strange stuff

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

Stories 1941 - 1960 | << Prev   Next >>

Man Drives 65 Miles With Landmine Buckled Into Passenger Seat

He thought it was a cannonball

(Newser) - Police in Hot Springs, Arkansas, evacuated about 20 homes after a man mistook a Civil War-era landmine for a cannonball and took it home this week. The US Air Force Bomb Squad has safely detonated the landmine, the AP reports. Matt Bell says he was doing excavation work when he...

Royal Caribbean Asks 'Boaty McBoatface' Guy to Help Name Ship

He's offered a cruise as publicity stunt

(Newser) - Royal Caribbean has crowdsourced the public before to help it name its cruise ships, but it's tapping into a rather unusual source this time around: the guy who came up with "Boaty McBoatface." The company invited British bloke James Hand—whose "whimsical moniker," as a...

It's Never Hit 70 in Alaska in March— Until Now

71 degrees, actually, thanks to a high-pressure air mass coming through

(Newser) - Alaska has experienced some unusual natural phenomena lately—including a burping volcano and a desperate need for snow —and it just took another turn into some more weather-related weirdness. Per the Alaska Dispatch News , the mercury at an airport in Southeast Alaska registered at 71 degrees on Thursday, which...

Rumor Mill: Rupert Murdoch’s Ex Dating Putin

Wendi Deng said to be 'serious' about Russian leader, per very loose rumor

(Newser) - It's maybe not the "who's dating who" news any of us expected this week, but it certainly is the most … interesting. Per Us Weekly , whispers are circulating that Wendi Deng, the ex-wife of News Corporation founder Rupert Murdoch, has a new beau who enjoys shirtless horseback...

Woman's 911 Emergency: Half-Hamburger Pizza

Needless to say, dispatcher did not consider it an emergency

(Newser) - It's probably happened to you: You open up your food delivery, hungry and excited to chow down, only to find out you were given the wrong order. But a Connecticut woman took things a bit farther than most of us would with her response: She called 911, Fox 61...

Squirrel Hunters Cause Lockdown at Ark. School

Teacher saw men with guns

(Newser) - A report of armed men near an Arkansas elementary school led to a campus lockdown before police confirmed the three were actually pest control employees chasing squirrels. A teacher at Gardner STEM Magnet School in Hot Springs saw the men about 8am Wednesday and notified administrators. According to a statement...

Man Drove 6 Miles With Wife on SUV's Roof: Cops

Why, yes, it happened in Florida

(Newser) - Take my wife, please—off the roof of my car. Cops say a Florida man drove 6 miles with his spouse clinging to the top of his SUV, the Smoking Gun reports. Per a police report , Officer Christopher Ruediger was pulling up to an intersection in Stuart shortly after midnight...

House With a Creepy Stalker Yours for $1.25M

'The Watcher' house is back on the market

(Newser) - A New Jersey home supposedly stalked by an anonymous creepy-letter writer who goes by "The Watcher" is back on the market, the AP reports. The current owners, a married couple with three children, bought it in June 2014 for nearly $1.4 million. But they refused to move in...

Woman Ships Box of DVDs With Her Cat Inside

Oops...

(Newser) - Always double-check your boxes before sealing them up and mailing them: That's the lesson one British woman recently learned after she accidentally mailed her cat. Cupcake had climbed into a box of DVDs the woman was planning to ship, as cats are wont to do , and the woman didn'...

What Happens When a Beer Truck Crashes Into a Chips Truck

That's one tasty Florida highway

(Newser) - It wasn't a happy hour for some central Florida drivers when trucks carrying Busch beer and Frito-Lay chips collided, spilling them both along Interstate 95 early Wednesday morning near Melbourne in what KUSA is calling a "couch potato's dream." Per the AP , Florida Highway Patrol spokeswoman...

Behind Seattle Evacuation, Hazmat Search: Deodorant

Church, daycare cleared out because of Axe body spray

(Newser) - A church and daycare center in Seattle's University District were cleared out by the city's fire department, nearby streets were roped off, and hazmat teams descended on the area Friday after "cough-inducing fumes" were noted wafting out of the church's bathroom and someone called 911, MyNorthwest....

No One Knew Body in Coffin Wasn't Grandma— Except Little Kids

Adults thought Val-Jean McDonald's body looked odd but didn't say anything

(Newser) - With eight sons, more than 20 grandkids, and nearly two dozen great- and great-great-grandchildren, it wasn't surprising there were lots of attendees at Val-Jean McDonald's funeral after her death in December at the age of 81, the New York Times reports. What was surprising: Not a single adult...

Baltimore Woman Sues Mayor for Violent Toilet Explosion

She was 'blown off' the toilet seat, suffered injuries and 'mental anguish': suit

(Newser) - A Baltimore woman who says she was blown off of her toilet when it exploded in November 2014, causing her physical injuries and PTSD, as well as loads of physical damage to her home, is now suing the city's mayor and City Council, as well as a couple of...

Snoop Dogg Accidentally Promotes Transylvanian Village

'Snoop Dogg checked into Bogata by mistake—but you don't have to'

(Newser) - A small village in northern Romania is reveling in the virtual attention caused by a spelling mistake by Snoop Dogg. Posting a selfie on Instagram, the rapper who has been on tour in Bogota, Colombia, told his fans he was in Bogata, in Transylvania. (It seems he accidentally checked in...

Son of Punk Icons to Burn $7M in Memorabilia

It's a protest against 'mainstream' celebrations of punk

(Newser) - Joe Corre's collection of punk memorabilia is worth $7.2 million—and it will soon go up in flames. The son of late Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and punk fashion designer Vivienne Westwood says he'll burn his "vast amounts" of clothing and artifacts from the era...

Florida Guy: I Was Speeding Because I Had to Pee

Cops find out hard way that he was not lying

(Newser) - A man in central Florida has been arrested after telling a deputy he was speeding because he had to go to the bathroom. Lake County Sheriff's officials say 24-year-old Carlos Adonis Ramos-Erazo refused to get out of his vehicle Thursday after being nabbed for going 20 miles over the...

Airport Gets 6.5K Noise Complaints —From One Person

They equaled 75% of all complaints in 2015

(Newser) - Out of the 8,670 noise complaints Washington's Reagan National Airport received last year, officials say a whopping 6,500 of them came from the same person. Officials at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority say one unidentified Washington resident was responsible for about three-quarters of noise complaints in 2015,...

Perfume Maker Bottles Scent of Dearly Departed

Product promises 'olfactory comfort'

(Newser) - Photos, mementoes, an urn on the mantel—there are many ways to remember a loved one who has died. Now a French company is offering a new one: the bottled scent of the recently departed, Fusion reports. The product created by the firm Kalain offers "olfactory comfort" in a...

Cardboard License Plate Doesn't Fool NY Cops

Twentysomething driver is now in trouble

(Newser) - Just a heads-up: Authorities in Springville, NY, do not accept license plates made of cardboard. Erie County sheriff's deputies say they spotted a woman driving 35 miles south of Buffalo on Wednesday without a front license plate, reports WIVB . On the back of her vehicle was a rectangle, painted...

Teacher, Student Find Out They're Sisters

Both adopted, they lived only 20 miles apart for years

(Newser) - Diane DiProspero Cook always considered Karen Cometa-Zempel to be her favorite teacher from New York's Bryant and Stratton College, where she was a student in 1985. Thirty years later, it makes a lot of sense why. Adopted as an infant, DiProspero Cook recently became interested in her biological family...

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