Just say no

One little word felled a bank robbery attempt in San Diego on Oct. 5. According to police, a white man around the age of 50 walked into a branch of U.S. Bank in San Diego and handed the teller a note demanding money. The teller reportedly read the note, looked at the suspect, and replied, “No.” Stymied, the would-be thief walked out the front door. Police are reviewing security recordings in order to find the culprit.

Seasonal allergy

School officials ordered the evacuation of a Baltimore parochial high school on Oct. 5 as a strange odor wafted through the hallways. Fire and hazmat crews also responded to the situation at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, where the odor affected dozens and sent four students and teachers to the hospital for observation. After an investigation, authorities discovered the problem: a pumpkin spice air freshener. Even though many had found the odor overwhelming, it was “not hazardous at all,” according to Baltimore Fire Chief Roman Clark. After large fans circulated the air, the school reopened the next day.

Carry-on item?

A Brisbane, Australia, man faces a fine of $195 for the way he attempted to board a local commuter train. A security video captured the incident: The man used a hand truck to attempt to wheel a refrigerator from the platform and onto the train. Predictably, the wheels became stuck in the gap in between, and security guards then stopped the struggling man, handed him a ticket, and directed him and his appliance back to the station entrance.

Time out

When police officers in Casper, Wyo., responded to a disorderly conduct complaint on Oct. 2, the alleged perp had a special story for them. Bryant Johnson, 27, told authorities he was a time traveler from the year 2048 returning to our time in order to warn present-day humans about an alien invasion in 2018. When police asked Johnson his method of time travel, he explained to officers that aliens had filled his body with alcohol and placed him on a teleportation pad. Police arrested Johnson for public intoxication.

Lil too much security?

Hip-hop fans hoping to see popular rapper Lil Wayne left a South Carolina arena disappointed on Sept. 30 when Lil Wayne’s appearance was canceled due to a security concern. The problem: The 35-year-old performer refused to submit to a security check including a metal detector ahead of his performance at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C. When the rapper refused the check, managers for the arena refused to let him enter. The show went on with Lil Wayne’s opening acts, but patrons were offered refunds.

Out for the evening

Apparently not wanting to wait for their girlfriends to visit them, Choctaw County, Okla., inmates Harley Davidson and Rakeem Lennox escaped from prison on the evening of Oct. 11, visited their girlfriends—and then walked back to the prison. Authorities say they used a stolen laundry room door key in their escape. The duo, both serving time for drug possession, will likely face additional charges.

Up in smoke

When is a half-smoked cigar worth $12,000? When the person who smoked the other half was Winston Churchill. An unidentified collector in Palm Beach, Fla., reportedly paid that much for a cigar Churchill smoked during a May 11, 1947, visit to Paris. Cpl. William Alan Turner, a British airman, had kept the cigar after he and his crew carried Churchill and his wife as passengers for the trip. The collector also received a signed photo of Churchill with the cigar in hand.

Flying car

Rather than drive a few blocks around a canal, a man in Lehigh Acres, Fla., had a different idea: Perhaps he could jump his car over the canal? A witness to the Oct. 10 attempt told WFTX that the driver pulled up to the canal, got out of his Toyota Corolla to check the distance, backed the vehicle up, and then made the jump attempt. All officers found at daybreak was a totaled Corolla stuck in the middle of the canal. The witness said the man attempting the jump abandoned his vehicle and left on foot.

Escape addicts

A pair of women who on Oct. 2 escaped from a women’s prison in Edmonton, Alberta, apparently couldn’t get enough of escaping. Police say 23-year-old Kelsie Laine Mast and 20-year-old Samantha Faye Toope escaped the Edmonton Institution for Women by jumping a fence. Nearly 24 hours later, police caught the pair across town at a local escape room run by SideQuests Adventures. Escape rooms are entertainment businesses where patrons use clues and solve puzzles to escape from a room.