News of the Weird: Week of April 10, 2025

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Americans Abroad

Ukrainian American national Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, was arrested on March 30 after he made a visit to a remote island in the Indian Ocean, the New York Post reported. North Sentinel Island is home to a hostile, isolated tribe called the Sentinelese, and traveling there is banned. Polyakov was seen taking off in a small boat around midnight on March 29, with his only cargo a coconut and a can of Coke, which he intended to present as "offerings for the Sentinelese." HS Dhaliwal, the director general of police on the Andaman Islands, said officials were trying to find out more about Polyakov. He did make it to the island but appeared to be ignored by the natives. He left his offerings on the beach and collected sand samples, then returned to South Andaman. Police say in January, Polyakov filmed another remote tribe, the Jarawa, while visiting the Baratang Islands. An American missionary, John Allen Chau, was killed with an arrow by the Sentinelese in 2018.

Surprise!

When a babysitter in Great Bend, Kansas, helpfully looked under the bed to check for "monsters" on March 24, she actually found one, NBC News reported. The Barton County Sheriff's Office was called to the home, where the babysitter had come face-to-face with a man hiding under the child's bed, around 10:30 p.m. After a short altercation with the babysitter, the man fled the home. The suspect, who was captured the next morning, was Martin Villalobos Jr., 27, who once lived in the house. Villalobos was under a protection order and had been warned to stay away from the home. He was arrested on charges of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary, aggravated battery, child endangerment and other offenses and held on $500,000 bond.

Awwwww!

Pat DeReamer of Louisville, Kentucky, and Mary Wheaton go waaaaay back -- all the way to 1944 in Indianapolis, when Wheaton gave DeReamer a birthday card for her 14th birthday on April 1. When Wheaton's birthday came around a month later, DeReamer added her own message to the same card and gave it back to Wheaton. For the last 81 years, they've been sending the card back and forth, WLKY-TV reported. "We never said, 'We're going to do this,'" DeReamer said. "It just happened." Now in their 90s, the old friends don't get together as much, but they remain "really good friends."

Animal Antics

Mail carrier Wayne White was on his route in Hyannis, Massachusetts, on March 28 when he ran into a flock of troublemakers, WHDH-TV reported. As he got in and out of his truck and delivered mail, three wild turkeys followed and harassed him while he tried to fend them off with a box. "Every time I moved the truck, the turkeys followed," White said. One encounter with the birds was caught on a home's surveillance video and showed White trying to do his job as they gobbled at him. "I do a lot of stuff on Nantucket, so I see deer all the time, but this is my first time with turkey," he said.

A Cautionary Tale

Minot, North Dakota, mayor Tom Ross resigned on April 1, which some might find a fitting date for his ignominious downfall. KMOT-TV reported that Ross was the subject of a complaint made in late January by the city attorney, Stefanie Stalheim, who said she had received a sexually explicit text from Ross. Ross admitted he had made a video of himself masturbating during his lunch break, intending to send it to his romantic partner. "I do take responsibility for this mistake," Ross said. "I tried to immediately correct it and was unable."

Least Competent Criminal

Crush Comics in California's Castro Valley was burglarized on March 22, CBS News reported. The thief took a display of the store's most valuable comic books, said owner Josh Hunter. He figured they were gone for good, but then, just 12 hours later, one of his employees stumbled upon an eBay listing for a very specific comic book from the store. "I'm just going to buy that and see what happens," Hunter said. When he got the seller's name and address, he searched on Instagram and saw the burglar's offer to buy, sell or trade Lego sets. Next, Hunter called another comic shop and a toy store that had also been broken into and shared his findings. When the sleuths turned their results over to police, Alameda County Sheriff's officers served a search warrant at the home of Noorullah Amiri, 29, of Livermore, where they found tens of thousands of dollars' worth of comic books, collectibles and Lego sets. Amiri was taken into custody on March 27.

Recent Alarming Headline

Felipe Hoyos-Foronda, 38, of Queens, New York, was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport on March 28 after a medical procedure at his home went south, CBS News reported. According to police, a 31-year-old woman went to Hoyos-Foronda's home to have her butt implants removed. When the woman suffered complications, he called EMS and then took off, intending to flee to Colombia. First responders found the woman unresponsive. The criminal complaint said Hoyos-Foronda admitted to performing the procedure without a license and administering lidocaine, "causing her to go into cardiac arrest." Officials say the victim is still hospitalized with no brain activity, and she shows signs of lidocaine toxicity.

The Passing Parade

              -- Delhi, India's "Potty Badmash," a 27-year-old pickpocket named Deepak, was finally arrested on March 24, The Times of India reported. Deepak is famous for committing thefts and knife-related crimes, then soiling his pants, creating a stench so terrible that it kept officers away from him. This time, however, they armed themselves with gloves and masks. "Team gave him chase and pinned him down," said an officer. "As expected, Deepak deployed his famous 'filth plan' but the officers ... thwarted his last-ditch effort and took him in custody." When they searched him, they found a knife, which Deepak described as his "lucky charm." During questioning he admitted to multiple mobile phone thefts and other crimes.

              -- A 56-year-old Warsaw, Poland, cleaner is facing up to 20 years behind bars after she was caught putting cleaning fluid in a co-worker's drinks, Oddity Central reported on March 28. The 51-year-old victim visited the doctor with stomach pains and was told her internal injuries were consistent with poisoning. She couldn't think of anything that might be causing her discomfort, but then remembered that her morning cup of tea had tasted odd in recent weeks. She installed a hidden camera and saw that her co-worker was spraying corrosive substances in her tea and on her soda bottle. The perpetrator had been talking with another woman while poisoning the drinks; both of them said they just didn't like the victim. The accomplice could get three years in prison.

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