News of the Weird: Aug. 19, 2021

×

Expand

News of the Weird newspapers illustration

Goals

If you've missed the window to be an astronaut, maybe you can qualify to pretend to be one for a year. NASA is accepting applications for four people who will live inside Mars Dune Alpha, a simulated Martian habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Associated Press reported. The 1,700-square-foot structure will have no windows and will be created by a 3-D printer. These paid volunteers will be challenged with spacewalks, equipment failures, limited communication with "home" and restricted food and resources. "We want to understand how humans perform" in the habitats, said lead scientist Grace Douglas. Requirements are strict, but former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield recommends the gig: "Just think how much you're going to be able to catch up on Netflix."

Full Service

Brandon D'Marcus Presha, 28, was arrested in Laurens, South Carolina, on Aug. 10 for an incident that took place on Aug. 6 in the McDonald's where he works, The Smoking Gun reported. Late that evening, police said, Presha donned gloves and sat down at a table in the restaurant to ink a tattoo on the arm of a minor -- and bystanders posted video of him plying his craft. Presha was charged with tattooing a minor and tattooing without a license.

Shooting Sports

Two people died and two others went to the hospital in critical condition after a puzzling car crash on Aug. 11 in San Antonio, Texas. A female driver in her 20s or 30s, traveling at high speed, struck a parked car, police said, and when the owner of the parked car and two others came outside to see what had happened, the woman started shooting at them. The parked car's owner was killed; the other two were critically wounded, WOAI-TV reported. Then another neighbor responded to the ruckus and ended up shooting the driver and killing her. Police are investigating why the woman opened fire on the car's owner.

A 19-year-old woman in Kenosha, Wisconsin, accidentally shot a friend with his own handgun on Aug. 10 while using the weapon's laser sight to entertain a cat, the Associated Press reported. The woman, who had been drinking, according to a witness, picked up the friend's handgun, "turned on the laser sight and was pointing it at the floor to get the cat to chase it," the police report said. The gun went off and a bullet struck the 21-year-old man in the thigh. The victim was charged for violating bond conditions that prevented him from having a gun.

Road Rage

In King County, Washington, an unnamed 47-year-old suspect was taken into custody on July 30 after several road rage reports, the most striking of which was this: On July 27, the suspect, driving a Jeep, started honking at another driver as both entered a ramp onto I-5, Q13 Fox reported. The victim took an exit to try to escape a confrontation, but the suspect followed and eventually blocked the victim's car with his own. Then, as shown on dashcam video, the suspect exited the Jeep and threw an ax at the victim's car before driving over the median and escaping. Charges for the multiple incidents include felony hate crime, felony eluding and theft.

Crime Report

On Aug. 12, a woman in Oconee County, South Carolina, saw Garry Chase Coble Jr. riding a horse down the road in the middle of the afternoon and then leading it inside a home. When deputies arrived and entered the home, WSPA-TV reported, they found horse feces on the floor in the front room. Next, officers discovered the horse standing calmly in the bedroom. Coble was arrested for larceny of livestock; the horse suffered only a small laceration on its front left leg.

Don't Eat This

A piece of wedding cake from the 1981 marriage of Lady Diana Spencer and Charles, Prince of Wales, sold at auction in western England on Aug. 11 for $2,565, CNN reported. The 28-ounce hunk of confection was taken from one of 23 cakes made for the occasion and features a coat-of-arms, a silver horseshoe and a leaf spray. The piece was apparently given to Moyra Smith, a staffperson for the Queen Mother, at the time of the wedding. Since then, it was kept wrapped in plastic inside a cake tin. After 40 years, auctioneer Chris Albury bragged, "It's an object that's going to last."

Mistaken Identity

Xi Yan of Jurong West in Singapore called animal welfare group ACRES to her home on July 28 because of what she believed was a snake hissing in a cupboard near her bed. She sent a recording of the noise, and ACRES concluded it was probably a black spitting cobra, reported Coconuts Singapore. The rescue team, armed with protective eyewear and snake grabbers, methodically searched her bedroom, but what they came up with was much less threatening: It was a malfunctioning Oral-B electric toothbrush buzzing away. "The problem started because water got into my electrical toothbrush and affected the mechanism," Xi said. "I should really buy a new one. I don't want to go through this again."

Behind the Curtain

According to the BBC, North Korea is typically behind schedule when airing Olympic events, but this year is worse than usual. On Aug. 10, Korean Central Television aired 70 minutes of a women's soccer match that had taken place weeks earlier, on July 21. The match was shown without commentary and in low resolution, begging the question of the source of the video. This year, North Korea declined to send a delegation to the Olympics for fear of COVID outbreaks; Pyongyang reports it has no cases of the virus, but experts are skeptical. Sadly, North Koreans may not even know who won that soccer match, since 20 minutes were missing.

Bright Idea

Rama Mahto, 65, was reportedly drunk outside his home in the village of Madhodeh, India, on Aug. 8, when a baby snake bit him on the leg, Newsweek reported. Contrary to common advice in the wake of a snake bite, Mahto captured the little snake and started chewing on it in revenge, during which his family said he was "bitten more than 10 times" on the face. His family urged him to seek medical help at the hospital, but he went to bed -- and never woke up. Mahto had told his family he didn't think the snake was venomous due to its age.

Police Report

A resident called police in Girard, Ohio, around 3:30 a.m. on Aug. 5 to report that someone was banging on his front door with a stick, WKBN-TV reported. When officers arrived, they found damage to a window, but no one at the front door. Instead, Shamia Fudge, 30, was sleeping on the doghouse in the backyard. Officers reported they could smell alcohol on Fudge, who told them the caller had slipped something into her drink. But one of the officers remembered seeing her outside a bar in Girard about an hour before. While being arrested for causing a disturbance, Fudge yelled at officers and hit one of them in the groin. She was also charged with resisting arrest.

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

COPYRIGHT 2021 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

1130 Walnut, Kansas City MO 64106; 800-255-6734