News of the Weird newspapers illustration
Blitzed Buggy Bug-Out
A Trumbull County, Ohio, sheriff’s deputy pulled over a swerving Amish buggy on Donley Road early on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 15, after the officer noticed a few oddities about the vehicle. For one, there were two Amish men inside who were drinking, and on the buggy’s roof was a 12-pack of beer. And, according to Fox 8, the old-fashioned conveyance sported an unlikely modern convenience: A stereo system blasting music through its large speakers. As soon as the buggy came to a stop, the two men jumped out and escaped into heavy woods near the road. The officer was able to have the horse and buggy taken into police custody, but the driver and his passenger remained at large. The buggy “is a vehicle; it’s on the roadway, and the laws do apply,” said Chief Deputy Joe Dragovich. “You’re not allowed to drink and drive operating a horse and buggy.”
Titanic Tempest
The Tennessee Titans were all fired up for their NFL home opener on Sunday, Sept. 15, at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. Accordingly, so was some of their pyrotechnic equipment, which caught fire during player introductions, spreading flames and thick, black smoke near one end zone. According to Bleacher Report, no one was hurt, and flames were extinguished quickly. But the NFL, taking its usual proactive stance, placed a ban on “all flame effects and pyrotechnics used on its playing fields” until an investigation can be completed.
Mahomes Mayhem
Two football-crazed fans of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes couldn’t quite pull off a heist in Lawrence, Kan., on Monday, Sept. 16. Pulling up to a McDonald’s, the two ran inside, grabbed a life-size cardboard cutout of Mahomes and ran out, stuffing the promotional piece into their car. Lawrence Police spokesman Patrick Compton told the Lawrence Journal-World that, as they received the call about the theft, they were working a car crash nearby—in which one of the vehicles happened to have a life-sized Mahomes cutout in its back seat! Officers questioned the suspects and ordered them to appear for alleged theft.
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Another Ukrainian Scandal
Kristine, 45, and Michael, 43, Barnett of Lafayette, Ind., adopted a 6-year-old Ukrainian-born girl with dwarfism, Natalia, in 2010. Nine years later, much to their confusion, they are charged with abandoning her. Within their first few weeks as a family, the Barnetts noticed that Natalia seemed to be older than they had been told, with a sophisticated vocabulary, pubic hair and menstrual periods. A doctor ordered bone density tests to check her age, and results suggested she was at least 14, so her adoptive parents began to treat her more like a teenager. Then, Natalia began making death threats against them. At a psychiatric hospital where she was treated, she told doctors she was much older and wanted to kill her family. “She was standing over people in the middle of the night. We had to hide all the sharp objects,” Kristine Barnett told The Daily Mail. In 2012, they legally changed her age—from what would have been 8 to 22—and helped her get benefits so she could continue to receive psychiatric care. With Natalia living independently in an apartment, the Barnetts moved to Canada. But inexplicably, a second set of bone density tests allegedly performed in 2010 soon surfaced, arguing that Natalia was at that time just 8 years old, and she told police in 2014 that she had been “left alone” when her parents moved to Canada. Michael and Kristine Barnett surrendered to the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Department on Sept. 18 and 19, charged with abandonment of Natalia.
Paramedics 0 for 2
Paramedics responded to a home in Detroit on the evening of Saturday, Sept. 21, where a man was suffering from a heart attack. But as they worked on the victim, another man entered the residence with a woman, took her into a bedroom and stabbed her. He then ran out of the house and, according to Fox2, is still on the loose. The woman died at the scene, and the heart attack victim did not survive. Police are still trying to figure out the relationships between the three people.
© 2019 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
