strange stuff

From strange crimes to strange celebrity deaths, read all of the latest weird and strange stuff news stories on Newser.com

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Arrests After Employees Treat 'Firehouse Like Frat House'

Victim was reportedly pinned down and waterboarded with a bottle

(Newser) - Officials say a hazing incident at a Florida fire station escalated so violently that four Marion County Fire and Rescue employees lost their jobs and now find themselves arrested. Authorities say the alleged assault unfolded at Fire Station 21 in Ocala on Nov. 16, when the group—Edward Kenny III,...

Cryptographers' Secret Vote Has One Bizarre Problem

Somebody lost their encryption key, so group election must be held again

(Newser) - When one of the world's top cryptography groups voted to elect new leaders, they did what you'd expect cryptographers to do: protected the results with encryption. The problem is that now even the group can't read the results and must vote again. The New York Times reports...

How Holding a Stein Became America's New Beer Sport

Everyday Americans train, compete, and set records in this unique beer-lifting contest

(Newser) - Amid the revelry of OktoberFest NYC in Central Park, a quieter but no less intense spectacle unfolds: the national finals of Masskrugstemmen, or competitive steinholding—the art of holding a 5-pound glass of beer at arm's length for as long as humanly possible. The contest, sponsored by Munich's...

These Sauna Championships Are a Crazy Spectacle
These Sauna
Championships
Are a Crazy Spectacle
LONGFORM
Nov 22, 2025 1:30 PM CST

These Sauna Championships Are a Crazy Spectacle

Towel waving meets theater meets 185-degree heat

(Newser) - "When I tell people what I do, they think I'm a crazy person," says Aufguss WM competitor Xavier Drouin-Hill. Read on, and you'll understand why. As Sarah Everts writes in a lengthy piece for the Walrus , the event—technically the Aufguss Weltmeisterschaft, or Infusion World Championship—...

Missouri Judge With Elvis Obsession Steps Down

Matthew Thornhill: I was just trying to inject 'levity' into court by wearing Elvis wig, playing Elvis tunes

(Newser) - A Missouri judge who wore an Elvis Presley wig in his courtroom and played the singer's music from his phone during court proceedings has agreed to a deal that would cut his career on the bench short. Suburban St. Louis Judge Matthew Thornhill faces a six-month unpaid suspension under...

It Took Days to Free This Owl From Its Concrete Covering

The great horned owl had ended up in a cement mixer

(Newser) - An owl found partially encased in concrete after it got inside a cement mixer in southwestern Utah is expected to fly free again after it was painstakingly cleaned by animal sanctuary workers who described the bird as a "fighter." The great horned owl was found at the Black...

Dad Stuck a Lot of Matches Up an Orifice to Break a Record

81 of them went right up the nose of Swede Martin Stroby, earning him Guinness honors

(Newser) - A Swedish father's quest to impress his kids has landed him a world record, for the most matches stuffed up someone's nose, reports UPI . Martin Stroby, 42, tells Guinness he was inspired after his children became fascinated with the Guinness World Records book and encouraged him to try...

Solid Gold Toilet Auctioned for $12.1M
Solid Gold Toilet
Sells for $12.1M
Nov 19, 2025 2:00 AM CST

Solid Gold Toilet Sells for $12.1M

Titled "America," the artwork satirizes the ultrarich

(Newser) - A solid gold, fully functional toilet satirizing the ultrarich fetched $12.1 million at an auction Tuesday night, the AP reports. The toilet, by Maurizio Cattelan—the provocative Italian artist known for taping a banana to a wall —went up for auction at Sotheby's in New York. The...

The Bomb Threats Bear His Name. He Didn't Make Them

The Japanese lawyer whose name appears on them isn't sending them

(Newser) - A mysterious wave of bomb threats signed "Takahiro Karasawa" has been confounding authorities in a number of Asian countries, and as the New York Times reports, the mystery is an odd one. For starters, the real Takahiro Karasawa is a Japanese lawyer who says he has no hand in...

Cops: Impostor Drove Stolen Bus, Picked Up Passengers
There Was Something Rather
Odd About This Bus Driver
in case you missed it
Nov 16, 2025 2:05 PM CST

There Was Something Rather Odd About This Bus Driver

He kept missing stops in Hamilton—because he'd stolen the bus and wasn't the real driver, say police

(Newser) - In a scene straight out of a surreal comedy-action movie, a man in the Canadian province of Ontario allegedly stole a city bus this week and drove it along its regular route—picking up passengers, making stops, and even enforcing fare rules, all while police quietly tailed the 60-foot-long "...

Michigan Returning Life Ring From Edmund Fitzgerald Wreck

The state obtained the life ring in a questionable way, will now give it back

(Newser) - The state of Michigan is giving up ownership of a rare relic from the famous Edmund Fitzgerald shipwreck , just weeks after it strangely obtained it through a settlement in a lawsuit that was completely unrelated to the doomed freighter. Larry Orr is getting one of the ship's life rings...

Famed Gilded Cross Taken Off Peak— for Sticker Removal

Cross on Germany's Zugspitze is being restored after visitors repeatedly put their little stamp on it

(Newser) - Visitors to Germany's highest peak will have to do without the landmark gilded cross at its summit for the next few weeks. A helicopter on Tuesday lifted the cross from the 9,718-foot peak of the Zugspitze—a mountain shared between Germany and Austria in the Bavarian Alps—for...

531 (Living) Patients Get News of Their Death

MaineHealth accidentally sends out letters to very-much-alive customers informing them of their death

(Newser) - Some days it's just not worth picking up the mail: bills, junk, and if you're particularly unlucky, a notice of your own death. Such is the case for 531 quite-alive customers of MaineHealth , who were sent letters directed to their next of kin with premature instructions on how...

Incredibly Rare Bird Turns Up on Long Island

American birders are scrambling to visit Riverhead to see cuckoo

(Newser) - Bird-watchers across the country are flocking to Long Island after a common cuckoo—so rare in the US that it's been seen in the lower 48 just four times—turned up in Riverhead, New York. The bird's unexpected appearance has turned farms and golf courses into makeshift wildlife...

Out of Halloween Candy? Break Out the Potatoes

Tubers are showing up in candy buckets across the country

(Newser) - This Halloween, forget the snack-size Snickers—kids across the US are hoping to score what NBC News calls the "new star of the spooky season" in their trick-or-treat bags: potatoes. The humble tuber is fast becoming an unlikely Halloween prize, though it may have started as a joke: Pennsylvania...

Sotheby's Latest 'Incisive Commentary:' $10M Gold Toilet

Maurizio Cattelan sculpture up for auction is named 'America'

(Newser) - For sale: the world's most valuable toilet. Sotheby's announced on Friday that it will auction off the solid gold commode, a sculpture by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan titled "America." The auction house calls it an "incisive commentary on the collision of artistic production and commodity...

Charmin's Giant Forever Roll Promises Month Without Refills

1.7K-sheet roll is meant to last a month, per the company

(Newser) - Charmin is making headlines again with its colossal Forever Roll , a 1,700-sheet toilet paper roll that the company claims is big enough to last an entire month, and tall enough—if unspooled—to rival the Washington Monument. First introduced as a limited novelty in 2019 and originally aimed...

Here's Why You Shouldn't Swallow 100 Magnets
Here's Why
You Shouldn't
Swallow
100 Magnets
CASE STUDY
Oct 24, 2025 1:25 PM CDT

Here's Why You Shouldn't Swallow 100 Magnets

They linked together inside 13-year-old boy's gut, damaging his intestines, per case out of NZ

(Newser) - A 13-year-old New Zealand boy required surgery after swallowing as many as 100 small neodymium magnets he purchased online, according to a case study published in the New Zealand Medical Journal . Doctors at Tauranga Hospital discovered the magnets had linked together inside his digestive tract, forming four chains that damaged...

Teen Can't Play on Boys Team, Even Though He's a Boy

Birth certificate mix-up at hospital 14 years ago is causing issues for Laker Jackson in Arizona

(Newser) - A paperwork mistake from more than a decade ago led to an Arizona eighth grader being removed from the boys basketball tryouts and told he could only play on the girls team. The issue surfaced when Laker Jackson, a student at Eastmark High School in Mesa, went to try out...

'Butt-Breathing' Technique Passes First Human Safety Test
Scientists Notch a Big Win
in 'Butt-Breathing'
NEW STUDY
Oct 22, 2025 8:59 AM CDT

Scientists Notch a Big Win in 'Butt-Breathing'

Early trials involve oxygen-carrying liquid delivered rectally; could help patients with breathing issues

(Newser) - A technique that once snagged an Ig Nobel prize for its oddball premise has cleared its first human safety trial—and it involves "butt-breathing." The official term is "enteral ventilation," and a new study, published in the journal Med , marks a potential step toward a new...

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