Karl's Weird News

Boy, 13, struck by lightning — on Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th proved suitably unlucky for one 13 year-old boy who was struck by lightning before being taken to hospital — at 13:13 on the dreaded date.

The boy, who has not been named, was treated for a minor burn after being hit along with two others at an air show in Suffolk, eastern England, a spokeswoman said.

Staff at the St Johns Ambulance service said there had been heavy rain all day before they witnessed a big flash of lightning and a loud clap of thunder over the sea off the Suffolk coast.

“We got a call that someone had been struck by lightning so we immediately sent our paramedics to the scene, followed by an ambulance,” said Rex Clarke, head of the team of St John Ambulance volunteers at the event.

Canadian rescued from Arctic ice:

A Canadian teenager has been rescued from an ice floe drifting in the Arctic sea, where he was reportedly stranded with two polar bears.

Search and rescue teams parachuted onto the 15m (40ft) floe after spotting the 17-year-old Inuit youth from the air.

They told the BBC he appeared to have shot and killed a mother polar bear in self-defence, orphaning her two cubs.

The teenager is being treated for mild hypothermia and frostbite in the small town of Coral Harbour, on Hudson Bay.

Jean Pierre Sharp of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Trenton, Ontario, told the BBC the teenager had been on a hunting expedition with an older man in the remote area, when one of their snowmobiles broke down.

The teenager set off alone to find help but became stranded when the ice floe broke away and drifted loose, said Mr Sharp, leaving him trapped overnight as temperatures fell to -20C.

Police force quits after lottery win:

A town’s entire police force has quit in Hungary after winning more than £10 million in the lottery.

The 15-strong squad in Budaors scooped the jackpot with their ticket on Tuesday and all resigned on the spot.

Police chiefs have scrambled back-up units to the region until more full-time officers can be recruited.

Cat Falls 26 Stories, Lives to Purr Again

Do cats always land on their feet?

The unbelievable tale of a cat named Lucky — who fell 26 stories and survived — doesn’t quite prove the myth but it comes pretty close.

In early May, Keri Hostetler was readying her lower Manhattan apartment for guests who were coming to visit. She cracked the window of her home office a few inches — something she “never, ever did” — just to air the place out. She left the door to the room ajar and got to work on her laundry.

Her beloved cat Lucky, a 3-year-old gray-and-black striped male who Hostetler describes as “a lover and a hugger” was wandering around the apartment. Or so Hostetler thought.

“I came back up from doing laundry and saw that the room where the window was open — the door was open,” she told “Good Morning America Weekend Edition.” “I rushed in to the window and saw the window washers kind of waving for me.”

Jellybean guess is good for $25,000:

A Harlem woman took home $25,000 Thursday for guessing the exact number of jelly beans in a jar – for the second time in her life.

The first time Jessica Silverman struck it lucky was 21 years ago, when she was a 5-year-old kindergarten student and the trophy was a stuffed toy dragon.

This time, the prize will help her put a deposit on a new home after she correctly guessed there were 7,954 treats on display at a stand in the Hilton hotel on Sixth Ave. Tuesday.

“I’m a lucky girl, and I was in the right place at the right time,” Silverman said. “This is going to the ‘Get Jessica a first apartment’ fund.”

Japanese Man Certified as Double A-Bomb Victim

A 93-year-old Japanese man has become the first person certified as a survivor of both U.S. atomic bombings at the end of World War II, officials said Tuesday.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi had already been a certified “hibakusha,” or radiation survivor, of the Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombing in Nagasaki, but has now been confirmed as surviving the attack on Hiroshima three days earlier as well, city officials said.

Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on Aug. 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city. He then returned to his hometown of Nagasaki just in time for the second attack, city officials said.

“As far as we know, he is the first one to be officially recognized as a survivor of atomic bombings in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Nagasaki city official Toshiro Miyamoto said. “It’s such an unfortunate case, but it is possible that there are more people like him.”

Woman wins house in raffle after husband laid off:

Susan Wells was thrilled to learn she’d won a $2 million house in a raffle days after her husband had been laid off from his job. “I’m floored,” said Wells, who bought the ticket as a surprise to celebrate the couple’s 16th anniversary. “I can’t believe this has happened. Needless to say, my husband is very surprised.”

The house is in upscale Marin County, just north of San Francisco. The couple already own a home in Danville, a suburb south of San Francisco, and if they don’t want to move they have the option of $1.2 million in cash.

 They’re still deciding what do, but Brad Wells, who had been a sales executive for a Silicon Valley high-tech company, said the winnings are definitely a boost.

“I got laid off on Wednesday and the company went bankrupt on Friday,” he said. The couple got word of their win on Saturday. “It’s been a really rough ride for the last year. This gives us an unbelievable lift.”

Fairgoers Catch, Save Toddler Dropped By Mom Dangling From Carnival Ride

A group of fairgoers caught and saved a toddler who was dropped nearly 40 feet from a carnival ride as her mother dangled above the crowd.

 Sheri Pinkerton became trapped when the Crazy Bus ride at a carnival in Port Orange started up suddenly as Pinkerton and children were getting off the ride.

“I heard a bunch of screaming and I looked over and the school bus had started to go back up as the mother was getting off with her little girl,” Craft said. “She was pretty much caught. She was half in and half out. Her leg was caught up underneath the ride and she was holding on to her little girl.”

A group of men then gathered under the dangling mother and child and urged the woman to let go of her daughter.

Small Plane Lands On Garden State Parkway

A small, single-engine plane made an emergency landing on the Northbound side of the Garden State Parkway on Friday, according to New Jersey state police. The small Cesna 152 was sightseeing when it lost power and had to fly under an overhead parkway sign to make a safe landing. Traffic is backed up on the northbound side of the Garden State Parkway. The plane landed in Tinton Falls, N.J., near mile marker 102.5 on the parkway.

Balloonist Survives 9,000-Foot Fall at South Carolina Festival

Authorities say a Michigan man survived after his hot air balloon plunged thousands of feet at a South Carolina festival because the basket caught a tree limb 10 feet before it hit the ground. Great Southeast Balloon Fest officials say pilot Chuck Walz, of Munith, Mich., broke his leg and pelvis Sunday morning, but has undergone surgery and his recovery is promising. Anderson Fire Chief Jack Abraham says Walz’s balloon may have been 9,000 feet in the air when it deflated.

Firefighter’s Helmet Deflects Flying Rod

A firefighter is counting his luck after a red-hot steel rod was fired into his helmet from an exploding vehicle, local media reported Thursday.

The steel rod was traveling at such speed it punched a hole through a steel door before hitting 41-year-old Gary Wright’s Kevlar fire helmet, The New Zealand Herald said.

Wright was getting ready to fight a blaze earlier this month that had engulfed a garage full of vehicles in a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city, when the steel rod fired out of an exploding van 62 feet away.

Ohio Clerk Finds $10, Buys $1M Ticket

Kristina Schneider tried to persuade a customer at the BP station where she works to buy the last ticket on a roll of the Magnificent Millions lottery game.

“I always joke that the last ticket is the winning one, but he said he only had enough money for three tickets,” Schneider said.

This time, her advice was no joke.

The single mother _ with nine maxed out credit cards and $8,500 in debt for her associate’s degree _ bought what turned out to be a $1 million winning ticket with a $10 bill she found in the store Friday.

Helmet Saves Cyclist After Truck Runs Over Head

Ryan Lipscomb lived to tell how it felt to have a truck run over his head. “Really strange,” he said.Lipscomb, 26 of Seattle, suffered a concussion but was otherwise unhurt. He was shaken up, especially after he saw his mangled helmet.

Man Survives Garbage Truck Crushing

A homeless man who had fallen asleep in a trash bin to escape the rain was dumped into a garbage truck and survived being crushed repeatedly before a worker saw him.

Robert Baswell, 44, said he screamed as the load of trash was crushed against his body at least seven times and was sure he would die. He tried to cushion one blow from the truck’s compressor with a dead opossum, he said.

“I screamed one last breath,” Baswell told the Palm Beach Post. A trash collector finally saw him as he tossed in a box and called for help.

Child Finds $1,300 in Thrift Store Book

Rhiannon Barnes may be the luckiest 15-month-old ever. Or maybe her baby sitter is the fortunate one. While playing with a thrift store book bought earlier in the day for 25 cents, Rhiannon uncovered $1,300 in cash stuck between the pages. Her baby sitter Sheila Laughridge said she only bought the book at Rhiannon’s insistence and was surprised when the toddler found a brown paper bag full of $100s, $50s, $20s and $10s.