Official "News of the Wierd" Thread.

[Sweeper]

I'm going to post whatever I find that fit's the title in this thread whenever I feel up to it. If I miss a day and someone else feels like filling in, so be it. You're all welcome to contribute and comment on anything posted within this thread. Enjoy!

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Can't Possibly Be True

Two "skinhead" teenagers were arrested in January after an altercation outside the Club Metropolis in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; according to a witness, one was a regular skinhead and the other a member of the apparently more enlightened SHARP, Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice. [Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.), 1-11-06]​

A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist, quoting a spokesman for the telecommunications company Lucent in January, reported that "nearly a million people" in the United States still lease their house phones for around $60 a year (about 20 years after they were no longer required to), rather than buy them for as little as $20 each. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1-28-06]​

Lannie Lloyd Hendrickson, 24, was arrested in Bozeman, Mont., in December on charges that he aggressively bit two ******* he was baby-sitting, ages 1 and 2, over their arms, shoulders and legs, because they would not fall ******. According to police, Hendrickson said he could not recall how many times he bit each one, but did admit that he "bit the **** out of them." [Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 12-30-05]​

Inexplicable

The Wichita Eagle reported in January that the BTK serial killer, Dennis Rader (now serving 10 consecutive life sentences), has been sued by a former employee, Mary Capps, for $75,000 because, while she worked for him, he used "abusive, intimidating language and physical gestures" toward her, damaging her career prospects with the Park City, Kan., government. Also named in the lawsuit was Rader's supervisor. Rader is unlikely ever to have $75,000 in assets, and besides, most people who were only verbally ****** by Rader might feel lucky. [Wichita Eagle, 1-19-06]​

Unclear of the Concept

An exhaustive report in December on CIA operatives who staffed the so-called "rendition" program, secretly transferring suspected terrorists from U.S. custody to foreign governments, revealed sometimes-sloppy undercover work of the agents. In one rendition, in Milan, Italy, covert agents failed to remove their cell phones' batteries, thus enabling them to be electronically tracked even though the phones were off. Also, one clandestine operative left a clear trail of her whereabouts because, even though she booked herself at foreign hotels under aliases, she insisted that frequent-flier miles earned at the hotels be credited to her personal, non-secret frequent-flier account. [Chicago Tribune, 12-25-05]​

A psychotherapist and a ********'s theater director collaborated on a one-hour play, "Baby Drama" (about parenthood, birth and early life), that opened in January to sold-out performances in Stockholm, Sweden, despite the fact that its intended audience is *******, aged 6 to 12 months. Said director Suzanne Osten: "If you can speak to a 3-month-old baby and get laughter from them, you must be able to write an interesting play for them." Said one ******, "The babies are obviously having fun the whole time they are in the theater." [Reuters, 1-13-06]​

New Fetishist Species

Masafumi Natsukawa, 39, was arrested in Yokohama, Japan, in January for allegedly tricking more than 30 young girls to open their mouths on the pretense that he was checking for tooth decay, and when they did, he licked their tongues. [Mainichi Daily News, 1-18-06]​

In January, former schoolteacher Michael Codde, 44, was sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty in Santa Cruz, Calif., to felony ***** ***********. The case against Codde consisted mostly of testimony that he put whipped cream on teenage boys' toes and made them lick it off while he took photos (a practice the judge said that Codde engaged in for sexual arousal). [San Jose Mercury News-AP, 1-29-06]​

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oh god.