Weird News

[osprey]

I used to work for my father's cleaning company, and we used to clean this bar that had some spirit of some sort floating around it. For instance, we used to put all the bar stools upside down on the bar to sweep the floor, and we always put them fully up there, not precarious at all. However, stools frequently fell off the bar, even ones that I knew for sure were a ways in from the edge, to the point where tremors etc wouldn't have been enough to knock them off. Another common thing was lights going on and off by themselves.

This bar also had a bunch of TVs in little nooks in the wall, and 3 suspended over the dance floor. A few times, all the TVs went on at once, and they were all on the same channel (despite being on different ones when they were turned off). This was also a pain in the ass because there was one universal remote for all the TVs and it was hard to turn them off cleanly with them so close together.

[GeorgiaCoyote]

Don't know if this would qualify as weird news but I found it amazing. There was this guy in Canada who got trapped face down in the snow under his ATV and he used a beaver caught in a trap to keep warm and as nourishment. It helped also that the guy was a paramedic. This may display some of my cynical side but I have a real bad feeling that this survivor will get sued by the fur trader whose trap caught that beaver that he used to help survive. Wouldn't surprise me one bit. Better hope it wasn't a trapper attached to an American company cuase that will raise the chance of lawsuit to damn near 100%. Sorry, I tend to get fed up with this sue-happy nation at times.

[gforce422]

AP-

FBI: Woman sought hit man on Craigslist
$5,000 allegedly offered for ‘silent assassins’ in California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A woman advertised on the popular Internet site Craigslist for an assassin to kill the wife of a man with whom she'd had an affair, authorities said Saturday.

The ad by Ann Marie Linscott, 49, was posted in November as a generic request for somebody to perform a "freelance" job, court documents said. Her true intention was communicated only to those who e-mailed her seeking additional information about the job, the Craigslist CEO said.

Linscott offered $5,000 for the hit, had the name and work address of the woman she wanted dead, and described successful candidates as "silent assassins," according to agents and court documents.

"I've seen some screwy things, but I've personally never heard of anything like this," said Drew Parenti, special agent in charge of the Sacramento FBI office. "For a person to advertise openly for a hit man on Craigslist."

Agents arrested Linscott, whom they say went by Ann Marie and used the simple alias "Marie," on Thursday at her home in Grand Rapids, Mich. Federal prosecutors will ask a judge on Tuesday to make her stand trial in Northern California, where Butte County authorities worked with the FBI to identify the victim and her husband.

A call to Linscott's court-appointed public defender was not immediately returned on Saturday.

‘Eradicate a female’
Linscott is accused of asking people who responded to her ad to "eradicate a female living in Oroville, California," and she provided additional information on the intended victim, including her physical description, age and employment address. On two separate occasions following the November ad posting, she offered payment of $5,000 upon completion of "the eradication task," according to court documents.

"Out of 550 million classified ads posted over 12 years, this is the first such incident that we're aware of," Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "But again, the ad itself was generic, and we're not a party to subsequent private e-mail communications."

Buckmaster said the arrest demonstrated the vigilance of Craigslist users, who are urged to report fraud and scams on the site to keep it clean.

It's not the first alleged crime ever solicited over the popular online bulletin board. There have been instances of ads posted by prostitutes and a Minnesota woman was killed last year after responding to an ad for a babby sitter. However, authorities and company officials say the murder-for-hire scheme appears to be the first of its kind.

The intended victim and her husband have not been identified, but Parenti said the man acknowledged meeting Linscott through an online college course over two years ago.

Parenti said the two forged an intimate relationship online and met at a hotel room for two days in Reno, Nev., in 2005. Linscott also had met him near the couple's home, about 70 miles north of the state capital, last spring. They continued to communicate by phone and e-mail.

[KJ Fellie]

The ghost is back. The other night I saw the shadow of a person against the front door, and after a thorough check, I was certain there was no one there to cast the shadow. (I would rather be creeped out by the ghost than mugged at work.)

Tonight, it decided to crank up the volume on the radio as I was leaving. I kind of just ignored it. I was the only person in the store both times. Weird.

[VisibilityMissing]

They must not have noticed those ACME boxes by the side of the road . . .

Originally posted: February 6, 2008
Coyote causes head-on crash

10:08 a.m./By Tina Shah, Tribune reporter

A coyote caused a head-on crash near north suburban Volo that seriously injured two people Tuesday morning, police said.

Christine Blair, 21, of Antioch, was driving southbound on U.S. Highway 12 near Belvidere Road when she hit a coyote about 6:30 a.m., lost control of her car and veered into oncoming traffic, said Lake County sheriff’s department Sgt. Christopher Thompson.

Blair’s 2007 Scion crashed head-on with a 2006 Suzuki Aerio driven by Cynthia Wolf, 56, of Schaumburg. Wolf’s car caught fire, but the blaze was extinguished by another driver who stopped, Thompson said.

Both women were taken to Northern Illinois Medical Center in McHenry County in serious condition.

The coyote was killed.

While deer-related accidents are frequent in the area, this was the first serious accident caused by a coyote, Thompson said.

---------------------------------

Originally posted: February 6, 2008
Chocolate truck overturns on Skyway

11:31 a.m./By Jeremy Gorner, Tribune reporter

A semitrailer truck carrying 4,000 gallons of liquid chocolate crashed through a concrete divider Wednesday morning on the Chicago Skyway at 71st Street, forcing closure of the roadway, officials said.

Diesel fuel leaked, but not any chocolate.

The truck was traveling north on the Skyway when its trailer separated from the cab and ended upside down against the concrete divider. The cab continued across the southbound lanes and ended up hanging over a guardrail.

Two other vehicles were hit, but no one was hurt, Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said at the scene.

The accident, which occurred about 8:40 a.m., also forced closure of the northbound 66th Street entrance ramp from the Skyway to the Dan Ryan Expressway, and the southbound Dan Ryan entrance ramp to the Skyway, officials said.

Langford said there were "slippery road conditions" on the Skyway, but it’s unclear if they were responsible for the crash.

[Doc Sigma]

The coyote was killed.

ARLOEST PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS THREAD IT WILL MAKE YOU SAD

[Sage]

And GeorgiaCoyote?

Funny how they should name the driver "wolf"

[Archaemic]

It's Not Unusual to ... Insure Your Chest Hair?

When you've got a valuable asset attached you your body, it definitely makes sense to get some insurance. Surgeons insure their hands; professional runners insure their feet. And Tom Jones, the aging "heartbreaker" who croons to little old ladies in Vegas, insures his chest hair.

That's right, Lloyd's of London gave him a policy worth almost $7 million to make sure his follicles stay put.

"Admittedly, this is one of the most obscure requests I've had -- but I still came up with a wording that addressed the need," underwriter John Thomas is quoted as saying.

In the past, Lloyd's has insured other celebrities' body parts, including Keith Richards' fingers and Jennifer Lopez's booty.

[GeorgiaCoyote]

And GeorgiaCoyote?

Funny how they should name the driver "wolf"

Too late....I done found it Not really that big a surprise since one of the chief diets of coyotes are road kill. They're pretty much oppotunistic feeders. Hope the two ladies are doing all right now. Need to find a follow-up to this one.

[VisibilityMissing]

"They can fly and they can land. Just not very well."

Falling moose nearly takes out trooper
Animal plunges to its death off Seward Highway cliff

By BETH BRAGG
bbragg@adn.com

(02/12/08 00:02:06)

We've seen the highway signs that warn of falling rocks, and we've seen the ones that warn of moose crossing.

Now Howard Peterson of the Alaska State Troopers wonders if we need a new sign:

Watch for falling moose.

A swing-shift trooper based in Girdwood, Peterson was cruising the Seward Highway the night of Feb. 2 a couple miles north of McHugh Creek when something big and black fell from the sky, landing about 20 feet from his car.

"Falling rock!" he thought, ready to steer clear if it bounced onto the highway.

When the rock didn't roll or shatter, Peterson's brain came up with a crazy image:

"Falling moose?"

An adult moose, wandering rocky terrain more suitable to the Dall sheep that populate it, plunged to its death from the tall cliffs that hug a highway famous for its scenery and wildlife.

The animal landed on the side of the road just a few yards in front of Peterson, who figures it fell 150 feet, maybe farther. He snapped a couple of photos and called one of the charities that salvage road kill to tell them there was a moose available at Mile 113 .

Then he started wondering what happened. Did the moose jump?

"How would you say it -- moose-icide? He probably thought he was the only moose, with all those sheep around," Peterson said.

More likely, though, something spooked the moose and it fell. It was windy that night, Peterson said, so maybe a gust startled it.

Or maybe the moose merely misstepped.

"I'm sure the moose didn't jump," state wildlife biologist Rick Sinnott said. "They occasionally have bad days like the rest of us. They slip and fall. Maybe he was reaching for a branch and the snow just gave way."

In his years on the job, Sinnott has seen many moose die in many ways. He's heard tales of them breaking through ice and drowning, jumping off railroad bridges at the sound of a train, falling off small banks. Once he saw the remains of two bulls that died together during a rutting battle when their antlers got hooked together by a single piece of barbed wire.

But a plunge from a tall cliff? Sinnott doesn't think it happens often.

In 1995, a moose calf slipped off a cliff and fell 100 feet to its death in nearly the same spot, but flying moose remain an oddity.

As for Peterson, he's been a trooper for five years and has seen lots of things fall from cliffs while on patrol -- rocks, snow, mud, cars.

Cars? Yes, cars: "I used to work in the Valley," he said, explanation enough.

But he always figured moose held steadfastly to the earth.

He knows better now.

"They can fly and they can land," he said. "Just not very well."

[Zaaphod]

Yes! We always need a good mooooooooose report around here!

[Steve the Pocket]

Since the moose landed on the road, does it count as roadkill? Will it wind up in Guinness with the Biggest Roadkill record?

[VisibilityMissing]

Moooose are a menace! They often take out cars, since they have a natural tendency to roll into the driver compartments when hit.



Roadkill? Let's ask Florence:

[Zaaphod]

One of my favorites! So easy to confuse a robot, especially Helix.

[Foxhound]

Watch out for the moooooooose!

Don't know which is better, the falling moose, or the helicopter-crashing moose.