Another issue of the Odd Stew: oddities plus other bizarre, strange, and fascinating things that have happened in the news that you may have missed.
The Friendly Fighting SkiesÂ
A January 22, 2016 Delta Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Minneapolis got a little tense when a fight broke out. But the fight wasn’t because of an unruly passenger, it was because two flight attendants decided to engage in some fisticuffs. The two female flight attendants got in the altercation because of work issues, and when a third woman tried to step in and break up the flight, she got hit. The ruckus caused the captain of the Boeing 757 to make a landing in Salt Lake City, and Delta sent a letter of apology to the passengers.
This isn’t the first brawl between flight attendants on a flight, even though it is rare. In September 2012, a pair of United Airlines flight attendants got into it when they were sharing a jump seat, and in that same month, two American Airlines flight attendants fought because of a mobile phone which caused a delay while on the ground at New York’s Kennedy Airport. You may want to think twice before asking for the can to keep with your complimentary drink.
Career Criminal Pay?
District of Columbia lawmakers approved a bill that would pay people for not committing crimes. The city would identify 200 people each year that were at high risk for acts of violent crime. If they agreed to participate in certain behavioral programs, they would receive a stipend.
This isn’t the first kind of law to be introduced for this sort of thing, and the D.C. law is modeled after a similar one in Richmond, California. Participants in that particular program receive a stipend of up to $9,000 per year, but the D.C. law didn’t specify an amount. It would cost the district $4.9 million over four years, with $460,000 a year going toward the stipend payments. That works out to $2,300 a year per participant if they decided to divide it equally.
Washington D.C. had a 54% increase in homicides the previous year, while Richmond had a drop of 77% in homicides from 2007 to 2014. Their program began in 2007, but it is unknown how much of that was directly related to the stipend program.
That’s Just Cheesy
On January 22, 2016, a rather strange heist took place that involved a trailer in Germantown, Wisconsin containing $70,000 worth of cheese. The trailer was found empty later in the day, but by the evening, police had located the stolen cheese in Milwaukee.
This wasn’t the first cheese heist in the area. Earlier in the week, $90,000 worth of parmesan cheese was stolen in Marshfield, Wisconsin. The latest theft brought the stolen cheese total to $160,000. It’s not known what the culprits were going to do with the cheese. Maybe they needed to make a really big sandwich. Police currently have no suspects in the case.
Could You Wipe That Machine Down? Maybe a Few Hundred Times
Nudists in Huntington Beach, California may have to find another gym to exercise at. The Naturists in the OC, a nudist group, had been renting the Huntington Beach City Gym and Pool since 2007, but in September 2015, they weren’t allowed to continue their freewheeling ways because of a new regulation by City Manager Fred Wilson that banned gymnasium nudity. The group used the gym for swimming, volleyball, and basketball while in the buff. The nudists complained to the city council , but they took no action since it wasn’t something that was on their agenda. Wilson cited that one of the reasons for the ban was that it was difficult for employees of the city to get their work done with nude people around.
Is That a Snake in Your Pants? Why Yes It Is
A man was caught on a video surveillance stealing, of all things, a two-foot long python from a Portland, Oregon pet store. He managed to get away with the snake by stuffing it down his pants. The owner of the A to Z pet store, Christin Bjugan, knew who the thief was after seeing the video, but was still waiting to get the snake back. The man was with a blue-haired woman during the heist, and she was also believed to be involved with the theft.
The snake sells for $200 at the store, and the store owner noted that it was close to feeding day for the python so the theft was obviously a bold move. Then again, maybe the snake moved its feeding day up a bit.
That’s it for another issue of the Odd Stew. Check back again next time for more bizarre and weird things that you may have missed in your news feed.
