Strangest news lede of the day

“A man in Las Vegas has spent the last four months searching for his missing wife, not having any idea that her body was actually buried amidst the clutter of their home.”

TIME NewsFeed

Her husband, Bill, and police had reportedly searched the house on several occasions, even using police dogs to help locate the woman. Apparently, the sheer volume of clutter in the house prevented even the dogs from tracking the scent of the missing woman.

It wasn’t until last Wednesday when Bill James spotted a pair of feet poking from beneath a “floor-to-ceiling pile of junk,” that he released his wife had actually been in their home the whole time.

An omen?

A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.

The “King of Kings” statue, one of southwest Ohio’s most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.

Salon.com

Oh, quit complaining about the school bus

For Daisy Mora, 9, and the rest of the people in her village, a steel cable flying fox is the only way of getting to the outside world, the Daily Mail reported.

Despite her youth, Daisy is expected to travel down the flying fox at speeds of up to 62km/h with her younger brother attached beside her in a sack.

It’s a high pressure journey, with a 400m drop into the Rio Negro river facing her if the pulley system gives way.

Children take flying fox to school

Every big sister’s dream. Her little brother in a sack.

Photo is cropped from larger photo. Follow the link — there are four photos.

Redux post of the day

First posted here six years ago today


Man treated after attempting to nail himself to cross

NewMexiKen wasn’t going to post this lunacy until I saw the money quote:

When he realized that he was unable to nail his other hand to the board, he called 911,” Boucher said.”

Read the story from the Portland Press Herald [link no longer valid].

Bah! Humbug!

A robber who claimed to “hate Christmas” made off with a red kettle full of donations for the Salvation Army on Saturday night outside The Andersons store on Illinois Avenue in Maumee, according to Maumee police.

The unidentified man approached the volunteer bell ringer about 6:25 p.m. He grabbed the kettle and tripod from which it was hanging. The bell ringer grabbed the chain, and the two fought for the kettle, according to Maumee police reports.

Maumee Police Sgt. David Tullis said the robber pushed the volunteer, and pulled the kettle away from her. He put the kettle and tripod in the back of a pickup truck after telling her, “I can’t stand you and your bell-ringing. I hate Christmas.”

Toledo Blade

Air travel already pisses me off, but this is too much

All Nippon Airways (ANA) claims that empty bladders mean lighter passengers, a lighter aircraft and thus lower fuel use.

Airline staff will be present at boarding gates in terminals to ask passengers waiting to fly to relieve themselves before boarding, The Independent reported.

ANA hopes the weight saved will lead to a five-tonne reduction in carbon emissions over the course of 30 days.

Mail Online

Damn criminals

Last March, Sally Harpold bought a box of Zyrtec-D cold medicine for her husband, then a few days later bought a box of Mucinex-D cold medicine for her grown daughter. That put her over the limit for how much pseudoephedrine-laced cold meds you can buy in a week in her small Indiana town, so she was arrested along with 16 other potential meth makers earlier this month.

Consumerist

Redux post of the day

A motorist was unknowingly caught in an automated speed trap that measured his speed using radar and photographed his car. He later received in the mail a ticket for $40 and a photo of his car.

Instead of payment, he sent the police department a photograph of $40.

Several days later, he received a letter from the police that contained another picture, this time of handcuffs.

He immediately mailed in his $40.

Top Idiots

Follow the link. There are several good stories.

First posted on July 22, 2007.

New assignment

A reserve soldier who said he should not have to go to Afghanistan because Barack Obama was never legally eligible to be the president has had his deployment orders revoked, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported Wednesday.
. . .

Cook believes that Obama was ineligible to become president and commander-in-chief because he was is not a natural-born U.S. citizen, the paper reported. Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961.

ajc.com

Here’s hoping his next deployment is to Leavenworth.

The armed customer IS always right

PORT ANGELES — A 37-year-old woman was arrested after the Clallam County Sheriff’s Department said she threatened several people with a handgun in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
. . .

No one was injured.

Peregrin said Dumdie had argued with customers in the store after they had asked her to stop cursing and yelling at an employee.

He said she was upset with the employee, saying she had sold her the wrong kind of ammunition.

Olympic Peninsula Daily news

Darwin Award nominee

PORTLAND, Ore. — A check-cashing store employee was still recovering at an area hospital Thursday after a Comcast employee attacked and robbed her, police said.

At about 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, the man walked into the Ace Checks Cashed on Southeast 73rd Avenue and Powell Street, where he attacked and robbed a woman who works in the store, police said. Officers have identified the employee as 37-year-old Nicole Loundree, of Portland.

Workers at a nearby business said they noticed something suspicious at the check-cashing store and then saw a man in a Comcast uniform rush out and leave in a Comcast van.

KPTV Portland

He was arrested shortly thereafter.

That is WAY TOO CLOSE to SnoLepard’s house. What kind of a neighborhood do you live in Bro?