News of the Weird: Week of June 8, 2023

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Compelling Explanation

When Ocala, Florida, police officers questioned 37-year-old Daniel Robert Dinkins about a nearby burglary on May 13, he responded, "That may have been me." Earlier, officers had been called to a home where someone had thrown a brick through a window where a baby was sleeping inside, then left a book on the front porch. Dinkins said he wanted to swim in the neighbors' backyard pool and "wanted to share the book with them," Ocala News reported. He also told police he was a "time traveler" and was trying to "save the baby from something way in the future when the child is much older." Strangely, Dinkins said he wasn't aware there was a baby sleeping inside. He faces a felony burglary charge.

Government in Action

A central India food inspector, Rajesh Vishwas, lost more than his phone on May 21, NBC News reported. While snapping a vacation selfie at Kherkatta Dam, Vishwas dropped his phone into the water. According to him, his device contained sensitive governmental information, so he ordered the reservoir to be drained. Vishwas said he got permission from R.C. Dhivar, a local water resources official, but Dhivar argued that he'd given permission to drain only 3 or 4 feet of water. Instead, "They had emptied the water up to 10 feet." It took three days to drain the 530,000 gallons of water, but in the end, it was all for naught: Vishwas' phone was unusable. As was he: He was suspended from his job pending an investigation.

That Rule Doesn't Apply to Me

An unnamed woman in Tacoma, Washington, was arrested and detained in a negative pressure room at the Pierce County jail on June 1 after refusing for more than a year to get treatment for tuberculosis, KOMO-TV reported. A judge issued 17 orders for her to be involuntarily detained before police caught up with her. "We believe she was trying to avoid being captured," said Sgt. Darren Moss. Officers surveilled her while she was still at home and observed her riding a city bus to a casino. "The health department had asked her to just do it on her own ... now she's going to have to do it in our facility, unfortunately," Moss said. He said TB was once common in the jail, hence the negative pressure rooms, which "isolate the air within the room so it doesn't infect the rest of the rooms within the facility."

Rude

New York attorney Anthony Orlich is probably tearing his hair out in the wake of an incident in late May, the New York Post reported. Orlich allegedly snatched the wig off the head of Brooklyn singer Lizzy Ashleigh while walking along a city street at night; Ashleigh captured the aftermath on her cellphone and posted a video to TikTok, which garnered hundreds of thousands of views. In the video, Ashleigh yells at Orlich: "Sir! For what reason did you take my wig off? What makes you think that that's OK?" Orlich refused to apologize, even with his friends encouraging him to. Ashleigh has said she plans to take legal action, but Orlich is already in trouble: His firm, Leader Berkon Colao & Silverstein LLP, has fired him, according to a LinkedIn post.

Cheesy

Delaney Irving, 19, of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, said of her May 28 victory in a cheese-rolling contest in Gloucester, England: "It feels great!" That's in spite of the fact that she woke up in the medical tent after taking a fall and hitting her head, The Guardian reported. "I remember running, then bumping my head ... I still don't really believe it," she said. The contest involves rolling a 7-pound wheel of cheese down the almost-vertical Coopers Hill, and Irving wasn't the only contestant who lost their footing.

Lucky!

A piglet got a second chance at life on May 25, according to KVVU-TV. As Lars Gradel, Rebecca Zajac and her son, Colton, drove along the interstate that day near Las Vegas, they witnessed a baby pig as it was thrown from a truck. "We saw a pig fly out the side of the truck, and he tumbled about 10, 15 times down the side of the freeway," Gradel said. They stopped to rescue the pig, who didn't seem to be hurt. "Lucky," as he was named, was given a new home at the All Friends Animal Sanctuary, where he'll eventually meet fellow porcine Mister Picklesworth. "Now Lucky's going to be wallowing in mud and rooting around in the ground and ... eating watermelon and popsicles in the summer," said sanctuary founder Tara Pike.

Fixer-Uppers

• Looking for a bargain home in Burbank, Oklahoma? "Bargain," as in: more than 17,000 square feet for only $60,000. United Press International reported on May 30 that the former Burbank High School is on the market and listed as a single-family home. The building, constructed in 1924, features five "bedrooms," four bathrooms and an indoor basketball court, along with an auditorium. The school closed in 1968, and conditions are pretty rough inside. "There is plenty of opportunity to make this property your own," the listing promises.
• Meanwhile, in Fort Meade, Maryland, high school seniors listed their school building on Zillow as a graduation prank, United Press International reported. They described the 12,000-square-foot school as a "half-working jail": "All 15 bathrooms come with sewage issues ... (and) trash-scented air freshener and water issues!" The listing was removed several hours after appearing, said Bob Mosier, spokesperson for the Anne Arundel County Public Schools.

Bright Idea

Coffee Smile, a cafe chain in Russia, knows how to milk social media. Owner Maxim Kobelev put up posters in his stores in May that announced plans to start offering human breast milk in their lattes and cappuccinos. Oddity Central reported that Kobelev claimed to have contracted with lactating mothers whose milk is tested for safety. "The child eats just a little," one supplier said in a promotional video, "so I thought, why not earn extra money? I even made coffee with my breast milk for my husband; he liked it." Turns out, it's all an attention-seeking hoax. "There were many of my friends who wanted to try this coffee," Kobelev said. "For them, I prepared a drink with a mixture of goat and almond milk. The taste is very similar -- I know this because, as the father of two children, I also tasted the real thing."

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

At Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, riders of the Silver Bullet roller coaster were rudely interrupted in their fun on May 26 when one passenger "indicated they wanted to get off the attraction," Fox News reported. The unnamed guest signaled their need to bail right after leaving the station. Operators stopped the ride, and all guests had to be evacuated, the park said, "following standard exit procedure." The roller coaster resumed operation about 30 minutes later.

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