Weird News

• NYC sewage plant to offer Valentine's Day tours
  It may not smell like a rose but a New York City sewage plant is offering tours for lovers on Valentine's Day.

• Hundreds ask Vt. to keep prank pig on police decal
  Remember the pig hidden within the decal on the doors of some Vermont State Police cruisers?

• Car theft suspect held after LA roof standoff
  A suspect in an auto theft was arrested Thursday after a bizarre five-hour standoff on the rooftops of a Westwood neighborhood.

• Necklace flushed down toilet returned months later
  A California woman has her gold necklace back months after she accidentally flushed it down her toilet.

• Pakistani man fights police over 40-foot shark
  Qasim Khan waged the unlikeliest of battles with Pakistani authorities Thursday over the right to charge hundreds of curious visitors the equivalent of 22 cents each to see a roughly 40-foot whale shark he bought from a fisherman.

• Ex-CA mayor admits stealing mixer to make pizza
  The former mayor of a Los Angeles suburb has pleaded guilty to stealing a commercial food mixer from the local school district so he could make dough for his home pizza oven.

• Judge: Buy wife flowers, then take her to dinner
  A spat over forgetting to wish his wife a happy birthday landed a South Florida man in jail on domestic violence charges.

• Trooper: Irate driver hit man with sledge hammer
  The Washington State Patrol says an irate driver apparently whacked a man in the shoulder with a small sledge hammer in a road rage dispute.

• Alaska man accused of trying to extort gov't
  Authorities in Alaska say a man threatened to teach "crackheads" how to make "electromagnetic distortion devices" unless the state paid him $85,000.

• Montana man fined $1K for instigating police chase
  A Butte man who told officers he instigated a police chase because he always wanted to try it, found out it'll cost him a $1,000 fine to go with his tire damage.

• Chopper makes emergency landing at CA playground
  Authorities say a helicopter encountered mechanical problems before making an emergency landing at an elementary school playground in a Modesto, Calif., neighborhood.

• Chicago college offers class on Occupy movement
  A Chicago college is offering a class on the Occupy movement.

• Kobayashi downs record 337 wings at Pa. Wing Bowl
  Competitive-eating champ Takeru Kobayashi (tah-kah-roo koh-bee-yah-shee) conquered Philadelphia's annual gustatory gorge-fest by eating 337 chicken wings in a half-hour before a crowd of nearly 20,000 at Wing Bowl XX.

• Sheep herding Swedish bunny becomes online hit
  Champis the bunny doesn't only hop - he also knows how to herd his masters' flock of sheep, possibly having picked up the skill after watching trained dogs do the job.

• Pet elk denied re-entry to Pennsylvania from W.Va.
  A runaway elk can't go home to Pennsylvania, even if it wanted to.

• Wrong-number call helps Ohio woman having stroke
  A woman who called the wrong number when she suffered a stroke still found help a couple of time zones away.

• Man admits to jumping on backs of student athletes
  A 250-pound man with a history of jumping on the backs of student athletes in the Pacific Northwest has pleaded guilty to assault.

• Mont. man starts police chase as part of wishlist
  A 55-year-old Montana man who says he "always wanted" to be part of a police chase can check that off his bucket list.

• Inmate adds pig image to Vt. police cruiser decals
  A prison inmate who makes stationery and license plates pulled a fast one on state police by adding the image of a pig to the state decal on their cruisers.

• Lions apparently not enough to keep intruders out
  With 120 lions, tigers and other big cats on the grounds, the owner of a Colorado refuge didn't think he needed a security system.

• After traffic stop, Ohio woman gives birth in car
  A woman's speeding got her a warning from an Ohio state trooper but wasn't enough to keep her grandchild from being born in her car.

• Toothless Pa. bank robber says she needed dentures
  A woman who appeared to not have any teeth in surveillance photos from a bank robbery last month has confessed, apologized and told police she planned the heist because she needed the money for dentures.

• Albatross found in LA freed to fly home to Hawaii
  A large seabird found in the back of a pickup truck in Los Angeles has been released to begin its long flight home across the Pacific.

• Forest Service to Jesus: You can stay _ for now
  A mountaintop Jesus statue can stay at a ski resort in the western U.S. state of Montana - for now.