News of the Weird: Week of Februrary 9, 2023

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Awesome!

Jean Merritt of Philadelphia has a special knack for spreading goodwill. She writes letters. According to Philadelphia magazine, Merritt solicits mailing addresses and then responds with a handwritten ("in meticulous cursive") letter on captivating stationery. Her missive to reporter Victor Fiorillo mentioned that she has an overabundance of writing papers and postcards. "I've been writing letters since I was a little girl, and never stopped," Merritt said. Along with requested letters, she writes to people in nursing homes through Letters Against Isolation and to people in prisons. "My mother collected stationery, and I'm still using the stationery I found in her house when she died in 2011. ... I see stationery on clearance, and I can't resist it." Sadly, she said most people don't write her back. But, she noted, "Doing this is also just really good for my brain."

Inexplicable

• During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when students in Harvey (Illinois) School District 152 were learning remotely, the district provided meals that families could pick up. According to WGN-TV, food service worker Vera Liddell, 66, allegedly helped herself to some of that food -- to be specific, 11,000 cases of chicken wings. Liddell worked for the district for more than a decade. A business manager uncovered the plot during a routine audit, finding "individual invoices signed by Liddell for massive quantities of chicken wings, an item that was never served to students because they contain bones," prosecutors said. Liddell would place the orders, then pick up the food in a district van. They didn't reveal what Liddell did with the $1.5 million worth of wings. She was charged with theft.
• An unnamed 27-year-old man was arrested on Jan. 27 in Seattle after a homeowner returned to her house to find him in her bathroom, filling the tub with water. KOMO-TV reported that when police arrived, they discovered a smashed window and the burglar inside, "clothed but very wet, and the bathtub was full of water," reports said. The intruder would not provide a motive for his strange break-in and was charged with residential burglary.

Suspicions Confirmed

Varsity basketball coach Jahmal Street and assistant coach Arlisha Boykins were fired from their positions at Churchland High School in Portsmouth, Virginia, after Boykins, 22, came off the bench as a sub in a Jan. 21 girls' JV game, The Washington Post reported. The girl who was unavailable for the game was 13 years old. As a result of the incident, the team's remaining games were canceled. Churchland investigated and held meetings with players and parents. "Coaches always preach to kids about integrity ... so I was just shocked," the father of the absent player said. He said his daughter will not attend Churchland next year.

Unclear on the Concept

Musa Hasahya Kasera, 68, has a problem, but he admits it stems from his own irresponsibility, Yahoo! News reported. The eastern Ugandan man has 12 wives, 102 children and 578 grandchildren. "At first it was a joke," he said, "but now this has its problems. ... Two of my wives left because I could not afford the basics like food, education, clothing." Most of the family live in a house with a rusting corrugated iron roof on a mere 2 acres of land. "I can only remember the name of my first and the last born, but some of the children, I can't recall their names," Kasera lamented. Now his wives are using contraception; "I have learnt from my irresponsible act of producing so many children that I can't look after," he said. Horse, meet barn door.

Americans Abroad

• American animal rights activist Alicia Day, 34, was arrested in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 1, according to Reuters, after she paraded a calf through Red Square, shouting "Animals are not food!" In a Russian court, she was fined 20,000 rubles ($285) and sentenced to 13 days of "administrative arrest." Although Day is in Russia on a tourist visa, she explained in court that she had a driver bring the calf to Red Square so she could "show it a beautiful place in our beautiful country."
• A 34-year-old California man was arrested in Florence, Italy, on Jan. 26 after he drove his rented Fiat onto the Ponte Vecchio, a stone bridge dating from 1345 that spans the Arno River and is now a pedestrian walkway and shopping destination. SF Gate reported that the unnamed driver told police he couldn't find parking and didn't realize he was on the historic bridge. He was fined about 500 euros.

Awwwwww

The Rhode Island Department of Health played along with the Cumberland, Rhode Island, police department after it received a request from a little girl for DNA testing on a partially eaten cookie and some gnawed-on carrot sticks, the Associated Press reported. She was hoping for a conclusive match for Santa Claus, but alas, the department said it was unable to "definitively confirm or refute the presence of Santa" in her home. However, it did find DNA closely matching Rangifer tarandus, or reindeer, on the carrots.

Police Report

Murphy the ape statue was an "icon" at Design Emporium Antiques in Kensington, Maryland -- until he was stolen in the wee hours of Jan. 4, the New York Post reported. Murphy, made of cast iron and weighing 200 pounds, was hurriedly loaded into the bed of an "older model Chevrolet Colorado Z71," authorities said, as seen on a surveillance video. The suspect "pulled right up and had the bolt cutters ready" to cut the cable securing the sculpture. Shop owner Kristina Jamgochian said people would take selfies with Murphy. "It's my business and I feel violated," she said. A $10,000 reward awaits anyone who helps recover the gorilla.

Oops!

• A 66-year-old female patient at the Glen Oaks Alzheimer's Special Care Center in Urbandale, Iowa, had suffered a slow decline and was moved into hospice care in late December. On Jan. 3, CBS News reported, the woman was pronounced dead, and the funeral home was called. She was placed in a body bag and transported to the Ankeny Funeral Home and Crematory, where workers unzipped the bag and got a shock: They "observed (the resident's) chest moving and she gasped for air," a report from the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals detailed. Responding EMS workers were able to get a pulse and monitor breathing, but she had no eye movement or verbal response. She was returned to the care facility, where she died two days later with her family at her side. The home is facing $10,000 in fines.
• In New York City, last week included the unveiling of the Long Island Railroad's new Grand Central Madison terminal, which was built to the tune of $11 billion. But, NBC New York reported on Feb. 1, the new facility is marred by a spelling mistake -- etched in stone. A carved quote from artist Georgia O'Keeffe sports a misspelling of her name, with only one F. "We clearly F-ed this one up and it's being fixed," said MTA Communications Director Tim Minton. However, he couldn't say when the edit would be complete.

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