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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Fake Astronaut Wooed Woman to Pay for Return Ticket to Earth
Woman Duped Out of $30K
in Out-of-This-World Scam
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 15, 2022 4:45 PM CDT

Woman Duped Out of $30K in Out-of-This-World Scam

Online lover convinced 65-year-old in Japan he was astronaut who needed cash to return to Earth

(Newser) - Nigerian prince scams are so 1990s—welcome to the 21st century and the Russian cosmonaut scam. Kyodo News reports that police are looking into the claims of a 65-year-old woman in Japan's Shiga prefecture who said she fell in love with a man online who tricked her into...

Judge: In 35 Years, I've Never Seen This in Court

Juror in Gov. Whitmer kidnap trial dismissed for apparently flirting with one of the defendants

(Newser) - A judge has dismissed a young woman from the jury hearing the trial of three men in connection with a 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer after attorneys accused her of flirting with one of the defendants, per the AP . Judge Thomas Wilson announced Friday that the woman...

Grenades Are Turning Up on the Beach in Oregon

Police in the city of Newport, Ore., say 3 potentially explosive devices have been found so far

(Newser) - Some people collect seashells by the seashore, or even lost jewelry if they've got a metal detector. In one Oregon city, however, locals are making a more surprising, and potentially dangerous, find. In an alert issued last week, police in the city of Newport are warning beachgoers to beware...

Cheating Scandal in Ohio: &#39;We Got Weights in Fish!&#39;
Suspiciously Heavy Fish
Lead to Chaos at Tournament
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 8, 2022 6:00 AM CDT

Suspiciously Heavy Fish Lead to Chaos at Tournament

Team disqualified in Ohio after their walleyes were found stuffed with weights, fillets

(Newser) - First the chess world was rocked by cheating allegations . Now, it's joined by the competitive fishing world. Video started making the rounds over the weekend promoting a "serious controversy" out of Ohio, in which a two-man team is now accused of stuffing their entries in a local tournament...

Russians Detained After Sailing to Alaska Island

Villagers said Russian citizens told them they were fleeing military

(Newser) - Two Russian citizens who arrived on an Alaskan island in a small boat Tuesday morning are now in federal custody. St. Lawrence Island is one of the places Sarah Palin was talking about when she said you can see Russia from Alaska—it's less than 40 miles away from...

Here We Go Again With the 'Furries in Schools' Rumors

Heidi Ganahl, GOP candidate for governor in Colo., is spreading the largely debunked claim

(Newser) - Heidi Ganahl really doesn't like furries, explained by KRDO as a "subculture that often involves people dressing up as anthropomorphic animal characters and attending conventions." So much so that the GOP candidate for governor in Colorado says she moved her kids out of one district and into...

The Odds of This Lottery Outcome Are Just Insane

433 to share jackpot in Philippines after Saturday's unusual draw

(Newser) - Individuals who purchased winning tickets for a $4 million lottery jackpot in the Philippines will have to settle for less than $10,000 each following Saturday's controversial draw. A total of 433 people selected the winning combination in the Grand Lotto lottery, which was highly unusual. The six numbers—...

Supreme Court Just Got What May Be Its Weirdest Brief of the Year

The Onion has filed a serious brief that still calls the high court 'total Latin dorks'

(Newser) - The Onion has some serious things to say in defense of parody. The satirical site that manages to persuade people to believe the absurd has filed a Supreme Court brief in support of a man who was arrested and prosecuted for making fun of police on social media. "As...

An Unwanted and Inhospitable Lighthouse Finally Sells

Hooper Island Lighthouse went for way more than the starting price

(Newser) - The federal government has sold off a rather inhospitable lighthouse in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay for a six-figure sum after a bidding war at auction. The Hooper Island Lighthouse, located west of Middle Hooper Island in Maryland's Dorchester County, at first drew little interest, reported the Washington ...

Spiders to Intentionally Run Wild at Museum

Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum is letting its creepy-crawlies have free reign over venue during exhibit

(Newser) - At one of Europe's most famous museums, life is definitely imitating art until early next year. "The museum is teeming with animals this season!" promises Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum in its promotion for "Clara and Crawly Creatures," its new exhibit focusing on insects and other creeping...

Some of the Weirder Stories From the Royal Funeral

A spider and a dropped piece of paper went big on the internet

(Newser) - The queen's funeral on Monday drew all kinds of somber and serious coverage. And there there were stories that were anything but:
  • Dropped note: A bishop dropped a small piece of paper near the queen's coffin in Westminster Abbey and Twitter all but erupted with the possibilities (and
...

UK Channel Showed Terrible Film Instead of Queen's Funeral

Channel 5 decided abysmally rated 'Emoji Movie' would be a good substitute for royal coverage

(Newser) - Although it was expected that almost every channel in the UK would air some kind of coverage about Queen Elizabeth II on Monday, offering a look at her funeral or her life in general, EW.com notes it also "makes sense" that Channel 5 decided to opt out of...

UK's New Health Secretary Bans a Punctuation Mark

Memo to Therese Coffey's staff asks them to avoid use of Oxford commas

(Newser) - If Therese Coffey, the UK's new health secretary, saw the Twitter comment "Therese Coffey can take a running jump, give her head a wobble, and get in the bin," would she be most upset at a) the casual insult, b) the lack of substantive criticism related to...

This Might Be the Weirdest Royal Development Yet

Royal beekeeper informed each hive of the (human) queen's death

(Newser) - Queen Elizabeth II may have been known for her beloved corgis, but she also had royal beehives. And the caretaker of those approximately 1 million charges performed an unusual ritual upon Elizabeth's death—he informed each hive of the news. The weird nugget comes via the Daily Mail , which...

The Alligator Was Found. The Tiger, Not So Much

New Mexico authorities put out an unusual animal alert

(Newser) - An alligator, drugs, guns, and money were seized during a raid at two homes in Albuquerque last month, but New Mexico wildlife officials said Saturday they are still searching for a young tiger they believe is being illegally kept as a pet. Investigators think the tiger is with someone “...

Shipment of 'Cow Male Genitals' Wasn't Quite That

Effort to smuggle thousands of donkey penises to Hong Kong was busted

(Newser) - Nigerian officials have seized thousands of donkey penises that were about to be exported to Hong Kong, an official said on Thursday. Sacks of the donkey male genitals were seized at the international airport in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, said Sambo Dangaladima, the Nigeria Customs Service area commander. The...

Southwest Pilot's Warning Was an Odd One

It wasn't about turbulence or an overbooked flight, but a passenger sending nude pics

(Newser) - What happens in Texas apparently doesn't stay in Texas, because what took place on one Southwest Airlines flight getting ready to fly to Mexico is now making headlines all over the globe. That's thanks to a now-viral TikTok video taken by Teighlor Marsalis, who tells CNN she recorded...

'Needless to Say, the Addressee Was Quite Startled'

Live lizards were mailed to the wrong address near New York City

(Newser) - Several live lizards were wrongly delivered to a residence in a village north of New York City. "Needless to say the addressee was quite startled when they opened the box," Port Chester police wrote on Facebook. Police received the call about the reptiles just after noon on Saturday....

Want to Buy Whipped Cream? Can I See Some ID?

NY stores are starting to ban sale to minors, but bill's sponsor says that wasn't the intent

(Newser) - Turns out former President Trump may not have been completely wrong about needing ID when buying groceries, at least in some stores in his home state that are apparently misinterpreting a recently implemented law. Late last year, New York state passed a restriction on the selling of whippits—the cartridges...

846 Pounds of Pumpkin, 38 Miles of River

Duane Hansen of Nebraska awaits his place in the Guinness World Record books

(Newser) - The powers-that-be behind the Guinness World Records have been alerted—a Nebraska man paddled 38 miles down the Missouri River in a giant pumpkin. If Saturday's feat by Duane Hansen is confirmed, he will take his place in the record book as the person who completed "the longest...

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