News of the Weird: Week of Feb. 17, 2022

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Thanks for Nothing!

Catherine Graham of Marshfield, Massachusetts, recently cashed in on her 15 minutes of fame on "The Price Is Right" with host Drew Carey. She flew to Los Angeles to visit her daughter and attended a taping of the show, which aired on Feb. 1. As luck would have it, Graham ended up on stage with Carey and played for a great trip -- to New Hampshire! When Carey gushed, "New Hampshire is beautiful!" Graham replied, "Drew, I live in Boston! I've been to New Hampshire a million times!" But wait, there's more! In order to collect the prize roundtrip airfare, she'll have to travel to Los Angeles again to fly to Manchester, New Hampshire. "I just wish it was Tahiti ... or Bora Bora. A cruise around the world maybe," Graham told WBZ-TV. But, she said, "It was so fun."

Bright Idea

The Idaho Potato Commission has your last-minute Valentine's Day gift covered: The group is releasing a limited-edition fragrance, Frites by Idaho, made from distilled potatoes and essential oils, that is designed to smell like a fresh plate of french fries, United Press International reported. "The smell is too good to resist," said IPC president Jamey Higham. "This perfume is a great gift for anyone who can't refuse a french fry." And it's priced right, too, at $1.89 a bottle!

'Murica

Still need a Valentine's Day gift idea? Here you go: KFC is collaborating with Pillow Pets for the KFC Chicken Sandwich Snuggler, a giant cuddle-yummy you can wrap around your midsection before the carbs make it there. It's only $99.99, Canoe reported. "Enjoy a snuggle after sinking your teeth into a KFC Chicken Sandwich meal or spice up any room in your home (trust us, it's impossible to miss)," KFC crowed.

Respect for the Elderly

Richard Taylor, 28, began arguing with his grandmother on Feb. 1 because he wanted to buy a new bed, but apparently didn't have the funds to do so, KDKA Radio reported. So the Butler County, Pennsylvania, man broke into Margaret Taylor's bedroom, after she had locked it from inside, and forcibly stole her purse, then disconnected all the phones in the house and fled in a 2006 Ford Taurus -- presumably on his way to the mattress store. Grandma headed to the neighbor's home to call 911, and a warrant was issued for Richard's arrest for robbery, theft and harassment. How will he sleep at night? Oh yeah, new mattress.

Step Right Up

A "dedicated employee ... (who) enjoyed his job (and) was well-liked by the people he worked with" was charged on Feb. 9 in North Versailles, Pennsylvania, after he allegedly placed a hidden camera in a urinal at the North Versailles Police Department, WPXI-TV reported. John Logan, 49, a 911 operator, is accused of placing the camera in a single-user bathroom in a hallway that is off-limits to the public. Once the incident was reported, Logan allegedly went into the bathroom and removed the SD card from the camera; investigators searching Logan's home found flash drives with videos of officers exposed while using the bathroom. He was charged with invasion of privacy and tampering with physical evidence.

Great Art?

The Associated Press reported on Feb. 10 that a bored security guard at an art gallery in Ekaterinburg, Russia, lent his own artistic hand to an avant-garde painting by Anna Leporskaya, adding "eyes" to two of the three faces in the painting "Three Figures." The Yeltsin Center revealed that the vandalism occurred on Dec. 7, and the painting was returned to the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, which owns it, for restoration. The guard, who worked for a private company providing security, used a ballpoint pen to make the small circles. The unnamed guard could face up to three months in prison.

Least Competent Criminal

As over-the-road truckers protested COVID-related mandates in Canada's capital city, a 20-year-old Akron, Ohio, man wanted to get in on the action. So, on Feb. 7, he called in a bomb threat -- to the Putnam County Sheriff's Office, in Ottawa ... Ohio. The man said he was going to set off a bomb in Ottawa, then called back a second time and said he'd been shot, The Lima News reported. "When he found out he was talking to Ohio and not Canada, he said he hadn't been shot but was simply trying to waste (Canadian authorities') time and resources because he didn't agree with their mask mandate," said Sheriff's Office Cpt. Brad Brubaker. He also admitted there was no bomb. "You'd think with him being from Ohio, the 419 area code might have rung a bell," Brubaker added.

Inexplicable

On Feb. 6, a man in Raleigh, North Carolina, was stopped at a red light when the woman in the car next to him exited her car and approached his passenger window. She screamed at him, "Fix my car. Fix the problem," he reported to ABC11-TV. "Once I locked the car, she got more aggressive." The man wanted to drive away, but he was boxed in by cars. "Next thing I know, I seen the knife coming out -- the big machete knife -- she pulled it out from the sleeve" and started beating his passenger-side window with it. Eventually, she broke through the window. "I was just pressed against my driver-side seat ... until I could step on the gas," he said. When the light changed, he drove to a police station, where he filed a report. Raleigh police are investigating.

New World Order

An unnamed woman from Paterna, Spain, received a $570 fine in January for not picking up her dog's poop while she visited Benalmadena last August, Oddity Central reported. Aside from the irritation of the financial hit, how did they connect the dots ... er, drops? The notice included the street where the excrement was found and the date. Turns out, ADN Canino, a Spanish company that maintains a database of canine DNA, works with authorities all over the country -- mostly in the service of finding owners of lost dogs and preventing abuse, but now also tracking down offenders of poop-scooping laws. The woman in this case was quick to register her pet with ADN in case he was ever lost. Authorities in Benalmadena took samples and matched her dog -- and she's out $570.

The Neighbors

On Feb. 6, according to Kyong Moulton, 66, she returned to her home in Palm Bay, Florida, and found leaves on her lawn, ClickOrlando.com reported. Assuming the neighbors across the street had put them there, she fetched her leaf blower and blew them back over into their lawn. The man across the street and his mother went outside to confront Moulton, and his sister joined them. The arrest report said Moulton slapped the sister and stabbed her in the leg with a steak knife; as the man tried to help his sister, he was allegedly stabbed in the arm. Moulton also pushed the mother to the ground. Moulton denies stabbing anyone; surveillance video does not show a stabbing, and no knife was recovered. Nevertheless, Moulton was charged with two counts of aggravated battery and one count of battery on a person 65 or older.

Fine Points of the Law

In New York, as legislators work out the details of legalizing the sale of recreational marijuana, some businesses have been skirting the issue by making it a "gift with purchase" of other items. Since March, it's been legal for adults to have and "transfer" small amounts of marijuana for free. But now, according to Fox40-TV, the Office of Cannabis Management is cracking down. Jim McKenzie's Hempsol CBD shop in Rochester will comply, he said on Feb. 9, and stop offering a gift to customers who buy a T-shirt or other garment. "I'm going to do what the state wants because my goal is to have a state license and do it correctly," McKenzie said.

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