The night shift workers at the Mr. Chips french fry factory in East Tamaki, New Zealand, received a bit of a shock as 28 tons of russet potatoes from a farm in nearby Matamata worked their way through the factory’s conveyor belts. What appeared to be just another muddy potato was discovered to be a World War II hand grenade. “The guys were really calm and collected and they reacted in an extremely professional manner,” Roland Spitaels, the factory’s operations manager said. Police responded to the scene, and subsequently called upon the New Zealand Defense Force’s explosive ordnance disposal team, who removed the grenade from the facility; X-rays revealed it was a training version of a hand grenade, and contained no explosives. Spitaels hopes the police will return the grenade to the company when their investigation is complete so it can be put on display in the factory’s trophy room.
Wing Surfing
As his United Airlines flight taxied to its gate at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on May 5, one passenger apparently couldn’t wait to deplane. He opened the emergency exit and walked onto the wing, then slid down the wing and onto the runway. The ground crew stopped the man, and he was turned over to law enforcement officers.
A For Effort
Five students at Ponte Vedra High School in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., were involved in a senior prank in which a sandbar shark (which it is illegal to remove from state waters) was hoisted over a staircase railing at the school. “I was going to first period, and there was this massive shark hanging from the ceiling, and it smelled really bad,” said Cooper Gottfried, a sophomore at the school. The sandbar shark is the school’s mascot. The responsible parties may face charges of trespassing, wildlife violations and criminal mischief.
Dope Vending Machine
When a man in Detroit was arrested for illegally possessing guns, the federal agents who arrived at his home were more interested in how he made a living. He sold marijuana from a vending machine attached to his house, apparently clearing $2,000 a day. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives made purchases from the machine to collect evidence before the bust. The man was released on bond.
Loud Love
Rachel Mulcahy is in trouble with Clonard Monastery in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for posing as a nun and disrupting services at the church. She has been served with an injunction to stay at least 150 yards away from the building.
The bogus nun says she is praying for its parishioners. Mulcahy is known around town for dancing frantically in the streets, accompanied by two evangelical preachers playing musical instruments. She sometimes falls to her knees and shouts, “Christ, come into me!” She said she is “in love. Head over heels. I can’t stop it. I love Jesus Christ so much that all I can think about is him.”
But one parishioner claimed “the congregation is quite elderly and they felt intimidated by Ms. Mulcahy’s behavior. They just want to be left alone to pray in peace.”
Use Of Candy As A Weapon
In Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, a man was in the process of robbing a business when an employee tried to thwart him. But the thief was armed with a Mr. Solid brand chocolate Easter bunny, which he used to hit the employee. The shoplifter escaped but was found nearby and arrested; the employee suffered only minor injuries. The stolen merch was returned to the store.
No Cold Case; Just Cold Fries
When Rob and Grace Jones wanted to replace a toilet paper holder in their home in Crystal Lake, Illinois, they had to cut into the wall of their bathroom. That’s when they came across a most unusual find: a towel containing two McDonald’s hamburger wrappers and a full order of french fries inside. The date on the wrappers was 1959. “We were expecting the worst,” Grace said. “I was shielding my kids in case there was any dried blood. But it was not a cold case, just some cold fries. They were very well preserved.”
Questionable Judgment
An American family returning to the United States from a trip to Israel set off a chaotic bomb scare at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv when they tried to take an unexploded artillery shell through a security check. They had found the shell in the Golan Heights and picked it up as a souvenir; at the airport, a family member pulled it from a backpack and asked if it could be put in a suitcase. The security official called for her immediate area to be cleared, but someone misunderstood her, and panic ensued. The family members were later questioned and allowed to board their flight.
Finally — A Sequel To The Birds
After a trip to Sacramento, Gary and Patti Reitemeyer returned to their home in Redding, Calif., to a most unwelcome surprise: hundreds of swallows had apparently entered their home through the chimney. A neighbor had noticed a few birds earlier when he stopped by to feed the cat. But the numbers had increased dramatically by the time the couple got home. “We open the door and it’s like an Alfred Hitchcock movie,” Gary said. “It was crazy. We were ducking and dodging.” They called a restoration company to help clean the house, as it was uninhabitable. “All of the furniture is gone, all of the carpet is gone, the blinds are gone,” Gary said. Sadly, their homeowner’s insurance won’t cover the damage from the bizarre incident.
Never Stop Dancing
Police who arrested Amy Ann Harrington after she rear-ended a car in Madeira Beach, Fla., suspected she was driving under the influence, so they attempted to do field sobriety tests with her. They asked her to do a one-leg stand and walk and turn. Instead, Harrington broke into “multiple ballet and Irish folk dance moves,” according to the arrest report. Harrington refused to take a breath test. She was charged with DUI and booked into the county jail.
Give Me A Minute To Scrape Off My Hand
Actor James Cromwell, who played the friend of the pig in the popular movie Babe, recently glued his palm to a midtown Manhattan Starbucks store counter to protest the extra charge the coffee company assesses for plant-based milk in their drinks. He later used a knife to scrape his hand off the counter. Cromwell is a longtime animal rights protester. For its part, Starbucks seemed unmoved by the protest, which was organized by PETA, characterizing the nondairy milk as similar to any other addition, “such as an additional espresso shot or syrup.”
Food Revenge
Shortly after Alisha Moy and Jordan Cobbold started dating, Cobbold asked Moy for a key to her flat. After she gave him one, she thought better of it and texted him to say she was ending the relationship. When she came home from work, she found there was “something wrong” in her apartment. “He’d pulled my shoes out of the little cloakroom and poured beans and spaghetti in there. There were condiments splattered all over the walls and cooking sauce poured all over my vacuum cleaner,” she said. Cobbold had cut the cords to all her electrical appliances. Damage was estimated at $2,000. Police arrested Cobbold a few days later and he was fined, given community service and a restraining order.
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