News of the Weird: Week of April 25, 2024

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Compelling Explanation

Larry Doil Sanders, 55, of Allen, Oklahoma, was convicted on April 17 of first-degree murder in the killing of his friend, Jimmy Glenn Knighten, 52, in July 2022. The Ada News reported that Sanders and Knighten were fishing together when Sanders believed he saw three sasquatch-looking figures near the river. After strangling Knighten, who he thought had been acting suspiciously, Sanders told relatives that he believed Knighten was trying to summon the sasquatches so they could feast on Sanders, and he killed Knighten in self-defense. Witnesses said Sanders is a regular user of methamphetamine, which ramps up his Bigfoot rhetoric. His defense was that having used meth three or four days before the murder, he was in a drug-induced psychosis. He'll be sentenced in June.

Animals Going Rogue

              -- Butte, Montana, residents -- no strangers to big animals -- got a surprise on the morning of April 16 when they spotted an elephant strolling down Harrison Avenue, NBC Montana reported. "Pretty exciting," said Josh Hannifin, co-manager of the Civic Center Town Pump. "Man, they move fast when they just walk." The Jordan World Circus was in town, and surveillance cameras caught Viola escaping from her pen after being startled by a car backfiring during her bath time. Handlers were able to catch Viola with no trouble after about 20 minutes.

              -- Suburban residents in Cape Town, South Africa, had a close encounter with a hippopotamus in the wee hours of April 14, Independent Online reported. The hippo broke through a fence at the Rondevlei Nature Reserve after getting into a scuffle with a dominant male there. Resident Ashraff Schwartz said that when police cornered the animal, it ran into his yard. "My 74-year-old mom watched ... as the hippo came straight for our door. It then turned around and ran up the road, but before then, it broke my wall as it jumped over it." While no one was hurt in the incident, hippos "are responsible for more human fatalities in Africa than any other large animal," the Cape of Good Hope SPCA Wildlife Department noted.

Suspicions Confirmed

NASA revealed on April 17 that the object that crashed through the roof of a home in Naples, Florida, was indeed space trash -- specifically, garbage jettisoned from the International Space Station in March 2021. United Press International reported that on March 8, a 1.6-pound, 4-inch-long cylindrical object came through Alejandro Otero's roof. NASA said the object was what remained of a 5,800-pound pallet of depleted nickel hydride batteries. "The hardware was expected to fully burn up during entry into the Earth's atmosphere," NASA said. "However, a piece of hardware survived reentry."

It's a Mystery

              -- A 19th-century fortress in Antwerp, Belgium, undergoing archaeological excavation turned up a mysterious finding: a British train car from around 1930. United Press International reported on April 16 that the wooden London North Eastern Railway car was originally used for "removals" -- moving property from one residence to another. "It's a mystery as to how the carriage came to be in Antwerp," said consultant archaeologist Femke Martens. "Unfortunately there's very little left of the relic as it disintegrated while being excavated."

              -- Jessica Daley, a toll worker along the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey, called in sick to work on April 12 because she had "a gut feeling that something was going to happen. Like something terrible was going to happen," she said. She felt the premonition was about a car accident, NBC New York reported. Sure enough, about four hours later, a garbage collector's truck slammed into a tollbooth -- the one Daley is usually in, she said. The toll collector and truck driver both suffered serious injuries. "I dropped to my knees and just started crying," she said. "I was praying for everybody involved." She was back at work the next day.

Crime Report

On April 9, investigators caught their targets in a puzzling money-making scheme in Rochelle Park, New Jersey. NBC New York reported that Detective Nick Mercoun and his partner arrested 77-year-old Alfredo Rodriguez and 54-year-old Hector Cortes, whom they dubbed the Shopping Cart Bandits. The two had stolen at least 140 carts from the ShopRite grocery, which Mercoun believes they were selling for about $200 wholesale. "It was about $28,000 worth of shopping carts," he said. The Food Marketing Institute estimates that 2 million shopping carts are stolen each year. Who knew? Rodriguez and Cortes are rolling along at the Bergen County Jail.

Haute Couture

It wasn't an April Fools' joke: Independent Online reported on April 1 that fashion house Balenciaga has introduced a clear plastic bracelet that resembles a roll of packing tape, to the tune of about $3,000. The "Gaffer Bangle" includes an inside label that reads "Balenciaga Adhesive -- Made in France." The company reportedly unveiled the bracelet at Paris Fashion Week, and reviews are sticky: One Reddit commenter noted, "When will people learn Balenciaga's schtick is to generally make a fool of its consumers?" Another said, "Rich people want to feel poor so bad."

Parenting Goals

Lakesha Woods Williams, 29, was arrested on a felony child abandonment count in Houston after leaving her 8- and 6-year-old children home alone while she went on a cruise, The Smoking Gun reported. Neighbors saw her leaving her luxury apartment on April 4 with "luggage and bags" and didn't see her return. When police were summoned on April 9, they found the two children in the apartment, which was "in complete disarray and had trash and leftover food all over the unit." The kids said their mom was on a cruise and they didn't know when she would be back. Officers found a webcam that Williams was using to "watch and talk to the children." When she appeared in court on April 12, the judge noted that witnesses had said it was "not the first time something like this has occurred." The kids are with their aunt while Williams is held in jail.

Mistaken Identity

A man with the Facebook name Grampian Stormtrooper was on his way to a DeeCon on April 6 at the University of Dundee in Scotland when the train suddenly stopped shortly after leaving Aberdeen station, Fox News reported. A guard approached Grampian, who was in full stormtrooper gear, and asked about his blaster. "Apparently someone reported it to the police," Grampian posted on Facebook. "Met by two firearms officers." Grampian was removed from the train, asked to return home and get a bag for the blaster and instructed not to wear his stormtrooper armor on the train. "Crazy world we live in," he noted.

Irony

Things got a little heated at the Good Will Fire Co. Station 69A in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, on April 18, WFMZ-TV reported. The cabin of a fire engine parked in the station caught fire. Crews were able to extinguish the fire quickly, but smoke damaged two ambulances, a fire rehab unit and the truck bays. One firefighter was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Pottstown fire officials are investigating the cause of the blaze.

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