News of the Weird: Week of April 14, 2022

×

Expand

News of the Weird newspapers illustration

Update

The Glitter Twins, Sarah Franks, 29, and Kaitlin O'Donovan, 27, have had their charges dropped in Clearwater, Florida, after a January incident in which they "glitter bombed" one Jacob Colon at 3 a.m. at his home, The Smoking Gun reported on April 5. Franks and O'Donovan, who are married, allegedly threw glitter containers at Colon as he stood on the balcony of his apartment, then entered his home and further assaulted him with glitter, police said, but prosecutors concluded that "the facts and circumstances revealed do not warrant prosecution at this time." The "twins" had been free on bond since their arrest for felony burglary. Colon had at one time been involved in a "three-way type of thing" with them, but it had ended before the incident took place.

The Passing Parade

Rachel Mulcahy is in trouble with Clonard Monastery in Belfast, Northern Ireland for apparently posing as a nun and disrupting services at the church, the Belfast Telegraph reported on April 3. In recent days, she has been served with an injunction to stay at least 150 yards away from the building, but the bogus nun says she is praying for its parishioners. Mulcahy is also known around town for dancing frantically in the streets to religious music, accompanied by two evangelical preachers playing musical instruments. She sometimes falls to her knees and shouts, "Christ, come into me!" She told the Telegraph that she is "in love. Head over heels. I can't stop it. I love Jesus Christ so much that all I can think about is him." But one "insider" claimed she "is not a nun" and said "the congregation (is) quite elderly and they felt intimidated by Ms. Mulcahy's behavior. They just want to be left alone to pray in peace."

Crime Report

It may not be Easter yet, but Mr. Bunny is already making it into the headlines. In Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, a 27-year-old man was in the process of robbing a business on March 31 when an employee tried to thwart him, the CBC reported. But the thief was armed with a Mr. Solid brand chocolate Easter bunny, which he used to hit the employee. The shoplifter escaped but was found nearby and arrested; the employee suffered only minor injuries. The stolen merch was returned to the store; no word on how Mr. Solid fared.

Niche Crime

Seattle police were called to a downtown art gallery on April 5 after a man who claimed to have a knife stole an ancient mammoth tusk valued at several thousand dollars, KOMO-TV reported. The thief then escaped in a stolen plum-colored PT Cruiser, police said. Gallery owners said the theft is the second incident in recent weeks; the shop also carries fine-art sculptures. Investigators were hoping to recover the tusk, and the gallery is planning to hire more security guards.

Naughty

Electric vehicle charging stations in Isle of Wight, England, were hacked in the most middle-school of ways, the BBC reported on April 6. It seems someone reprogrammed the screens on the charge points to show a pornographic website instead of the Chargepoint Genie network. "We are saddened to learn that a third-party web address displayed on our electric vehicle (EV) signage appears to have been hacked," the Isle of Wight Council said in a statement. They apologized to anyone who "may have found the inappropriate web content."

You Can't Park Here

A strange sight greeted residents of a rural area of Kansas on April 5: a mobile home resting smack in the middle of a gravel road, with no owner (or resident) in site. The Kansas City Star reported that the home was found in southern Labette County, and the sheriff's office made a request via Facebook for the public's help in identifying the owner of the mobile home. Of course, theories ran wild among Facebook users. "Maybe they are on house arrest and needed to go somewhere," one user said. In the early evening on April 6, the sheriff's office announced that they had found the owner of the abandoned mobile home, and it was later revealed that blown trailer tires during transport were to blame for its temporary abandonment.

Dangerous Work

The night shift workers at the Mr. Chips french fry factory in East Tamaki, New Zealand, received a bit of a shock as 28 tons of russet potatoes from a farm in nearby Matamata worked their way through the factory's conveyor belts. What appeared to be just another muddy potato was discovered to be a World War II-era hand grenade. "The guys were really calm and collected and they reacted in an extremely professional manner," Roland Spitaels, the factory's operations manager, told Stuff.co.nz. Police responded to the scene and subsequently called upon the New Zealand Defence Force's explosive ordnance disposal team, who removed the grenade from the facility; X-rays revealed it was a training version of a hand grenade, containing no explosives. Spitaels hopes the police will return the grenade to the company when their investigation is complete so it can be put on display in the factory's trophy room.

Now Hiring

Tired of mild winters and modern conveniences? Looking for a new gig? We know just the job for you! The U.K. Antarctic Heritage Trust charity is accepting applications for seasonal positions at its Port Lockroy base in Antarctica. The base is in need of personnel to take on several duties, including running a post office and monitoring penguins. Other open positions include base leader, shop manager and general assistant to work at the gift shop and post office from November 2022 to March 2023. The base was established in 1944 and is located on Goudier Island in the Palmer Archipelago, west of the Antarctic Peninsula. Besides average seasonal temperatures of -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) and minimal hours of darkness each day, living conditions for the workers will include limited power with no running water or internet access. Job seekers outside the U.K. can apply, but they must have the right to work in the U.K. The deadline for applications is 7:59 p.m. EDT on April 25.

This Couch Has a Lump

Alex Trejo, a reptile expert and owner of So-Cal Rattlesnake Removal, got more than he'd bargained for in a recent house call -- about 7 feet more. While most folks never find anything more interesting than spare change in their couch cushions, one Chula Vista resident found a snake: a 7-foot-long Vietnamese blue beauty rat snake, to be precise. "This guy calls me, is pretty frantic and he's like, 'There's a snake in my couch,'" Trejo told ABC 10 News in San Diego. Trejo said he was shocked to find such a beast in a sofa, calling it a "once in a lifetime snake rescue" in a Facebook post. The species is nonvenomous, is not native to the United States, and was apparently not interested in being captured: "He didn't (bite) my skin, but he actually got the lining of my shirt," Trejo said. The snake is in the care of a specialist, receiving treatment for a respiratory infection. The animal's owner has not yet been located.

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

COPYRIGHT 2022 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

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