Nathan Garisto, 26, of Largo, Florida, was arrested on Oct. 19 on a domestic battery charge. The Smoking Gun reported that Garisto was "heavily intoxicated while engaged in a verbal argument with his girlfriend," according to police. He refused to leave after his girlfriend asked him to, instead throwing "a pumpkin and all insides of the pumpkin at the subject." Garisto maintains he threw the pumpkin at the door, not at the girlfriend. He was released on bond and ordered to have no contact with the victim. [The Smoking Gun, 10/20/2020]

Sweet Love

Sugar Good, 49, who manages a Dunkin' donuts store in Edmond, Oklahoma, knew a good man when she saw one ... every morning at 7:15 as he collected his sausage, egg and cheese croissant at her drive-thru. After a year of friendly commercial exchanges, The New York Times reported, Good finally got up the nerve to hand John Thompson, 45, her business card along with his food and coffee. Two years later, on Oct. 13, Good and Thompson tied the knot at the place that brought them together: the Dunkin' drive-thru. "We knew we wanted to share it with the Dunkin' family," Good said. She stood at her spot in the window and Thompson drove up in his red truck, where former pastor Colby Taylor was waiting for them. Taylor kept the ceremony short, as other customers were lined up behind Thompson, but at the end, Good came outside and Thompson got out of his truck for their first kiss as regulars, friends and family cheered them on. "Our story wasn't glamour," Good said, "but it was true romance." [New York Times, 10/23/2020]

Bright Idea

In Littleton, New Hampshire, a Hillsborough County grand jury filed indictments against Lisa Landon, 33, in early October, the Union Leader reported. Landon was scheduled in court for three different cases in November and December 2019, involving drug possession and stalking. To avoid going to jail, Landon impersonated a prosecutor, using the court's electronic system to file fake documents dropping the charges against her. A state forensic officer noticed last November that the charges were dropped and wondered if a scheduled competency evaluation on Landon should proceed, which tipped off court officials. While she was at it, Landon allegedly filed an order on behalf of a relative to halt guardianship proceedings involving Landon's child. She's been charged with one count of false impersonation and six counts of falsifying physical evidence. [Union Leader, 10/26/2020]

Cue the Lawyers

Nightmares really do come true: On Oct. 24, as Leonard Shoulders, 33, waited at a bus stop in the Bronx, New York, the sidewalk beneath him gave way and he dropped into a decrepit basement full of rats, Fox News reported. Bystanders alerted authorities, and Shoulders was rescued from the dark hole about 30 minutes later, with injuries including a broken arm, broken leg and scraped face. New York's Department of Buildings said the basement beneath the sidewalk was poorly maintained, and the building was closed until repairs can be made. [Fox News, 10/27/2020]

The Meth Made Me Do It

Traffic slowed to a crawl and people got out of their cars on a busy roadway in Chongqing, China, on Oct. 17, hoping to collect banknotes that were raining down from the sky. As it turned out, the money wasn't coming from heaven, but from an unnamed 29-year-old man who was tripping on methamphetamine in his 30-story-high apartment overlooking the street. As he showered passersby with money, police arrived and took him into custody, and he was receiving treatment, according to The Guardian. [Guardian, 10/29/2020]

Florida

A woman who would not leave a St. Petersburg, Florida, Mobil gas station was arrested for trespassing on Oct. 14, The Smoking Gun reported. But that's not the weird part. Melinda Lynn Guerrero, 33, was also charged with providing a false name to law enforcement after she repeatedly said her name was "My butt just farted." Officers were familiar with Guerrero from a series of arrests over several years, and her last name is tattooed on her back, so ... They noted she may have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs. [The Smoking Gun, 10/16/2020]

The Continuing Crisis

Sure, COVID-19 has been tough on human beings. But don't discount the effect the virus has had on our aquatic friends. Take Mikko, a 3-foot-long grouper who lives at the Sea Life Helsinki Sea Lab ocean laboratory, where he had to be isolated because he kept eating his tankmates. When the aquarium closed because of the pandemic, Mikko appeared depressed, becoming "more still and distant than usual," his caretakers told Live Science. "To cheer him up ... the caretakers and other staff had lunch and coffee breaks by his tank." They also had a TV to keep him company, but on Oct. 12, Mikko got the ultimate pick-me-up: a 16th birthday party featuring a salmon "cake." Aquarium representatives said he enjoyed the party. [Live Science, 10/22/2020]

Election Snafu

Nikolai Loktev, 58, the incumbent mayor of Povalikhino in Russia, asked the woman who cleans the city hall to add her name to the ballot as a formality, in order to comply with a regulation that elections must have two or more candidates. In a twist of fate, however, Marina Udgodskaya received 62% of the vote, compared to Loktev's 34%, on Sept. 28. "I didn't think people would actually vote for me," Udgodskaya said, according to the BBC. But one village shopkeeper explained: "If we could have voted against all we would have done, but we had the option to vote for Marina, so we did. I think she'll cope. The whole village will help." Loktev is sporting a stiff upper lip: "I'm not upset. People voted for her, so let her do her job." [BBC, 9/29/2020]

Family Values

On Oct. 8, as an Advent Health worker checked visitors' temperatures at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, she noticed a woman removing something from the stroller she was pushing and place it in the bushes outside the entrance to the park. The woman then proceeded through the checkpoint and into the park. The witness alerted authorities, who found a purse and, inside, a handgun. The woman, Marcia Temple of Georgia, returned to the spot and told the officer the purse was hers, but threw her 6-year-old son under the bus: "I had told my son to hold it for me and stand right here while I go get my brother. He put it down, and messed with the plants and I put them back, but I didn't know he put it down and I didn't know he left it over here." Unfortunately for Temple, security cameras captured her planting the purse in the bushes, ClickOrlando.com reported. Orange County deputies said the firearm was fully loaded, and Temple did not have a concealed weapons permit for either Florida or Georgia. She was charged with carrying a concealed firearm. [ClickOrlando.com, 10/30/2020]

Least Neighborly Neighbor

Ryan Ferry and his wife moved into their Clearwater, Florida, home with great expectations about living in a neighborhood they loved. But their next-door neighbor, Ken Nielsen, had other plans. "He's threatened to shoot me in the face numerous times," Ferry told WFLA. "My wife can't go out back and sunbathe because he will pull up a chair and take pictures of her." The final straw came on Oct. 24, when Ferry hung lights on his side of their shared fence for a birthday party that evening. Nielsen called police, who asked Ferry to remove the lights. But he called 911 again, telling the operator, "I've got a ton of ... weapons. I got ... hand grenades. I'll blow them out of the ... ground." Ferry can take comfort in the fact that it's not personal: Nielsen assaulted another neighbor in 2016 for power washing while he was trying to watch the Olympics. [WFLA, 10/30/2020]

An unnamed 28-year-old man in search of a voluntary castration found himself drawn to a website offering such services, which led him to travel from Virginia to a cabin in the woods of Poteau, Oklahoma. There, on Oct. 12, Bob Lee Allen, 53, and Thomas Evans Gates, 42, allegedly relieved the victim of his testicles during a two-hour surgery, The Oklahoman reported. Allen told the victim that he has "a freezer of body parts" and that "he was going to consume the parts and laughed and said that he was a cannibal," an affidavit said. The day following the operation, Allen took the victim to the hospital because he was bleeding badly, but cautioned him to say "he done it to himself." The hospital contacted police, and investigators searched the property, finding suspected body parts in a deep freeze. Allen and Gates were charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors, including conspiracy to commit unlicensed surgery and failure to bury the body parts. [The Oklahoman, 10/22/2020]

Questionable Judgment

Tynette Housley, 73, of Black Forest, Colorado, was cited by Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials after her "pet" deer attacked and gored a neighbor who was out walking her dog on Oct. 16. The buck, now sporting two-pronged antlers, was taken in by Housley when it was just a few days old and raised as a pet. The victim tried to run first to another neighbor's home, then to her own, but the buck repeatedly knocked her down and gored her. A CPW officer euthanized the deer and took it for testing for rabies and other diseases. "We can't say it enough: Wild animals are not pets," said Frank McGee, CPW's area wildlife manager. Housley was charged with illegal possession and illegal feeding of wildlife. [Colorado Parks and Wildlife, 10/19/2020]

Man's Best Friend

-- Veterinary researchers at the University of Helsinki have been testing whether dogs can sniff out COVID-19, and Anna Hielm-Bjorkman has the good news: They can. With almost 100% accuracy. "A dog could easily save so, so, so many lives," she told DW. A pilot program at the Helsinki Airport is having travelers wipe their wrists or neck with a cloth, which the trained dogs then sniff. They can identify the virus up to five days before any symptoms appear. People who test positive at the voluntary canine site are directed to the airport's medical unit for confirmation. Hielm-Bjorkman said travelers have been eager to participate, waiting up to an hour in line. [DW, 10/21/2020]

-- On the Italian island of Sardinia, farmer Cristian Mallocci welcomed a litter of five dogs on Oct. 9, Fox News reported. Among them was a special pup -- one with green fur, which Mallocci immediately named Pistachio. The other four dogs had white fur, like their mom. Green puppies are rare, but not unheard-of; scientists think it happens when the puppy makes contact with a green pigment in the womb. Pistachio's color has faded since his birth, but he'll keep his name, and Mallocci will keep him to help look after sheep on the farm. [Fox News, 10/23/2020]

Family Values

Twifi, a startup internet provider in Switzerland, posted a Facebook ad with a compelling offer to parents-to-be: Name your child Twifus (for a boy) or Twifia (for a girl) in exchange for 18 years of free internet service. And sure enough, KidSpot.com reported, one young couple bit, giving their daughter the rewarding middle name. "The more I thought about it, the more unique the name became to me, and that's when the thing acquired its charm," the baby's dad, 35, said. Mom went even deeper: "For me, the name Twifia also stands for connection in this context. The more often we say 'Twifia,' the heartier the name sounds!" [KidSpot.com, 10/15/2020]

Over the Top

-- Superfan Luis Nostromo, 43, of Barcelona, Spain, has spent the last three years turning his apartment there into a stunning replica of the set of "Alien," the 1979 Ridley Scott film starring Sigourney Weaver. His locations include the laboratory where the face-hugging monster attached to actor John Hurt was first examined; the spaceship's corridors; and the pod that Weaver escapes in. Oddity Central reported that Nostromo hopes to finish his "Alien Museum" project by the end of the year and is already accepting visits from other fans. [Oddity Central, 10/16/2020]

-- In July, Taco Bell announced various changes to its menu, provoking uproar among some of its fans, Riverfront Times reported. But Bryant Hoban of O'Fallon, Missouri, saw an opportunity. When Hoban heard that the Potato Soft Taco was being sliced from the menu, he jumped in the car and headed to his nearest outlet, where he bought several of the items, then put them in his freezer. Then he listed three of them on Facebook Marketplace for $200. "These babies are rare!" he gushed. "Never been eaten!" It's all part of Hoban's scheme to start an "investment sandwich" business, he said. "You know, like the McRib -- McDonald's only offers it once a year, but the demand doesn't go away." Hoban has sold two of the tacos for $70 each: "I recouped my investment." [Riverfront Times, 10/13/2020]

Inexplicable

A 17-year-old was taken into custody, and to the hospital, after he caused a disturbance at a Petro Deli north of Topeka, Kansas, on Oct. 17. The teen, who was naked except for the ranch dressing smeared all over his body, damaged merchandise in the store, then ran out and jumped in a running car, which he crashed into a pillar, WIBW-TV reported. Investigators said he was "under the influence of a substance." He was released to the custody of his parents. [WIBW-TV, 10/18/2020]

What's in a Name?

Lawrence Crook, 37, of Jersey City, New Jersey, managed to live up to his name not once, but twice in one day on Oct. 8. In the first incident, Crook was seen loading "several blue and white striped bags" into a black SUV, according to Oddee.com. Lt. Antonio Granata said the witness confronted Crook, after which he fled on foot. The SUV had been reported stolen, and police found Crook in possession of methamphetamine along with drug paraphernalia. He was arrested and released on bond. But that was just the first part of his day. Later, a lieutenant with the Fairfield Fire Department saw Crook walking around in a fire station and rummaging through firefighters' property. He was arrested again and now has two bonds, each set at $25,000. [Oddee.com, 10/20/2020]

Halloweird

As Halloween approaches, residents in and around Concord, Massachusetts, are being treated to a spooky sight: A headless horseman, er, bikeman, is riding around on a blacked-out bike, strumming his guitar and waving to motorists and passersby. The Boston Globe reported on Oct. 20 that the ghoul is really Matthew Dunkle, 38, who has been known as the "bike-riding guy" in the area since 2015, when he went through a divorce and lost a grandparent. "I needed something special in my life," Dunkle said. "I had a few smiles and people waved and people laughed and stuff. So that was kind of the beginning of it." He actually donned the headless horseman costume in April, as the pandemic got going. "It just feels like we are kind of in the dark right now," he said. "We are all just running around with our heads cut off." [Boston Globe, 10/20/2020]

Architect Nick Drummond loves to renovate old houses and was told the century-old home he purchased last year in Ames, New York, had been built by a German baron who turned to bootlegging in the 1920s, but he was still surprised to find evidence within the walls on Oct. 9: dozens of bottles labeled Old Smuggler Gaelic Whisky. "We discovered multiple false walls and secret compartments under the floor in our mudroom," he told Lite 98.7. "The foundation walls and floors in the mudroom are lined with intact cases of 1920s whiskey." he said. Drummond said auction houses and collectors have contacted him, speculating that the value on the some of the bottles might range between $500 and $1,200. [Lite 98.7, 10/13/2020]

More Things to Worry About

As many as 9 million wild pigs are roaming the United States -- expanding from 17 states to at least 39 states over the last 30 years and causing $2.5 billion worth of damage each year to crops and domestic livestock, reported The Atlantic in September. Many of the feral swine are hybrids, a mixture of domestic breeds and wild boars called "super pigs," that multiply so fast "I've heard it referred to as a feral swine bomb," said Dale Nolte, manager of the National Feral Swine Damage Management Program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In the U.S. and Canada, government organizations are working to control the numbers; Montana has been especially vigilant, with a 24-hour hotline for residents to call when they see the animals. [The Atlantic, 9/19/2020]

Right Time, Right Place

Postal carrier Fernando Garcia in Norwalk, California, heard someone calling for help as he walked his route on Oct. 9 and soon found a man lying on the ground, covered in blood. The unnamed victim had cut his arm with a chain saw, so Garcia leaped into action, using his belt as a tourniquet until paramedics arrived. L.A. County Sheriff Lt. Pauline Panis told CBS Los Angeles, "I think we should let everybody know that anyone can make a difference ... it's a heartwarming story." The victim's family says he's recovering. [CBS Los Angeles, 10/10/2020]

Names in the News

As a fun way to get customers involved with the new Ikea store in Valladolid, Spain, the Swedish retailer asked the public to name the street it's on. The Independent reported that anyone who's been frustrated trying to assemble items bought from the store will appreciate the winning entry: Calle Me Falta un Tornillo, or I'm Missing a Screw Street. And Ikea's OK with that: "We wanted to make our arrival here more special ... always with a touch of humor, which defines our style," a spokesperson said. [Independent, 10/14/2020]

Latest Religious Messages

In Guadalupe, Mexico, pilgrims are flocking to a parking lot, leaving candles and flowers beside a detailed portrait of the Virgin Mary that inexplicably reappeared in early October, having been drawn in chalk by an anonymous artist in 2007. Oddity Central reported the artist has confirmed that the drawing is the same one he created as part of a local festival, and the area is now blocked with traffic cones and watered periodically to make the image more visible. Said Felix Palomo, director of culture for the municipality, which is part of greater Monterrey, "Whether you believe in miracles or not, the question is how did this image reappear 13 years after its creation?" [Oddity Central, 10/12/2020]

Oops!

William Hubbard, dean of the University of South Carolina School of Law, was thrilled when he saw that 82% of the school's graduates taking the bar exam had passed, so he shared the happy news in an email to the school's students. Unfortunately, the email also contained attachments with confidential exam scores for all who took the test -- those who passed and those who failed, The State reported. "Please delete the message I just sent about bar passage," Hubbard wrote in his second email. "Please do not open and, if opened, do not reveal any information in that attachment to anyone." The former president of the American Bar Association appeared devastated by the error in an interview. "I've sent a personal email to every one of those students ... I am deeply, profoundly sorry for my mistake," he said. [The State, 10/13/2020]

The Spirit World

The New York Post reported on Oct. 14 that Amethyst Realm, 32, of Bristol, England, announced on British morning television that her planned wedding to Ray, a ghost she met in Australia two years ago, was off because he "kept disappearing" and started hanging around with a sketchy spirit group while they were on vacation in Thailand. "He'd disappear for long periods of time. When he did come back, he'd bring other spirits to the house and they'd just stay around for days," Realm, said. She said the decision not to marry was mutual. "He just completely changed." [New York Post, 10/14/2020]

Ewwwwwww

Alicia Beverly of Detroit was sleeping in the back seat of a red-eye flight home from Las Vegas on Oct. 12 when she felt "something warm" on her side, and woke up to realize a man standing in the aisle was urinating on her, Fox 2 reported. "I screamed and that woke everybody up," she said. "I looked and there was a puddle of pee in the seats!" An off-duty police officer on the flight restrained the unidentified man, described as a well-known pastor from North Carolina, and he was taken into custody upon landing, but has not been charged. Beverly had to sit in her wet clothes for the duration of the trip and is suffering anxiety following the incident. "Since then I have only gotten four hours of sleep," she said. [Fox 2, 10/14/2020]

Bright Ideas

-- The Netherlands is home to a new trend in wellness therapy that promises serenity to those who try it: "koe knuffelen" (cow hugging). The BBC reported that a cow's warmer body temperature and slower heartbeat are thought to increase oxytocin levels in humans, reducing stress and promoting positivity. The practice began more than a decade ago, and now farms in Switzerland and the U.S. along with the Netherlands offer cow-cuddling sessions, which typically begin with a tour of the farm before participants are invited to rest against a cow for up to three hours. [BBC, 10/9/2020]

-- The Finnish airline Finnair began selling its business-class airplane food in supermarkets on Oct. 13, in an effort to keep its catering staff employed as well as offer a taste of nostalgia to travelers grounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ready-made "Taste of Finnair" dishes include reindeer meatballs, Artic char and Japanese-style teriyaki beef and cost about $12, The Associated Press reported. Marika Nieminen, vice president of Finnair Kitchen, said the idea allows the airline to "create new work and employment for our people." (Associated Press, 10/15/2020]

Inexplicable

Customs officials at the Jacksonville (Florida) International Mail Facility came across a package from Hungary on Oct. 14 that contained more than 200 equine bones -- a complete horse skeleton, United Press International reported. Daniel Alonso, acting director of field operations for Customs and Border Protection in Miami, tweeted a photo of the skeleton with the caption: "No horsing around this Halloween." Because the package did not have a required veterinary services permit, he said it would not be sent to its destination. [UPI, 10/14/2020]