Friday Snippets and Soundbites

Friday is here, meaning it's time for "Snippets and Soundbites"—and we know you're excited!

Let's see what random news of the weird we dug up from this week's news cycle.

That's my fence!
Good neighbors share a lot of things, right? Well, it appears a Minnesota man may have taken the whole concept of sharing a little too far—so far in fact that it became stealing. A Duluth, Minn., woman used to have an antique iron fence around the perimeter of her yard—until last September, that is. That's when 53-year-old Randy King took the fence down and installed it in his own yard just a few blocks away. King admitted to stealing the fence in court, but also implied that he had been given permission to to take down a fence in an adjacent lot and had simply gone a little too far. But the woman reportedly told police that a month before her fence went missing, a man had come by and asked to buy it. She had declined. Whatever really happened, King agreed to the terms of his felony charge, including probation and a $1500 restitution. The good news for the woman whose fence has been missing all this time: an insurance company is paying for a new fence and it's set to be installed on Monday. Learn more about this strange tale here.

That's harrassment! 

One of the ec team's driving pet peeves are the people who slam on their brakes repeatedly for no reason. And it's apparently not a favorite driving habit with the New Jersey state patrol, either. This week, police accused a New Jersey woman of harrassing other drivers on the Garden State Parkway by repeatedly braking. Apparently, she would slam on her brakes often, causing other drivers to tailgate. She was charged with harassment, falsely incriminating others and filing false reports to law enforcement, which leads us to wonder if she didn't repeatedly brake so that other motorists would hit her car. The police issued a warrant for her arrest after 22 incidents on the parkway this summer. The woman is currently free on $27,500 bail. Read more here.

Gran can rock!

Ruth Flowers is 69 years old. And at an age when many people are settling into retirement, she's just getting started. That's because Ruth Flowers, aka "Mamy Rock," is thought to be the oldest professional DJ in the world, and she's quite popular on the club scene in Europe. Mamy Rock got interested in DJing at her grandson's birthday party when she was 65. Eventually, her grandson introduced her to a music producer who taught Mamy Rock about the basics of electro rock and before she knew it, Flowers was working the turntables herself. She says she'd rather "sign a contract with a record company than sign up for a nursing home." Learn more about Mamy Rock here.

As always, if this just isn't enough news of the strange for you, check out page 38 in this month's (and every month's) issue of ec!