Curses, Foiled Again
A subcontractor told police he was working in a subdivision in San Antonio, Texas, when a man approached him, showed a black semi-automatic handgun and asked, “Can I rob the house?” The sub said he replied, “It is not my house,” and later saw the man exit the house carrying a microwave. He snapped a photo of the man putting the microwave into an auto, whose license plate led authorities to Danny Acosta, 30. (San Antonio’s KSAT-TV)
School Daze
Photo provided by Alberto G. via flickr
Cheating on statewide secondary school exams is common in Bihar, India, where students routinely smuggle in textbooks and notes, but this year local newspapers published photos of parents and relatives scaling walls of exam centers to pass on answers to test takers. Some even showed police officers posted outside the centers accepting bribes. “What can the government do to stop cheating if parents and relatives are not ready to cooperate,” Bihar Education Minister P.K. Shahi said. “Should the government give orders to shoot them?” (BBC News)
Smoking Hazards
A Nevada man inspecting a gasoline can for a leak while smoking a cigarette ignited a flash fire that sent him to the hospital with serious burns. Tim Szymanski of Las Vegas Fire & Rescue said the man’s wife suffered burns to her hands after she heard her husband scream and then tried to put out the fire by patting him down. (Las Vegas Sun)
Game of Drones
Photo provided by Wikimedia
A drone carrying mistletoe and a kiss cam at a TGI Friday restaurant in New York City crashed into a woman’s face, cutting open her nose. “It was like I couldn’t get it off because I guess the mistletoe part had fishing wire on it — that’s how it was attached — and it got caught in my hair, and it kept twirling and twirling and twirling while this thing is on my nose,” Georgine Benvenuto said. (Britain’s The Independent)
Incompetent of the Week
A heavily armed Islamic extremist was unable to carry out his mission to open fire on churchgoers in Paris, French officials said, because he accidentally shot himself in the leg. (Associated Press)
The Devil, You Say
Citing an increase in demonic activity, the Vatican convened a team of experts, including practicing exorcists, to equip doctors, psychologists and teachers with the skills needed to recognize and cope with demonic possession. Organizers said one of the main purposes of the exercise is to teach apprentice exorcists to difference between demonic possession and psychological or medical conditions. “Living in an increasingly secularized society than in the past, there is more tendency to open the door to the occult,” warned Father Pedro Barrajon, director of the Sacerdos Institute, organizer of the 10th annual “Exorcism and Prayer of Liberation” course. “Demonic activity is increased by the practice of magic and visiting fortune tellers which can increase the likelihood of demonic possession.” Last year, the International Association of Exorcists referred to the trend as “a pastoral emergency.” (Caribbean360)
Photo provided by Wikimedia
Strange Encounters
Guards at a National Security Agency security checkpoint outside Washington, D.C., opened fire on a stolen SUV containing two men dressed as women after the driver refused orders to stop. One died, the other was hospitalized. Authorities said they believe the driver approached the checkpoint by mistake while the two were fleeing from a motel after robbing a 60-year-old man who had paid the transgender sex workers for an overnight tryst. “This was not a planned attack,” a law enforcement official said. (The Washington Post)
