JUST ABOVE SUNSET offers, in special arrangement with Andrew J. Hewett and his site WEIRD, BIZARRE and UNUSUAL (chewednews.com), the best of the weird, bizarre and unusual. As noted at his site, Andrew publishes, via e-mail, a growing archive of true events compiled from a variety of sources, covering “every conceivable subject.” You can submit your own favorite “strange story” – including a verifiable source, of course. He’s sent over 1,200 of these out to the distribution list, and you too can sign up to be on the list. Here’s the latest. Visit his site for more, and the archives. And note that Volume I of Weird, Bizarre and Unusual [Kindle Edition] is available on Amazon.com – Volume II will be coming soon, with Volume III, IV and V to follow.
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013 –
IT’S OKAY TO SHOOT INDIANS?
Oklahoma City – A quote from The Associated Press (6-15-13): “A federal appeals court has reversed the death sentence of an Oklahoma man who pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder because the crimes occurred in Indian country and the state lacked the authority to prosecute him.”
PARENTS WHO SUCK
According to the New York Times (5-6-13) – Researchers writing in the journal Pediatrics found some infants whose parents regularly sucked their babies’ pacifiers to clean them (rather than rinsing or boiling them) had fewer allergies and cases of asthma. (But oral parental-cleansing might cause other problems such as tooth decay.)
THIS IS “NEWS”?
June 17, 2013 – The Washington Post reports Virginia Governor and possible Republican presidential candidate Bob McDonnell used taxpayer money to pay for sunscreen and dog vitamins; and, under the Freedom of Information Act, informed readers McDonnell and his wife also used state employees to run personal errands for their adult children and billed the state for deodorant, shoe repairs and a digestive system “detox cleanse.”
Monday, June 17, 2013 –
SHOCKED? LOOK THIS UP YOURSELF
The Washington Post reports when President Obama and family visit Africa this month, with all involved, including hundreds of security agents, an entourage of planes and ground vehicles (56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines and three truckloads of bullet-proof sheet glass to cover windows at the hotels where they stay), the estimated cost of this trip is well over $60 million. (While each-and-every-day over 2,500 African children die from starvation and poor sanitation.)
MAYBE A CELLMATE ‘SWEETIE PIE’?
Anthony Thompson, of Dallas, must not have a sweet tooth? Recently, he sold 100 large boxes of Little Debbie cakes for $500, one-tenth of their retail value, $5,000. And, that’s too bad, ’cause he needs more cash. His bail in jail is set at $15,000. That’s because these treats were in the back of a delivery truck he stole.
GET MAD HERE, PLEASE!
Remember Army Major Nidal Hasan, who shot and killing 13 while wounding 32 in November 2009, at Fort Hood, Texas? As of May 2013, while avoiding trial for 43 months, Hasan has “earned” $278,000 (and counting) in salary and benefits … because his pay cannot stop until he is convicted; while, according to WFAA-TV, some of the 32 surviving victims cannot even get workers compensation or disability treatment money from the Army. Why? The Army refuses to classify the spree-shooting as a “terrorist attack.” (
http://www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/index.html
)
Saturday, June 15, 2013 –
THEM POLE-ESE IS PICKY
KCBS-TV reported May 6, 2013, Los Angeles police had bought back 1,200 guns during a recent buy-back program, but refused to buy back a pipe bomb from a seller. “This is not a pipe-bomb buyback,” said Chief Charlie Beck. “Pipe bombs are illegal…” (Instead, they traded him his pipe bomb for a jail cell.)
MADE HIS PANTS FIT FUNNY, TOO
The New York Post tells of Daniel Metzgar of Wilmington, Del., who filed a lawsuit against his doctor, claiming a botching penile-implant operation in 2009 left him with an erection that lasted eight months. The suit says Metzgar had trouble doing things such as bending over to pick up his newspaper and riding a motorcycle. (
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/weird_but_true/weird_but_true_tk4Oc8jtn9XvIzzsxb2ebJ
)
FINDERS KEEPERS IN JAIL
Police were called in April of 2013, after surveillance video helped identify Ruben Pavon, while he stole a grill from the front of a Derry, N.H., thrift store. Pavon explained to police that the store’s name, “Finders Keepers,” indicated to him the objects were free for the taking, admitting he’d previously taken items, with no problem. [WMUR-TV (Manchester, N.H.), 5-1-2013]
Friday, June 14, 2013 –
NEW MEANING: TAKE A POWDER
The Associated Press (06-12-13) reports employees at a supermarket chain Coop in Aarhus, western Denmark, were surprised opening banana boxes from Columbia, South America, to find instead some 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of what police say is cocaine. (Street value perhaps $10-$12 million U.S.)
WHY?
Even if you’ve never fired a gun in your life, for the price of $27,500 you may now purchase a TrackingPoint laser light rifle, which guarantees you can kill any animal or human over half-a-mile away. (
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/06/12/high-tech-trackingpoint-smart-rifle-turns-anyone-into-sniper/
)
HE SHOULD’VE JUST SENT FLOWERS
The New York Daily News reported when Santos Ramos, 17, attended the funeral for murder victim Leandra Arias Janco, 35, near Colquechaca, Bolivia, Jun 5, 2013, more than 200 outraged mourners ID’ d him as her killer, tied him up, threw him into the open grave and placed the coffin on top. They then filled the grave with earth — burying him alive and let him suffocate to death. (BRAVO!) (
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/bolivian-mob-buries-alive-suspected-murderer-article-1.1365894
)
Wednesday, June 12, 2013 –
THE RIGHT TO REMAIN STUPID
Phoenix car thieves Chad Leakey and Paul Gardner must’ve been overconfident or on drugs when they caused themselves to be arrested in May of 2013. While pulling on door handles, looking for any unlocked, they opened the back of an unmarked police car, ignored the cage wiring separating the interior… and the two uniformed officers sitting up front.
“IT’S ALIVE!”
You eat cheese? Most folks do; with few realizing they are consuming several forms of living creatures. Microbiologist Rachel Dutton, who runs the “cheese laboratory” at Harvard University, says, “Cheese is absolutely alive!” In fact, cheese supports a variety of molds, bacteria and yeasts, which give it flavor. (FYI – The FDA is considering limiting some tiny cheese “mites” to 6 bugs per square inch.)
SELFISH SELF-CENTERED
The Tampa Bay Times, 5-13-2013, reported the Florida House of Representatives adjourned for the year without increasing its health insurance premiums, which will remain at $8.34 per month for individuals ($30 for families). Several days earlier, the House had voted to reject several billion dollars in federal grants for extending health insurance coverage to about one million more poor people in that state’s Medicaid program.
Monday, June 10, 2013 –
COULD IT BE GOD LOVES STUPID?
The Daily Mail (London) (4-11-2013) reported an apparently Orthodox Jewish man had tied himself up, head to toe, in a plastic bag while seated on an airline flight… probably because his teachings told him that flying over a cemetery would yield “impurities.” And, airlines have made accommodations in the past, even though criticized that a passenger in a plastic bag is a safety hazard.
HOW DARE THEY, ANYWAY!
(Reuters) – Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has sued Forbes magazine for libel in a British court, alleging its valuation of his wealth at $20 billion was short of the mark by $9.6 billion. The prince, a grandson of Saudi Arabia’s founder and nephew of King Abdullah, attacked the U.S. magazine’s ranking of world billionaires as flawed and biased against Middle Eastern businesses after he was ranked number 26. (6-7-13)
A SON’S LOVE FOR HIS MOTHER
Five years after giving birth in a Uttar Pradesh, India, jail in 1990, Vijay Kumari’s son was taken away from her and placed in a children’s home. And, though she could’ve been released in 1994 on a bail of 5,000 rupees (about $92 U.S.), nobody told her, and none of her family had that much cash. That is until her son, Kanhaiya, was able to work night and day in a garment factory, earning enough to pay his mother’s bail… 19 years later.
Sunday, June 9, 2013 –
MAYBE HE SHOULD TAKE UP GOLF?
Could be, Orlando Shaw, 33, needs his “tubes tied?” NBC affiliate WTVF reports Shaw is being sued for what could be Nashville’s most expensive child support cases. According to court records, since age 15, he has conceived 22 children with 14 different women. His excuse: “I was young and ambitious, and I love women. You can’t knock no man for loving women.” (Yet, too stupid to spell c-o-n-d-o-m.)
HIS NOSE KNOWS DISCARD
After undergoing more than 20 nose job procedures, an Oklahoma man sued the plastic surgeon who operated on him, claiming the doctor removed his nose. Beginning in 2006, Vishal Thakkar first had plastic surgery performed by Dr. Lawrence Angelo Cuzalina, a recognized Tulsa plastic surgeon, according to Fox affiliate KOKI. Suffering breathing difficulty, Thakkar went back for surgery, then another and another until the number topped 21. During one procedure, finding a severe infection, Dr. Cuzalinsa removed his nose. (
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/07/vishal-thakkar-nose-job-without-a-nose_n_3402629.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news
)
HANDICAPPED SHENANIGANS
A cheerleader at Hopkins High School, in Minnetonka, Minnesota, has been charged with pimping a teammate, advertising her sexual services online. Montia Marie Parker, 18, of Maple Grove was arrested in May and released on bail, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Authorities say Parker asked a special education 16-year-old cheerleader if she wanted to make money having sex. The girl responded she would perform oral sex. Parker allegedly advertised the readiness on this mentally challenged girl on Backpage.com.
Thursday, June 6, 2013 –
STUCK HER NOSE OUT FOR THEM
The Associated Press (06-04-13) told of Kabang, a small dog living in the Philippines, which lost both her snout and upper jaw by jumping in front of a motorcycle, possibly saving the lives of her owner’s daughter and niece. Next, flown to the U.S. for treatment by doctors at the University of California, Davis veterinary hospital for seven months, this selfless little animal returned home. And, though its snout and jaw could not be saved, the animal was able to survive and live a more or less normal life.
MIGHT USE SPELL-CHECK HERE?
Berlin – A change in the law in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, to conform with current EU regulations, has caused removal of a word from their vocabulary related to mad cow disease: Rindfleischetilettierungsueberwachungsafgabenuebertragungsgesetz. But they still have such words as: Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaenswitwe.
KITTY-KAT COMMUNICATIONS
The Associated Press June 4, 2013 reported: “Guards patrolling a prison colony in Russia’s north saw a cat on the fence and it seemed to be carrying something. On a closer look, they found a few cellphones and chargers taped to the cat’s belly. It wasn’t clear how the cat was supposed to drop off its loot.”
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 –
DARE YOU TO PROVE HER WRONG
Genius Marilyn Vos Savant, in her “Ask Marilyn” column in Sunday’s Parade magazine, answered this question from a reader: “I’ve read that one cannot fold a standard sheet of copy paper in half more than seven times?” Her answer: “It’s almost impossible to fold a sheet of paper more than seven times,” adding, “A record set by a high school student, who started with about three-quarters of a mile of bath tissue, was only 12 folds.”
SHOULD’VE GONE TO MCDONALD’S
After actor Michael Douglas, now 68, was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2010, he blamed it on the stress involved in his son Cameron’s legal troubles. But, in June 2013, he admitted to the world his cancer was really caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), transmitted while performing cunnilingus (i.e. oral sex).
MAY THEY PRAY FOR A PARDON
As members of the First Century Gospel Church in Philadelphia, Herbert and Catherine Schaible were expressing belief in God and faith-healing when they refused to get medical help for their 2-year-old son, Kent, who died from bacterial-pneumonia. Given probation, they agreed to provide medical care for their other eight children. But in April 2013 their youngest son, Brandon, died from severe diarrhea and pneumonia, again treated only with prayer. The couple this time was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison.
Monday, June 3, 2013 –
EXEMPLARY ADULT BEHAVIOR, NOT
Quoting the Associated Press from Cleveland, Ohio, (6-1-13): “A brawl that started over spilled punch in a kindergarten graduation ceremony Friday resulted in the arrest of eight people, authorities said. Police were called when one participant pulled out a pipe and another a hammer.”
ARE YOU EATING WHILE READING?
The Khaleej Times (Dubai) reported April 19, 2013, Abdullah Riyaz, 50, was arrested at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, India, after a security search found four small “biscuits” of solid gold in his socks. And, while being watched in jail, Riyaz had a bowel movement, which released eight more “biscuits” … along with his standard pile of feces.
MUSIC FACED THANKS TO FACEBOOK
ABC News tells of Christopher Robinson, 23, who had not paid one dollar in child support for three years, after being ordered by a Milwaukee, Wis. court. That is until a prosecutor got a warrant to search Robinson’s private Facebook information and discovered a candid photograph of him, laughing over a pile of cash.
Saturday, June 1, 2013 –
SEX: DANGEROUS THAN TEXTING
The Albuquerque Journal tells of Luis Briones, 25, who was apparently driving drunk down a local highway, while having sex, when he wrecked his SUV. Police said the woman was found naked outside the vehicle, with deep cuts to her face and head. While Briones, unable to escape in his damaged car after witnesses hid the keys, was found hiding behind a cactus, wearing only one shoe with his underwear on inside-out.
AN UNUSUAL BITE OUT OF CRIME
After being pulled over by Pinellas County (Florida) officers, Bryan Zuniga, 20, decided to make a run for it. But a few hours later, he was found in a local hospital with puncture wounds to his face, arm and armpit area. Zuniga told the lawmen, after his escape, he was attacked by an alligator. The police showed their respect and symphony by charging him with fleeing police, driving with a suspended or revoked license and resisting an officer without violence.
HE COULD’VE GOTTEN LIFE
Willie Smith Ward, 43, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for stealing only a $35 rack of ribs. The reason, according to the Waco Tribune-Herald, was he’d told a grocery store employee he had a knife. So, informed Ward has previous felony convictions for burglary, attempted robbery, aggravated assault, leaving the scene of an accident and possession of cocaine, and four misdemeanor convictions, including two thefts, the jury recommended he be sentenced as an habitual criminal. (He’ll serve at least 12.5 years.)
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Volume I of Weird, Bizarre and Unusual [Kindle Edition] is available on Amazon.com – Volume II will be coming soon, with Volume III, IV and V to follow.
