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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Guy Jailed ... for Overdue Library Book

Well, it worked: The book has been returned

(Newser) - A Texas man found himself booked into jail last week ... and all because of an overdue library book. According to court documents, Jory Enck checked out a GED study guide in 2010 and never responded to the library when it tried to get the book back from him. He was...

Macabre Clue Leads Police to Suspected Thief

A severed finger, which police fingerprinted using Popsicle stick

(Newser) - This month's entry in the annals of truly stupid criminals: Police in Arizona say they found a would-be thief thanks to the suspect's own severed finger, the Arizona Republic reports. Joshua Allen Goverman, 29, allegedly tried to steal copper wiring (value: $300) from an air conditioning truck Oct....

Employee Hurt During Sex Won't Get Workers' Comp

Case reached Australia's highest court

(Newser) - In the just-so-you-know department: Getting injured while having sex on a business trip does not qualify you for workers' comp benefits. Or at least that's how things roll in Australia, where a crazy case managed to reach the nation's highest court, reports Bloomberg . It started in 2007, when...

Dell Laptops, Now With Less Cat-Pee Scent

Company says problem is fixed, and it wasn't urine-related

(Newser) - Dell swears it has resolved one of the weirder IT problems of late: Its laptops smelled like cat urine. Specifically, people who bought the Latitude E6430u have been complaining on user forums for months about the problem—and often blaming their cats, reports the BBC . The company first suggested wiping...

Did Marissa Mayer Just Buy a Funeral Home?

Sources at funeral home say 'yes,' owner says he doesn't know

(Newser) - Is Marissa Mayer getting out of the tech business and into the ... death business? Probably not, but sources at Palo Alto's oldest funeral home tell the Palo Alto Weekly that the Yahoo CEO just bought their 1.16-acre property, a block away from her home. But the funeral home'...

Cellphone Saves Clerk From Bullet

Would-be robber fires, but phone stops bullet

(Newser) - Police say a cellphone saved a Florida gas station clerk from a robber's bullet. A man entered the gas station in Winter Garden yesterday and asked a clerk for help. Then he showed the worker a revolver and demanded he open the safe. When the clerk couldn't open...

Mechanic Opens Trunk, Finds Starving Baby

French couple charged with abuse

(Newser) - A mechanic investigating strange noises coming from a car trunk was horrified to find a naked, starving, and dehydrated baby girl inside, lying on garbage bags and covered in excrement. Workers at the garage in central France say the car's owner, a woman in her 40s, brought the vehicle...

Police Hunting Man Who Stole $4K Worth of Grass

Yes, you read that correctly

(Newser) - Austrian police are seeking witnesses to an unusual theft—of huge amounts of grass, mowed secretly from a farmer's field. According to a police statement, a farmer reported today that someone had come into his field, mowed it, and made off with the grass. The alleged theft occurred in...

Brother Dies Hour After Sister Commits Suicide

And double tragedy isn't the only thing the family has suffered recently

(Newser) - One family, many tragedies: Ricky and Brenda Tucker were together at the Detroit bar where Brenda worked early Sunday when Brenda, 21, went into a back room and shot herself in the chest. She was loaded into an ambulance, and her 20-year-old brother sped behind. En route to the hospital,...

Guy Struck by Lightning Twice in One Storm

But 31-year-old Casey Wagner is fine

(Newser) - Casey Wagner was at a mudding and off-roading event near Gainesville, Texas, on Saturday when a thunderstorm arrived. The 31-year-old rodeo clown moved under a tree, where he was struck by lightning not once, but twice, CBS Dallas/Fort Worth reports. "What I remember is just a loud boom and...

Peru Reopening Its UFO Office

Calls on citizens to report sightings

(Newser) - Peru is experiencing "increased sightings of anomalous aerial phenomena," and it's ready to investigate. The country's air force is reopening the Department of Investigation of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena, an office established in 2001 to probe such sightings. It had been closed for five years, the Guardian...

Couple &#39;Win&#39; Vacation, End Up as Drug Mules
Couple 'Win' Vacation,
End Up as Drug Mules
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 27, 2013 6:27 AM CDT

Couple 'Win' Vacation, End Up as Drug Mules

Canadian arrested in connection with bogus trip contest

(Newser) - If an all-expenses paid trip to Canada, including accommodations and new luggage, sounds too good to be true, well, hindsight is 20/20. An Australian couple thought they'd won a dream vacation when they were revealed as the "lucky" winners of a contest they'd entered online. It turns...

Corpse Found Hanging in Apartment After 8 Years

Mummified remains greet new owner in Paris

(Newser) - The proud new owner of an apartment in Paris opened the door to find a crazy, grisly thing: the mummified remains of the previous owner, reports AFP . Authorities think the man hanged himself eight years earlier, but the body went undetected because he lived such an isolated life. The 40-year-old...

Seattle Seizing 103-Year-Old's Parking Lot

City forcing woman to make way for ... another parking lot

(Newser) - The city of Seattle is determined to get its hands on a parking lot owned by a 103-year-old Spokane woman. Why? So it can turn it into another parking lot. Myrtle Woldson doesn't want to sell, so the City Council voted this week to use eminent domain to grab...

Cops Looking for Car That Drove Down Rocky Steps

Convertible drove down Philadelphia Museum of Art steps

(Newser) - Police are looking for a convertible seen driving down the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps made famous in the movie Rocky. Several people posted online videos showing the car driving down the steps in fits and starts around midnight yesterday. The car then speeds off. Police say they plan to...

Man Gets Year in Jail ... for Punching Horse

Soccer fan got a little too upset after losing game

(Newser) - His team lost to a bitter rival, so Barry Rogerson did what any self-respecting British soccer fan would do: He punched a police horse in the head. Now the 45-year-old is going to jail for a year, reports SkySports . The judge said Rogerson had plenty of chances to move away...

Teacher's Ill-Advised Field Trip: to Strip Club

Plus: A teaching assistant accidentally emails nude pics to students

(Newser) - Here's an extracurricular activity that won't look so great on your kid's college applications: visiting a strip club with his chemistry teacher. Travis Lechien, 31, was fired from Indiana's Hanover Central High School on Tuesday for allegedly taking teens to a strip club to celebrate a...

SF Sends Marathon Callers to Phone Sex Line

Complainers told to 'unzip that fly'

(Newser) - San Francisco residents who tried to complain about noise from the Nike Marathon's 5:30am start on the weekend were surprised to hear a woman tell them to "unzip that fly, baby." The city's 311 inquiry line had suggested people displeased by the early-morning music and...

Cops Bust Pot Garden ... Using Google Earth

Guy was authorized to grow 30 plants; he had 94

(Newser) - Police say the view from space helped them bust a medical marijuana garden with too many plants in the state of Oregon. The Grants Pass Daily Courier reports authorities received a tip that 50-year-old Curtis W. Croft was bragging about all the pot he was growing on his property outside...

Parents Have Their Party-Throwing Kids Arrested

Mom, dad come home a day early, you know what happens next

(Newser) - It was just like something out of a TV show, at least at first: Two Connecticut parents returned home from a trip a day early to find their teenage daughters hosting a party at their Glastonbury house last Sunday. But here's where it diverges a bit from the script:...

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