strange stuff

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

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Citibank Fires Analyst Over His Deceptive Lunch

Szabolcs Fekete treats his partner, lies about it, loses lawsuit claiming unjust firing

(Newser) - A Citibank analyst who investigated financial fraud has lost his job over his own financial fraud—though it was surprisingly small-scale stuff. It seems that Szabolcs Fekete of London went to Amsterdam on a work trip and treated his partner to lunch on the company dime, reports the BBC . When...

After 128 Years on Display, Mummy Finally Gets His Burial

'Stoneman Willie' identified as James Murphy, of Irish descent from New York

(Newser) - A dead man whose body sat on display for 128 years in Pennsylvania has finally been laid to rest. James Murphy—better known as "Stoneman Willie" due to his hardened skin, the result of an experimental embalming technique—was buried Saturday in Reading under a black tombstone carrying both...

Authorities Seize Woman&#39;s Giraffe Poop at Minnesota Airport
Authorities Seize
Woman's Giraffe Poop
at Minnesota Airport
in case you missed it

Authorities Seize Woman's Giraffe Poop at Minnesota Airport

She was apparently planning to make a necklace out of it

(Newser) - An Iowa woman who brought giraffe poop from Kenya back to the US had her dream of making a necklace from the dung dashed when customs officials seized it instead. During an inspection upon arrival at a Minnesota airport on September 29, the woman told agriculture specialists from customs that...

It Took a Book Club 28 Years to Read a Single Book

They've gone through every page of 'Finnegans Wake'

(Newser) - Most book clubs tackle things one book at a time. Some might divide a particularly long read into chunks to discuss over months. One California book club broke their book into pages—reading and discussing a single page at a time. If you think that pace sounds glacial, you're...

Alex Jones 'Finally Got His Wish': a Chokehold

Infowars host appeared to pass out for several seconds during odd appearance with jujitsu champ

(Newser) - "Alex Jones finally got his wish." That's how MMA Mania frames what happened when the Infowars host, conspiracy theorist, and Sandy Hook tormentor appeared Thursday on the El Segundo Podcast hosted by Brazilian jujitsu champ Craig Jones (no relation) and got choked out by the athlete. TMZ...

Emotional Support Alligator Denied Entrance to Ball Game

WallyGator was shown on a leash outside Phillies ballpark

(Newser) - A Phillies fan and his emotional support animal, an alligator named WallyGator, were denied entrance to watch Philadelphia host Pittsburgh Wednesday, the AP reports. Social media posts showed the gator on a leash with a harness with his name on it outside the stadium. WallyGator is a working emotional support...

Piers Morgan Confronts Chess Prodigy on Odd Cheating Theory

Talk show host asks Hans Niemann if he used anal beads to illegally win

(Newser) - Last year, accusations started flying against chess whiz Hans Niemann, with five-time world champ Magnus Carlsen alleging that his fellow grandmaster had cheated as they faced off in the Sinquefield Cup. Now, those accusations are being resurrected, with the 20-year-old Neimann defiantly insisting he's completely on the up-and-up. Niemann,...

Flamingos Show Up Way North for First Time Ever

Five of them appear in Wisconsin, along a Lake Michigan beach

(Newser) - Five flamingos that showed up in Wisconsin to wade along a Lake Michigan beach attracted a big crowd of onlookers eager to see the unusual visitors venturing far from their usual tropical setting. The American flamingos spotted Friday in Port Washington, about 25 miles north of Milwaukee, marked the first...

Guy Who Surfs With Pet Python Hit With a Fine

Wildlife authorities aren't pleased with Australia's Higor Fiuza and his snake, Shiva

(Newser) - Higor Fiuza is a familiar face in the beach community along Australia's Gold Coast, and he's often got Shiva in tow. Shiva isn't the name of his surfboard, or a canine companion—that's his pet Morelia bredli python, who accompanies Fiuza in the water as he...

Krispy Kreme Delivery Van Gets Some Surprise Raiders

Mama bear and cub bust into vehicle outside military base in Anchorage for some doughnuts

(Newser) - A mama bear and her cub went a little Cocaine Bear on some doughnuts in Anchorage last week. Candice Sergeant, the manager of a Krispy Kreme store in the Alaskan city's Muldoon neighborhood, tells CBS Chicago that she was working her shift last Tuesday when she got an "...

'Take the Money and Run' Artist Told to Bring Back the Money

Jens Haaning ordered to return money to museum after he produced blank canvases

(Newser) - The Danish artist who took the money and ran—specifically, he took the money Denmark's Kunsten Museum of Modern Art gave him to reproduce two of his prior works, but instead of recreating them he simply gave the museum two blank canvases he called "Take the Money and...

Debris From Stealth Fighter Jet Located in South Carolina

Pilot of F-35 had safely ejected, but crash site wasn't known

(Newser) - Authorities found a debris field Monday left by the crash of a Marine Corps F-35 stealth fighter jet in South Carolina the day before. The Marine Corps' Joint Base Charleston said the debris field is in rural Williamsburg County northeast of the base, the AP reports. Gen. Eric Smith, acting...

This Lady Says She Can See Into Your Future, Via Cheese

Jennifer Billock tells fortunes using the art of tyromancy

(Newser) - How accurately can that provolone in your fridge predict the future? How good of a soothsayer is that wheel of Stilton? You may not have the answers to those questions, but Jennifer Billock thinks she does. That's because the Chicago native is a self-proclaimed expert in tyromancy, described by...

He Heard the Word 'Guilty,' Ate a Poisoned Snickers Bar

76-year-old has since recovered sufficiently to return to court

(Newser) - A 76-year-old Australian man returned to court Monday after a hospital stay of his own making. After being found guilty of committing decades-old child sex offenses in June, he bit into a Snickers bar that he had laced with rat poison in an attempt to die by suicide. The Canberra ...

In This Tiny European Town, an 'Alcoholic Flash Flood'

Distillery's storage tanks burst, sending 600K gallons of red wine into streets of Portuguese town

(Newser) - There's too much wine in Europe, if that can be believed—and some of that excess ended up flowing through the roads of a Portuguese town over the weekend. NBC News reports on the "alcoholic flash flood" on Sunday in Sao Lourenco do Bairro, where a river of...

2 Miles Deep in the Ocean, a 'Delightfully Strange Find'

'It's like the beginning of a horror movie,' one scientist said of odd 'golden egg' found off Alaska

(Newser) - An underwater mission in the Gulf of Alaska to explore deep-sea habitats led researchers to make an unexpected discovery: a strange gold-colored orb submerged 2 miles deep on the ocean floor. Per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , the find was made Aug. 30 when the Okeanos Explorer found, "...

Mystery Plant Thief Turned Out to Be a Koala

Claude was nabbed after he ate so much he couldn't move

(Newser) - At the nursery he owns in Australia, Humphrey Herington grows plants to restore koala habitats, but he was still surprised when the animal that had been chowing down on his seedlings turned out to be a koala, a species not known for intrepid behavior. Herington tells the BBC that when...

Cops Race to 'Mass Murder,' Find Yoga Class Instead

False alarm causes a stir in the UK

(Newser) - The horrified dog-walkers meant well. But when they called police to report what appeared to be a "ritual mass murder," the responding officers found only a yoga class in session, reports the BBC . It seems the two dog-walkers peered inside the windows of the Seascape Cafe in Lincolnshire,...

Best, Worst Cities for Zombie Apocalypse
Where to Run When
the Zombies Come

Where to Run When the Zombies Come

Residents of Houston are safest in this ranking

(Newser) - Another Walking Dead spinoff debuts on AMC this week, notes Yahoo Entertainment . Which, of course, prompted the company Lawn Love to ponder which cities would best be able to fend off a zombie apocalypse. Among the factors: proximity to military bases, gun stores, supermarkets (to stock up on supplies), helipads,...

Man Who Keeps Trying to 'Run' Across the Ocean Is Arrested

Is there nothing a Florida man won't do?

(Newser) - The US Coast Guard has arrested a Florida man who was attempting to "run" across the Atlantic Ocean in a large hamster wheel. Marathon runner Reza Baluchi was found about 70 nautical miles east of Georgia's Tybee Island on Aug. 26 in what officials described as a "...

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