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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Adams' Adviser Out After Slipping Reporter Bag of Cash

And not that much cash, in a potato chip bag, gets Winnie Greco booted from mayor's reelection campaign

(Newser) - A longtime former aide to New York Mayor Eric Adams has been benched from his reelection campaign after an unusual handoff. More than $100 in cash, stuffed inside a red envelope and nestled in a bag of potato chips, found its way from Winnie Greco to a reporter from...

If Stuck in Flight Delay Hell, Dave Koz Is Your Man

Saxophonist and his band break out the music for fellow passengers on a delayed plane

(Newser) - Passengers on a flight from St. Louis to Seattle got an unexpected pick-me-up when jazz saxophonist Dave Koz and his bandmates held an impromptu jam session in the aisle while the plane was stuck on the tarmac hundreds of miles from their final destination. As the AP reports, it happened...

Guy Enters Children's Slide, Fails to Exit

At least not until the fire department showed up and cut him out

(Newser) - It probably seemed like an excellent idea. But a 40-year-old man who tried to go down a children's tube slide in Vermont head first has learned a valuable lesson. As the Vernon Fire Department recounts , the mercifully unidentified man got hopelessly stuck about halfway down on Saturday. What's...

'Best Building of All Time' Makes a Very Slow Move

Church in Kiruna, Sweden, is being transported 3 miles at 0.3 mph, on a trolley with 224 wheels

(Newser) - How do you move one of Sweden's most beloved wooden churches down the road? The Kiruna Church—"Kiruna Kyrka" in Swedish—and its belfry are being moved this week along a 3-mile route east to a new city center as part of the town's relocation. It's...

Young Chinese People Are Paying for Pretend Jobs

Their reasons range from needing structure to outright deception

(Newser) - Nobody wants to work for free, let alone pay for the privilege. But, in China, where unemployment is a massive problem for young people, more and more are waking up, getting dressed, commuting, and clocking into "pretend-to-work offices" where they can convince themselves—or others—that they're gainfully...

Autoworker's Long-Lost Wallet Turns Up Under a Hood

Richard Guilford dropped his wallet between transmission and air filter of a 2015 Ford Edge

(Newser) - A retired Michigan autoworker looked at a Facebook message after midnight from a stranger: Did you lose your wallet years ago? "If so," a Minnesota man wrote, "it was in the engine bay of a car." Richard Guilford couldn't believe what he was reading—a...

Bondi Fires DOJ Staffer Over Sandwich Hurled at CBP Agent

'This is an example of the Deep State,' AG railed against man who's now canned and facing a felony

(Newser) - A man charged with a felony for hurling a sandwich at a federal law-enforcement official in the nation's capital has been fired from his job at the Justice Department, Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a social media post on Thursday. A video of Sean Charles Dunn berating a...

Colorado's 'Frankenstein Bunnies' Are Nothing to Fear

They're infected with the mostly harmless Shope papillomavirus , which makes them grow 'horns'

(Newser) - A group of rabbits in Colorado with grotesque, hornlike growths may seem straight out of a low-budget horror film, but scientists say there's no reason to be spooked—the furry creatures merely have a relatively common virus. The cottontails recently spotted in Fort Collins are infected with the mostly...

Falling Fish Causes Wildfire
Falling Fish Causes Wildfire
Aug 4, 2025 5:23 PM CDT

Falling Fish Causes Wildfire

Fire department in Canada says 'rather tired' bird dropped it onto power line, igniting brush fire

(Newser) - It's not every day that a fish starts a wildfire, but that's what authorities say happened in British Columbia last week. In a Facebook post , Ashcroft Fire Rescue said a small brush fire was ignited when a fish fell onto a power line around two miles from the...

Let Them Eat Bunny: Zoo Wants You to Donate Your Small Pets

'If you have a healthy animal that needs to be given away for various reasons, feel free to donate it to us'

(Newser) - A zoo in Denmark is asking for donations of small pets as food for its predators. The story goes a little like this, per the AP : The Aalborg zoo says it's trying to mimic the natural food chain of the animals housed there "for the sake of both...

There's Never Been a Marathon This Deep

Runners will tackle 26 miles in a Swedish zinc mine

(Newser) - Bear Grylls' company, BecomingX, is adding a new twist to marathon running: going deep—literally. On October 26, the world's deepest marathon will be held 4,300 feet beneath Earth's surface in the Garpenberg zinc mine in Sweden. Sixty runners—decked out in hard hats, high-visibility gear,...

'Karaoke Camper' Spurs 911 Calls With Nickelback Songs

Man was 'singing his heart out to the trees' in BC's Boulderfields, not in any kind of distress

(Newser) - The "karaoke camper" has been rescued, though he apparently didn't need to be rescued from anything other than arguably questionable taste in music. The Vancouver Sun reports that the Central Okanagan Search and Rescue team in British Columbia was engaged in training exercises on Thursday when a 911...

Buffalo Airport Witnessed a Strange Joyride

Police say 'visibly intoxicated' Wyoming man took airport cart, drove it on people mover

(Newser) - Things got a little hairy in Western New York this week when a man decided to appropriate a motorized cart at a local airport and go on a joyride. The now-viral incident went down in the early hours Monday at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, when a Wyoming resident identified by...

Woman Throws Shoe at Gator; Gator Scores Woman's Shoe

At least she didn't try to scare it off with something valuable

(Newser) - Today's edition of how not to interact with wildlife comes to us courtesy of, why yes, Florida. As Fox35 reports, it seems an alligator was hanging out by the side of a lake in Kissimmee, with some deer grazing undisturbed nearby. Tourist Sarah Louise Martin, on vacation from the...

Geoffrey Epstein Is Causing Some Confusion

Massachusetts man is running for mayor, causing some consternation with his famous name

(Newser) - Sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein continues to dominate headlines some six years after his death—which is rather inconvenient for a man of the same-ish name running for office in Massachusetts. Geoffrey Epstein, an Australian-born mayoral candidate in Framingham, says most locals know him as a former theoretical physics professor and...

In Forests Around the World, a 'Trail of a Thousand Trolls'

Trash sculptures by Dutch recycle artist Thomas Dambo are meant to connect us to environment

(Newser) - Nestled in forests around the world, a gentle army of giant wooden trolls wants to show humans how to live better without destroying the planet. The Danish recycle artist Thomas Dambo and his team have created 170 troll sculptures from discarded materials such as wooden pallets, old furniture, and wine...

Meet Leonardo da Pinchy, the Thieving Cat

Feline with sticky paws swipes laundry from all over his New Zealand neighborhood

(Newser) - Most cat owners dread their pets bringing home mice or birds. But for the owners of one felonious feline in New Zealand, there's a worse shame—being the unwitting accomplice to an unstoppable one-cat crime wave. His prolific laundry-pinching from clotheslines and bedrooms in the beachside neighborhood of Mairangi...

At Prague Zoo, Staff Puppeteers Become Vulture Parents

Mama and papa lesser yellow-headed vulture weren't ready to take care of their chick

(Newser) - Zookeepers in Prague sometimes have to become puppeteers to save newborn birds rejected by their parents. This was the case for a lesser yellow-headed vulture chick hatched three weeks ago. Bird keeper Antonin Vaidl said Thursday that when a dummy egg disappeared from the nest, it signaled to keepers that...

Hotel Staff 'Heartbroken' After Dozens of Peacocks Vanish

Workers believe they were stolen from California hotel

(Newser) - Dozens of peacocks and peahens known for wandering the grounds of a historic Art Deco hotel south of Sacramento, California, are missing, and the hotel staff said Tuesday they believe the birds were stolen. After a customer at the Ryde Hotel mentioned Sunday seeing two men grabbing one of the...

That $6.2M Banana? Someone Just Ate It. Again.

And nobody seems too upset

(Newser) - Well, when you duct-tape a perishable fruit to a wall, call it art, and sell it for $6.2 million, there is just bound to be a hungry museum-goer around. When last we checked in on the previous iteration of the banana known as The Comedian by Italian artist and...

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