Karl's Weird News

Flying Fish Breaks Arkansas Teen’s Jaw

It’s a fishing tale that packs a wallop so strong it broke the jaw of a southeastern Arkansas teen and covered him in fish blood and guts. Seth Russell, 15, of Crossett, was cruising Lake Chicot on a large inner tube towed by a boat when a Silver Asian carp leaped from the water and smacked him in the face. Seth was knocked unconscious. “He doesn’t remember anything at all,” the boy’s mother, Linda Russell, said last week. “He was laughing, and the next thing he remembers, he is waking in a hospital.”

Wild wallabies attack family

THE latest attack of a child by a large wallaby at White Rock has sparked calls for a cull of the area’s growing mob before someone is killed.

Concerned dad Alwyn “Bones” Bailey yesterday said if he had not been there to fight off the 1m-tall wallaby on Saturday afternoon, he had no doubt his nine-year-old son Morgan would have been mauled to death.

“It?s deadset serious. Someone should get a gun and shoot the buggers,” Mr Bailey said.

“They?re not just friendly, cute little wallabies any more ? they?re killers.”

Rio drug gang fed rivals to reptiles

Rio de Janeiro police found two caimans in a raid on one of the city’s slums, saying the crocodile-like reptiles were used by drug traffickers to intimidate their enemies and dispose of bodies.

Police were conducting a raid in the west of the Brazilian city looking for a drug gang boss when they came across the animals in the backyard of a house in the Coreia slum.

“The caimans are a symbol of power of the traffickers. When they catch a rival, they kill him and give him to the caimans,” Ronaldo Oliveira, head of the robbery and car theft unit, was quoted as saying on O Globo newspaper’s website.

 Television footage showed police officers carefully placing the small reptiles in the back of a truck.

Rio’s heavily armed drug gangs, with names like “Red Command” and “Friends of Friends,” control many of the city’s hundreds of slums and regularly battle over territory.

Cats on a bank-owned roof: Bobcats claim foreclosed house

The foreclosure market is getting wild in Lake Elsinore: “Taking advantage of a slump in local real estate, a family of bobcats has moved into a foreclosed Lake Elsinore home, lolling about on fences and walls and riveting an entire neighborhood.”

Neighbors first noticed the feline squatters Aug. 27 hanging out on a side wall of the empty house in the Tuscany Hills development…. The foreclosed home is one of several on the block. Its lawn is brown but still being watered by the sprinklers. The house sits right up against barren, chaparral-covered hills.

At least two adult bobcats and perhaps a litter of young ones appear to be occupying the house. Residents have mixed emotions about their new neighbors.

Fire Ants Attack, Kill Florida Man:

Death by fire ants may seem unbelievable, but the tiny insects killed a man in Chuluota as he walked his dog outside a home just off Old Christmas Road. Apparently the man was swarmed when he stepped in an ant pile. While there are plenty of the ants floating in flood waters, it’s a flooded road that prevented a quick rescue when Bob Cunningham, in his 60s, went into anaphylactic shock. Cunningham made it to a hospital, but died from his body’s reaction to the ant bites.

Milton brothers struck by leaping sturgeon

Two brothers from Milton, Florida are the latest victims to get clobbered by a leaping sturgeon.

Sam, 43, and Chris Parish, 25, were enjoying a leisurely morning of bass fishing on the Yellow River June 28 until a leaping Gulf sturgeon, estimated 5 – 6 feet in length, came over the bow and hit both men in their faces and upper bodies. They escaped the encounter with minor cuts, scrapes and bruises. The sturgeon ended up back in the river.

Neither brother required medical treatment.

Sam ended up with a cut over his left eye and a cut to his right forearm.

“My wife said I should have gotten stitches to the cut over my eye but I didn’t. It did leave me with the perfect impression of a pectoral fin in my right arm but it went away after a while,” he said.

Sam said he was in the boat’s rear seat and the collision knocked him out of his seat and against the outboard motor.

Camels, Zebras, Llamas and Swine Escape From Dutch Circus With Giraffe’s Help

Amsterdam police say 15 camels, two zebras and an undetermined number of llamas and potbellied swine briefly escaped from a traveling Dutch circus after a giraffe kicked a hole in their cage.

Police spokesman Arnout Aben says the animals wandered in a group through a nearby neighborhood for several hours after their 5:30 a.m. breakout.

Grizzly Mauls Teen During Alaska Bike Race

A 14-year-old girl riding in a mountain bike race was attacked in the dark of night by a bear Sunday and severely injured, but she was able to make a brief 911 call that eventually resulted in her rescue.

The girl suffered head, neck, torso and leg wounds. She underwent surgery and was in critical condition Sunday afternoon at Providence Alaska Medical Center, police said.

“The local bear expert said it’s probably a sow grizzly,” said Cleo Hill, a spokeswoman for the Anchorage Fire Department. “One has been sighted in the area recently.”

Muskrats Bring Down Levee in Missouri, Threatening Almost 100 Homes

Defiant residents of this eastern Missouri community lost one struggle against the relentless Mississippi River Friday, but quickly prepared for another.

Residents and flood fighters were saddened after a burrowing muskrat brought down the saturated Pin Oak levee shortly before dawn. But within hours, a new defense was in the works — a quickly constructed 4-foot-tall sandbag levee to protect 100 homes in the floodwaters’ path.

“We’re not quitting — the Army doesn’t quit,” said National Guard Col. Michele Melton, who was coordinating the sandbagging effort. “That’s why we’re here — to try and save these people.”

Many of the 720 residents of Winfield and people from surrounding communities have spent the last several days helping the National Guard patch one trouble spot after another.

In the end, their efforts were undone by an animal that weighs no more than 5 pounds. Officials said holes bore by a muskrat that was either seeking food or building a den led brought the levee down.

3 shark attacks have Mexico resort area in panic

No one could even remember a shark attack along this resort-studded stretch of Mexican coast popular with surfers and Hollywood’s elite. Many of the large predators had been pulled from the ocean by fishermen.

So when sharks attacked three surfers in less than a month, two fatally, it was unthinkable.

The latest attack came Saturday, when a shark chomped down on the arm of surfing enthusiast Bruce Grimes, an American expat who runs a surf shop in Zihuatanejo.

Grimes and a handful of other surfers were out on dark, choppy waters when he felt something lift his board. He managed about five strokes before teeth sank into his arm. “Shark!” he screamed, wresting his arm back. Grimes made it to shore, escaping with a few gashes.

“There wasn’t any time to panic,” he said. “I thought: ‘Don’t want to die. Don’t want to lose my arm.’”

6 lions eat South African man

Police say six caged lions left only fingers and intestines after eating a worker giving them water.

The lions attacked the 49-year-old man Tuesday after he went inside their cage to deliver water, police said Wednesday.

California 2-Year-Old Dragged From Yard by Coyote in Third Such Attack in Five Days

A coyote grabbed a 2-year-old girl by the head and tried to drag her from the front yard of her mountain home in the third incident of a coyote threatening a small child in Southern California in five days, authorities said.

The coyote attacked the girl around noon Tuesday when her mother, Melissa Rowley, went inside the home for a moment to put away a camera, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in an incident report.

Rowley came out of the house and saw the coyote dragging her daughter towards a street. She ran towards her daughter, and the animal released the girl and ran away, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire.

African lion on the loose near Ottawa

A two-year-old pet lion was on the loose in Canada’s backwoods near the nation’s capital Wednesday, sparking a hunt by police, officials said.

The 150-pound (70-kilogram) male African lion escaped overnight Tuesday from an Indian reservation and was last seen near the tiny village of Maniwaki, north of Ottawa, said Melanie Larouche of the Quebec provincial police.

Schools and day-cares in the region were alerted and asked to keep children indoors, she told AFP.

The lion named Boomer belongs to a resident of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg reserve and was said by its owner to be harmless, but authorities were not taking any chances.

“That’s not a little pet to us, and we’re taking this situation quite seriously,” Corporal Gordon McGregor of the Kitigan Zibi reserve police force told public broadcaster CBC.

Squirrel wars: reds, greys and blacks battle for supremacy

The last stronghold of the native red squirrel is under attack in the North, while black “super squirrels” have begun a rearguard assault on their grey rivals in the South.

It was the sort of scene that unfolds every morning in British back gardens. As soon as he opened the curtains Martin Coats saw a squirrel run along his garden wall and over the fence into the fir trees at the back. Though he thought little of it at the time, conservation groups confirmed that his street is now in the front line of the war against grey squirrels.

“It did occur to me at the time that I’d never seen a grey up here before but I didn’t realise the significance,” said Mr Coats, 36. “If it comes back I’ll be better prepared. I’ll get the gun out and, if I see it, I’ll shoot it.” Scottish Natural Heritage said that it had received four sightings of a grey squirrel in the Milton of Leys housing estate near Inverness. It is the first confirmed sighting of a grey in the Highlands, stronghold of the red squirrel and is home to at least half of the estimated 120,000 in Scotland.

Cloud Of Bees Swarming In ‘Tornado Pattern’ Chases Diners From Restaurant

A giant cloud of thousands of bees mysteriously appeared and began to swirl in a “tornado pattern” around a Central Florida Mexican restaurant.

Customers at Oxie’s restaurant located near Highway 17-92 and Plymouth Avenue in DeLand said they noticed a cloud in the sky and thought it was raining. They then realized, the cloud was a swarm of bees.

“A lot of people said it was bees and ran to their cars,” restaurant owner Oxie Ochiana said. “It was scary. I was panicking. I didn’t know what to do.”

Bull Jumps Over Wall at Northern California Rodeo, Injuring 6

A 3,000-pound bull jumped over an 8-foot fence during a Northern California rodeo and injured three children and three adults.

Authorities say the rodeo fans’ injuries aren’t considered life-threatening.

The bull made its bid to escape Sunday in Red Bluff, Calif., near the end of the city’s 87th annual rodeo and landed in an audience seating area.

Rodeo director and spokesman Joe Froome calls it a freak accident.

Cops kill cougar on North Side

A cougar ran loose in Chicago on Monday for the first time since the city’s founding in the 19th Century. But by day’s end, the animal lay dead in a back alley on the North Side, shot by police who said they feared it was turning to attack.

No one knew where the 150-pound cat came from, though on Saturday Wilmette police had received four reports of a cougar roaming that suburb, roughly 15 miles from the site of Monday’s shooting.

Kamikaze rat blacks out Stockholm

The electrocution of a fat rat in an electric station Saturday caused a three-hour power outage in Stockholm’s central train station.

The early morning outage led to some delays in train traffic, since the rat’s 11,000 voltage blowout led to a blackout in the station and halted elevators and escalators, Jesper Ekenlund, a spokesman for power company Fortum said.

Python Stalked, Then Ate Family Dog in Front of Children

A 16-foot python stalked a family dog for days before swallowing the pet whole in front of horrified children in the Australian tropics, animal experts said Wednesday.

The boy and girl, aged 5 and 7, watched as the scrub python devoured their silky terrier-Chihuahua crossbreed Monday at their home near Kuranda in Queensland state.

Stuart Douglas, owner of the Australian Venom Zoo in Kuranda, said scrub pythons typically eat wild animals such as wallabies, a smaller relative of the kangaroo, but sometimes turn to pets in urban areas.

New threat to our way of life: giant pythons

In addition to everything else to worry about, now comes the Burmese python.

The giant snakes are slithering from Florida toward the Bay Area, very slowly to be sure, but inexorably. And they can strangle and eat an entire alligator.

The U.S. Geological Survey released a map Wednesday showing that the Bay Area has comfortable climatic conditions for the python. It also said the reptile, which prefers to swallow its prey in one gulp, is “highly adaptable to new environments” and cannot be stopped.

The snakes weigh up to 250 pounds and slither at a rate of 20 miles per month, according to USGS zoologist Gordon Rodda. They are not staying put. In fact, one of them has already slithered about 100 miles toward San Francisco.

Thousands of starlings flock together in Scotland, distracting drivers

Motorists in the UK are being warned not to be distracted by huge flocks of starlings swooping in the sky above a motorway in Scotland.

Drivers have been slowing down or even stopping to watch the birds swirling above the M74 north of Gretna Green and the A75 west of the town.

Flocks of thousands of starlings are turning the sky black as they dip through the air for food at dawn and dusk.

Cow Hit by Woman’s Car Lands in Back Seat

It was surprise enough when Tanya Coccia’s car accidentally hit two cows that had wandered on to the road.

It was an even bigger surprise when Coccia and her 14-year-old daughter realized one of the cows had landed in her back seat.
When emergency crews arrived they found the cow in the car shaking after falling through the back window, according to MyFOXBoston.com.

Disoriented doe bruises up grandma

Penny Patch Produce & Garden Center had an intruder Monday morning.

It was actually a doe – a deer, a female deer – that ran across Fleming Drive and jumped through the store’s front window.

“We’ve been here about 26 years, and we’ve had break-ins but never anything like this,” said David Rakestraw, who owns the store with his brother.

He said the deer hit their cashier, Carol Stroupe, who is somewhere in her 60s, as it crashed through the window.

Stroupe was OK but a little bruised up. She went home early, but before she left, she told Rakestraw and his brother, Chris, she was going to tell her grandson, “Grandma got run over by a reindeer.”

Squirrels Briefly Kill Power in 2 Cities

It was an unlucky day for two squirrels and hundreds of Midwestern power customers.

Brian Elwood, a spokesman for Xcel Energy, said a squirrel came in contact with an overhead transformer and knocked out service to 177 customers Monday. Power was fully restored in just under an hour, and repair crews found the remains of the “unfortunate squirrel,” he said.

By coincidence, another squirrel got into a substation 40 miles away in Ironwood, Mich., Monday morning and caused a temporary outage that affected about 1,400 customers in Ironwood and two nearby communities, Elwood said.

Hundreds of crocodiles on the loose

Soldiers and rangers have captured 88 crocodiles which escaped from a breeding farm in a central Vietnam province, but hundreds more are still on the loose, officials said Wednesday.

They said soldiers shot dead eight fresh water crocodiles and returned those captured to the breeding farm in Khanh Hoa province where raging floodwaters broke cages Saturday, allowing the crocodiles to escape.

Boy, 3, Hospitalized In Playground Squirrel Attack

A 3-year-old boy, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper and another adult were hurt on Wednesday afternoon in a bizarre attack by a squirrel on a day care playground.

It happened at the Children’s Academy Daycare on Oak Ridge Road in Orange County.

Kevin Santiago, 3, was bitten nine times while playing on the playground, according to Yietza Santiago, the boy’s mother.

Cows flee trailer after their driver pulls into McDonald’s

McDonald’s? The burger joint? Stampede! Eight cows escaped from a trailer when the rear gate opened as the driver pulled into a McDonald’s. It took about two hours to round them up Monday.

“Maybe they were going to … hop in the freezer, save the middleman,” Weber County sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Creager said.

City faces simian menace, dozens hurt

JUST weeks after New Delhi’s deputy mayor toppled to his death fending off a pack of monkeys, the animals have gone back on the attack.

One woman was seriously hurt and two dozen other people were given first aid after monkeys rampaged through a neighbourhood in east Delhi over the weekend, media reports said.

Danish cops hunt rogue kangaroo

Police in Denmark are looking for help from the public in their attempts to track down an escaped kangaroo.

The kangaroo is on the loose in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, after it and another kangaroo escaped from their owner’s home, in the Copenhagen neighbourhood of Amager, on Monday.

Dog shoots Iowa man during hunt

A man out hunting in Iowa was shot in the leg after a hunting dog stepped on his gun, authorities said.

The accident happened after James Harris, 37, put his gun on the ground to retrieve a fallen pheasant.

One of a pack of hunting dogs following behind stepped on the trigger, and up to 120 birdshot pellets hit Mr Harris in the left calf at short range.