The Cheyenne (Nebraska) County Commissioners vented their frustration on July 6 over an alarming threat posed by a native species in the state's panhandle. The Scottsbluff Star-Herald reported that commissioner Philip Sanders told the gathering that prairie dogs had caused almost $3 million in damage to 2,600 acres in the county, and pleaded with representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture: "We have a group here from Lodgepole. Their whole town is being surrounded by prairie dogs, and we heed your help." The county has contracted with the USDA to handle its animal control problems, but Sanders said the lone wildlife specialist charged with the task has been overwhelmed. "I feel like we've let Lodgepole down," Sanders said. "I don't want to eradicate (prairie dogs). ... I get it, but they're out of control." [Scottsbluff Star-Herald, 7/6/2020]

Sign of the Times

A statue of Christopher Columbus stands in Cleveland's Little Italy neighborhood, but if signers of a petition get their way, it will soon be replaced by a statue of Chef Boyardee. The petition, signed by hundreds, suggests Ettore (Hector) Boiardi, known for his "food and iconic mustache," would be a much better recipient of Cleveland's love, Cleveland.com reported. "Boiardi and his brothers built a canned food empire from the ground up," the petition argues, and "during World War II, this company produced canned food for American soldiers 24/7," earning Chef Boyardee a Gold Star in 1946. [Cleveland.com, 6/26/2020]

Surprise!

Wynn Hall of Exeter, Nebraska, might have expected to find a few beer cans or old tires at the bottom of his farm pond when he drained it for maintenance on July 3, but he discovered something entirely different: an empty, broken ATM. "I thought, who would throw a refrigerator or a stove and put it in the pond?" Hall told KOLN. "I took a picture and zoomed in on it and thought, that looks like an ATM." When authorities arrived, they had a good idea of the source of the machine, since one had been stolen recently, but the numbers didn't match up. Hall said he didn't drain the pond last year, but didn't think the ATM had been there too long. "This is by far the strangest and I was really shocked to see it," Hall said. [KOLN, 7/5/2020]

Awesome!

-- Paragliding instructor Hasan Kaval, 29, in Izmir, Turkey, took couch-surfing to a whole new level when he rigged a red leather couch, lamp and TV to a parachute harness and launched himself from a cliff at Babadag Air Sports and Recreation Center. United Press International reported Kaval videoed himself July 2 as he sailed over Oludeniz Beach on the couch, pulling out snacks and drinks, and kicking off his shoes to put on slippers as he settled in to watch cartoons. Kaval's rig landed safely, and he didn't miss any of his shows. [UPI, 7/6/2020]

-- While Americans celebrated the Fourth of July by blowing stuff up, people in Seoul, South Korea, were surprised by an unannounced high-tech aerial display of encouragement and gratitude for medical personnel treating victims of COVID-19. AFP reported that 300 unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, lit up the sky for 10 minutes over the Han River on July 4 with messages about wearing masks, washing hands and socially distancing, then shifted focus to thank frontline health care workers. It ended with a silhouette of the Korean peninsula and the message, "Cheer up, Republic of Korea." The event was not advertised in advance in accordance with social distancing rules. [AFP, 7/6/2020]

Do It Yourself

Don Peters, 44, was arrested without incident on July 4, according to Akron, Ohio, police, after forcing his way around the counter at a Subway sandwich shop and making his own sandwich. According to police, Peters was intoxicated when he entered the store demanding a meal and became belligerent, damaging some plexiglass before charging behind the counter. Cleveland.com reported officers said they found a bottle of vodka and a block of Subway cheese in Peters' pockets; he was charged with disorderly conduct, criminal damaging and open container. [Cleveland.com, 7/6/2020]

Lucky

Nathalia Bruno, 24, of Newark, New Jersey, survived a harrowing mile-long ride through the storm sewer system under Passaic on July 6 after she drove into high water during a flash flood, NorthJersey.com reported. Bruno, a driver for DoorDash, escaped her car as it filled with water, but the current pulled both her and her car into the waterway that runs under the city, Passaic Fire Chief Patrick Trentacost said. Bruno rode the wave until it reached its outlet above the Passaic River, where she was "shot out" and swam to a backyard on the other side. A homeowner called 911, and Bruno was taken to a hospital where she appeared not to be seriously injured. Her Toyota Prius was later found under a street the next day. [NorthJersey.com, 7/8/2020]

Need for Speed

Kevin Nicks, 55, of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, was up to the challenge when he was invited to a racing event for unconventional vehicles at Elvington Airfield in North Yorks on July 4. Using parts lying around his house, Nicks mounted a Honda moped engine to the back of a wheelbarrow that recorded top speeds of 36 mph. "No wheelbarrow has flown down at the speeds I was going," Nicks boasted to the Daily Star. "It's thrilling and absolutely bonkers to drive it." This isn't the first time Nicks has motorized gardening equipment. He's also the owner of the world's fastest shed, which can reach speeds of 100 mph. "I like being creative and thinking out of the box," he said. [Daily Star, 7/8/2020]

The Passing Parade

Pennsylvania State Police received multiple calls on June 21 about a Mercedes-Benz driving in reverse on the Pennsylvania Turnpike during rush hour. Troopers arriving on the scene said they found Symara Cole, 27, of Silver Spring, Maryland, passed out in the car with all the doors locked, WTAJ reported. A semi driver had stopped his rig behind her to prevent others from being harmed. First responders found that Cole was under the influence of drugs; pending charges include DUI and drug possession. [WTAJ, 7/8/2020]

Bright Ideas

-- Chen Haigang, 50, of China's Shanxi province, credits his good health and well-being to a fitness regimen he created and has been following for about 30 years. Instead of doing tai chi or heading to the gym, Oddity Central reported on July 9, Chen acts like a monkey, walking on all fours and dangling his arms, even climbing trees and swinging from branch to branch. "I often watched the monkeys at the zoo. I thought it looked so fun and I started imitating," Chen said. "Since I moved to the city for work, I've spent my free time doing the (monkey) walking exercise. ... I never need to see a doctor." Recently, Chen has added other animals' movements to his routine, such as crawling like a crocodile. He said many people have asked him about his routine but are too embarrassed to do it in public. [Oddity Central, 7/9/2020]

-- Yoshito Harada, 32, readily admitted to police in Higashiura, Japan, that he slashes women's car tires so he can then step up to "help" them fix their flats. On June 11, Oddity Central reported, a 43-year-old unnamed woman leaving a grocery store noticed that her tire was flat. As she pulled over, a man stopped his car and offered to help, but the woman had had a similar experience a year before and recognized the good Samaritan, so she contacted police. Officers viewed surveillance video from the market and saw Harada slashing the woman's tire just before she emerged from the store. Further investigation revealed Harada has a history of approaching women this way going back to 2013, and authorities believe he has pulled the stunt more than 1,000 times. [Oddity Central, 7/6/2020]

A police officer in West Yorkshire, England, shared the thoughts of many after being called to the scene of a wreck involving a $300,000 Lamborghini that lasted only 20 minutes on the road before it was totaled on June 24. "It's only a car," the officer tweeted, but he "could have cried." According to the BBC, the car suffered a mechanical failure during its virgin drive and came to a stop in the outside land of the M1 motorway, where it was rear-ended by a van. The driver of the van suffered nonserious head injuries in the crash. The Lamborghini driver was not identified, nor was it clear whether he was hurt in the crash. [BBC, 6/25/2020]

Idle Hands

TikTok user Kevin Wise told KSLA he was looking for his five minutes of fame when he jumped into a fish tank at Bass Pro Shop in Bossier, Louisiana, in late June. "I said that if I got 2,000 likes, I would jump in the tank," Wise said. "I got way more than that and didn't want to be a liar." Shopper Treasure McGraw recorded video of Wise swimming around in the tank before he climbed out and ran through the store, soaking wet. "We heard a big splash, and I thought it was one of the fish," McGraw said. Initially, Bass Pro Shops said it would not press charges, but on June 26, the company filed a complaint with the Bossier City Police Department, noting that it had to empty the 13,000-gallon tank and clean it after Wise's swim. Wise wouldn't recommend the stunt to others. "Don't do spur-of-the-moment crap like I do," he warned. [KSLA, 6/26/2020]

Repeat Offender

Devin Roberts, 32, of Bardwell, Kentucky, caught the attention of local media after being arrested three times in one week. Carlisle County Sheriff's deputies first encountered Roberts on June 23, WSIL reported, when he called the sheriff's office to say he had taken a case he found next to a dumpster that turned out to contain items belonging to the city. When officers arrived, they determined the case had been removed from a city building. The following Saturday, Roberts was accused of fighting with a grocery store clerk and making lewd comments to female employees. Sheriff William Gilbert found Roberts at his home, passed out in a running vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. He had also left his 3-year-old son at home with another inebriated person. Finally, on June 28, deputies pulling over a car on suspicion of drunken driving found Roberts in the passenger seat, drunk and in possession of alcohol, which violated the terms of his earlier bonds. Roberts faces multiple charges related to all three encounters. [WSIL, 6/28/2020]

Questionable Judgments

-- The Sun reported on June 29 that two Ryanair pilots are in the (chicken) soup after they recorded themselves getting silly with a rubber chicken in the cockpit of a Boeing 737-800. In the video, thought to be recorded as passengers boarded the plane in Birmingham, England, the first officer and pilot trade off using the chicken to operate the airplane's throttle and making it squeak while mugging for the camera. Other crew members laugh in the background. A spokesperson for Ryanair commented: "These pictures and videos show crew on the ground in a parked aircraft with the engines shut down. While the images are unprofessional, the actions in them posed no risk and safety was never compromised. ... (Nevertheless) we are investigating the matter further." [The Sun, 6/29/2020]

-- Merseyside Police responding to the scene of a crash in Huyton, England, in the wee hours of June 28 say they arrived in time to witness a woman "finishing off a glass of wine," according to the Echo. In the collision, a white Mercedes had plowed into a parked Ford Focus, with both cars sustaining significant damage. Photographs from the scene showed the Mercedes to contain an empty wine bottle on the floor of the passenger seat, along with a wine glass, and another full bottle in a storage compartment. Police announced the arrest of two women, 33 and 35, on suspicion of unauthorized taking of a motor vehicle and drunk driving. [Echo, 6/29/2020]

This Old House

Firefighters were called to a home in Guilford, Connecticut, on June 29 where a resident had fallen through a wood floor in the 177-year-old house and down about 30 feet into a well, WHDH reported. The victim treaded water for about 25 minutes while responders worked to hoist them out. Apparently, the well had been covered over by an addition made to the home during a 1981 renovation. "Some of these older, historical homes may have hazards that were not updated by current code," the Guilford Police Department tweeted. The victim was taken to the hospital but had only minor injuries. [WHDH, 6/29/2020]

Chutzpah

Fisherman Dawson Cody Porter, 22, of Eagle River, Alaska, was arrested June 27 outside the Fisherman's Bar after arriving there driving a stolen fire truck with its emergency lights flashing, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Bristol Bay Borough police said Porter broke into the King Salmon Fire Station around 9 p.m., where he started the truck and drove it through the station's closed bay doors, making his way west on the Alaska Peninsula Highway about 15 miles to Naknek. Police Chief John Rhyshek said Porter caused about $10,000 in damage and put the fire truck out of commission while repairs are made to it. [Anchorage Daily News, 6/29/2020]

A Family Affair

Retired wheat farmer Peter Grundy, 84, of Denilliquin, New South Wales, Australia, has wanted to sell his apartment in Melbourne for the past eight years so he can move to a retirement home, but he's been foiled by his 49-year-old daughter, Katrina, who refuses to move out. Grundy has taken his daughter to court to evict her, Nine reported, but she won't budge, and Grundy is running out of options. "I'm sure it's taken the bit of youth I had left in me," said Grundy, describing his daughter as "very clever in legal terms." Katrina contends her parents gifted her the apartment, but a judge has dismissed that claim. Dad has spent about $70,000 (Australian) in legal fees. "She has an enormous capability to come up with things we never hear of," he said. [Nine, 6/24/2020]

Should Have Seen It Coming

Alexander Feaster, 44, in Hunter, Oklahoma, was arrested and charged in the June 28 shooting of an unnamed 26-year-old woman who had been attending a party across the street from Feaster's property. Garfield County Sheriff Jody Helm told KFOR that, on a dare, the woman had tried to steal one of two Nazi swastika flags displayed in Feaster's front yard, but "on the way back, someone hollered gun. She dropped the flag ... and shots were fired." Police executing a search warrant on the home found more than a dozen guns and ammunition. Feaster was charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon and shooting with intent to kill. The woman is expected to survive. [KFOR, 6/29/2020]

Car buyer Da Tong Yang of Richmond, British Columbia, became so frustrated with his local Mercedes-Benz dealership that in January he flew to the company's headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, to seek help. Yang bought his wife, Guifang Huo, a brand-new S550 in 2017, partially because he believed the $155,000 car to be one of the safest vehicles available, but a year later, the couple claimed, the steering wheel locked, causing the car to nearly crash into a concrete wall. Mercedes-Benz said an "internal electrical issue" was at fault and assured the couple it was fixed. Yang wasn't convinced, demanded his money back or a replacement car, then sued the company when it declined. The case has languished in court, prompting Yang's trip to Stuttgart in early June "to find justice, not only for him but also for other drivers," he told the Richmond News. Despite his personal appearance, litigation is still underway. [Richmond News, 6/8/2020]

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

An unnamed 66-year-old woman in Ewing, New Jersey, gave $1 to a man begging in a drugstore parking lot on June 18 and became the victim of a carjacking, according to the Associated Press. Ewing police said Tomasz Dymek, 31, of Queens, New York, "was not satisfied with the dollar, so he forced his way into the victim's vehicle and drove from the lot, sitting on top of her in the driver's seat." Witnesses alerted police, who followed Dymek into Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, where the car broke down and officers arrested him. [Associated Press, 6/19/2020]

Bright Idea

Bradley Bell, head writer for "The Bold and the Beautiful," told the New York Post the show is experimenting with using blowup dolls in love scenes as the daytime soap, in hiatus since March, resumed taping on June 17. Challenged to adhere to COVID-19 protocols, Bell said, "We put our heads together trying to figure out a way to make these scenes work without breaking the 8-foot (distancing) rule ... and we brought out a doll we used years ago as a corpse." The result, he said, "was very convincing ... We'll be using her with hair and makeup as a stand-in to match some of our leading ladies." The show has also recruited some of the actors' spouses as body doubles. "We've had stunt doubles before," Bell said, "but this is the first time we've had kissing doubles." [New York Post, 6/17/2020]

Least Competent, Most Ambitious Criminals

-- Donnovan Russell Jester, 28, of Largo, Florida, was arrested on June 18 for grand theft of a vessel -- a $900,000, 46-foot-long yacht. The Tampa Bay Times reported the theft took place March 20 at Thunder Marine, where Pinellas County deputies said the 2019 Jeanneau Leader was stolen and driven into four channel-marker pilings, doing about $60,000 worth of damage, before being abandoned to drift in an oyster bed. Investigators found Jester's thumbprint on a cabin door; he was held at the Pinellas County jail on $50,000. [Tampa Bay Times, 6/23/2020]

-- At 1:28 a.m. on June 20, airport air traffic control in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, contacted police about a distress call coming from an aircraft. Officers already at the airport trying to locate a car they believed had been stolen from Daytona Beach found Robert Stienstra, 22, of DeBary, Florida, sitting in the airplane on the airport apron, according to an arrest report. Stienstra asked an officer whether he knew how to fly a plane, the report stated, then explained that he had recently purchased the aircraft (valued at $1 million) for $20,000 and needed to fly to California to take marijuana and meet his girlfriend. The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported that along with a bag of weed, Stienstra had in his possession a glass pipe with remnants of methamphetamine and other drug paraphernalia. New Smyrna Beach police charged Stienstra with grand theft over $100,000; he was also wanted by Daytona Beach police on charges of grand theft of a motor vehicle. [Daytona Beach News-Journal, 6/22/2020]

News That Sounds Like a Joke

After falling asleep following a 10-bottle beer-drinking binge, and failing to heed nature's call for 18 hours, a 40-year-old Chinese man identified as Mr. Hu was diagnosed with a burst bladder, the New York Post reported on June 23. The man appeared at Zhuji People's Hospital in Zhejiang, China, complaining of searing abdominal pain, and doctors discovered three tears in his bladder, one of which had caused his intestines to spill into the bladder. Mr. Hu underwent emergency surgery and was able to recover. Zhuji officials said while bladder rupture is rare, they see at least one such patient every year. [New York Post, 6/23/2020]

The Litigious Society

The Tampa Bay Times reports that Kris Hedstrom of Odessa, Florida, filed suit against her neighbor, Heather Dayner, in late May, demanding a paternity test for the five goats she purchased from Dayner or a full refund. Hedstrom bought the five Nigerian Dwarf goats -- Bella, Gigi, Rosie, Zelda and Margoat -- in December, paying $900, and expected to register them with the American Dairy Goat Association, according to the lawsuit. Registered goats have higher value than nonregistered goats. But the ADGA denied Hedstrom's application because Dayner is not a member of the organization, and Dayner now accuses Hedstrom of trespassing on her farm and harassing her with calls to the police. "She's been a nightmare of a neighbor," Dayner said. Dayner plans to represent herself in court in July. [Tampa Bay Times, 6/23/2020]

Ironic

Researchers at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, have made an unexpected discovery in their study of the endangered night parrot, one of only two nocturnal parrot species in the world: It has poor night vision. The night parrot lives in Australia's outback and differs from the other nocturnal parrot, New Zealand's kakapo, which has lost its ability to fly, ABC reported. "The night parrot still flies, and there lies the problem of the bird running into things," said Dr. Vera Weisbecker, which may be contributing to its decline. [ABC, 6/11/2020]

Creme de la Weird

Koji Ishii, 39, of Tokyo, admits his passion is sometimes more like a “curse”: He is compelled to document every lost glove he sees on the streets of his city. He photographs and records details about each one, whether they’re stuck in drains or washed up on a beach, but never touches or removes them. Over 15 years, he’s curated more than 5,000 stray gloves, including children's mittens, heavy workingman's gloves and lacy ladies' accessories. “I live with the constant fear that there might be a glove right around the corner,” Ishii told AFP. He even gets off buses before his stop if he sees a glove on the ground. For him, the attraction is thinking about how the glove got there and who once wore it. “Lone gloves are a constantly changing, dynamic phenomena,” Ishii said. [AFP via Yahoo News, 6/18/2020]