Acting on an anonymous tip, authorities in DeKalb County, Alabama, raided the Rainsville Wastewater Treatment Plant on Dec. 17 and discovered a large illegal winemaking operation that appeared to have been in operation for a long time, reported WHNT. The next day, plant supervisor Allen Maurice Stiefel, 62, of Fyffe, was charged with unlawful possession of illegally manufactured alcohol and suspended without pay, according to Rainsville Mayor Rodger Lingerfelt. The operation was found in a little-used building at the plant, where, Lingerfelt said, "Things happen like that." The sale of alcohol had been illegal in Rainsville until the city council passed an ordinance approving it in September. [WHNT, 12/18/2020]

High Anxiety

As Delta Flight 462, en route to Atlanta, began to taxi away from the gate at La Guardia Airport on Dec. 21, passenger Brian Plummer noticed a man and woman with a service dog changing seats several times on the less-than-full plane, he told The New York Times, and heard the man say, "If I sit down, I'll freak out." Plummer soon felt the plane come to a stop, and flight attendants revealed why: The man, Antonio Murdock, 31, of Florida, had forced open an emergency exit door, causing a slide to activate, and picking up the dog, slid down to the ground with the woman, Brianna Greco, 23, according to a complaint filed in Queens Criminal Court, where the two were arraigned on a number of mischief and endangerment charges. "This doesn't happen every day at the airport," said Lenis Valens, a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. No one was injured in the incident, but the flight was delayed for hours. [New York Times, 12/22/2020]

Awesome!

Didn't get what you wanted for Christmas? The North Carolina Department of Transportation put nine vintage train cars up for auction on Dec. 15 that it purchased from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus after it ceased operation in 2017, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. NCDOT bought the cars for $383,000 to refurbish for use between Raleigh and Charlotte, but federal grants have enabled the department to buy new cars instead. "These cars have a great and amazing history," said Jason Orthner, director of the NCDOT rail division. Bidding continues until Jan. 4, but at press time, there were no bids on the cars. [Raleigh News & Observer, 12/21/2020]

Surprise!

Andrea Ellis of East Moline, Illinois, was wrapping presents on Dec. 19 when she opened a package of garden flags she intended to give her grandmother and noticed something extra in the bottom of the padded envelope. It turned out to be a biohazard bag containing a Virginia woman's COVID-19 test. Ellis told the Quad City Times that when she failed to reach the woman, she called police, who sent an officer to retrieve it, but 15 minutes later, he returned with the bag, saying, "I was told to bring it back to you." A representative of the Rock Island County Health Department picked up the sample the next day and will try to return it to the Virginia patient. Ellis has also heard from a vice president at Kohl's, where she bought the flags, who said the company is working hard to find out what happened and prevent it from happening again. [Quad City Times, 12/20/2020]

Perspective

Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, is asking luxury goods company Louis Vuitton to stop selling a yoga mat made partially of leather, calling the product "hugely insensitive" because Hindus regard cows as sacred. In a Dec. 22 statement, Zed said the idea "of yoga ... being performed on a mat made from a killed cow is painful," The Associated Press reported. The mat retails for $2,390 online; Paris-based Louis Vuitton has not responded. [Associated Press via WJLA, 12/22/2020]

Great Art

-- French artist Gaetan Marron presented a new performance piece in December titled "Non-Essential," in which he locked himself for 10 days inside a clear Plexiglas cube at a shopping mall in Marseille. Euronews reported the artist described his work as an attempt to "bring culture, which clearly saved us during this lockdown, back to the center of the subject." The cube, large enough for Marron to stand up in, also contained a few nonessential items, including a TV and coffee machine; Marron left the cube to use the restroom. "I have the feeling that ... we miss what is really the real human contact ... we have really lost social links in this period," Marron said. [Euronews, 12/12/2020]

-- Police in Perth, Western Australia, are asking for the public's help in locating a thin, well-dressed man with olive skin and short black hair who was captured on surveillance cameras using an electric bicycle to draw lewd pictures of a penis on a city sidewalk on Nov. 30. "The man has appeared to spin the wheels ... in order to draw explicit images with the rubber from the tires," Crimestoppers WA announced. A police Facebook post about the incident drew scorn, news.com.au reported: "Whatever his punishment," one user wrote, "I'm sure he will have to write it out on the board 100 times at recess." [news.com.au, 12/22/2020]

Oops!

The 69 passengers who boarded Buddha Air Flight U4505 in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Dec. 18, expecting to fly to Janakpur, about 140 miles southeast, were surprised when they arrived instead in Pokhara, about 125 miles in the opposite direction. Weather and flight delays may have been factors, an airline spokesperson told The Kathmandu Post, resulting in "a miscommunication between the ground staff and the pilots." The passengers were promptly flown to their preferred destination a few hours behind schedule, and Buddha Air Managing Director Birendra Bahadur Basnet announced that a committee has been formed to investigate the incident. [The Kathmandu Post, 12/20/2020]

The Passing Parade

Police were called to a home in Tijuana, Mexico, to break up the fight that broke out after a man identified only as Jorge discovered a tunnel leading from his home to that of a neighbor, Alberto, who had been having an affair with Jorge's wife. Trouble began, reported the Daily Mail, when Jorge arrived home early from work and surprised his wife and Alberto, a bricklayer who was also married. Alberto hid behind a couch before disappearing down the tunnel, which appeared in photos to be professionally constructed. Jorge followed Alberto down the tunnel, eventually confronting him in Alberto's house. [Daily Mail, 12/29/2020]

News That Sounds Like a Joke

Micheline Frederick of Queens, New York, is still recovering from the wounds she suffered in what she described as a brawl with a squirrel on the front stoop of her home just before Christmas. "This was an MMA cage match!" she told WLNY. "And I lost!" Several neighborhood residents have reported run-ins with aggressive squirrels, including Vinati Singh, whose husband has been attacked twice, and Licia Wang, who was bitten on the arm while walking home. A trapper has been hired to capture the rodents, and while squirrels are rarely found to have rabies, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Health is advising victims to contact their doctor if they've been bitten. [CBS2 New York, 12/31/2020]

News of the Weird extends greetings for a happy and blissfully less weird 2021. While you're welcoming the new year, enjoy some of our favorite items from 2020.

Coping

Seattle dad and self-described travel enthusiast Steve Simao attracted a following after his daughter, Annisa, called him out on her TikTok account for his purchase of a pair of first-class leather seats taken from a Delta MD90 Jetliner, complete with an air safety card. Simao, who is vice president of sales at Windstar Cruises, found the seats on eBay in November, reported The Washington Post, and has had fun scratching his itch to travel with them ever since, sending his daughter videos of her mother "bringing food to the (tray) table and him just sitting there enjoying it," Annisa said. Delta CEO Ed Bastian has taken notice and given the three Simaos round-trip, first-class tickets to anywhere in the United States. Hawaii is high on their list. [The Washington Post, 12/8/2020]

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. 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. They noted she may have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs. [The Smoking Gun, 10/16/2020]

Creme de la Weird

Kazakh bodybuilder, actor and self-described "sexy maniac" Yuri Tolochko announced his marriage to his beloved, a sex doll named Margo, on Instagram on Nov. 25 and shared with his followers their wedding video, in which the joyous couple, wearing a tuxedo and a full-length wedding dress, exchange vows and welcome friends and loved ones to a reception after the ceremony, The Sun reported. The groom identifies himself as pansexual and able to fall in love with "a character, an image, a soul," and said the two became engaged a year ago, after he rescued her from some unwanted attention in a nightclub. "Couples need to talk less and connect more," Tolochko said. "Margo and I realized that it takes more than words to have a conversation." [The Sun, 11/25/2020]

A 2020 Metaphor

An Amazon delivery driver in Nuthall, Nottingham, England, is out of a job after Sharon Smith, 53, discovered him defecating in her back garden in late July. Smith said she saw the man run toward her garden and went to investigate. "I asked what the heck he was doing," Smith told Metro News, "and he just remained pooing whilst asking me what my problem was -- the cheek of it." The driver told police he wasn't feeling well and was desperate, and he didn't realize he was in a private garden. Smith agreed to not press charges as long as he cleaned up the mess and his employer was informed; Amazon promised a gift voucher as a goodwill gesture. [Metro News, 8/4/2020]

Revenge

An unnamed man in Cairns, North Queensland, Australia, posted notices offering a $100 prize to the person able to best impersonate Chewbacca from "Star Wars," but the contest turned out to be a hoax designed to harass the woman who dumped him. The posters listed the woman's phone number and invited contestants to call and deliver their best Chewbacca roar. The woman, identified only as Jessica, told 9News: "I'm getting phone calls at really strange hours of the night. ... I thought it was quite funny, actually, a good joke." However, she drew the line when the ex abandoned his car, without tires, in the driveway of her home, blocking her in. "The police ... are going to do something about it," she said. [9News, 7/23/2020]

Must-See TV

Police in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, arrested Robert Lee Noye, 52, on Feb. 17 and charged him with first-degree harassment and false imprisonment after his victim told them Noye kidnapped her and forced her to watch the 1977 historical miniseries "Roots" "so she could better understand her racism," The Gazette reported. He allegedly told her if she did not sit for the entire nine-hour series about slavery, he would "kill her and spread her body parts across Interstate 380 on the way to Chicago." [The Gazette, 2/17/2020]

Pairs With a Nice Chianti

The Design Museum in London has included a "DIY meal kit" featuring steaks that could be grown from a diner's own human cells among the nominees in its Beazley Designs of the Year exhibit. Developers of the Ouroboros Steak envision that an individual will be able to harvest cells from their own cheek and feed them with serum derived from donated blood that has expired, Dezeen reported. After about three months, the steaks would be fully grown. "People think that eating oneself is cannibalism, which technically this is not," said Grace Knight, one of the designers. Researcher Orkan Telhan added, "Our design is scientifically and economically feasible but also ironic in many ways," he added. [Dezeen, 11/13/2020]

Frontiers of Farming

Cockroach farms are not new in China, where the bugs have long been used in Chinese medicine, but a new facility near the eastern city of Jinan is gaining attention as a way to deal with food waste while producing organic protein supplements for animal feeds. In four industrial-sized hangars, Australia's ABC News reported, rows of shelves are filled with food waste collected from restaurants through an elaborate system of pipes. A moat filled with roach-eating fish surrounds each building to keep the roaches from escaping. "In total there are 1 billion cockroaches," farm manager Yin Diansong said. "Every day they can eat 50 tonnes of kitchen waste." Said project director Li Yanrong, "If we can farm cockroaches on a large scale, we can provide protein that benefits the entire ecological cycle." [ABC News, 9/19/2020]

Scheme

Residents in the upscale neighborhoods of Woodway and Edmonds, Washington, have been visited recently by people carrying official-looking documents who knock on doors, tell homeowners they own the property and "they're there to repossess the home and want the people to vacate the premises," Edmonds police Sgt. Josh McClure told KIRO. The group identifies itself as Moorish Sovereign Citizens, McClure said, who "believe that they own all of the land between Alaska and Argentina." So far, the people have cooperated with police and left after being told they are trespassing. [KIRO, 11/25/2020]

The Last Straw

After four of his neighbors complained to police about "Lawnmower Man's" loud and excessive use of his riding mower, Pasco County (Florida) Deputy Michael O'Donnell arrived at Robert Wayne Miller's home on Dec. 24 to assess the situation. But Miller, 57, wasn't cooperating. When O'Donnell approached the property, which displayed "No Trespassing" signs, Miller revved the engine of the mower in response. Then O'Donnell tried to get him into the patrol car so he could issue a citation, but Miller refused. "I've had four people come out and tell me that they can't take it anymore," O'Donnell told Miller. Dwaine White, who lives across the street, told The Washington Post that the mower isn't even capable of cutting grass. "He'll run that tractor all night, and it echoes all over the neighborhood," White said. Finally, Lawnmower Man went inside his home, where he was ultimately arrested for disturbing the peace and not complying with a law enforcement officer's command. If convicted, he could spend 18 months in jail and pay a $1,500 fine. [The Washington Post, 12/27/2019]

Creepy

Srinivas Gupta, a businessman in Koppal, India, and his wife, Madhavi, were building their dream home when she died in a tragic car crash in 2017. But in many ways, she is still with Gupta -- especially now that he has installed a life-size wax statue of her in the home. Madhavi's likeness is in a seated position, clothed in a pink sari and gold jewelry. "The planning for the house was all done by her and we couldn't imagine entering this new house without her," Anusha Gupta, one of the couple's daughters, told CNN. At a housewarming party on Aug. 7, friends and relatives posed with Madhavi on a couch and posted photos to social media. The family says they will keep the statue in their courtyard: "She used to enjoy the outdoors," Anusha said. [CNN, 8/12/2020]

Animal Farm

A Polish pig farmer in his 70s who had been missing since Dec. 31 is believed to have been eaten by his livestock, Fox News reported. Lubin District Prosecutor Magdalena Serafin told local media the farmer's remains, consisting of bones and skull fragments, were found by a neighbor, who called police after spotting the bones while fetching water from a nearby well on Jan. 8. The farmer's animals were roaming freely in the yard, and officials indicated it was clear that the pigs had feasted on him. They suspect he died of a fall or heart attack. [Fox News, 1/17/2020]

Superstitious residents of Naples, Italy, experienced what some see as a bad omen on Dec. 16, according to Reuters, when the dried blood of the city's patron saint, San Gennaro, failed to liquefy when put on display. The saint's dried blood is contained in a vial that is brought out three times a year in the city's cathedral, where faithful Catholics pray for it to become liquid in a phenomenon known as the Miracle of San Gennaro. But after hours of praying and a special mass in the afternoon, the blood remained dry. Scientists have no explanation for why the substance in the vial sometimes liquefies and sometimes doesn't, but Naples' Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe told his flock not to be too concerned: "If something needs to melt, it is the hearts of people." [Reuters, 12/16/2020]

Obsessions

Real estate agent Sevenraj, 58, of Bangalore, India, has always wanted to be unique, he told the Mirror on Dec. 15, so when he was 18, he decided to make red and white his signature colors and has worn only those two colors ever since. Today, his home, his car and even his family -- Puspha, his wife of 25 years, and their two children -- sport nothing but red and white. Along with his color scheme, Sevenraj is fixated on the number 7. He was named after the number because he was the seventh child, and he now embroiders a crown symbol and the number 7 on all his suits and even has it stitched into the headrest of his red and white car. Sevenraj also speaks seven languages. "Wherever we go, people recognize us. They know us (as) the red and white family. I enjoy all the attention," he admitted. [Mirror, 12/15/2020]

It's Come to This

China's Civil Aviation Administration issued updated COVID-19 safety guidelines in early December that drew attention by encouraging flight crews to wear diapers and avoid airplane lavatories. Titled "Technical Guidelines for Epidemic Prevention and Control for Airlines," the document included information on wearing masks and other personal protective equipment and also stated, "It is recommended that cabin crew members wear disposable diapers and avoid using the lavatories barring special circumstances to avoid infection risks," United Press International reported. [UPI, 12/10/2020]

Police Report

The Lee County (Florida) Sheriff's Office said Jonathan Hernandez, 32, died on Dec. 12 while apparently trying to burglarize a home in Lehigh Acres after the window he was crawling through closed on him. According to the incident report, Hernandez's neck was caught in the window and he was dead by the time sheriff's deputies arrived. WBBH reported friends and family of the budding rap artist, who performed as Taz UFO, deny the burglary accusation and call for further investigation. [WBBH, 12/15/2020]

Only in Canada

Police in Sarnia, Ontario, arrested two suspects after they allegedly broke into the wrong house on Dec. 11 and offered to pay damages after they realized their mistake. CTV reported that residents of the home were watching television when two unnamed 27-year-old men broke through a door, one holding a hammer, and demanded money they claimed was owed to them. They apologized and left the home after discovering their error, according to police, who quickly apprehended them. [CTV, 12/15/2020]

Likely Story

Barry Joseph Watts told police in Fort Dodge, Iowa, that he had been walking by the building police found him in on Dec. 15, pulling on doors to see if they were unlocked and "entered the property to get warm," according to the police report, "but after spending some time looking around the building, he decided to start taking items." Watts told officers he had taken gold teeth and a laptop from a dental business, but police also found cash, a $5,000 digital camera and burglary tools on him, including a screwdriver and a flashlight. KCCI reported authorities also found five doors damaged. Watts was arrested and held at the Webster County Jail. [KCCI, 12/16/2020]

Suspicions Confirmed

Twenty-year-old Kaleb Kleiss was arrested in Clearwater, Florida, on Dec. 12 after a witness saw him driving with the barrel of an AR-15 rifle sticking out the driver's side window of his 2016 Volkswagen, The Smoking Gun reported. Kleiss, who was intoxicated, according to arrest affidavits, told officers he carries the gun for self-defense because he's "seen crazy stuff since moving to Florida." When police tracked him down, Kleiss was standing next to his car outside a laundromat, with the assault weapon "displayed carelessly ... on the dashboard ... in plain view of everyone walking by the store," police said, and the gun was "loaded with a full magazine and a round in the chamber." Kleiss was charged with drunk driving and improper exhibition of a dangerous weapon. [The Smoking Gun, 12/14/2020]

Bad Dog

An unnamed "pug-like" dog was found at the wheel of a family's van after it plummeted into a ditch on Dec. 9 in North Grenville, Ottawa. The Ottawa Citizen reported that police determined the owners had left the dog in the running car, and it probably bumped the gear shift into reverse, causing the van to slowly back up as the driver ran alongside, trying to get in. "Of course, the dog wasn't charged," said Grenville County police acting Sgt. Anne Collins. [Ottawa Citizen, 12/16/2020]

'Tis the Season

While children across the world await Santa's visit, naughty kids in some parts of Europe have already been visited by Krampus, the Christmas devil, a half-goat, half-demon with horns, who, according to legend, appears on Krampusnacht, Dec. 5, bearing whips and chains to beat wicked children before stuffing them in a sack and taking them away. The Mirror reports the centuries-old tradition takes place in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic and had its origin in German and Norse mythology. [Mirror, 12/15/2020]

Horsing Around

A 25-year-old Russian man identified as Vasily was out with friends on the evening of Dec. 9 in St. Petersburg when he encountered two women riding a horse through the streets and decided he wanted to pet the horse, Fontanka.ru reported. He said the rider offered him a carrot to give to the horse, but "the horse turns sharply to me and bites!" -- taking off a chunk of Vasily's nose, then spitting it out. The missing piece was retrieved, and doctors were able to sew it back into place, but they expect there will be scarring. Vasily denied the police report of the incident that claimed he was drunk and tried to kiss the horse. [Fontanka.ru, 12/10/2020]

Oops!

Matt Hightower, of Overland Park, Kansas, was home alone with his three kids in mid-December when he switched on the oven in preparation for making dinner. Inside, unfortunately, were the family's three Elves on the Shelf, who had been put there the night before to "warm up" after a day of being held captive in the refrigerator by the "bad milk," KCTV reported. "Babe ... I cooked the elves," Hightower confessed to his wife, Chelsea, who was out Christmas shopping. "Thankfully," said Chelsea, after a frantic search around town, "Jingle, Belle and Magic have made a miraculous recovery and are back to their silly ways." [KCTV, 12/14/2020]