strange stuff

From strange crimes to strange celebrity deaths, read all of the latest weird and strange stuff news stories on Newser.com

Stories 1601 - 1620 | << Prev   Next >>

They Found $2M in Gold ... in Sewage

And that's just the annual amount discarded in Switzerland

(Newser) - There's more than cash going down the drain in Switzerland. About $2 million in gold and $1.8 million in silver ends up in Switzerland's sewers each year, according to an environmental study commissioned by the Swiss government. Strange as it sounds, researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute...

Couple Sues Neighbors Over Lookalike Home
Couple Says
Neighbors Copied
Their House
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 8, 2017 9:47 AM CDT

Couple Says Neighbors Copied Their House

$2.5M lawsuit was ultimately settled out of court

(Newser) - A Toronto couple says their multimillion-dollar home is "one of the most well-known and admired houses" in their neighborhood due to its "uniqueness," so they were quite upset when another house in the neighborhood was suddenly renovated to look "strikingly similar" to theirs. Jason and Jodi...

Sick of Pumpkin Spice Everything? This School Literally Is, Too

School evacuated due to strong smell from air freshener; 5 sent to hospital with stomach upset

(Newser) - An unusual smell prompted an evacuation and a hazardous materials response at a Baltimore high school Thursday afternoon, the AP reports. But after five people were taken to the hospital complaining of upset stomachs, fire officials discovered the source of the smell: a pumpkin spice air freshener. Cristo Rey Jesuit...

Couple Rescued After Driving Into Atlantic Ocean

That's a really bad wrong turn

(Newser) - Maine firefighters say they had to rescue a New York couple who took a wrong turn and mistakenly drove into the Atlantic Ocean, the AP reports. WMTW-TV reports firefighters were called to the docks in Tremont around 8pm Tuesday after there were reports of two people trapped in a car...

Donkey Chomps $200K Sports Car, Must Pay Up
Donkey Picks
Wrong Car to Bite
Sep 28, 2017 2:18 PM CDT

Donkey Picks Wrong Car to Bite

Damage to $200K McClaren costs the animal's owners $6.8K

(Newser) - A German court has ordered a donkey's owners to pony up $6,800 to the driver of a pricey McLaren sports car to cover damage caused when the animal chomped the backside of the vehicle, per the AP . Police said that Vitus the donkey may have mistaken the orange...

Arrest in 'Killer Clown' Murder, 27 Years Later

New wife of victim's husband was suspect almost from day one

(Newser) - On May 26, 1990, Marlene Warren answered the front door of her Florida home to see a woman wearing a clown costume, complete with wig and bulb nose, and carrying flowers and balloons—one of which said "You're the greatest!" The clown-costumed woman shot Warren in the...

He 'Lost' a Toy When He Was 7. 40 Years Later, It's Found

Playmobil cone sat in man's lung for decades, until docs extracted it

(Newser) - For more than a year, he had a nagging cough. Finally, the 47-year-old from the UK went to a clinic—and got the surprise of his life. The BBC reports that X-rays showed a spot on the man's lung, but it wasn't a tumor. It was a "...

Saudi Textbook Shows Yoda at UN Charter Signing

Several officials fired over photo error

(Newser) - Royally messed up, they did. A senior education official and others in Saudi Arabia have been fired after a government textbook included a photo of King Faisal seated next to Yoda, everyone's favorite Jedi Master from Star Wars. The doctored black-and-white photo showing Yoda on King Faisal's right...

NY Has Corny Salute to Women's Suffrage

3-acre corn maze honors native Susan B. Anthony

(Newser) - An upstate New York farm is marking the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in the state in distinctly fall fashion, with a corn maze in the shape of Susan B. Anthony. Stokoe Farms' owner Suzanne Stokoe says she wanted to honor one of Rochester's most famous citizens with...

California TV Viewers Get Creepy Warning

'Extremely violent times will come'

(Newser) - Some television viewers in southern California were startled when an apocalyptic emergency alert flashed on their screens, per the AP . The Orange County Register reports that a Lake Forest woman was watching HGTV on her Cox Communications cable service on Thursday when the words "emergency alert" came on the...

Deadly Insomnia a Devastating 'Family Curse'

One woman with FFI gene mutation hopes to find a cure

(Newser) - In 2010, Sonia Vallabh noticed her mother acting oddly. "She was fitful and couldn't really tell you if she'd been awake or asleep," Vallabh tells CNN . Soon, the 52-year-old couldn't recognize her daughter and would spasm and speak in tongues. Upon her death months later,...

6 Women Accidentally Wear Identical Dresses to Wedding

'No we are NOT the bridesmaids'

(Newser) - Debbie Speranza was surprised when she met up with her cousin at a Sydney wedding reception recently and they were wearing the same dress. But both women were even more surprised when they kept bumping into other women also in the same dress—a total of six women at the...

Toilet Clogs in Geneva Had Unlikely Source

$120K in 500-euro bills found in 4 toilets in May

(Newser) - Some $120,000 has gone down the drain in Switzerland—literally. Prosecutors say 500-euro bank notes were found stuffed in a toilet serving a vault containing safe deposit boxes at Geneva's USB bank back in May, per Bloomberg . A few days later, per Reuters , 500-euro notes, which "had...

SUV Picks Up Odd Hitchhiker
SUV Picks Up Odd Hitchhiker
Sep 17, 2017 8:03 AM CDT

SUV Picks Up Odd Hitchhiker

Australian koala goes for a ride in the wheel well of vehicle

(Newser) - For a stowaway who made a 10-mile journey squeezed in the wheel well, a koala was lucky to escape with just scratches. The driver of the four-wheel vehicle was unaware of the extra passenger until they arrived at their destination in the outskirts of Adelaide, Australia, and he heard some...

Irma's 'Chainsaw Sister' Had to Google Instructions

Sister Margaret Ann of Miami has become an internet sensation

(Newser) - The Florida nun who became an internet sensation when video emerged of her—dressed in full habit—wielding a chainsaw to clear downed trees after Hurricane Irma says she had to look up instructions on how to start the tool. "I actually had to Google it to find out...

Museum Wants to Display Glob of Congealed Grossness

We are speaking, of course, of the fatberg

(Newser) - Congealed wet wipes, diapers, fat, and oil—not exactly what you'd expect to see behind glass at the Museum of London. But if the museum has its way, that's what will come to pass. The city is in the midst of a three-week "sewer war" against a...

London Officials Battling 'Total Monster' in Sewer

A 143-ton 'fatberg' isn't proving easy to deconstruct

(Newser) - British engineers say they've launched a "sewer war" against a giant blob clogging London's sewers, reports the AP . Thames Water officials said Tuesday it will likely take three weeks to dissolve the outsize "fatberg." They caution against expecting quick results as the fatberg is 275...

Meet Harry Potter and the Philosophy Class

St. Cloud University offering class focused on the boy wizard

(Newser) - A Minnesota university is mixing the magical world of Harry Potter into philosophy teachings. St. Cloud State University professor Carolyn Hartz is applying Aristotle's work on friendship to character relationships in JK Rowling's books about the boy wizard, the St. Cloud Times reports. The class discusses ethics, logic,...

Oregon Town Has Seen the Enemy, and They Are Turkeys

Pilot Rock is being overrun and seeks advice from the state

(Newser) - A small Oregon municipality is asking the state for advice on how to handle a flock of wild turkeys that are ruining gardens and leaving droppings just about everywhere, per the AP . Officials in Pilot Rock, a city of 1,500 people about 230 miles east of Portland, say dozens...

7 Bizarre New Guinness Records
7 Bizarre New
Guinness Records
Sep 8, 2017 9:40 AM CDT

7 Bizarre New Guinness Records

One involves 17,994 coats of paint on a baseball

(Newser) - Ekaterina Lisina's legs are as long as some people are tall. They've also propelled the model to newfound fame. Lisina has nabbed not one but two new Guinness World Records as the world's tallest professional model (at 6 feet, 8.77 inches) and woman with the longest...

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