The Cabral Chrysler dealership in Manteca, Calif., was so desperate for a sale in October that one of its employees picked up potential customer Donald Davis, 67, at his nursing home, brought the pajamas-and-slippers-clad, dementia-suffering resident in to sign papers, handed him the keys to his new pickup truck (with the requested chrome wheels!), and sent him on his way (even tossing Davis' wheelchair into the truck's bed as Davis sped away).
Shortly afterward, Davis led police on a high-speed chase 50 miles from Manteca. He was stopped and detained (but at a hospital the next morning, he passed away from heart failure). The Cabral salesman said Davis had called him twice the day before, insisting on buying a new truck.
It sounds like a "demonstration" sport showcased from time to time at international games, but kabaddi is highly competitive - featured at the recent Asian Games and usually dominated by south Asian teams. According to a November Agence France-Presse dispatch, teams "(join) hands, holding their breath and raiding opponents, chanting 'kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi' as they do so." Players tout the sport's benefits to health and happiness (the breath-holding, under stress), claiming it will add years to one's life. India and Iran played for the championship at the Asian Games this year (but the result seems not to have been widely reported).
Though the death and injury rates for motorbikers in Nigeria are high, compliance with a helmet law is notoriously bad - because so many riders fear "juju," which is the presence of supernatural spirits inside head coverings. Juju supposedly captures a person's brain and takes it away, leading most riders to "comply" with the helmet law by wearing only a thin cloth hat that spiritualists assure them will not allow "juju" to take hold (such as Ralph Ibuzo's Original Lapa Guard, which, in addition to preventing brain disappearance also supposedly prevents disease).Imagine the surprise in November when a burglar rummaging through the St. Benno Church in Munich, Germany, was suddenly attacked. He had bent down to open the donation box, and just then, a statue of St. Antonius fell on top of him, momentarily knocking him to the floor and forcing him to flee empty-handed. When News of the Weird reported in 2004 on Disney fanatic George Reiger of Bethlehem, Pa., he was in full glory, with a 5,000-piece collection of Disney character and movie memorabilia and some 2,000 tattoos covering almost all of his body. He said then that he had been married six times, but that each wife had left him, unable to compete with Disney for his affection. In November 2010, Reiger, now 56, opening up to The Philadelphia Inquirer, admitted that he had not been married at all and was in fact extremely lonely in his Disney obsession, but that he had finally found the love of a woman and wanted to end his fanaticism and remove the tattoos.
Caroline Slusher, 32, and two associates were indicted in Willoughby, Ohio, in the November "armed" robbery of a BP gas station convenience store. After a clerk caught Slusher shoplifting, Slusher raised her arm menacingly and threatened to touch the clerk, claiming she was infected with the highly destructive bacteria MRSA. The clerk backed off, and the three fled.
Nakita Norman, 44, aided by two distracting associates, was captured on surveillance video stuffing two fur coats down the front of her pants, directly into the crotch area, and departing the Sword Furs store in Westlake, Ohio. Norman was arrested based on informants' tips.
Elderly drivers' recent lapses of concentration, confusing the brake pedal with the gas: A woman, age 83, accidentally plowed into Lickity Split Yogurt in Carmichael, Calif. (August). A man, 89, accidentally drove into the waters off the Dunedin (Fla.) Marina (but was rescued before his car sunk) (August).
