Friday Snippets and Soundbites

Welcome to the last Friday of August!

(Where in the world has August gone? For a long month with no holidays, it sure does seem to have gone by quickly!)

Anyway, we digress. Let's get back to the business at hand. Which is basically discussing the best of the best news of the weird we discovered this week when we were checking out our favorite news sources. And remember: if this edition of "Snippets and Soundbites" isn't enough crazy for you, check out page 38 in this month's issue of ec (and every other month's issue of ec).

Ready to get started? Let's go!

Some jokes aren't a laughing matter.

In a summer in which several Massachusetts beaches have been closed after shark sightings, Jaws jokes don't make many locals laugh. (You have to know your audience, folks.) That's why a recent practical joke has the town of Somerset, Mass., a little up in arms. Here's the short version: on Wednesday night, about 50 people ended up at a cove in Somerset because someone had reported seeing a shark fin in the water. The police received several 911 calls about the sighting and sent officers to the scene. The responding officers quickly discovered the "shark" was simply a piece of Styrofoam cut into the shape of a shark's fin, wrapped in duct tape and weighted down. While the police don't know who played the joke, they aren't laughing. They said the fake call could have caused a problem if there had been a real emergency call at the same time. Moral of this story? Know your audience. And don't play jokes on the police. To learn more, go here.

The evidence doesn't lie. 

James Myers and his family were simply visiting the Wisconsin State Capitol as part of their family vacation. Wanting a family picture and photographic evidence of their trip, James set the self-timer on his camera and hustled into the shot with his wife and kids. The picture of the family is great, but it's more than a great picture. It's evidence. While Meyers was posing with his family, completely oblivious to what was happening behind him, a thief stole the family's bag, which of course contained Meyers' wallet and other important items. Thankfully, though, the family picture also captured the thief in the act of stealing the Meyers' bag. Meyers showed the photo to police, who recognized the man, and soon located him. . . still carrying the bag. On Tuesday, the suspect pleaded not guilty to misdeamenor theft. To learn more, read this.

Say what? 

It's one thing to get shot. It's a whole other thing to get shot, think it was fireworks and walk around with a bullet in your head for 5 years. Let that sink in. FIVE YEARS! But apparently that's just what happened to a 35-year-old man in Berlin, Germany. Apparently the man was celebrating New Year's Eve five years ago when he was hit with a .22 caliber bullet. At the time, he assumed he'd been hit by fireworks, then completely forgot about the whole thing. But about a year ago, he started getting bad headaches. Finally, he went to the doctor where the bullet was discovered. Doctors removed the bullet from between his skin and skull this week. To learn more and see the X-ray, go here.