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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Trespasser Gets Stuck in Pipe at NJ Water Plant

Spokesperson says guy broke in and somehow got stuck

(Newser) - We're guessing this guy learned his lesson: Rescuers today freed a trespasser stuck in a pipe at a New Jersey water-treatment plant. United Water spokesman Rich Henning says the man broke into the plant that treats and pumps water for the township of Manalapan. Workers heard cries for help...

Hollande Critic Unloads Tons of Manure at Parliament

Police catch the protester in the act

(Newser) - Francois Hollande probably didn't think his week could get much worse. The French president had to acknowledge his affair with an actress, a growing mess that sent his other girlfriend to the hospital . And now? Manure, and lots of it, dumped in his name outside the French parliament in...

Would-Be Crooks Stymied by Door, Stick Shift

Manual transmission and push-not-pull doors are difficult concepts

(Newser) - Two stories this week of would-be criminals thwarted by ... themselves:
  • In Massachusetts, a delivery driver was delivering a food order when three men, one with a knife, approached him. They took the food and his keys, but when they got into his car ... "not one of them knew how
...

Parrot Saves Sleeping Couple From Fire

Pearly woke up his human pals in the middle of the night

(Newser) - NBC Miami has a tale of a hero parrot credited with saving the lives of a Fort Lauderdale couple who were sound asleep during a house fire. "What we heard was a screeching like we've never heard before," Laurajean Niesel tells the Sun-Sentinel . "We thought...

Thieves Try to Steal Sigmund Freud's Ashes

Police still looking for crematorium burglars

(Newser) - Daddy issues? Police are hunting burglars who tried and failed to steal the ashes of Sigmund Freud from a London crematorium. Police say a 2,300-year-old Greek urn containing the remains of Freud and wife Martha was severely damaged in a break-in at Golders Green Crematorium around the first of...

London Romans Piled Skulls in Pits
 London Romans 
 Piled Skulls in Pits 
STUDY SAYS
Jan 15, 2014 6:34 AM CST

London Romans Piled Skulls in Pits

Some may have been gladiators' remains

(Newser) - Slob Romans living in ancient London, it seems, just left decapitated heads lying around in open pits for years, a study suggests. "It is not a pretty picture," a researcher tells the Guardian . "At least one of the skulls shows evidence of being chewed at by dogs,...

Nepal's Retired Goddesses to Get Pensions

Girls lose their exalted status at puberty

(Newser) - It can be tough making the transition from living goddess to mere mortal, so the Nepalese government is here to help. The nation's retired Kumaris will soon get the equivalent of about $160 a month, reports the Economic Times . Kumaris, for the uninitiated, are young girls chosen to be...

China to Build Titanic Replica—That 'Hits' Iceberg

Because experiencing a shipwreck simulation sounds ... fun?

(Newser) - If, for some reason, you've ever wished you could have experienced what it was like to go down on the sinking Titanic ... well, soon that strange dream can come true. A theme park being built in China will feature a life-sized replica of the doomed ship, and it will...

Guy Fatally Stabbed Over Chess: Cops

Boarder admits to killing landlord over game

(Newser) - Chess is, apparently, serious business for some people—deadly serious. Police in Ireland believe a man who was found stabbed to death at his home early yesterday was murdered after a disagreement regarding a chess move during a late-night game, Sky News reports. Thomas O'Gorman, a 39-year-old researcher and...

Seahawks Fans Literally Cause Earthquake—Again

Deja vu indeed: Happens as same player makes touchdown against same team

(Newser) - Seahawks fans jumped to their feet Saturday night during Marshawn Lynch's electrifying touchdown run against the New Orleans Saints—and their screaming and stomping caused a small earthquake. That sentence was true on Jan. 8, 2011 ... and on Jan. 11, 2014. In the weirdest kind of deja vu, seismologists...

Pimp Stomps Client, Sues Nike for $100M

He says 'dangerous' Air Jordans should carry a warning label

(Newser) - It's only January but the most bizarre lawsuit of the year may already have been filed: A pimp in Portland, Ore., is suing Nike for $100 million for failing to warn the public that its Air Jordan shoes could be used as a dangerous weapon, reports the Oregonian . Sirgiorgio...

Woman Finds Wrong Body in Mother's Casket

Daughter believes she was cremated in Ottawa by mistake

(Newser) - A Rhode Island woman wants answers after discovering the wrong body in a casket that should have contained her mother, who died unexpectedly while on vacation in St. Maarten. Lisa Kondvar, of Warwick, and her family discovered another woman's body in the casket at a New Jersey funeral home...

New Pill Could Give Adults Perfect Pitch
 New Pill Could 
 Give Adults 
 Perfect Pitch 
in case you missed it
Jan 11, 2014 1:17 PM CST

New Pill Could Give Adults Perfect Pitch

And make adult brains more receptive to knowledge in general

(Newser) - Annoyed that your shower singing hasn't quite wowed the neighbors? One day you may be able to improve your pitch—and even acquire perfect pitch—with little more than a trip to the drugstore, NPR reports. That's because researchers are studying a "mood-stabilizing" drug that enables an...

Dog Tests Positive for Pot, Cocaine

New Mexico owner fighting to get her Lab back

(Newser) - A New Mexico woman whose dog tested positive for cocaine and marijuana is fighting to get the canine back after surrendering the Labrador retriever because of a $2,000 vet bill. The Albuquerque Journal reports that 1-year-old Maddie showed "strong positive cocaine" and active marijuana traces in urine tests...

Dead Man Wakes Up, Startles Morgue Workers

Hospital jumped the gun a bit

(Newser) - Kenya adds to the fine tradition of dead-person-wakes-up stories—like this , this , this , and this , to name just a few—with this gem: Guy ingests insecticide, goes to the hospital, is declared dead by doctors, and gets sent to the morgue. Guy then wakes up and scares the bejeezus out...

New Year's Fun Knocks Alaska Town Off the Internet

Someone shot out the cable line, and it's still not fixed

(Newser) - It's going to be tough for anyone in Tanana, Alaska, to read this story because the Internet's been out since New Year's Eve. It seems revelers fired their shotguns into the air in celebration and took out a fiber-optic cable line, reports the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner . The...

Texas Firefighter Puts Out Blaze ... With Beer

After extinguisher didn't work, he went to Plan B

(Newser) - An off-duty Houston firefighter made the best of his resources when trying to put out a truck tire fire: He used beer the rig was hauling. Fire Capt. Craig Moreau and his wife were driving home Monday night after a trip to Austin when they came upon an 18-wheeler on...

5-Foot 'Snow Kidney' May Have Found Man a Donor

Jim Gorbunow thought sculpture would get him some attention

(Newser) - Jim Gorbunow is thinking outside the box when it comes to finding a kidney donor: To draw attention to his plight, the Minnesota man built a 5-foot snow sculpture of a kidney in his front yard last week ... and named it "Kevin." Gorbunow's brother helped him build...

Cops: Man Dies After Being Given 'Atomic Wedgie'

He was 'suffocated with his own underwear'

(Newser) - A completely nuts crime report out of Oklahoma: Police say a man died after being given an "atomic wedgie" by his stepson. "I'd never seen this before, but when we first looked at our victim ... the waistband of his underwear was around his neck," says Pottawatomie...

Grocery Workers Open Banana Crates, Find Cocaine

From Colombia with, uh, oops

(Newser) - Police in Germany say they have seized a large haul of cocaine after smugglers apparently made a mistake that sent the drug to supermarkets. Workers at five stores in and around Berlin were surprised to find cocaine packed into crates of bananas on Monday—a total of about 310 pounds....

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