On Dec. 11 in Katwe Kabatoro, Uganda, a 2-year-old boy was playing near a lake when a hungry, hungry hippo "grabbed ... the boy from his head and swallowed half his body," the Telegraph reported. Bystander Chrispas Bagonza witnessed the event and started chucking rocks at the hippo, which caused it to spit the toddler out. As the beast lumbered away, onlookers rushed the child to the hospital, where he was treated for injuries sustained in the attack. Police warned residents in the area to be on the lookout for the hippo, as they can become aggressive when they feel threatened. [Telegraph, 12/15/2022]

'Tis the Season

-- If you don't mind sharing a ride with the quintessential bah humbug, you stand a chance at beating traffic in the HOV lane. At least, that's what one driver in Arizona was hoping on Dec. 13 as he cruised along Interstate 10 with an inflatable Grinch in the passenger seat, CNN reported. "While we appreciate the festive flair, this is illegal & the driver received a citation for the HOV violation," the Arizona Department of Public Safety noted on Twitter. [CNN, 12/17/2022]

-- Motorists in Marathon, Florida, who didn't heed the school zone speed limit on Dec. 13 were met with a choice: a citation, or an onion presented by the Grinch himself. Monroe County Sheriff's deputy Lou Caputo, a 37-year veteran of the force, started dressing up as the surly green character more than 20 years ago, the Associated Press reported. "It's about education, awareness that our school zones are still operating even though it's the holiday season," Caputo said. "It catches them off guard." Some speeders have even elected to eat the onion right on the spot. [AP, 12/14/2022]

Time on Their Hands

The Catalonia region of Spain has a quaint tradition at Christmastime that features "caganers," or "poopers" -- figurines of shepherds with their pants down, relieving themselves, Reuters reported. The figures are usually placed among nativity scenes, but more recently, they've morphed into caricatures of famous people such as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and King Charles III. And now, inmates at a prison north of Barcelona are getting in on the action: They've been trained to produce the clay figurines for a private family business, Caganer.com. Working four-hour shifts, prisoners mold, bake, polish and paint the figures. David Fernandez, an inmate at Puig de les Basses prison, said he feels like "an elf." "I feel very good working all year to get the job done and spread illusion. It's very cool. It's something from deep inside." [Reuters, 12/15/2022]

Art = Pain

Elito Circa, 52, a Philippine artist, creates his paintings with an unusual medium: his own blood. Circa told Reuters that using his blood started when he was young and had little access to painting supplies. Now he sources his "paint" every three months when he goes to Manila's health clinic to have 500 ml extracted, which he stores in a cooler in his studio. "My artwork is very important to me because they come from me, it is from my own blood, my DNA is part of it," Circa said. [Reuters, 12/16/2022]

Awesome!

This week's "And What the Heck Have YOU Done?" story comes from Golden, Colorado, and 8-year-old Maddock Lipp. On Dec. 1, The Denver Post reported, Lipp skied with his family on Mount Heogh in Antarctica, achieving in his short lifetime a big feat: He has skied on all seven continents and is unofficially the youngest person to do so. Lipp said he liked Antarctica best because he "got to ski next to the penguins." He hopes to nab a Guinness World Record for the accomplishment. [Denver Post, 12/16/2022]

Extreme Measures

An Argentinian soccer superfan became alarmed on Dec. 13 as he headed home to watch his team's match with Croatia in the World Cup semifinals, Oddity Central reported. The 53-year-old was frustrated at the slow progress of the bus he was riding, so when the driver stopped and stepped out to buy something at a kiosk, the soccer fan allegedly hopped into the driver's seat and took off toward his home. He drove about 4 miles, then abandoned the bus and its occupants and continued on foot. But police officers caught up with him and took him into custody -- and he missed the whole game. [Oddity Central, 12/16/2022]

Mistaken Identity

Police officers in London were summoned to Laz Emporium, an art gallery, on Nov. 25 after a call about a "person in distress," Sky News reported. In a gallery window, the figure of a woman could be seen slumped over, with her face in a bowl of soup. Officers broke into the gallery, only to find that the "woman" was a mannequin, and the scene was art. The American artist, Mark Jenkins, created the piece, titled "Kristina," on a commission from the gallery's owner, Steve Lazarides. Turns out these officers weren't the first to be fooled; paramedics were called out to assist the woman in October. [Sky News, 12/13/2022]

Not-So-Smooth Reactions

A photographer in Western Cape, South Africa, set off alarm bells after he posted some shots on Facebook that eerily resembled scenes from "The War of the Worlds," LAD Bible reported. Jan Vorster's shots from Dec. 2 showed creepy creatures emerging from the surf, which provoked 22,000 comments -- but Vorster, 62, said the spidery "creatures" are just dead aloe vera plants. "I thought I could use this as a metaphor for how people see these plants as aliens, but we are actually the two-legged aliens messing up their world," he said. [LAD Bible, 12/15/2022]

Bright Idea

Even as it was naturally going out of style, the name Karen took a big hit in the last few years, when it suddenly became synonymous with an entitled, demanding, complaining woman. But one British TV and radio personality can't bear to see the moniker disappear completely, so he has a plan, LAD Bible reported. Matt Edmondson has vowed to pay 100 people to legally change their name to Karen, with the hope that they'll keep it relevant. What's the catch? He'll only pay you the standard fee to have your name changed, about $51. In addition, he's launching a board game called -- you guessed it! -- Karen. [LAD Bible, 12/14/2022]

Weird Science

Hashem Al-Ghaili, a producer and filmmaker who has a background in molecular biology, has set imaginations on fire with a concept he shared on social media: EctoLife, "the world's first artificial womb facility," Huffington Post UK reported. Basically, it's a techno farm for growing human children, and Hashem believes it could be reality within a decade. Frighteningly enough, some scientists agree. Andrew Shennan, professor of obstetrics at King's College London, said artificial wombs are a possibility. "It's just a matter of providing a correct environment with fuel and oxygen," he said. "When we put people on things like heart bypasses or other organ bypasses, we are theoretically giving them what they need from a machine." Jeepers. [Huff Post UK, 12/13/2022]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

In June 2023, people in South Korea will suddenly become younger, the BBC reported. On Dec. 8, the South Korean parliament voted to switch from two traditional methods of counting age to the more widely recognized international method for official documents. Currently, Koreans are 1 year old at birth and then gain another year on the first day of each following year. An alternate method has them at 0 upon birth, then adding a year each Jan. 1. So, for example, someone born on Dec. 31, 2002, is 19 years old using the international method. But under Korea's traditional methods, they might be 20 or 21 years old. One member of parliament said the change would reduce "unnecessary socio-economic costs, because legal and social disputes as well as confusion persist due to the different ways of calculating age." [BBC, 12/8/2022]

Unclear on the Concept

Phoenix police officer Christian Goggans, who had been assigned to home duty, took advantage of the situation by dedicating more hours to his porn career, KOLD-TV reported. Goggans is facing an internal investigation after he allegedly traveled back and forth to Las Vegas while on the clock to produce and star in pornographic videos. He posted the films to a public Twitter page using his "stage" name, Rico Blaze (which has since been made private). A Phoenix PD public information officer said Goggans' work-from-home assignment required only that he call in once daily. [KOLD, 12/12/2022]

Your Tax Dollars at Work

Someone aboard the USNS Yuma, a Navy transport ship moored on the Greek island of Crete, is having a superior bathroom experience, thanks to the installation of the Bio Bidet BB-1000, The Washington Free Beacon reported on Dec. 12. At a cool $553, the BB-1000 offers a heated seat, blow dryer, remote control, deodorizer and an "effective enema function," which a retailer called "the absolute strongest spray pressure of any electronic bidet seat on the market." The Military Sealift Command confirmed the purchase but declined to offer more details. [Washington Free Beacon, 12/12/2022]

People Different From Us

In Japan, a phenomenon known as rojo-ne -- literally, sleeping on the road -- is once again becoming a hazard as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted and people are out partying more, reported The Guardian. The number of deaths of snoozing partiers has nearly doubled in Tokyo compared to last year, police say, and they're worried that the impending end-of-year celebrations will only add to the problem. Officials have also asked taxi drivers and others to drive with their high beams on and slow down. [Guardian, 12/14/2022]

Animal Antics

A live nativity scene in Carolina Beach, an island community about 140 miles southeast of Raleigh, North Carolina, was missing its cows on Dec. 4, the News & Observer reported. The two cows escaped their pen at Seaside Chapel around 10:30 p.m. on Dec. 3, police explained, and were apparently so determined to get away that they ended up in the Cape Fear River. Carolina Beach police were joined by state park rangers and a K-9 with special herding skills as they hauled the soggy bovines back to shore. [News & Observer, 12/7/2022]

Bright Idea

A homeowner in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, was puzzled when he discovered five bullet holes in the siding of his house, along with another in his son's bedroom window, the Grand Forks Herald reported. Police were summoned, and they questioned a next-door neighbor, Michael James Powers, 76, who readily admitted that he'd been shooting at a squirrel that was on his bird feeder; as he put it, "Well, that's war." Powers was aiming from his own bedroom window, and said it wasn't the first time he'd shot at squirrels. He offered to go talk to "the other guy" and make it right, but officers had something different in mind: They arrested him for reckless discharge of a firearm. When Powers told his wife he was being arrested, she responded, "Well, I told you." [Grand Forks Herald, 12/9/2022]

Police Report

Anthony Thomas Tarduno, 48, saved the Hernando County (Florida) Sheriff's Office the trouble of investigating after one of their patrol cars was set on fire on Dec. 7 in Spring Hill, Florida, WTSP-TV reported. As officers looked over the scene, Tarduno walked up and confessed to being the arsonist, saying he "had been drinking at a bar ... and decided he'd like to set it on fire." Tarduno placed a bag of garbage under the patrol vehicle and used a lighter to set it ablaze, police said. Tarduno admitted to detectives that when he gets drunk, he does "stupid things." [WTSP, 12/8/2022]

It's a Mystery

Residents of South Tampa, Florida, are shaking their heads, trying to discover the source of "a deep, vibrating bass sound" that's been occurring on Saturday evenings for months, Fox13-TV reported. "You can feel it when your head's down on the pillow," said Abbi Reynolds. People have posted on social media, saying that their "windows are literally rattling" and "it reverberates from neighboring tall houses like an echo chamber." But Tampa police can't locate the source, either. They've checked with the local Air Force base and cruise lines, neither of which are responsible for the noise. Resident Zach Reynolds and others want to get to the bottom of it, trying to triangulate the noise and station people in different areas to suss out the culprit. [Fox13, 12/10/2022]

Crime Report

Police in the village of Warzymice, Poland, are hunting for an unlikely culprit in a vandalism case, Notes From Poland reported on Dec. 12: a Christmas tree. The odd figure cut a hole in a fence and slashed the tires of 21 vehicles belonging to a meat warehouse around 1 a.m., and cameras recorded the whole incident. In fact, the figure is seen loitering nearby and covering themselves with branches taken from nearby trees before committing the crime. Mateusz Watral, who works for the meat company, called it "more of a guerilla (action) than a well-prepared operation. Along the way he lost his 'camouflage,' (and) branches were scattered everywhere." [Notes From Poland, 12/12/2022]

Flipping the Script

Alligator intrusions in Florida are so ubiquitous that News of the Weird has stopped reporting them. But in Brevard County on Dec. 4, the alligator's look-alike cousin made an appearance in Melbourne Beach, WESH-TV reported. A 9-foot-long American crocodile, which is seldom seen so far north, was chilling on a beach. "American crocodiles typically live in coastal areas throughout the Caribbean, and southern Florida is at the very north end of their range," noted the county's Environmentally Endangered Lands Program. Uh, not anymore. [WESH, 12/8/2022]

Ewwww

Muscle Shoals, Alabama, experienced a thunderstorm on Dec. 10 that brought more than lightning and heavy rain, WHNT-TV reported. The city's utility board manager, James Vance, said lightning struck controls at a sewer pump station, which allowed almost 2,000 gallons of sewage to flow into the streets of the Camden Cove subdivision. The sludge eventually flowed into a stormwater retention pond, and utility crews were able to clean up the mess. [WHNT, 12/13/2022]

New World Order

People. Can't we all agree that fast food isn't worth a human life? On Dec. 12 at a KFC restaurant in St. Louis, Fox2-TV reported, a man in the drive-thru asked for corn with his meal. When the employee told him they were out of corn, he made threatening remarks, then drove up to the window displaying a handgun. A 25-year-old employee went outside to speak with the suspect, who allegedly shot him. The victim is hospitalized with his injuries. The suspect took off after the shooting; police are still looking for him. [Fox2, 12/13/2022]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

RayLee Holladay and her husband, Bubba, live in Lascassas, Tennessee, where they raise cows. About six years ago, WKRN-TV reported, RayLee had been seeking a venture of her own to bring in money on the farm when she discovered Rent The Chicken, a business founded by Phil and Jenn Tompkins of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Today, RayLee's Rent The Chicken franchise is thriving. Customers can either rent egg-laying chickens for about six months, or hatching chicks, which can be returned about two weeks after they hatch. "It's great for teaching kids a little responsibility," RayLee said. "And this is a trial. It's not like getting a puppy for Christmas." Chickens can be rented by families or by schools, day cares and senior living facilities. If renters grow attached, they can adopt the fowl for an added fee. Since its beginning 10 years ago, Rent The Chicken has expanded into 24 states, the District of Columbia and into Canada. [WKRN, 12/5/2022]

Least Competent Criminal

The Rockdale County (Georgia) Sheriff's Department posted a list of its top 10 most wanted fugitives on Facebook on Nov. 28, Fox News reported. One local criminal evidently felt left out, though: Christopher Spaulding, an area man with two warrants for his arrest, commented, "How about me?" The sheriff's department responded, "We are on the way" and on Dec. 1 arrested Spaulding. Later, they commented, "We appreciate you for your assistance in your capture!" Spaulding's warrants were for felony violation of probation. [Fox News, 12/2/2022]

Questionable Judgments

-- A 72-year-old woman was arrested on Nov. 29 in Berlin after she allegedly turned off her hospital roommate's ventilator -- twice! -- because the sound of it was annoying her, The Washington Post reported. After the first incident, police said, the woman was told the machine was necessary to keep the roommate alive, but she switched it off again later in the evening. The other patient had to be revived, although she is expected to recover. The suspect was charged with suspicion of attempted manslaughter. [Washington Post, 12/1/2022]

-- On Dec. 5, as Hassan Chokr, 35, appeared virtually from jail for a hearing in Wayne County, Michigan, he became frustrated with Judge Regina Thomas and started yelling and pointing at the camera, Fox News reported. Thomas asked for his microphone to be muted, and things escalated: "I want the record to reflect that ... now he has removed his pants to show the court his backside," Thomas said. "I don't know why anyone would think it is appropriate to pull down his pants and show the court their behind during a court proceeding." Chokr's attorney agreed with Thomas that a mental health evaluation "probably would be a good thing" and said Chokr was just exercising his right to free speech. Thomas wasn't buying it, though: "We don't get to do and say anything we want to without the consequences of those actions," she said. "That's where your client finds himself today." [Fox News, 12/7/2022]

Making a Statement

Mindy Janette Stephens, 46, was arrested on Dec. 1 and charged with illegal dumping after an incident that took place on Nov. 10 in Electra, Texas. According to KXAN-TV, Stephens, seen on security footage wearing a white hazmat suit and a yellow mask, deposited three 5-gallon buckets of human excrement at the front door of the Electra police department, then got in her SUV and drove away. Stephens told another media outlet that she had been renting an apartment to a man who had not paid rent or utilities for a year, and after she evicted him, she found the buckets of waste. "He'd been pooping in the buckets," she said. She said she called the police department to ask what she should do with them, but officers weren't helpful -- so she took the buckets to the station. City wastewater officials removed them, and Stephens bonded out of jail. [KXAN, 12/6/2022]

Harsh

An Olive Garden restaurant manager in Overland Park, Kansas, is out of a job after they sent a ranting message to team members about excessive time off, KCTV5 reported. "We are no longer tolerating ANY excuse for calling off. ... If your dog died, you need to bring him in and prove it to us. ... If you only want morning shifts, too bad, go work at a bank. ... Do you think I want to be here until midnight on Friday and Saturday? No. I'd much rather be at home with my husband and dog," the message said. An Olive Garden representative said the message was "not aligned with our company's values. We can confirm we have parted ways with this manager." [KCTV5, 12/6/2022]

Bad Behavior

Five-year Chicago police veteran Henry Capouch, 30, was arrested for battery and disorderly conduct on Dec. 5 in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he was vacationing, The Smoking Gun reported. According to officers, Capouch was discovered around 12:30 a.m. by an employee of Jimmy B's Beach Bar as he was "(urinating) on the ice in the machine." The worker told Capouch to stop, but instead he shoved both him and a security guard. Police said Capouch actively resisted and did not obey commands while being arrested. They said he showed an "indication of alcohol influence." [Smoking Gun, 12/6/2022]

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

On Nov. 28 at around 1:45 a.m., an unnamed 27-year-old man visited the Apple store on Fifth Avenue in New York City and made a huge purchase: 300 iPhone 13s. (The store is open 24 hours.) He bought the phones to resell through his small business. But, the Daily Star reported, he didn't get very far with them: As he walked to his car, another car pulled up and two men jumped out, demanding his three bags. The customer defended himself, but the thieves made off with one of the bags, which contained about 125 phones, worth approximately $95,000. The New York Police Department is investigating. [Daily Star, 11/30/2022]

Anger Management

Mark Curtis Wells, 51, of Biloxi, Mississippi, and another golfer got into an altercation on Nov. 28 at Hollywood Casino, WXXV-TV reported. They had played earlier in the day at Bridges Golf Course, where the argument allegedly began, police said. When officers arrived at the casino parking lot, they found one of the men suffering a facial injury: His nose had been bitten off. Wells took off from the scene in a Tesla but turned himself in on Nov. 30 and was charged with mayhem. The nose was not found. [WXXV, 11/30/2022]

Unclear on the Concept

When prosecutors went to court in Prince George, British Columbia, in a case involving a nightclub flouting COVID-19 restrictions last February, they thought their argument was airtight, the CBC reported on Dec. 7. They had video from Lambda Cabaret that had been posted to Facebook showing patrons dancing and drinking with nary a mask in sight. The club even bragged about their disobedience: "Open with zero mandates 2 weeks in a row," it posted. But Judicial Justice Brent Adair saw it differently. "There are so many holes in this case -- it's like someone shot a shotgun," he said. For one thing, he asked, "What is a social media post?" "These are posts that Lambda Cabaret made on Facebook," environmental health officer Joey Cheng answered. "How do you know they made them on Facebook?" Adair asked. "Ummmm ... it was on their Facebook page," Cheng replied. Adair explained he's not a "technical person": "I know Facebook exists. I don't use Facebook. What is it? What does it show?" He ended up dismissing all the charges against Lambda Cabaret, citing hearsay and questioning why video evidence was relevant. Might be time to brush up, Your Honor. [CBC, 12/7/2022]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.