News of the Weird: Week of July 30, 2026

Expand

News of the Weird newspapers illustration

Doo the Dew

In his quest to retrieve a bottle of Mountain Dew, a Kansas City, Missouri, man fell into a portable restroom toilet tank and was stuck there for eight hours -- with the lid closed! -- before being rescued. According to Fox 4 News, on July 14, a driver with Patriot Portable Restrooms was trying to collect the structures that had been set up for a World Cup watch party when he encountered the trapped occupant. The driver flagged down a nearby police officer, who helped him unlock the door. "When we opened the door and didn't see anybody, we honestly thought we were talking to a ghost, and then his head popped up out of the tank like a game of whack-a-mole, or Oscar the Grouch coming out of his can," a company representative said. KCFD had to cut the man out of the toilet and then blasted him with the fire hose to rinse him off. "In the portable restroom business, you kind of expect the unexpected," the representative said. "But in six years, I never thought I'd find someone alive inside one of our units." [FOX4, 7/17/26]

In the Heights

In Wilmington, Illinois, a man was rescued after being stuck in a gas station sign for several hours on July 21. The man, a maintenance worker, used a special lift to get up to the 130-foot-tall sign to do some work on it. The lift, however, would not come down, leaving the man stranded until emergency personnel were able to procure a crane from nearby Joliet. ABC7 reported that the man appeared to be in good spirits and refused medical treatment. [ABC7, 7/21/26]

Clothing Optional

-- Witnesses in northeastern Colorado were met with a startling image on July 16 -- a man surfing a moving Union Pacific locomotive ... while in the buff. Daniel Ray Ballance of Arizona allegedly broke a window to get into the train and climbed to the top while it was moving, Fox News reported. Ballance faces misdemeanor and felony charges, and authorities have not released a motivation for Ballance's antics or whether anyone was injured in the process. "Daniel is spending some time at an all-expenses-paid stay in jail, where he is presumed innocent until proven guilty," the Sedgwick County Sherriff's Office said in a social media post. [Fox News, 7/18/26]

-- Authorities in Ellisville, Mississippi, are also stumped as to why Katelyn Maxwell, 22, was operating a vehicle -- in this case, a 2017 Dodge Challenger -- while wholly unclothed. The Smoking Gun reported that on July 12, Maxwell was pulled over during a traffic stop after officers observed the car driving erratically; police reported that she appeared to be inebriated and that the vehicle smelled strongly of pot. They also discovered five firearms and a bag of marijuana. Maxwell faces felony and misdemeanor charges and is in jail on a $35,000 bond. [The Smoking Gun, 7/17/26]

Eyewitness News

An Odessa, Texas, man is reeling after learning that the odor that had been emitting for weeks from a clothes donation box in his neighborhood belonged to a dead body. "I never knew where it came from, I just smelled it," Juan Enriquez said. "But I thought it was a trashcan, you know how it smells during the summertime." KOSA reported that police found the body on July 17 and are working to identify the deceased, but authorities say there is no evidence of foul play. [KOSA, 7/20/26]

Police Report

During a traffic stop, police in St. Petersburg, Florida, arrested the driver for a window tint violation ... and the passenger for several bags of fentanyl that kept falling from her person. The Smoking Gun reported on July 17 that when Yoneshe Smith, 26, stepped out of the passenger side of the car, officers noted baggies on the seat and near the ground. Then, while walking to the police van, another bag "fell from her buttocks area," according to the police report. But wait, there's more -- while Smith was being booked into custody, officers confiscated two more baggies "from the defendant's vaginal cavity ... and right breast area." Smith faces charges of drug trafficking and possession of a controlled substance in a detention facility. [The Smoking Gun, 7/17/26]

The Tech Revolution

Humanoid robot surgeons have successfully completed two gallbladder removals on large animals, paving the way for human surgeries to be performed by robots. Metro News UK reported on July 14 that engineers and surgeons at the University of California San Diego performed the procedures -- during one, a human surgeon was assisted by a robotic one, and in the other, two robot surgeons made up the surgical team. The humanlike robots are about 5 feet tall; they also weigh less and take up less space than current robotic surgery machines. "Remotely operated and autonomous humanoid robots have real potential for expanding access to critical surgeries that patients would otherwise not receive," Professor Michael Yip, one of the researchers, said. [Metro UK, 7/14/26]

Small World

It sounds like the plot of a psychological thriller: You go on vacation and stay at a rental where you've never been before. Inside, you admire a framed beach photo on the wall ... only to recognize yourself and several family members in the picture. That's what happened to Utah sisters Libby Birrell and Aubrey Birrell, who were visiting Oceanside, California, with extended family for their grandfather's 80th birthday, Fox News reported on July 18. "I will say we were creeped out," Aubrey, 26, said. "Did they know we were coming?" The sisters posted a video to social media, and the host informed them that the decorator of the rental is a local photographer who sells aerial beach prints to vacation rental hosts; when the sisters' video went viral, several commenters agreed that they had seen the same photo in different rentals. Judging by their swimsuit styles in the photo, the family believes the picture was snapped during a trip they took about 10 years ago to a nearby beach. Now the sisters find the incident funny and are working to obtain a print from the photographer. [Fox News, 7/18/26]

The Legend of Jimothy

A raccoon has become a viral sensation after videos of him scurrying around Seattle's Ballard neighborhood hit the internet this summer. However, this isn't your typical trash panda. On July 17, UPI reported that Seattle resident Kiana Hall spotted the critter, who has a hunched back and round form. "I got very confused at what I was seeing," Hall said. "I just have never seen any other animal like it." She even gave the creature -- who has drawn comparisons to mythical creatures like a cryptid or a yeti -- a name. "He looked like a Jimothy," Hall said. Marcie Logsdon, an associate professor at Washington State University's Veterinary Hospital, says Jimothy's unusual appearance could be related to a spinal deformity. Despite his appearance, he is actively moving around, and Logsdon says Jimothy appears to be otherwise healthy. [UPI, 7/17/2026]

Animal Antics 

The summer heat isn't only getting to the humans. Just ask Katie Cole. On July 16, KDVR reported that she found a black bear cooling off in her kiddie pool. While the pool is actually for her dogs, Cole said she was glad the bear had a chance to go for a dip and cool down since the weather in that area has been so hot and dry. Colorado Parks and Wildlife said that compared to last year, there have been 1,000 more bear sightings, which they attribute to drought. [KDVR, 7/17/2026]

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

COPYRIGHT 2023 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

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