News of the Weird newspapers illustration
Easter Bunny on the Lam
The news on Easter was full of videos of the man in a bunny costume involved in a brawl in Orlando, Fla., who claimed innocence by saying he was defending a woman who had been spit on. “I am the type of person who avoids fights by any means necessary, but in that situation, I would fight any day,” 20-year-old Antoine McDonald told the media. But the Tampa Bay Times reports McDonald has a rap sheet that belies this chivalrous image. The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office said McDonald is wanted in New Jersey in connection with a vehicle burglary and was a person of interest in a carjacking and two armed robberies in Florida. Police in Dover, Del., report arresting McDonald for two armed robberies there in 2017. No arrests were made in the Orlando incident.
Science: 1 Religion: 0
Over Easter weekend, hundreds of people visited a gum tree in a suburb of Perth, Australia, after the tree appeared to start “weeping” on Good Friday, which the faithful took to be a “divine” sign. For three days, the tree continued to leak water from a branch stump, provoking people to drink the “holy” water and bathe in it. “What made it exciting yesterday, a man decided to take all his clothes off and have a shower,” remarked neighbor Jacqui Bacich to 9News. The religious excitement died down after the Water Corporation discovered the tree’s naturally growing roots had simply wrapped themselves around a cracked iron water pipe about a foot underground, leaking water had slowly begun to fill a hollow part of the trunk.
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Femur Fetishist
In St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, Lucas Dawe, 20, appeared in court on April 11 to face charges of possessing stolen skeletal remains. According to court documents reported by The Chronicle Herald, Dawe is suspected of stealing a skeleton, estimated to be more than 100 years old, from the All Saints Parish cemetery. The skeleton was found along a walking trail on April 6, and police were led to Dawe after an anonymous witness reported seeing him licking the bones. He was also charged with interfering with human remains, after he was accused of boiling the bones and drinking the water.
How About ‘Hitler Heights’?
Residents of a particular neighborhood in the Denver suburb of Cherry Hills Village may not have ever known the name of their subdivision: It didn’t appear on signs but could be found in the fine print of real estate documents. Nonetheless, the Cherry Hills Village City Council voted unanimously on April 16 to change the neighborhood’s name from its historic name—Swastika Acres—to Old Cherry Hills. Councilman Dan Sheldon explained that the name came from the Denver Land Swastika Co., which divided the land into plots in the early 20th century, before the Nazis appropriated the symbol: “There was nothing wrong with (the name) at that time,” Sheldon told KDVR-TV.
I’ll Have the Alpaca Asti, Please
In College Station, Texas, the Peach Creek Vineyard is trying out a new concept for its wine-tasting events: wine with alpacas. Teaming up with the Bluebonnet Hills Alpaca Ranch, the vineyard offers customers the chance to pet and take selfies with alpacas while sipping wine and shopping for yarn, wool or clothing. “In 24 hours, we were sold out,” vineyard owner Kenneth Stolpman told KTRK-TV. One event sold out so quickly that Stolpman had to turn away more than 1,000 people.
Doing the Walmart Waltz
At a Rotterdam, N.Y., Walmart, two men pulled off a well-choreographed scam on April 13 that cost the store $2,000. The men purchased three laptops, for which they paid cash, according to The Daily Gazette. But after the cashier counted the money, one man asked for it back, saying he wanted to make sure he hadn’t paid too much. The other man then started dancing around the checkout area as a distraction. The thief with the money gave some of it back to the cashier, but pocketed the rest, and the clerk did not recount the cash. Police are still looking for the suspects, who were captured on surveillance video.
© 2019 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
