A janitor at Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea, may have hit the jackpot on April 26 when he discovered $325,000 worth of gold bars in a garbage bin. Investigators told The Korea Times they believe two men were transporting the gold, wrapped in newspapers, from Hong Kong to Japan, and threw away the stash for fear of being searched by customs agents. If the owner doesn't make a claim in six months, the janitor will get the gold, thanks to South Korea's "finders-keepers" law. However, if the treasure is found to be linked to criminal activity, the janitor will not be entitled to any of it. [The Korea Times, 4/30/2018]

High Times

A Florida Highway Patrol trooper arrived at the scene of a crash in Orlando on April 29 to find Scott Ecklund, 32, uninjured but highly agitated. Trooper Glaudson Curado arrested Ecklund after Ecklund helpfully told the trooper he could get more meth than had been found in the search of Ecklund's wrecked Chevy Impala if the trooper would allow him to leave the scene. "Mr. Ecklund was making no sense during our conversation," Curado wrote in his report, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Ecklund, who was arrested earlier in April for crashing a truck into a house and claiming to be an FBI agent as he brandished an assault rifle, was charged with meth possession and driving with a suspended license and taken to the Orange County Jail. [Orlando Sentinel, 4/30/2018]

Indecent Exposure

Neighbors of the "Pooperintendent," a New Jersey school superintendent nabbed for repeatedly defecating on a high school running track, were nonplussed by the news. Thomas Tramaglini, 42, superintendent of schools in nearby Kenilworth, was charged April 30 in Holmdel, New Jersey, Municipal Court for defecating in public, lewdness and littering after being caught on surveillance video relieving himself on a daily basis during his run at the Holmdel High School track. The track is about 3 miles from Tramaglini's home in Aberdeen. But neighbors told NJ.com that Tramaglini always struck them as a nice guy -- "Except for pooping on the field," one added. Another dismissed all the attention: "If he wasn't a super, this wouldn't even be news." [NJ.com, 5/4/2018]

Awesome!

The Palais de Tokyo, a contemporary art museum in Paris, has made a name for itself by granting special visiting hours to nudists. On May 5, Reuters reported, naturists were invited to tour an exhibit, with about 160 attendees taking advantage of the sans-clothing event. Paris is seeing an increase in naturist events, according to Julien Claude-Penegry, communications director of the Paris Naturists Association. "The naturists' way of life is to be naked. Naturists are pushing past barriers, taboos or mentalities that were obstructive," he said. Next up for French nudists: a clubbing night later this year. [Reuters, 5/5/2018]

Questionable Judgment

Angelique Sanchez, 26, of Denver was asked to provide a urine sample for a prospective employer on May 3, so, of course, she stopped off at a 7-Eleven store in Aurora to apply the final touch: She put the urine-filled bottle in a microwave and turned it on, whereupon the sample blew up. A 7-Eleven clerk, who observed a "yellow liquid ... and the smell was unquestionably urine" dripping from the microwave, confronted Sanchez, who wiped the liquid out of the microwave and onto the floor, then walked out. KUSA TV reported that police caught up with her at a nearby clinic and issued a summons for damaged property. Medical expert Comilla Sasson guessed that Sanchez was trying to restore the sample to body temperature. [KUSA, 5/4/2018]

Ooohhhh-kkkaaaayyy

Visitors to New York's Fort Ticonderoga were in for a special treat as locks of hair from Revolutionary War general turned traitor Benedict Arnold and his first wife, Margaret, were put on display during the season's opening weekend of May 5-6. Curator Matthew Keagle told The Associated Press Arnold's hair was recently rediscovered in the museum's collections and had been preserved by the family. The private historical site obtained the hair in the 1950s. Saving a lock of a deceased family member's hair was a common practice during the 1700s. Arnold helped capture Fort Ticonderoga from the British during the opening weeks of the Revolutionary War. [Associated Press, 5/2/2018]

Weird Cliche

Drivers along I-70 outside of Indianapolis thought it was raining money for them May 2 as $600,000 in cash tumbled out the back doors of a Brinks truck and onto the highway, the Indianapolis Star reported. State police spokesman Sgt. John Perrine said an undetermined amount of cash has not been accounted for, as "people were jumping over fences and crawling on the ground" to pick up loose bills flying around. In a tweet, he warned: "Finding a large sum of money is no different than other property. If a brand-new car fell off a semi, would the 1st person to find it get to keep it? It belongs to someone else." [Indianapolis Star, 5/2/2018]

That's One Way to Do It

When Leroy Mason, 68, of Barton, Vermont, takes care of a problem, he doesn't do things halfway. On April 30, as his smoke detector blared yet again, Mason aimed his 20-gauge shotgun at the cursed piece of electronics and fired twice. Unfortunately, the shots also hit the adjoining wall of an occupied apartment. Fire and EMS crews called to the scene had been before, according to a Vermont State Police news release quoted by Boston25 News, as "Mr. Mason has complained in the past about frequent false alarms ... and was upset that fire crews would not relocate the detector. Mr. Mason took it upon himself to relocate the smoke detector ..." When first responders relieved him of his shotgun, Mason rearmed himself with a Colt .45 handgun and demanded his shotgun back. Mason was finally subdued and charged with aggravated assault with a weapon and reckless endangerment. [Boston25 News, 5/3/2018]

Definition of Insanity

April 11 was a great day for Markiko Sonnie Lewis of Maple Heights, Ohio -- he got out of jail! Lewis, 40, served time in state prison for robbing a Cleveland Key Bank branch in November 2015. To celebrate, he returned to the same bank on April 12 and robbed it again, according to WIOI, taking about $1,000. Lewis was indicted on May 1 with one count of bank robbery. [WIOI, 5/2/2018]

Smooth Reactions

Jose Arreola, 49, of Bellflower, California, was more angry than scared when a police officer drew a gun on him March 16, mistakenly thinking Arreola had stolen a roll of Mentos, which retails for $1.19. A security camera at an Orange County service station captured the incident, showing Arreola placing the Mentos on the counter along with a $20 bill. As he waited for his change, Arreola put the mints in his pocket, which is when an off-duty officer behind him pulled a gun out of the pocket of his hoody and ordered him to put the mints back on the counter. When the clerk confirmed Arreola had paid, the officer said, "My apologies." "It was traumatic, the whole incident," Arreola told the Orange County Register. "Are you seriously pulling a gun out over a pack of Mentos?" [Orange County Register, 5/4/2018]

Inexplicable

Toronto police determined pranksters might have been behind their discovery on May 2 of a blue Honda Civic hanging from a rope under the Millwood Overpass Bridge, missing its windows, windshield and engine. Originally officials thought the burned-out car might be part of a movie shoot, but further research didn't turn up any authorized filming in Toronto. "I've never seen anything like that before," a passing cyclist told CTV News. "This is hilarious." However, officers warned that if caught, the culprits could face charges. [CTV News, 5/2/2018]

In the tony Denver suburb of Castle Rock, Colorado, the motto might be "If the house is rockin', DO come knockin'!" Residents on Avery Way are in a tizzy about the Thunderstorm Play Palace, a 7,500-square-foot home where, neighbors told KDVR-TV, the owner invites swinging couples and singles to gather for wild sex parties. Invitees must make a "donation" ($70 for couples and single men, $20 for single women), and the parties include drinks, snacks and potluck dishes. "One had four crockpots," said a neighbor, "showing up like they're going to a Bunko party or something." On the invitation, guests were asked to bring their own condoms and show respect for the "new furniture." The host is a married father of three who feels harassed by the neighborhood, but he counters that he's taken steps to be discreet, including installing soundproofing and making sure "there are no open areas." But neighbors claim they hear "disturbing sounds" coming from the house. "You can hear people doing what they're doing," one resident told reporters. Castle Rock Police say the man is not breaking the law because he's only taking donations, and the activities are contained to his home. [KDVR, 4/24/2018]

Do Not Climb!

The Black Panther isn't feeling the love in South Korea lately. The Walt Disney Co. sent two statues of the superhero to Busan to celebrate Marvel Studios' filming along Korea's southern coast. But on March 17, according to The Korea Herald, a 32-year-old drunk man was arrested after he vandalized the statue in the Gwangbok-ro shopping district, and on April 21, the statue near Gwangalli Beach was toppled and part of its head broken off. An official from the Korea Film Council thought someone had probably tried to climb the statue, despite numerous off-limits signs. [Korea Herald, 4/23/2018]

Oops!

-- Police officers in the German town of Neustadt were called April 25 to an apartment building after reports of screaming led neighbors to suspect domestic violence, the Daily Mail reported. Instead, they found a couple receiving instruction in the Japanese art of Shibari erotic bondage from the apartment's tenant. ("Shibari" translates as "the beauty of tight binding.") In a statement titled "Fifty Shades of Neustadt," police reported the couple were "well and in a good mood," even asking the officers if they'd like to join in, but they had to decline. [Daily Mail, 4/26/2018]

-- In the seaside village of Lytham St Annes, England, Douglas Cholmondley Travis, an 88-year-old member of the local Neighborhood Watch, was on patrol Oct. 10, 2017, when he and an 87-year-old watch colleague noticed a van turning into Lytham Park Cemetery. Regarding the vehicle as suspicious, they began taking pictures of it until Antony James, driver of the van, there only to visit family graves, grew angry and stopped, according to Metro News. James got out of his van to confront Travis, causing a panic, according to defense attorney Robert Castle, that resulted in James being knocked down by the Neighborhood Watch vehicle and Travis charged for reckless driving and assault. "This is all terribly sad," Castle told Blackpool Magistrates Court in late April, as his client is "one of the eyes and ears of the police." Travis was fined 40 pounds plus court costs. [Metro News, 4/30/2018]

Look-alikes

Dolores Leis, 64, of Nanton in Galicia, Spain, is a modest wife and potato farmer. But thanks to the internet, she has found fame as "Trump's Galician sister." The Associated Press reports that a journalist researching farming posted a photo of Leis at her farm on Instagram, and the striking resemblance between her and the U.S. president caught the attention of the web. "I say that it must be because of the color of the hair," Leis told La Voz de Galicia on April 24. She added that she's not overwhelmed by the sudden attention because, unlike her doppelganger, she doesn't use a mobile phone and isn't much interested in online chatter. "I look at everything that my daughters show me, but it never stung my curiosity to have (a phone)," she said. [Associated Press, 4/25/2018]

Misguided

Greyhound Bus passengers were frustrated on April 19 after their trip to New York was delayed by mechanical trouble and navigational challenges. The ride started in Cleveland, where the scheduled departure time was 2:30 a.m., passengers told WEWS-TV, but the bus didn't leave until 6 a.m. After crossing into Pennsylvania, the bus turned around, and the driver explained he was returning to Cleveland because of mechanical difficulties. However, the driver missed Cleveland and drove all the way to Toledo before realizing the mistake and heading back to Cleveland. "We were on this bus for seven hours just going in a circle," said passenger Morgan Staley. [WEWS TV, 4/20/2018]

Bathing News

-- Evelyn Washington, 29, broke then crawled through a window in a Monroe, Louisiana, home on April 17, then settled into a warm bath with a bag of Cheetos and a large plate of food within reach on the toilet lid. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that when the homeowner returned from work around 5 p.m., she called police, who removed Washington to the Ouachita Correctional Center, where she told them "an unknown male told her to break into the victims' residence." [Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 4/18/2018]

-- On April 4, a homeowner in the Longton area of Stoke-on-Trent, England, returned home to discover a man bathing in his tub and enjoying a cup of Oxo (broth), according to the BBC. When police arrived, the 36-year-old naked man tried to flee but was caught and arrested. The homeowner complained: "He ate me crisps, had five rounds of corned beef and sauce, ate a jar of pickles, had two ice creams and a can of Coke." [BBC, 4/6/2018]

What's in a Name?

A Planet Fitness customer in Saginaw Township, Michigan, was alarmed April 15 to find a Wi-Fi network named "remote detonator" while searching for an available connection. The gym manager evacuated the building and called police, who brought in a bomb-sniffing dog and declared the facility safe after a three-hour shutdown. Saginaw Township Police Chief Donald Pussehl told MLive.com that people often choose odd names for their Wi-Fi networks, adding that one on his own street is called "FBI surveillance van." [MLive.com, 4/16/2018]

Crime Report

In October 1981, Stephen Michael Paris escaped from the Jess Dunn Correctional Center in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he had been serving a nine-year sentence for drug possession and distribution. Using the name Stephen Chavez, Paris managed to evade authorities until April 12, when investigators tracked him down, thanks to his mother's obituary, at an office in Houston where he was working. Now 58 years old, Paris was mentioned in his mother's tribute, using his alias, the Associated Press reported, and after confirming his identity with fingerprints, the U.S. Marshals Service returned him to custody. [Associated Press, 4/12/2018]

New World Order

Jaywalkers, beware: The city of Daye, in Hubei province China, has installed water sprayers and an electronic screen at a crosswalk to stop people from crossing on a red light. Five pylons were placed along the road April 16, China Daily reported, three of which identify offenders using sensors and then spray them with water vapor. Other pylons "photograph people crossing against red lights," explained Wan Xinqiang of the Daye public security bureau, and "a large electronic screen at the intersection will instantly display their photos. ... If the equipment works well, we will utilize it throughout the city." [China Daily, 4/20/2018]

At Pennsylvania State University, the Outing Club, founded in 1920, provided students with outdoor recreation opportunities such as hiking and camping. But no more. Penn State has announced that after this semester, the university will no longer allow the club to organize student-led trips because it is too dangerous out in the wilderness, according to the offices of Student Affairs and Risk Management. Two other outdoorsy clubs, the Nittany Grotto Caving Club and the Nittany Divers Scuba Club, have also been restricted from club activities outdoors. Michael Lacey, president of the Caving Club, told the Centre Daily Times: "Penn State's just been clamping down really hard on the nature of activities" since the Jerry Sandusky scandal. University spokesperson Lisa Powers said Penn State will offer school-sponsored outdoors trips, but students noted the cost will be much higher. [Centre Daily Times, 4/20/2018]

Unclear on the Concept

In a perhaps unintentional bid for the worst criminal disguise of 2018, Kerry Hammond Jr., 22, broke into a GameStop store in St. Marys, Georgia, at 1:19 a.m. on April 13, where he was captured on camera wearing a clear plastic wrapper (of the sort that holds bundles of bottled water) over his head. Even with the plastic "mask," WJXT reported, Hammond's face is clearly visible in surveillance video, and St. Marys police quickly identified him and captured him on April 17. Hammond already had two active felony warrants for his arrest for burglary and second-degree criminal damage to property. [WJXT, 4/16/2018]

Techno-Weird

In Tokyo, women who have qualms about living alone may soon have a new security option. "Man on the Curtain" is a prototype smartphone app that connects to a projector and throws a moving shadow of a man onto a closed window curtain. The shadow man can be doing any of several different activities, such as boxing, karate, vacuuming, playing guitar or getting dressed. Keiichi Nakamura, advertising manager of Leopalace21 Corp., an apartment management company where the idea originated, told Reuters that eventually his company would like to "commercialize it once we add variety, such as releasing a new video every day." [Reuters, 4/21/2018]

Fun-suckers

In Oslo, according to Reuters, tradition calls for recent high school graduates to participate in "Russ," a several-weeks-long party that includes drinking, nudity and public sex, sometimes resulting in fatal car crashes. So this year, the Public Roads Administration issued a statement on April 18 headlined "No to sex on roundabouts," warning that students should refrain from running naked and having sex on bridges and roundabouts, because such behavior gives drivers "too much of a surprise." Terje Moe Gustavsen, head of the administration, said: "Everyone understands that being in and around roundabouts is a traffic hazard. It may not be so dangerous for someone to be without clothes on the bridge, but drivers can ... completely forget that they are driving." [Reuters, 4/18/2018]

Bright Ideas

-- Resorting to a low-tech, but possibly offensive strategy, Largo, Florida, detectives visited a dead man at Sylvan Abbey Funeral Home in Clearwater and attempted to use his finger to unlock his smartphone. Linus F. Phillip, 30, was shot and killed by Largo police March 23 after he tried to drive away from an officer wanting to search him. As part of their investigation, police said they needed to access and preserve data on Phillip's phone. Legal experts generally agreed the detectives had not broken any laws, but Phillip's girlfriend, Victoria Armstrong, 28, was less forgiving: "Nobody even calling us ... to let us know detectives were coming there at all is very disturbing," she told the Tampa Bay Times. "I'm very skeptical of all funeral homes now." [Tampa Bay Times, 4/21/2018]

-- United Press International reports that in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, the mayor has employed a clever way to keep his finger on the pulse of the city. When he goes out, he wears a fake beard so he'll blend in and not be recognized as the capital city's leader. Mayor Albek Ibraimov told Fergana, a Russian news agency: "I dress in old clothes ... take off my tie and I go and look, and see how things actually are." [United Press International, 4/20/2018]

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Over the last two years, Cameron County employee Gilberto Escamilla, 53, of Brownsville, Texas, has been accepting shipments of fajitas worth a total of $1.2 million at the Darrell B. Hester Juvenile Detention Center in Brownsville. The only trouble is, the inmates there aren't served fajitas. Escamilla had been ordering the meat from Labatt Food Service in Harlingen and intercepting it to resell. "It started small and got bigger and out of control," Escamilla told the court, according to The Brownsville Herald. On April 20, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to theft by a public servant. [The Brownsville Herald, 4/20/2018]

Oops

The Washington State Department of Transportation had to issue a mea culpa on the afternoon of April 17 after an electronic highway sign displayed the message "U SUCK" above Interstate 5 near Jovita. WSDOT called the sign "an inappropriate message" that appeared due to a training error and was "clearly a mistake," according to KCPQ TV. [Q13 FOX, 4/18/2018]

Bad Attitude

Timothy Hill, 67, of Grassington, North Yorkshire, England, having installed a laser jammer in his Range Rover, thought he was outsmarting law enforcement speed cameras. In fact, he was so sure of his scheme that he repeatedly raised his middle finger to the cameras -- sometimes casually, sometimes aggressively -- as he passed. What he didn't realize was that the laser jammer, rather than hiding his identity, was only blocking police from determining his speed, so when they tracked him down, he was charged not with speeding, but with perverting the course of justice. "If you want to attract our attention, repeatedly gesturing at police camera vans with your middle finger while you're driving a distinctive car fitted with a laser jammer is an excellent way to do it," Traffic Constable Andrew Forth told Metro News. Hill pleaded guilty on April 23, and was sentenced to eight months in jail and prohibited from driving for a year. [Metro News, 4/23/2018]

Least Competent Criminal

Kiana Wallace, 24, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in Belmont County, Ohio, on April 23 following her guilty plea for tampering with evidence. On probation after a drug possession sentence in 2017, Wallace failed a drug urine test when the "borrowed" sample she used tested positive for drugs. "Let me get this straight," Judge Frank Fregiato said in court, according to WTOV-TV. "To avoid the positive test with your own urine, you used someone else's urine, which turned out to be positive also. That's bizarre." [WTOV, 4/23/2018]

Inexplicable

-- On April 23, police officers in Warren, Michigan, responded to a home for a welfare check on 68-year-old George Curtis, whose relatives had become concerned because they hadn't heard from him. Curtis was, indeed, dead -- in fact, WJBK-TV reported, he had been deceased for months, maybe even a year. Also in the home: his girlfriend, who had continued living there with his decaying body, which was laid out in a bed. Police transported the unnamed woman to a hospital for a mental evaluation and are awaiting a report on cause of death from the medical examiner. [WJBK, 4/24/2018]

-- Meanwhile, on the South Side of Chicago, police responded to reports of an elderly woman pushing a dead body around the Chatham neighborhood in a shopping cart on April 21, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Officers took the woman to a hospital for a mental evaluation and launched an investigation into the female body, whose age and identity had not been determined at press time. [Chicago Sun-Times, 4/22/2018]