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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Powerball Winners to Fund School Stadium...

...as long as visitors' locker room is pink

(Newser) - An Iowa couple who won a $202 million Powerball jackpot in September is giving $3 million to the local high school to build a new football stadium. One catch: the visitors' locker room must be pink, reports the Des Moines Register . “I was sort of half joking and half...

Church Billboard: 'Time for Jesus to Come Out'

New Zealand reverend: 'Would it make a difference?'

(Newser) - Nothing controversial here: A church in New Zealand has put up a billboard urging Jesus to come out of the closet as gay, Stuff (NZ) reports. "It's Christmas," reads the billboard in Auckland. "Time for Jesus to come out." But Rev. Glynn Cardy at St....

Woman Hurt During Sex Wins Long Court Battle

Government worker will receive health compensation

(Newser) - At least in Australia, sex on the job is legally part of the job: A woman injured while fooling around on a business trip has won health compensation in federal court, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The government worker, who remains unnamed, was on a work trip south of Sydney...

Indiana Jones Journal Stumps UChicago

Is it a clue in a game, or something else entirely?

(Newser) - Call this one Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Higher Learning: The latest Jones-themed mystery is taking place not on the silver screen but in the University of Chicago's mail room. Its admissions office's Tumblr explains that late last week a package addressed to "Henry Walton Jones,...

Thieves Steal Woman&#39;s ... Driveway


 Thieves Steal 
 Woman's ... Driveway 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Dec 16, 2012 7:32 AM CST

Thieves Steal Woman's ... Driveway

Only in Florida...

(Newser) - Another reason why Florida can't have nice things: A woman came home Tuesday night to discover something had been stolen from her home: her driveway. The Ocala Star-Banner reports that 300 square feet of brick pavers were carted away sometime between 7:30am and 6pm. The homeowner was alerted...

Freezing Elephants 'Saved' by Vodka

After trailer catches fire in Siberia, Russia's favorite drink keeps them warm

(Newser) - Sometimes you really need a drink. One of those times: When your truck has caught fire and you're standing by the side of a Siberian highway in freezing weather with frostbite setting in. That's the predicament a pair of Indian elephants found themselves in, and their quick-thinking handlers...

Dutchman Unveils Full-Size Ark Replica

 20 Years Later, 
 Noah's Ark 
 Replica 
 Complete
in case you missed it
Dec 15, 2012 7:16 AM CST

20 Years Later, Noah's Ark Replica Complete

'Johan's Ark' filled with animals: real, stuffed, and plastic

(Newser) - If the world floods, whether from an angry God or climate change, Johan Huibers is ready. After 20 years of work, the Dutchman has completed a full-sized replica of Noah's Ark as described in the Bible, the AP reports. He followed Biblical instructions precisely to create a boat 427...

Obama Will Have to Respond to Death Star Petition

It crosses 25K vote threshold

(Newser) - It could be the greatest stimulus project of all time—a Death Star. A petition to start work on the Star Wars vessel by 2016 was one of the stranger petitions submitted to the White House's "We the People" website. But now that the Death Star petition has...

Doctor Pulls Small Feather Out of Baby's Neck

It may have come from a feather pillow

(Newser) - Seven-month-old Mya Whittington had been crying and pulling at the skin under her ear for weeks, leading her parents to think she might be teething. They had no idea how wrong they were. The left side of her face finally began to swell last weekend, leading Mya's parents to...

Police Chief Sends Crooks Holiday Cards

Complete with image of gun-totin' Santa in bulletproof vest

(Newser) - Criminals in a Canadian city will be receiving an unexpected Christmas card this year ... from the police chief. The card being sent out this week to "prolific offenders, property offenders, and persons known for drug and gang activity" feature the chief wearing a Santa suit (and a bulletproof vest...

Smugglers Launch Pot Over Border With Cannon

But a citizen finds them first

(Newser) - The catapult didn't work so well. Nor did driving over the border fence with a makeshift ramp. Now Mexican drug smugglers have resorted to cannons, authorities say. Smugglers used a pneumatic cannon to shoot containers of pot over the border into an Arizona field, reports the Yuma Sun . It...

Teacher Asked Students to Pen Suicide Notes

Unsurprisingly, she has since been suspended

(Newser) - A French teacher is in hot water after giving her teenage students a twisted assignment: write a suicide note. She set quite the detailed scene for her 13- and 14-year-old students, framing the assignment, in part, as such:
  • "You have just turned 18. You have decided to end your
...

Djokovic Buys All the World's Donkey Cheese

Tennis star snaps it up for restaurant chain

(Newser) - Hope you don't have a thing for donkey-milk cheese: Tennis star Novak Djokovic has bought what is possibly the world's entire supply for 2013, reports the Daily Mail . The Wimbledon champion made the deal with a donkey farm in Serbia for his new chain of Serbian restaurants. Financial...

Students Feed Pot Brownies to Unsuspecting Class

Pranksters face prison time after classmates, professor sickened

(Newser) - Today in pranks gone wrong : Two University of Colorado students are facing some pretty serious prison time after confessing to bringing pot brownies into their history class on Friday morning and feeding them to their unsuspecting peers. Thomas Ricardo Cunningham, 21, and Mary Elizabeth Essa, 19, were arrested Saturday night...

Kidnapped Handyman Is Forced to Fix House: Cops
Kidnapped Handyman Is 
Forced to Fix House: Cops
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Dec 9, 2012 11:11 AM CST

Kidnapped Handyman Is Forced to Fix House: Cops

He escapes, and couple is charged

(Newser) - And the crime-blotter gem of the day goes to San Jose, where police have charged a couple with kidnapping a handyman to fix stuff around their house, reports KGO via Gawker . Police say the couple beat up the man when he arrived and threatened him with more if he didn'...

Solved: Case of the Missing Island
 Solved: 
 Case of the 
 Missing Island 
in case you missed it
Dec 8, 2012 10:45 AM CST

Solved: Case of the Missing Island

'Sandy Island' error blamed on 19th-century chart

(Newser) - There was some consternation last month when researchers sailed out to a Pacific island only to find that it wasn't there . Now, a New Zealand researcher says he can explain how the nonexistent Sandy Island got onto many maps. It all comes down to a whaling ship that passed...

Suspect Thrown in Cop Car Ends Up Stealing It

He manages to roll down back window in handcuffs

(Newser) - After they nabbed a man suspected of burglary, Texas police ended up as theft victims themselves. Authorities in the city of White Settlement detained a man reportedly stealing from an antiques shop, leaving him in their car while they spoke to the store's owner. Despite his handcuffs, Darren Douglas...

Florida's Challenge: $1K to Killer of Longest Python

State tries new tactic in bid to deal with invasive species

(Newser) - Florida has an interesting way of dealing with the invasive Burmese pythons colonizing the Everglades: dangle cash prizes in front of would-be hunters. Next month's 2013 Python Challenge, run by the state wildlife commission, will award $1,000 to the hunter who kills the longest snake, and $1,500...

Mall Fires Grumpy Santa

He wouldn't let one kid sit on his lap

(Newser) - Ho ho ... humbug? A mall in Maine has sacked Santa Claus after children and parents complained he was rude, grumpy, and wouldn't even let one child sit on his lap. Jessica Mailhiot and her 6-year-old daughter, Chantel, went to see Santa this week, and told a local TV station...

18th-Century Chateau Razed 'By Mistake'

Workers got it confused with a smaller building

(Newser) - Residents of a sleepy French village in Bordeaux have been left dumbfounded after discovering their local 18th-century chateau was completely bulldozed "by mistake." The mayor's office in Yvrac said today that workers who were hired to renovate the grand 140,000-sqaure-foot estate in November and raze a...

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