A heavy hit

Doug Unkrey can’t find his hammer, but it shouldn’t be too hard to spot. It’s 21 feet long and weighs 800 pounds. Thieves apparently stole the enormous work of art from the lawn of the Healdsburg (Calif.) Community Center sometime during the night of Oct. 5. Unkrey reportedly loaned the work of art to the community center about a year ago. Its estimated value: $15,000.

One man’s doorstop …

A Michigan man has discovered his doorstop is worth a fortune. Dave Mazurek has been using a 23-pound rock he found in a barn ever since he bought a farm in Edmore, Mich., in 1988. The farm’s previous owner told him the rock was a meteorite composed of iron and nickel and landed on the property in the 1930s. In January, Mazurek said, he saw a story about how meteorites could be worth money to scientists and collectors. So eventually he had his rock checked out by scientists at Central Michigan University and the Smithsonian Museum. Months later, the experts told him his meteorite is worth about $100,000. “I’m done using it as a doorstop,” Mazurek told the Chicago Tribune. “Let’s get a buyer.”

Cut and tried

A St. Louis–area woman who recently dropped a state lawsuit now says she plans on filing a federal civil rights complaint against her son’s school for failing to place him on the varsity soccer team. The complaint arose from a coach’s decision at Ladue Horton Watkins High School that the woman’s son wasn’t good enough to make the varsity soccer team. School policy made the student ineligible to play junior varsity soccer as an 11th-grader. Coaches for the school argued that her son simply wasn’t good enough. The woman forwarded her complaint to the Office of Civil Rights, claiming the school’s policy of securing junior varsity spots for younger players amounted to age discrimination.

Stripped of their money

It may be a while before Ben Belknap pays back his parents the money they borrowed for football season tickets. Ben and his wife Jackee had been saving money in an envelope for the season tickets to University of Utah football games but recently discovered that the cash envelope with more than $1,000 was missing. After questioning their toddler son, the couple discovered the boy had run the cash through the family’s paper shredder. Belknap says he plans to return the strips of cash to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which works to verify and replace mutilated money.

Flying under the influence

Birds in Gilbert, Minn., have been acting odd lately, reportedly flying into windows and otherwise seeming confused. The explanation: They’re drunk. Authorities say an early frost caused the berries the birds eat to ferment earlier than usual. “Drunk birds,” National Parks Service ranger Sharon Stiteler told KMSP-TV, “are totally a thing.”

A squirrely incident

Police in Orlando, Fla., ejected a woman from a Frontier Airlines plane after she attempted to board an Oct. 9 flight with a squirrel. The woman claimed the rodent was her emotional support animal. But Frontier officials at Orlando International Airport had other ideas. When the woman refused to get off her Cleveland-bound flight, the airline deplaned the entire group of passengers and allowed local police to remove the woman. Frontier’s emotional support animals policy specifically prohibits “rodents, reptiles, insects, hedgehogs,” and other non-traditional service animals.

Limber lizard

A gecko is to blame for a “bazillion” prank calls made on Oct. 3 that sent patrons of a veterinary hospital into a tizzy. Marine mammal veterinarian and hospital director Claire Simeone said she received 10 calls in quick succession from Ke Kai Ola, a hospital devoted to seals on Hawaii’s Big Island. Believing there was some emergency at her hospital, Simeone hurried back and found the phone lines busy with confused callers who had received phone calls from the hospital. While talking to the phone company, Simeone discovered a gecko perched on one of the hospital phones with its legs perfectly positioned on the touchscreen. According to Simeone, one of the animal’s legs was pressing the recent call history and another was positioned to place a call. Simeone said she caught the gecko and put it outside on a plant.

Crunchy trail

How do you get a big pig back in his pen? A deputy from the San Bernardino County (Calif.) Sheriff’s Office used Doritos. The sheriff’s office reportedly received calls on Oct. 14 about a pig running around a neighborhood. A deputy nearby had Doritos in her lunch bag and left a trail of the chips to guide the hungry pig back to its home and into its pen. The pig was reportedly “the size of a mini horse.”

Scary laws

This Halloween, older children in Chesapeake, Va., may want to reconsider their plans. According to a city ordinance, anyone over age 12 attempting to trick-or-treat is committing a misdemeanor punishable with up to a $100 fine and six months in jail. The Chesapeake ordinance also prohibits any trick-or-treating after 8 p.m. Violations of the 8 p.m. limit could result in a $100 fine and 30 days in jail.