NEWS OF THE WEIRD
The bear from below
Shannon Stevens, along with her brother Erik and his girlfriend, snowmobiled to Erik’s yurt in the backcountry near Haines, Alaska, on Feb. 13 and got the scare of a lifetime when she was attacked from below by a bear in an outhouse, the Associated Press reported.
Erik heard his sister’s screams and went out to investigate, opening the toilet seat to find “a bear face … just looking right back up through the hole, right at me,” he said. He shut the lid and ran back to the yurt, where they treated Shannon’s wound with a first aid kit and determined is wasn’t serious.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Management biologist Carl Koch said the bear probably swiped at her with its paw, rather than biting her. “She could be the only person on Earth that this has ever happened to,” Koch speculated.
Fleeced and better off
Reuters reported Feb. 24 that a wayward sheep found in a forest in Australia has been shorn of the more than 77 pounds of fleece he was carrying and is now recovering at Edgar’s Mission Farm Sanctuary near Lancefield, Victoria.
Named Baarack by his rescuers, the sheep was “in a bit of a bad way,” said the sanctuary’s Kyle Behrend. “Sheep need to be shorn at least annually, otherwise the fleece continues to grow and grow . ... He was underweight and due to all the wool around his face he could barely see.”
Working at not working
Brandon Soules, 19, was arrested by police in Coolidge, Ariz., on Feb. 17 for falsely reporting to police that he had been kidnapped in an apparent scheme to get out of work.
On Feb. 10, police found Soules lying near a water tower with his hands bound behind his back and a bandana in his mouth, the Associated Press reported. Soules told officers two men had kidnapped him from his home, knocked him unconscious and driven him around in his car looking for money his father had hidden around town, but detectives could find no evidence of a kidnapping or assault, and when pressed, Soules confessed he made the story up to avoid work at The Tire Factory, which subsequently fired him.
Auto pooper back in gear
Mr. Friendly Auto Service in Warren, Mich., is one of two auto repair businesses in the area targeted by a serial pooper, police say. The man, seen on surveillance video, entered parked, unlocked vehicles to do his business, leaving his deposit behind for workers to find the next day, Fox 2 reported.
The man first struck in November and returned in January, said Chris Phillips, manager of Mr. Friendly. In February, police said, the man struck at nearby Twin Tire, going from car to car until he found one left unlocked because of an electrical problem.
“Now we’ve got double padlocks on the gate,” said Phillips. “The guy needs to be caught. There is something wrong with him.”
Doughnut math is hard
An unidentified Dunkin’ Donuts customer was captured on video berating store employees Feb. 15 and demanding she get 50 Munchkin doughnuts after ordering a dozen.
“I need more,” she forcefully told the clerk. “Fifty. Five, zero. That’s what a dozen is.”
The website Upworthy reported that another customer tried to correct her, saying “Twelve is a dozen,” to which the woman replied, “I want more than 12! I want 50!” and later continued, “You understand nothing! ... You’re not understanding the English!”
Or the math.