Strange Stuff: Weird Crimes, Crazy Laws, and Other Interesting News Stories - Page 173

Mom Finds Python Wrapped Around Her Baby

Jan 6, 2013 3:00 PM CST

Mom Finds Python Wrapped Around Her Baby

Tess Guthrie, 22, grabs 6-foot python by the head

(Newser) - Imagine waking up to find a 6-foot python wrapped around your baby's arm. That's what Tess Guthrie experienced yesterday when her cat's hissing roused her at 3:30am in the Australian town of Lismore, Australia's News Network reports. With the snake wrapped three times around her...

Cops: Girl
Drugs Parents'
Milkshakes
to Go Online

Cops: Girl Drugs Parents' Milkshakes to Go Online

They passed out, and she logged on

(Newser) - A teenager who thought her parents' 10pm cutoff of the Internet was too strict spiked their milkshakes with prescription sleeping meds so she could go online, police say. It worked. When her parents passed out, the 15-year-old girl and a 16-year-old friend were able to log on, reports the Sacramento ...

Police Arrest Naked,
Sword-Wielding Man

Police Arrest Naked, Sword-Wielding Man

There was a standoff as guy brandished sword at cops

(Newser) - San Jose police certainly started off the new year with a bang. They were alerted this morning that a man was outside a home with an assault rifle; he left before they arrived. When they pulled him over, he got out of the car naked ... and wielding a large Samurai...

The Real Cause
of Violent Crime:
Leaded Gasoline

Mother Jones

Jan 5, 2013 6:03 PM CST

The Real Cause of Violent Crime: Leaded Gasoline

Lead poisoning created a generation of criminals: Kevin Drums

(Newser) - Violent crime has fallen in the US for years, but why? Experts have floated theories ranging from police techniques to the "crack epidemic" to the legalizing of abortion, but none quite fit the facts. One, however, does: lead poisoning. In Mother Jones , Kevin Drums reports that the rise and...

Guards Catch
'Smuggler Kitty'
Sneaking Into
Prison

Jan 5, 2013 2:58 PM CST

Guards Catch 'Smuggler Kitty' Sneaking Into Prison

Cat has cell phone and charger strapped to its body

(Newser) - At least one prisoner in Brazil may still be waiting for his cell phone. Authorities at a prison in Arapiraca city apprehended a white cat slipping through the gate with all kinds of goodies strapped to it, including a cell phone and charger, earphones, drill bits, and files, the BBC...

Unruly Flyer Gets
Duct-Taped to Seat

Jan 5, 2013 9:59 AM CST

Unruly Flyer Gets Duct-Taped to Seat

Icelandic traveler was drunk, say police

(Newser) - One more use for duct tape: The crew of an Icelandair flight used it to bind a drunk and raging passenger to his seat, reports the New York Post . The 46-year-old reportedly started assaulting passengers and screaming that the plane was going to crash about two hours from JFK. An...

Iceland Teen Fights to Keep
Name of 'Light Breeze'

Jan 3, 2013 5:37 PM CST

Iceland Teen Fights to Keep Name of 'Light Breeze'

Government says 'Blaer' is not on the approved list

(Newser) - The unusual lawsuit of the day comes from Iceland, where a 15-year-old is suing the government to keep her given name of "Blaer." The problem, as the AP explains, is that it's not on the list of 1,853 approved names for girls. It translates into "...

Ex's Revenge:
She Sells
His Secret
Fishing Spots

Jan 3, 2013 2:06 PM CST

Ex's Revenge: She Sells His Secret Fishing Spots

Girlfriend auctions off his GPS locations after breakup

(Newser) - A New Zealand woman got some profitable revenge on a boyfriend who dumped her and then skipped the country: She sold the locations of his secret (and successful) fishing spots, reports stuff.co.nz . Angela Potter found his GPS markings in her garage after the split and auctioned them off...

Woman Drives Wrong Way
on Highway ... for 18 Miles

Jan 2, 2013 9:31 AM CST

Woman Drives Wrong Way on Highway ... for 18 Miles

And she had a passenger the whole time

(Newser) - Confirming your fears about dangerous post-NYE drivers: Shortly after 5am on New Year's Day, a 22-year-old woman drove the wrong way, at high speeds, on Interstate 81 North in Pennsylvania. For a total of 18 miles. And she had a passenger with her the entire time. They two were...

Scientists Find Louis XVI's Blood in Ancient Gourd

Jan 1, 2013 5:32 PM CST

Scientists Find Louis XVI's Blood in Ancient Gourd

Researchers compare DNA to that of his ancestor, King Henri IV

(Newser) - When King Louis XVI was beheaded after the French Revolution in 1793, many were said to have dipped handkerchiefs and other garments in his blood—and now scientists have determined that one such relic still exists. Maximilien Bourdaloue placed his bloodstained handkerchief inside a calabash, and though the cloth decomposed...

2 Oompa-Loompas
Attacked Man: Police

Jan 1, 2013 10:59 AM CST

2 Oompa-Loompas Attacked Man: Police

Yes, seriously

(Newser) - Bizarre but true: UK police are looking for two men who allegedly assaulted a 28-year-old man—while both were dressed as Oompa-Loompas. The Telegraph reports that they had dyed green hair and orange painted faces, and were joined by a woman in a dress and a man in normal clothes....

Moms Undress to
Fund a School Bus

Dec 31, 2012 4:03 PM CST

Moms Undress to Fund a School Bus

Calendar may counteract Spanish austerity measure

(Newser) - From economic austerity to ... a semi-nude calendar? Yep, mothers in Spain have stripped down for a racy calendar in the hope of raising $57,000 to fund a children's school bus, the Telegraph reports. "I'll do anything for my child and If I have to undress, because...

Brits Planned Ships Made of Ice During WWII

Dec 30, 2012 4:40 PM CST

Brits Planned Ships Made of Ice During WWII

And New Zealand tested underwater 'Tsunami Bombs'

(Newser) - Winston Churchill was so afraid of Nazi submarines targeting supply ships during WWII that he flirted with building aircraft carriers out of sheer ice, New Scientist reports. Knowing Britain could starve without US supplies, he approved a test project aimed at delivering 2,000-foot-long ice ships with 40-foot hulls that...

LA Gun Buyback Yields ... Rocket Launchers?!

75 assault weapons also turned in

(Newser) - Los Angeles officials declared victory this week, after their gun buyback program managed to pull in 2,037 guns, including 75 assault weapons and two anti-tank rocket launchers, the LA Times reports. Yes, you read that correctly. Residents turned in the weapons for grocery store gift cards, no questions asked.

Sudden Climate Change Forced Evolution: Scientists

Early humans saw woodland shift to grassland

(Newser) - Early humans evolved in fits and starts due to rapid environmental changes—not gradually as scientists used to think, according to a new study. Analyzing lake sediments in northern Tanzania, scientists from Penn State and Rutgers University concluded that climate change altered the landscape back and forth from grassland to...

Boater Puts Out
Fire in Awesome Way

Dec 29, 2012 4:48 PM CST

Boater Puts Out Fire in Awesome Way

New Zealanders capture makeshift firefighting on video

(Newser) - No firefighters around when your boat goes up in flames? How about hiring this freethinker to douse it with a speedboat "and look like a badass doing it," reports Gizmodo . Bystanders with a video camera recorded the flaming boat at Lake Lyndon in New Zealand but apparently just...

Height of All Leg Lamps Amazon Sold: Tall as Everest

holiday shopping

Dec 28, 2012 12:22 PM CST

Height of All Leg Lamps Amazon Sold: Tall as Everest

Amazon shares its quirkiest holiday shopping stats

(Newser) - Holiday spending may have been Scrooge-like , but it's not like we didn't shop at all. In fact, Amazon sold an eye-popping 26.5 million items on Cyber Monday alone, according to a post-Christmas press release that gives us a peek at the company's seasonal sales. The Wall ...

China to Citizens: Visit Your Elderly Parents, or Get Sued

Dec 28, 2012 10:40 AM CST

China to Citizens: Visit Your Elderly Parents, or Get Sued

Those who feel neglected can now take their kids to court

(Newser) - Visit your parents. That's an order. So says China, whose national legislature today amended its law on the elderly to require that adult children visit their aged parents "often" —or risk being sued by them. The amendment does not specify how frequently such visits should occur. State...

'Dinosaur
Smuggler'
Pleads Guilty

Dec 28, 2012 5:08 AM CST

'Dinosaur Smuggler' Pleads Guilty

Tyrannosaurus fossil sold for $1M

(Newser) - A man from Florida has admitted to smuggling some prehistoric cargo. Eric Prokopi yesterday told a Manhattan federal court that he'd "forwarded a few shipments of fossils of Mongolian origin from Great Britain to the US that were mislabeled." Among the shipments in question: a Tyrannosaurus bataar...

Drunk Driver Nabbed on
AA Founder's Lawn

Dec 27, 2012 10:01 AM CST

Drunk Driver Nabbed on AA Founder's Lawn

Donald Blood III apparently thought it was a parking lot

(Newser) - Today, in Ironyland: A Massachusetts man was nailed for driving under the influence on Christmas Eve—after depositing his car on the front lawn of the former home of the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. The Rutland Herald reports that Donald Blood III apparently thought the Wilson House lawn was a...

strange stuff

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