strange stuff

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

Stories 1141 - 1160 | << Prev   Next >>

Man's Shock: Amputated Leg on Cigarette Packs Is His Own

But the 60-year-old didn't lose his limb to smoking, didn't give permission for photo use

(Newser) - The images are meant to be jarring deterrents. Consider one 60-year-old sufficiently jarred. The unnamed Albanian man who now lives in France says he was alerted to the fact that some EU cigarette packets feature a photo of his amputated leg. (See the image here .) The accompanying message is...

Ousted Iowa Official Really Had a Thing for Tupac Shakur

Jerry Foxhoven was told to resign day after he sent Shakur-themed email to 4,300 workers

(Newser) - The director of Iowa's social services agency was a huge fan of the late rapper Tupac Shakur, and he frequently let his subordinates know it. Emails obtained by the AP show that Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven routinely sent messages to employees lauding Shakur's music...

They Heard a Cry for Help, Found Man Impaled by Stump

2 groups of runners stopped to help Michigan man

(Newser) - Four women running on a trail on the Michigan State University campus Saturday morning heard someone yelling for help from the woods but were hesitant to leave the trail for the unseen person—not knowing if they were about to walk into a trap. So they called 911, and "...

Guy Sits on Toilet for 5 Days
Guy Sits
on Toilet
for 5 Days
Jul 15, 2019 3:47 PM CDT

Guy Sits on Toilet for 5 Days

In bid for record

(Newser) - A Belgian man sat on the toilet for five straight days last week. No, he's not ill; he was attempting to set a world record. Jimmy De Frenne, 48, was aiming to stay on the toilet for 165 hours but only made it to 116, Reuters reports. The toilet...

City Workers Hurt in 'Absolute Embarrassment' of a Prank

2 Detroit municipal employees injured after someone put firecrackers under toilet seats

(Newser) - "Two things that don't mix—firecrackers and toilets." That's an understatement from FOX 2 after an apparent prank gone awry in Detroit resulted in injuries to two municipal employees. The Metro Times reports the General Services Department workers were hurt Wednesday after they used toilets in...

Gator Turns Up in Most Unlikely of Places

Officials attempting to trap reptile in popular Chicago park

(Newser) - An alligator has made a home in one of Chicago's most popular parks. A crowd gathered around Humboldt Park Lagoon on the city's West Side Tuesday as officials responded to a 911 call about a Facebook post showing an alligator in the area, reports the Chicago Tribune . A...

This Car Burned Up, but at Least They Know They&#39;re Having a Boy
Gender Reveal Goes
Horribly Awry 
Jul 10, 2019 9:07 AM CDT

Gender Reveal Goes Horribly Awry

Things didn't go quite as planned in Australia 'burnout'

(Newser) - It's natural to wonder about your baby's sex before the birth, and increasingly common to hold gender reveal parties. But as a story from Down Under shows, some of these revelations are getting out of hand, even downright dangerous. The Washington Post reports on a stunt in Australia'...

Best Way to Get a Pothole Fixed? Break Out the Birthday Cake

It worked for Frank Sereno of Kansas City

(Newser) - "My gosh, if this is what it takes to get potholes fixed, we'll never get anything done." So says Frank Sereno of Kansas City, Mo., who threw a birthday party for a 2-foot-wide depression outside his home after it went unfixed for three months. "I got...

Florida Urges Homeowners to Kill Iguanas When They Can

'The FWC encourages homeowners to kill green iguanas on their own property'

(Newser) - Green iguanas love Florida's consistently warm weather, so much so that the invasive species is a massive problem in the state. "Iguanas have proliferated with such intensity in Southern Florida that they are now a common sight," a zoologist tells ABC News . And as a wildlife scientist...

Serial Toilet Clogger Sentenced to 150 Days

Patrick Beeman, 26, said he got 'very strong urges'

(Newser) - The "curious commode caper" of Sheboygan, Wis., has been solved. In March 2018, police there announced that over an 18-month period, someone had occasionally been clogging the women's toilet at the Deland Community Center with a 20-ounce soda bottle. On Monday, Patrick Beeman was sentenced to 150 days...

Man Was Late for Work, Could End Up in Prison

Not for the tardiness, but for how he tried to get excused for it

(Newser) - A man accused of forging a police report to back up his bogus story that he used as an excuse to his boss is facing real charges in New Hampshire. The Caledonian-Record reports that 51-year-old Paul Neilson was charged last week with forgery, a felony punishable by up to seven...

Animal Rescue Group: We Need Your Old Bras

Rescue group in North Carolina says the fasteners can help mend broken turtle shells

(Newser) - A North Carolina animal rescue group is appealing to women not to throw out their old bras, but instead to send them—or at least the bra clasps—to their agency to help turtles with broken shells. Carolina Waterfowl Rescue of Charlotte is asking women through social media to remove...

Talk About a Fish Tale: This One's a Doozy

Divorced man attaches wedding ring to fish, and it's re-caught at a tournment

(Newser) - "I didn't know steelhead get married," a fisherman quipped Friday after a fish was pulled from Lake Michigan with a wedding band fixed to its tail with a zip-tie. The Chicago Sun-Times unravels the mystery: Four years after his divorce, fishing guide Jason Rose felt his wedding...

11-Year-Old Lets Intruder &#39;Have It&#39; With a Machete
11-Year-Old Lets
Intruder 'Have It'
With a Machete
in case you missed it
Jun 22, 2019 10:30 AM CDT

11-Year-Old Lets Intruder 'Have It' With a Machete

Police say Braydon Smith struck the suspect in the head with the weapon

(Newser) - It's an incredible story that took an incredulous turn: An 11-year-old North Carolina boy went after a home intruder with a machete, wounding him in the head—but after being treated for his injury, the suspect escaped. ABC11 has the timeline, which began last week in Mebane. Braydon Smith...

You've Likely Never Heard Seals Quite Like This

Language researchers teach them to mimic 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star'

(Newser) - Sure, it's a goofy animal video , but it's Friday and it's in the name of science, so enjoy. Researchers from Scotland's University of St. Andrews trained gray seals to copy the sounds of human words and songs, including "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." It wasn'...

Mysterious Orbs Appear Over Kansas City

NWS said it has 'no explanation'

(Newser) - The National Weather Service was flummoxed by two mysterious white orbs that appeared in the skies over Kansas City Thursday evening. "We honestly have no explanation for the floating objects over Kansas City," the NWS tweeted , sharing a photo of the two spheres. In hundreds of replies to...

Woman Spends 2.5 Days Stuck in a Stairwell

Unnamed woman was released from St. Louis jail, didn't follow the directions

(Newser) - A woman who had been arrested in Missouri was subsequently released from the St. Louis Justice Center—but she didn't get out for two more days. The Post-Dispatch explains the unnamed woman had been told to ride the elevator to the first floor, turn right, and exit the building....

Politician's Press Conference Becomes Bit of a Cat-astrophe

Cat filter was accidentally turned on as Pakistan's Shaukat Yousafzai spoke

(Newser) - An incident in Pakistan last Friday really put the "owwwww" into meow. CNN reports regional minister Shaukat Yousafzai was live-streaming a press conference when a Facebook cat filter was accidentally enabled, giving Yousafzai cat ears, a feline nose, and whiskers—unbeknownst to him (see an image here ). Facebook...

Man Donates Amputated Toe to Hotel Bar

It's another 'gross' garnish for the Sourtoe Cocktail

(Newser) - Nick Griffiths is understandably sad to have lost the big toe of his left foot to frostbite in an extreme winter marathon in the Yukon last year. But it's not goodbye forever. Now recovering at home in Bolton, England, the ex-British commando has sent his amputated toe to the...

She Wanted a Memorable Photo, Got a Viral One

Alicia Jessop readied herself for the perfect lobster roll shot, then...

(Newser) - Alicia Jessop knew Friday was going to be a memorable day, but she didn't realize to what degree. The 34-year-old Pepperdine University professor planned to finally visit New England, hitting some of the last seven states she'd never been to, and try her first-ever lobster roll. What she...

Stories 1141 - 1160 | << Prev   Next >>