News of the Weird: Week of June 12, 2025

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Wait, What?

Turkmenistan's top tourist attraction is the Gateway to Hell, a huge gas leak that has been burning since 1971 in the Karakum Desert, Yahoo! News reported on June 5. The fire started when Soviet scientists accidentally drilled into an underground pocket of gas and then ignited it, starting a blaze that could be seen from several kilometers away. Officials announced this week that the fire has been reduced three-fold. "Today only a faint source of combustion remains," said Irina Luryeva, a director at the state-owned energy company Turkmengaz. Wells have been drilled around the site to capture the methane from the leak, she said.

Great Art

Amsterdam has out-Amsterdammed itself with a new exhibit at the Rijksmuseum, the Associated Press reported on June 3. As part of an exhibition called "Safe Sex?" the museum is displaying a condom from 1830 that is enhanced with erotic art. The prophylactic is made from a sheep's appendix and, the museum says, "depicts both the playful and the serious side of sexual health" with its image of a nun and three clergymen. The phrase "This is my choice" is written in French along its length, which may refer to the Renoir painting "The Judgment of Paris." Historians believe the condom might be a souvenir from a brothel. You can see it until the end of November.

Saw That Coming

After performers debuted "Westphalia Side Story" on Paterborn Cathedral's altar in Berlin, Germany, on May 15, more than 22,000 people signed a petition demanding that the archbishop apologize and reconsecrate the cathedral. The Associated Press reported that the production included a song and dance which featured two shirtless men and one woman displaying raw, plucked chickens wearing diapers while singing "Fleish ist Fleish" ("Meat is Meat"). The song was part of a larger production celebrating the 1,250th anniversary of Westphalia, Germany, a region in the country's northwest. The finished show will premiere in September.

Least Competent Criminal

Richard Pruneda, 42, of Edinburg, Texas, managed to get himself arrested twice over the Memorial Day holiday in Eddyville, Kentucky, the West Kentucky Star reported. The Lyon County Sheriff was called on May 25 to a business where Pruneda was allegedly intoxicated and making "alarming" statements to an employee. The next day, after bonding out of jail, Pruneda called the sheriff's office to ask about retrieving personal items from his impounded car. When the officer picked up and inventoried the items, he found cocaine in the trunk. Eddyville Police assisted as they went to Pruneda's motel and arrested him for a second time.

Florida

No Longer Weird: alligators in Florida. BUT this story caught our eye: Not one but two motorcyclists were injured on May 31 in Volusia County, Florida, after they hit an alligator crossing I-4, WFOL-TV reported. Cameron Gilmore, 67, said he and Brandi Goss, 25, were riding with a larger group when he saw a "big blob in the road." Goss elaborated: "I just seen something and ... it was too late," she said. Goss sustained a concussion and cracked wrist bone; Gilmore had a broken foot and toes. The alligator's fate is unknown.

Animal Antics

A 30-year-old elephant named Plai Biang Lek escaped Khao Yai National Park and went shopping on June 2 in Bangkok, Thailand, the Associated Press reported. The enormous male pachyderm ducked through the door of a grocery store and helped himself to snacks while park workers tried to shoo him out. When he was ready to go, he backed out the door, still holding a bag of treats with his trunk. The only damage to the shop was mud tracks on the floor and ceiling. Kamploy Kakaew, the owner, said he ate nine bags of sweet rice crackers, a sandwich and some dried bananas. This isn't his first offense: He's been known to enter homes in search of food.

The Continuing Crisis

The Montclair Elementary School in Oakland, California, is celebrating 100 years, and as such, the school's PTA historian dug back into the archives to find historical items for the 2025 yearbook. But, as ABC7-TV reported, she might have been a little lax in her editing. One photo in the yearbook distributed to kindergartners through fifth graders shows a picture from the 1940 carnival, held annually at the school. "Boy and Girl Scouts will have charge of booths and many attractions," read the caption, before providing one example: a game named after a racial slur. What?! Principal David Kloker sent an apology to families and suggested parents remove that page or put a sticker, supplied by the school, over the photo. The historian explained that she "made the critical error of only reading the first paragraph before including it." The PTA will offer refunds for the yearbook to families. The historian said she will pass the baton to another volunteer for next year.

Bright Idea

Here's one way to disrupt government: At a Mecklenburg County (North Carolina) commission meeting on June 3, a protester released an "unknown" number of crickets, WBTV reported. "She dropped something from the balcony," one commissioner said. Crickets were "everywhere on the walls, on the stairs" and "in the balcony," commissioners said. Board chair Mark Jerrell stopped the meeting, saying, "It's shameful. Shameful. You can leave, thank you very much, we appreciate it." After protesters were removed, the meeting continued, but commissioners were forced to take a 10-minute recess so the environmental services staff could come in and vacuum up the critters. Jerrell said the commission was familiar with the protesters but that they lost all credibility with the stunt.

Weird in the Wild

On May 29 at Wekiva Island, Florida, one man was transported to the hospital after suffering a bite from ... nope, not an alligator, but rather an "aggressive" otter. WSVN-TV reported that after biting the victim, the otter ran off, and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers couldn't find it. Megan Stolen, a senior scientist at the Blue World Research Institute, advised area residents to keep their distance. She said the otter may have felt the person was too close, or it could be suffering from rabies, which makes them more aggressive.

News That Sounds Like a Joke

Police in Jacksonville, Florida, are looking for a suspect who "fondled" a $650 ferret for some time at a Petland store, then shoved the animal down his shorts and walked out. The Smoking Gun reported that on May 27, the man "browsed the ferret section of the store" before he left, holding "the crotch area of his shorts to support the ferret." A Petland manager tried to chase him but couldn't get the license plate number of the van he was driving.

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