News of the Weird newspapers illustration
Awwww…
It’s very cold and very dark, in an existential sort of way, in Minneapolis this time of year. To wit: Cianna Violet, 24, passes by a certain spot near a Broadway Pizza location as she commutes to work. In November, she noticed a yellow traffic pylon with an extra something clinging to the top and pulled over to check it out. It was a rat: dead, frozen, sad. That is until Tuesday, Dec. 3, when Violet noticed something about the rat had changed. Sure enough, someone had dressed the little decedent rodent and even remembered accessories, like a tiny silver backpack and fur-trimmed boots. The outfit is “100% seasonably appropriate,” Violet told CityPages. “I’m sorry it had to die, but in death, it has brought a reason to smile to hundreds.”
Urban Cowbirds
Meanwhile, it’s warm and sunny in Las Vegas, and several pigeons there have been sighted sporting little cowboy hats. On Monday, Dec. 9, KVVU reported that pigeons have been spotted with tiny red cowboy hats on their heads. Mariah Hillman, who runs an animal rescue, at first thought the headwear was cute, but then began to worry about how the hats had been affixed to the birds’ heads. “Did they glue them? Is it something that’s going to impede their flight or attract predators?” she wondered. Hillman and her agency have been handing out business cards and asking people who see the behatted birds to “just feed them until I get there. I’m only three miles away, and I’ll come trap them.”
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You’re a Mean One, Mr. Betancourt
Marie Bennett, 40, and Joseph Betancourt, 24, of Woodland, Calif., would have made the Grinch proud, but police in Red Bluff weren’t having it. On Thursday, Dec. 5, the two allegedly broke into the Children First Foster Family Agency, where they stole “a large number of toys that were being held there for children for Christmas presents,” police told Fox News. Surveillance video showed the burglars coming and going from the home next door; officers arrested Bennett and Betancourt for burglary, theft and breaking and entering, and they recovered the stolen toys, declaring, “These ‘Grinches’ will not be stealing Christmas from kids on our watch.”
Calling Treebeard
The Bosch’s Country View Nursery in Allendale, Mich., is a longtime favorite destination for holiday tree shoppers. But sometime in early December, the Grinch visited, lopping the top halves off more than a dozen trees, according to WZZM13. It takes a fir tree between six and 10 years to grow to the appropriate saleable height, explained owner Brian Bosch. “Somebody had a bad day, I’m assuming,” he said. “I don’t know why somebody would do that.” Bosch did say that the trees might recover, although it would take a few years.
Business with That Personal Touch
In Turlock, Calif., mothers became alarmed when a man turned up at their doors, asking for “five strands” of hair and fingerprints from their children in order to collect their DNA. “He said he was with ‘Amber Alert,’” Lauren Hassett told KTXL on Wednesday, Dec. 4, and “that he needed to finish a DNA file” on her daughter. She also said the man asked for her daughter using a name the 13-year-old girl only uses online. Hassett ordered the man off her property and called police, who were later able to catch up with him. Officers said the man’s business was legitimate, but “the manner in which the information was relayed led to some misunderstanding. The involved adult male was passing out child DNA kits, which would be retained by the family, in the event it was ever needed for future investigations.”
Barely There
Operation Santa’s Naughty List took place Dec. 3-8 in Polk County, Fla., seeking to target human trafficking and prostitution, and it was beyond successful. Prostitutes who were identified as victims of human trafficking were taken to shelters and offered support services. The sting nabbed 124 people, including 46 would-be customers and numerous others for different crimes. But the standout was surely Rodney Davis, a 56-year-old husband, father and security guard at Disney World, the Tampa Bay Times reported. When Davis showed up to purchase sex from an undercover male detective, he was wearing... nothing, not even socks.
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