Thorny situation

What was intended as an act of kindness in Coshocton, Ohio, turned into a police investigation. After her fiancé spent roughly $300 on roses for Valentine’s Day, Brittaney Strupe of Ohio decided she didn’t want the surplus of flowers to go to waste. “He was just going to throw them outside or in the trash, so I told him, instead of wasting, we should pass it on,” she told WBNS. So Strupe and some family members took the roses to a local Walmart and left them on cars for strangers. But Walmart customers confused the kind gesture for something more nefarious. A Walmart employee reported the odd behavior to police, fearing it was part of a human trafficking recruitment scheme. As other concerned calls poured into the Coshocton Sheriff’s Office, the department put a plea for more information on its Facebook page. Eventually Strupe saw the post, called sheriff’s deputies, and cleared up the matter.

Too fat to fly

Government officials in Bahrain are sounding the alarm about seagulls too obese to fly. The reason for the overweight avians? They’ve been gorging on leftovers from humans. The technical committee chairman of the Middle Eastern nation’s Northern Municipal Council called on residents to stop leaving out plates of food for the seabirds. “We can see them walking on the ground, it’s like they just left work and came home for lunch,” Abdullah Al Qubaisi told Bahrain’s Gulf Daily News. In particular, the gulls have been spotted feasting on the carbohydrate-rich machboos, a spiced chicken and rice recipe considered the small country’s national dish. Elsewhere in Bahrain, councilors have complained about a rat infestation also caused by diners failing to dispose properly their leftover machboos.

Home away from home

Coronavirus pandemic restrictions have stressed every household, but for one man in southern England, the clamor of his own house was too much. Police in Burgess Hill, U.K., say a local man wanted on criminal charges called police to turn himself in. According to authorities, the man was looking for some peace and quiet. “He would rather go back to prison than have to spend more time with the people he was living with,” Inspector Darren Taylor told the West Sussex County Times in February. Police were willing to oblige: They took the wanted man into custody.

Anti-work scheme

In the end, 19-year-old Brandon Soules got what he wanted. Police in Coolidge, Ariz., say the teen faked his own kidnapping in order to avoid work on Feb. 10. Officers found Soules bound and gagged near a water tower, and the teen told authorities he had been abducted by two masked men. When a subsequent investigation by police couldn’t corroborate the young man’s story, authorities asked him for more details. That’s when Soules admitted he had staged the story to avoid having to go in to work. Police arrested Soules on Feb. 17 for filing a false report. According to authorities, Soules was also fired from his job at a local vehicle repair shop.

So good it’s criminal

In an effort to stave off a rash of video challenges of young people ruining desserts, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law on Feb. 18 a piece of legislation banning the contamination of food. Legislators in Arizona aimed the bill at people who enter grocery stores and film themselves licking from cartons of ice cream before putting the containers back on the shelves. The law makes a class 1 misdemeanor out of putting “any bodily fluid or foreign object not intended for human consumption with water, food, or drink.” Even if no one consumes the product, violating the new law could cost miscreants four months in jail and a $750 fine. In 2019, a video of a Texas teen licking from a container of Blue Bell ice cream went viral and has inspired numerous copycat attacks.

Animals with benefits

After a lifetime of service, police dogs and horses in Poland may soon be able to retire on a pension. On Feb. 18, officials with the nation’s interior ministry said they were pushing legislation for the government to provide lifelong retirement benefits—including veterinary care—for all retired dogs and horses that previously served Polish police officers. Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said the legislation will affect about 1,000 retired police dogs and several dozen horses. “They are extraordinary animals. Thanks to them, many human lives have been saved and many dangerous criminals have been apprehended,” Kaminski told Polsat. “Caring for them is our ethical duty.”

Vaccination disguise

You can’t blame them for wanting to stay healthy. Health officials in central Florida caught two women last month posing as grannies in order to get their second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Orange County Department of Health director Raul Pino said his crew on Feb. 17 turned away two women ages 34 and 44, dressed in bonnets, gloves, and glasses, whose driver’s license dates of birth didn’t match information in the county’s registration database. Currently Florida has prioritized people above the age of 65 for vaccination. Pino says the unnamed women somehow managed to slip through the system to obtain their first round of vaccines. Authorities gave the two women trespass warnings and sent them away. “We haven’t had any lack of willing arms to get vaccinated,” Pino said. “We also have people faking to be old to be vaccinated.”

Outhouse occupied

It’s the stuff of nightmares: An Alaskan woman sitting down to use a backcountry outhouse felt something bite her. “I got out there and sat down on the toilet and immediately something bit my butt right as I sat down,” said Shannon Stevens, who was staying with family in a yurt in southeast Alaska on Feb. 13. “I jumped up and I screamed when it happened.” Stevens believed she had been bitten by a small animal. As she tended to her flesh wound, her brother Erik came to the outhouse to investigate the screaming. But when he opened the toilet seat, he didn’t see a mink or squirrel. He saw a black bear. “I just shut the lid as fast as I could. I said, ‘There’s a bear down there, we got to get out of here now,’” her brother said. “And we ran back to the yurt as fast as we could.” In the morning, the family found bear tracks all around the property, but the beast had apparently moved on.