky News reported. But in Melbourne, Mittens was never unloaded from the baggage compartment. Instead, three hours later, the airline revealed that Mittens had flown back to New Zealand -- about 7.5 hours in the air. Owner Margo Neas was told a wheelchair in the cargo area had obscured Mittens' cage from the baggage handler's view. "It was not a great start to our new life in Melbourne because we didn't have the family, we weren't complete," said Neas. After arriving back in Christchurch, Mittens was loaded onto another flight to Melbourne, where she was reunited with her family. She "ran into my arms and just snuggled up in here," Neas said. "It was just such a relief." [Sky News, 1/22/2025]

Unclear on the Concept

Drug counselor Alvin Lewis Jr., 54, was arrested in Wappingers Falls, New York, on Jan. 14 after he sold crack cocaine to undercover agents on multiple occasions, Mid-Hudson News reported. Community members had alerted the Dutchess County Drug Task Force that Lewis was selling drugs while using multiple aliases. He worked the overnight hours at an inpatient recovery facility, Arms Acres. After executing a warrant, agents discovered crack packaged and ready for sale in his home. He was held in the county jail without bail. [Mid-Hudson News, 1/16/2025]

Awwwww!

A sunfish at the Kaikyokan Aquarium in Shimonoseki, Japan, has a new lease on life -- or at least, new "friends" to share it with. The New York Post reported that the sunfish, who is the sole occupant of its tank, became depressed and stopped eating after the aquarium closed for renovations in December. "One of the staff members said, 'Maybe it's lonely because it misses the visitors,'" said an aquarium worker. "We attached uniforms of the staff members to the tank with a little bit of hope. Then, the next day, it was in good health again!" Workers say the sunfish tracks the uniforms and face cutouts with its eyes as it swims by, and those still in the building wave to it every time they pass the tank. [NY Post, 1/20/2025]

News You Can Use

A23a, an enormous iceberg that broke away from Antarctica almost 40 years ago, has been spinning around the Antarctic Ocean for a year, caught in a vortex, the Mirror reported. But now it's on the move again, headed roughly toward South Georgia, a British-owned island that is largely uninhabited. A23a, at more than 1,200 feet thick and 1,400 square miles, can be seen from space. Sea captain Simon Wallace, stationed on the Pharos vessel in South Georgia, told the BBC: "Icebergs are inherently dangerous. I would be extraordinarily happy if it just completely missed us." A collision could threaten wildlife on the island, including penguins, seals and sea birds. The iceberg's fate depends on currents and whether it gets "stuck" on the continental shelf around the island. [Mirror, 1/23/2025]

The Golden Age of Air Travel

On Jan. 17, as a Ryanair flight prepared to leave Lanzarote, Spain, and fly to Santiago de Compostela, a male passenger insisted that he was a United Nations diplomat and had a seat in the front row of the aircraft, the Mirror reported. When flight attendants asked to see his boarding pass, he said his friend had it. Once he was removed from the front row, he tried to sit in an exit row. An airport worker boarded the plane to say that "there was a ticket that hadn't scanned properly," and that's when the flight crew decided he had to go. Police boarded the plane and had to drag the man off the aircraft as he said, "I have paid to travel" and "I am not going to accept this." The flight was delayed about 40 minutes. [Mirror, 1/23/2025]