Strange Stuff: Weird Crimes, Crazy Laws, and Other Interesting News Stories - Page 103

Soccer Fan
Tricks Wife,
Names Baby
After Team

Jan 6, 2016 11:47 AM CST

Soccer Fan Tricks Wife, Names Baby After Team

Wife says she found out true inspiration two years later

(Newser) - The fact that a soccer fan named his daughter after his favorite team is maybe not so exceptional. The fact that he managed to hide the inspiration from his wife for two years is. Clare Smith of New South Wales, Australia, wrote to a magazine to confess that she thought...

DWI Dismissed—Because Driver's Body Is a 'Brewery'

Police plan to appeal the ruling

(Newser) - Last year, police in western New York stopped a driver who had been reported "weaving all over" the road. The female motorist had a flat tire and her car was producing "a large amount of smoke and a noticeable smell of burning rubber," per the police report;...

Why Belgium Is Handing Land to the Netherlands

Dec 31, 2015 1:33 PM CST

Why Belgium Is Handing Land to the Netherlands

It has a little bit to do with a headless body

(Newser) - Throughout history, borders have caused unfathomable bloodshed, ageless feuds, and decades-old legal disputes, which makes plans for a friendly exchange of land between the Netherlands and Belgium all the more remarkable. The reason for such magnanimity? "Because it makes sense to do so," says Marcel Neven, the mayor...

Instead of Jet Noises, Toy
F-16 Plays Muslim Prayer

Dec 30, 2015 11:20 AM CST

Instead of Jet Noises, Toy F-16 Plays Muslim Prayer

'We're kind of confused on how this would happen'

(Newser) - Bjorn Thorpe was excited to watch his 3-year-old nephew play with the toy F-16 fighter jet he bought him on Amazon for Christmas. It was advertised as making realistic jet noises, but "we put the batteries in and didn't get what we expected," Thorpe tells KING 5...

Man Killed Trying
to Steal From
Condom Machine

Dec 29, 2015 4:02 AM CST

Man Killed Trying to Steal From Condom Machine

German trio blew up machine

(Newser) - In what must rank among the bleakest Christmas stories of this or any other year, a German man died on Christmas Day during a failed attempt to steal money from a condom machine. Police in Schoeppingen, near the Dutch border, say the man was killed by a flying piece of...

Whoops: Malaysia
Airlines Plane Flies
the Wrong Way

Dec 28, 2015 11:37 AM CST

Whoops: Malaysia Airlines Plane Flies the Wrong Way

Pilot noticed plane out of New Zealand was flying south instead of north

(Newser) - Searchers are still looking for the rest of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 , while the airline's Flight 17 downed in Ukraine remains the subject of a criminal investigation . Now a new incident has come to light, and it isn't likely to help the airline's reputation: A Christmas Day...

Sweden's
'Yule Goat'
Again Meets
Grisly Fate

Dec 27, 2015 8:06 AM CST

Sweden's 'Yule Goat' Again Meets Grisly Fate

It's not a party until someone gets charged with arson

(Newser) - In what's become a Christmas tradition to some Swedes, a giant decorative goat made of straw was set ablaze early Sunday and police arrested a 25-year-old man suspected of arson. The straw goat is a beloved Christmas symbol in the city of Gavle, in central Sweden. However, it's...

'Noni Was
Run Over By
a Reindeer'

Dec 25, 2015 1:18 PM CST

'Noni Was Run Over By a Reindeer'

Well, a deer, but there are dumb jokes to be had

(Newser) - To most people, "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" is just a hokey, improbable Christmas song. To one Buffalo-area grandma who got run over by a deer, it's a very real hip replacement and suddenly not all that improbable. Such is the tale of 66-year-old Marlene Halt,...

Sock-Clad Girl, 3, Sneaks
Off on Xmas Eve Adventure

Dec 25, 2015 12:46 PM CST

Sock-Clad Girl, 3, Sneaks Off on Xmas Eve Adventure

Precocious American kid wandered away from family in Austria

(Newser) - Perhaps she was out looking for Santa. A 3-year-old American girl wandered away from her family's hotel in Salzburg, Austria, around midnight Christmas Eve and investigated the city streets on her own, wearing only a nightshirt and socks. A receptionist at another hotel brought her inside. Police guessed she...

Guy Gets Mad,
Leaves Chickens
in Tax Office

Dec 25, 2015 9:17 AM CST

Guy Gets Mad, Leaves Chickens in Tax Office

He was apparently 'frustrated' with Oregon Department of Revenue

(Newser) - Police say an Oregon man angry with his tax situation left a flock of seven chickens inside the state revenue office. Police in Eugene said in a news release they responded to a report Wednesday afternoon of chickens left in the lobby of the Oregon Department of Revenue. Police and...

Cards Against Humanity Might Shred This Picasso

Dec 23, 2015 12:17 PM CST

Cards Against Humanity Might Shred This Picasso

150K subscribers will vote to donate or destroy

(Newser) - Should Pablo Picasso's "Tete de Faune" be donated to a museum or cut up into tiny pieces? The decision rests with fans of Cards Against Humanity—the game that's managed to get people to spend their hard-earned cash on poop and, well, nothing at all . With some...

Experts Stumped by Artifact
Get Answer From Facebook

Dec 23, 2015 4:00 AM CST

Experts Stumped by Artifact Get Answer From Facebook

The 'Isis beamer' isn't as scary as it sounds

(Newser) - A mysterious gold-plated artifact that baffled the Israel Antiquities Authority for months was identified within hours after the experts turned to the public with a Facebook post . After suggestions that it was a rolling pin or a cattle insemination device, Italian man Micah Barak correctly identified the object found in...

Bank Robber
Writes a
Holly Jolly
Demand Note

Dec 22, 2015 2:31 PM CST

Bank Robber Writes a Holly Jolly Demand Note

Give me money, and also, Merry Christmas

(Newser) - Georgia police say a bank robber gave a teller a note that both demanded cash and wished the teller a merry Christmas. Gwinnett County police said in a news release that they are looking for a man who entered a BB&T bank in Buford on Monday and handed a...

How a Grinch Sultan Stole Christmas

Dec 22, 2015 8:05 AM CST

How a Grinch Sultan Stole Christmas

By threatening those celebrating publicly with 5 years in prison

(Newser) - Don't be caught wearing a Santa hat in Brunei unless you want to spend the next five years in prison. Hassanal Bolkiah, the sultan of the Muslim country on Borneo, has banned "the act of celebrating Christmas excessively and openly" for fear it could lead to "tasyabbuh...

A Canadian Lake
Has Fallen Off a Cliff

Dec 20, 2015 8:03 AM CST

A Canadian Lake Has Fallen Off a Cliff

Rain, warming temperatures melted ice headwalls

(Newser) - In June, Canadian officials warned that a nameless lake in the Northwest Territories was about to fall off a cliff. It did. On July 15, a section of ground ice that's been around since the last ice age gave way, sending roughly half of the lake's 1 million...

Man's 'Pro-ISIS'
Christmas Lights
Weren't That at All

Man's 'Pro-ISIS' Christmas Lights Weren't That at All

Look up, folks

(Newser) - Residents of Limerick, Maine, were disturbed when they saw "ISIS" spelled out in Christmas lights on a local's home, and one of them contacted the York County Sheriff's Office to report a possible terrorist sympathizer. Deputies went to investigate and found that the holiday decor did, in...

Pa. Cops Stumped by
Mysterious Embalmed Head

Dec 14, 2015 4:11 PM CST

Pa. Cops Stumped by Mysterious Embalmed Head

Woman's severed head was found a year ago

(Newser) - A woman whose embalmed head was found in the western Pennsylvania woods more than a year ago may have died of a heart ailment, police said Monday. Tests run on the woman's hair at the FBI Forensic Lab in Quantico, Virginia, showed traces of lidocaine and atropine—drugs used...

Why Clever Utah Residents Are Wrapping Rocks, Junk

Dec 14, 2015 11:40 AM CST

Why Clever Utah Residents Are Wrapping Rocks, Junk

Locals are trying to thwart holiday thieves

(Newser) - A man in one Utah community says his neighbors have begun placing decoy packages on front porches in an effort to thwart holiday delivery thieves. Rocks, old clothes, and junk televisions are among items that resident Kroger Menzer says residents in the Daybreak neighborhood of South Jordan have been putting...

Texas Plumber Wants $1M
After Jihadists Get His Truck

Dec 14, 2015 7:22 AM CST

Texas Plumber Wants $1M After Jihadists Get His Truck

Mark Oberholtzer says his business has been ruined

(Newser) - The Texas plumber whose truck infamously ended up in the hands of jihdists is suing a car dealership for more than $1 million, the Houston Chronicle reports. At issue: the dealership’s failure to remove a decal bearing the name and phone number of the Texas City man's business,...

Sweet Potato Fire Has Been Burning Since November

Dec 10, 2015 1:48 PM CST