Scientists are aghast at an eBay listing offering a rare baby T-rex fossil for a $2.95 million buy-it-now price. Fossil hunter Alan Detrich, who discovered the fossil in 2013, is believed to have created the listing in February for the 68 million-year-old artifact, which until recently had been on loan to the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas. CNBC reported the specimen has a 15-foot-long body, 21-inch skull and serrated teeth, and Detrich estimates its age at death to be about 4 years. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology issued a statement expressing concerns that "the fossil, which represents a unique part of life's past, may be lost from the public trust. ... Only casts and other replicas of vertebrate fossils should be traded, not the fossils themselves." [CNBC, 4/17/2019]

Another Day at Walmart

-- At around 8:30 p.m. on April 10, things got interesting at an Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Walmart store. Lisa Smith, 46, entered the store with her unleashed dog, Bo, according to police, and as Bo distracted shoppers and store staff, Smith pulled apart store displays, putting them in her cart. After being asked by workers to leave the store, Smith went out to the parking lot and started practicing karate moves. Bo grabbed a box of Jiffy Cornbread Muffin Mix and also attempted to leave the store. Meanwhile, Smith's son, Benny Vann, 25, had made his way to the back of the store, where he completely undressed, exposing himself to other shoppers, and grabbed new clothes from store racks before attempting to run over police officers with his scooter. WHO TV reported Smith was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and misdemeanor bail jumping. Vann racked up charges of lewd and lascivious behavior, disorderly conduct and retail theft. Bo, police said, received only a warning for his theft of the muffin mix. [WHO TV, 4/13/2019]

-- Crossville, Tennessee, police officers pulled over Sally Selby, 45, at 5 a.m. on April 5 as she motored down Highway 127 -- in the slow lane -- driving a Walmart mobility scooter. She was on her way to the Waffle House, she said, to buy a cup of coffee. WTVF reported that Selby initially told officers she had built the scooter, but Walmart confirmed it was one of theirs and had surveillance video of Selby driving the scooter out of the store to back up their story. She was arrested for theft. [WTVF, 4/9/2019]

The Continuing Crisis

-- In Cary, North Carolina, Wake County Deputy J. Rattelade, responding to a report of a car crash on the evening of April 5, found one of the drivers, Derwood Johnson, 36, of Fort Worth, Texas, had gotten out of his car and removed all his clothes before starting to walk across the street. As Deputy Rattelade tried to arrest him, Johnson hit her on the head, reported WTVD. With the help of other first responders and some pepper spray, Rattelade was able to subdue Johnson, who was charged with assault on a government official. Rattelade was unhurt; Johnson was taken to an area hospital for further evaluation. [WTVD, 4/6/2019]

-- On April 13, a family in Newtown, Connecticut, returned home from a morning shopping trip to find Joseph Achenbach, 35, wandering around inside their home naked. The Watertown man had crashed his SUV in the homeowners' backyard and moseyed inside through an unlocked glass door. Achenbach's clothes could not be found at the scene, leading police to believe he had been naked when he crashed. FOX61 reported that he was charged with second-degree criminal trespassing and driving while intoxicated. [FOX61, 4/15/2019]

Stay in School

When the Wilkinson School in El Granada, California, received a bomb threat on the morning of April 11, it didn't take long for administrators to empty the building of staff and students. But law officers searching the grounds found nothing -- because the threatening phone call actually came from 2,100 miles away, in Woodville, Mississippi. That's where a 15-year-old student intended to threaten her own Wilkinson County High School, reported The San Jose Mercury News, but apparently didn't check her Google search thoroughly enough before dialing. [San Jose Mercury News, 4/13/2019]

Ewwwww!

We've all swatted at pesky sweat bees buzzing around our heads, but a Taiwanese woman suffered a more invasive form of irritation after participating in the Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, when Taiwanese people visit their families' graves to spruce them up. The 29-year-old woman, identified by her surname, He, thought she had gotten dirt in her eye, but when the eye later swelled shut, she went to Fooyin University Hospital for help, The Washington Post reported. Hung Chi-ting, the hospital's head of ophthalmology, looked in her eye through a microscope and was startled to see insect legs wiggling in her eye socket. The doctor eventually extracted four sweat bees from her eyelid. The bees, which crave salt, were feeding off of He's tears, he explained. He is expected to fully recover, and the bees, still alive, were kept for further study. [The Washington Post, 4/10/2019]

Suspicions Confirmed

A concerned animal lover in Devon, England, contacted authorities on April 8 to report that a fox she had been watching hadn't moved for several days, reported Fox News. In response, Ellie Burt, an officer with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals, suggested trying the "broom test," which didn't make the fox stir, but Burt was told it "tracked them with its eyes and seemed to be breathing well." When Burt arrived on the scene, she quickly diagnosed the problem: The fox was a fake, "stuffed by a taxidermist. He'd clearly been placed under a bush outside of the houses as a prank," Burt said. "Someone had been moving it around the neighborhood." Burt discarded the fox "to avoid any further calls." [Fox News, 4/12/2019]

The Litigious Society

An unnamed 40-year-old man in Muncie, Indiana, is suing his parents for trashing his collection of porn videos and magazines, which he estimates was worth $29,000. According to the Associated Press, the man had been living with his parents for 10 months following a divorce, and after he bought a new house, his parents delivered his possessions -- minus the 12 boxes of porn. His parents admitted dumping the collection; in an email quoted by the lawsuit, the father told his son, "I did you a big favor by getting rid of all this stuff." The son is seeking $87,000 in financial damages. [Associated Press, 4/14/2019]

Cautionary Tale

Paramedic Natalie Kuniciki, 23, was lying in bed watching a movie in her London flat when she stretched her neck and heard a loud crack. Thinking nothing of it, she went to sleep, but soon reawakened to realize she couldn't move her left leg. "I got up and tried to walk to the bathroom and I was swaying everywhere. I looked down and realized I wasn't moving my left leg at all, then I fell to the floor," Kuniciki told The Sun. She called an ambulance, and a CT scan confirmed that she'd had a stroke. When her neck cracked, it had caused her vertebral artery to burst, sending a clot to her brain and triggering the stroke. Kuniciki spent a month in the hospital while she regained mobility on her left side. Doctors hope she can return to work in six to 12 months. [The Sun, 4/15/2019]

Least Competent Criminal

Brandon Cory Lecroy, 26, of Greenwood, South Carolina, really wanted to get rid of his neighbor. In March 2018, The New York Times reported, the FBI was tipped off that Lecroy had contacted an unidentified white supremacist group and asked them to kill his African American neighbor, hang him from a tree and leave a cross burning in his yard. An FBI agent posing as a hit man got in touch with Lecroy, who offered $500 for the killing and told the agent he was planning to take over the neighbor's property. As soon as Lecroy made a $100 down payment, he was taken into custody. On April 12, Lecroy pleaded guilty to a murder-for-hire charge and was sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years of supervision. [New York Times, 4/15/2019]

In Raleigh, North Carolina, residents of The Dakota apartment complex are stepping out a little more confidently after management engaged the services of a company called PawzLife. The Raleigh News and Observer reported on March 22 that residents were growing disgusted with the amount of dog feces on the sidewalks and green spaces around the complex. So management turned to a high-tech solution: Residents who own dogs are required to bring them to a "pup party," where PawzLife collects their DNA with a simple saliva swipe and creates a "unique DNA profile" for each dog. The company then visits the neighborhood to pick up any stray poop, and owners whose dogs are a match with the poop DNA are fined $100 per offense. PawzLife owner Matthew Malec said, "We are just trying to make the Earth a little bit better to live on." [Raleigh News and Observer, 3/22/2019]

Nothing Better to Do ...

Traffic on a street in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles came to a virtual stop as two cars engaged in a legendary standoff over a parking space on April 1. Fox News reported that Mariah Flores, who was positioned across the street, documented the entire two-hour dispute on Twitter, as the "black car" and the "silver car" jockeyed to parallel park in one open spot along the sidewalk. As horns honked and tensions mounted, a "plot twist" changed the whole dynamic: The owner of a third vehicle, parked in front of the empty space, left, leaving room for both black and silver to park. The drivers quickly settled their vehicles in the spaces but then sat in their cars for some time. "Like are they afraid of each other or is it just awkward now?" Flores wondered. Finally, the driver of the silver car emerged, prompting Flores' comment, "SILVER takes the gold." [Fox News, 4/4/2019]

... and Too Much Money to Do It With

A wealthy San Francisco philanthropist, Florence Fang, 84, is being sued by the city of Hillsborough over the "Flintstones" home and grounds she has created in the suburb. The oddly shaped house was built in 1976, and Fang bought it in 2017. Today it's painted purple and red, features a large "Yabba Dabba Do" sign near the driveway, and Fang has added dinosaur and mushroom figurines, along with Fred Flintstone himself, to the yard. "We don't like it when people build things first, then come in and demand or ask for permission later," huffed Assistant City Attorney Mark Hudak, who told KTVU Fang built without the proper permits and the property is subject to code violations along with offending the neighbors' aesthetic sensibilities. But Angela Alioto, Fang's attorney, said the home is Fang's "happy place." Fang doesn't live in the home but uses it for entertainment and charitable events. "She's had an incredible life, and I think it's wonderful that, at 84 years old, she has found something that makes her so happy," Alioto told the San Mateo Daily Journal. [KTVU, 3/18/2019] [San Mateo Daily Journal, 4/2/2019]

People Different From Us

Kaz James, 37, from Salford, Greater Manchester, England, has known since he was a child that he was different from other people. "I didn't ever feel like a human. I always felt like a dog that was really out of place," James told Metro News. He first started to understand his peculiarity when he gained access to the internet at 17 years old. "I was known by my friends for ... grabbing hold of the collar of their shirt in my teeth and biting or licking them, very canine-type behaviors," James said. Today he eats out of a dog bowl and owns three custom-made dog suits -- one a $2,600 fur suit shipped from Canada. "(M)y behaviors were quite dog-like in childhood, probably from the age of 6," he said. "No one ever talked about it. It was never mentioned." [Metro News, 4/3/2019]

Family Values

The Carter County (Tennessee) Sheriff's Department had some strong leads in the death of Edith Betty Ralph, 75, on April 6, but none stronger than the behavior of John Christopher Ralph, 51, Edith's son, who had been living with her and had repeatedly complained to friends and family that she was "driving him crazy." "The night of Mrs. Ralph's murder, John asked co-workers to take pictures of him at work saying that if anything happened to his mother he would need an alibi," according to the sheriff's department. ABC News reported that Edith was found deceased due to severe head trauma and several gunshot wounds. John was stopped at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, ready to board a flight for Amsterdam. He was held on a $1 million bond. [ABC News, 4/7/2019]

The Aristocrats!

-- When you purchase a new home, you need new stuff to put in it. So it was for Andrew Francis Lippi, 59, of Key Haven, Florida. Lippi purchased an $8 million private island, Thompson Island, off Key West in early April, which includes a large estate previously owned by philanthropist Edward B. Knight. But on April 6, Lippi was charged with felony grand theft for stealing $300 worth of home goods from Kmart, including two coffeemakers, eight lightbulbs and a bed skirt. His method was clever: He bought the items, then returned their boxes with other things packed inside, according to the Miami Herald. (For example, a basketball was in the Keurig box.) Lippi, speaking to the Herald, denied the charges and said, "Basically it has to do with a commercial dispute. ... It's very complicated and I'd rather not get into it." He's scheduled to appear in court on April 18. [Miami Herald, 4/8/2019]

-- Lauren Jenai, 47, co-founder (with her ex-husband) of CrossFit, has struck up a new romance with an old flame: Franklin Tyrone Tucker, also 47, who resides at the Stock Island Detention Center in Florida, where he awaits trial for first-degree murder and armed robbery. Jenai sold her CrossFit shares for $20 million after her divorce and now lives in Portland, Oregon. She and Tucker, childhood friends, reconnected on Facebook before Tucker's arrest, and she has risen to his defense, offering to put up his $1 million bond (which was denied in January) and hiring private investigators for his case. She has not been able to see Tucker in person, but they were enjoying video visitation -- until, by Jenai's admission, she "got a little risque ... I was touching my boobs." Her account was suspended, so she began using her mother's account, but it happened again: "My boobs popped out at some point, it happens." Tucker and Jenai are scheduled to wed in prison, and she told the Daily Mail she won't ask him to sign a prenup: It feels "a little inappropriate. ... I trust him. I love him. My house is his house." [Daily Mail, 4/9/2019]

What's in a Name?

The Smuggler's Inn on Canada View Drive in Blaine, Washington, sits just a stone's throw from the Canadian border. Fittingly, on April 4, a Canadian court charged its owner, Robert Joseph Boule, 69, with 21 counts of "inducing, aiding or abetting" seven people who tried to illegally enter Canada between May 2018 and March 2019. Boule had remarked to CBC News in the past that it wasn't unusual to see people with night-vision goggles sneaking across the border at night. He remains in custody in Canada. [CBC News, 4/9/2019]

Rogers, Arkansas, neighbors Charles Eugene Ferris, 50, and Christopher Hicks, 36, were hanging out on Ferris' back porch on March 31, drinking and enjoying the spring air. Ferris was wearing his bulletproof vest -- because why not? -- and invited Hicks to shoot him with a .22-caliber semi-automatic rifle. KFSM reported the vest blocked the bullet from striking Ferris, but it still hurt and left a red mark on his upper chest. Next, Hicks donned the vest and Ferris "unloaded the clip into Christopher's back," according to the police report, also leaving bruises. That's where it all would have ended had Ferris not gone to the hospital, where staff alerted the Benton County Sheriff's Office. Ferris initially told officers an elaborate story about being shot while protecting "an asset" in a dramatic gunfight, but Ferris' wife spilled the beans about the back-porch challenge. Both men were arrested for suspicion of aggravated assault. [KFSM, 4/2/2019]

Quirky

In downtown Borrego Springs, California, a curious sign tops a 5-foot-tall post in front of the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association gift shop: "This Post Not Currently In Use." Mike McElhatton, the association's education director, told The San Diego Union Tribune: "When I started working (here) I saw this post that ... had obviously been there for a long time. At first I just wondered what in the heck was the post for and then I got the idea to put a sign on it." McElhatton seemed disappointed with the response, though: "Amazingly, we don't get a whole lot of comment about it. I've seen people walk up and they just look at the sign and they just keep going." [San Diego Union Tribune, 4/2/2019]

Why Not?

Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, tried a new venue for staging an opera on March 30 and 31: underwater. "Breathe: A Multidisciplinary Water Opera" featured dancers, percussionists, singers, a flute and other orchestra instruments -- some above water, some below. Composer and musical director Loren Kiyoshi Dempster told WLUK TV he was skeptical at first. "It's been kind of one of the great surprises of my life that you could play cello underwater," he said. A device used by marine biologists to record underwater sounds delivered the music above the surface for audience members. [WLUK, 3/27/2019]

Police Report

On March 29, in a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden, an off-duty police officer was enjoying a nice sauna when he noticed that another man in the sauna was a fugitive wanted for aggravated assault, among other offenses. They recognized each other, police spokesperson Carina Skagerlind told the Associated Press, and "the naked police officer calmly told the man that he should consider himself arrested." The officer called for backup, and "the arrest was undramatic," she added. [Associated Press, 4/2/2019]

Oops!

-- Harris County (Texas) Civil Court Judge Bill McLeod, who was sworn in last November, accidentally resigned on April 1, but it wasn't an April Fools' joke. Reuters reported that McLeod shared his plan online to run for the state supreme court without realizing that such an announcement amounts to a resignation, according to the state's constitution. McLeod himself did not comment on the gaffe, but county commissioners may be able to keep him in office until a special election can be held. [Reuters, 4/2/2019]

-- Detroit police say they can't confirm what made an unnamed 50-year-old man shoot himself in the foot on March 19, but rumor has it that he was aiming for something entirely different. WDIV TV reported that the man, who uses a wheelchair, was trying to kill a cockroach by throwing his shoe at it; the shoe contained his handgun, and it fell out of the shoe and discharged, striking his foot. Police said the man was in stable condition after the incident. [WDIV, 3/19/2019]

Least Competent Criminals

-- Who has time to bother with long lines and bureaucracy at the driver's license office? Not Mr. Tang of Liuzhou, China, who was pulled over for a routine check as he rode his silver motorcycle on March 31. Tang was happy to produce his license, carried in the customary cover, reported Oddity Central. But when officers examined it, they realized it was homemade. "He behaved very calmly as he took out the license," a traffic police officer said. "But I was shocked when I saw what was inside." Tang had simply written all the pertinent information found on a standard driver's license on a piece of lined notebook paper, then glued a photo of himself to the paper. When pressed for an explanation, Tang said he was too lazy to study for the license exam and didn't want to spend the money on driving classes. He thought a handwritten license would be better than nothing at all. "I didn't expect the traffic police to be so serious," Tang said. [Oddity Central, 4/2/2019]

-- Where others see innocent little girls raising money for educational programs, some see an opportunity to pad their bank account. So it went for Brian Couture, 40, of Forest Grove, Oregon, who is accused of going to elaborate lengths to skim more than $700 of Girl Scout cookie money from his daughter. Forest Grove police responded to a 911 call at Couture's home on March 6, where the man said an intruder had entered his home and struggled with him. When police arrived, according to KPTV, Couture was "unresponsive" and was taken to the hospital with undisclosed injuries, while K9 units set out to look for the thief around the neighborhood, alarming residents. Police said Couture later admitted to investigators that he had staged the whole thing, but at his hearing on March 29, he pleaded not guilty to initiating a false report. The money, according to a Girl Scouts spokeswoman, is still unaccounted for. [KPTV, 3/29/2019]

Weird Science

In Cachoeira Alta, Brazil, Judge Filipe Luis Peruca handed down an unusual judgment in a paternity case that involved identical twin potential fathers. The mother of a young girl filed a paternity suit against Twin A, who accused Twin B of being the actual father, reported the BBC. DNA tests showed an equal probability for the two men to be the father, so Judge Peruca ordered them both to pay maintenance for the daughter. As a result, she will receive twice as much as she would with only one father. "One of them is acting in bad faith in order to hide the fact that he is the father," the judge wrote. "Such vile behavior cannot be tolerated by the law." [BBC, 4/2/2019]

Awesome!

The harsh winter left many city streets around the country riddled with potholes, but in Muskegon Heights, Michigan, one 12-year-old boy is not waiting for the slow-moving government to fix them. Monte Scott started filling potholes around his neighborhood with dirt from his own yard in late March. "I didn't want people messing up their cars like my mom did," Scott told WZZM13. They "would have to pay like $600 to $700 to get their car fixed, they would be mad." His mom, Trinell Scott, said, "That's just the type of kid he is. He's a good kid and there are a lot like him in the community." [WZZM13, 3/31/2019]

High School High Jinks

At Secaucus High School in New Jersey, two freshman boys received charges of computer criminal activity and conspiracy to commit computer criminal activity -- instead of extra credit points -- after they crashed the school's Wi-Fi network on several occasions to avoid having to take exams, authorities announced April 1. NJ.com reported that investigators believe the boys took requests from other students to jam the signals during specific times. "I was surprised on how a kid our age, or close to our age, was able to do something like this," commented one 10th-grader. She said arresting them seemed a little heavy-handed: "They are messing with people's education, but they aren't harming anyone." Superintendent Jennifer Montesano said the "system has been restored and is now fully operational." Back to the books, kids. [NJ.com, 4/2/2019]