Truth has been stranger than fiction for eons, so we have decided to celebrate the quirky.
From Magical to Simply Odd
Weird Life … Something Doesn’t Aladdin Up
Two fraudsters have been arrested after conning a doctor into spending close to $100,000 for an Aladdin’s lamp, officials say. It’s alleged the pair conjured up a fake genie to trick their victim into handing over wads of cash in Uttar Pradesh, India.
The unsuspecting mark, Laeek Khan, says one of the men pretended to be an occultist and made a supernatural-like figure appear from the lamp. Khan bought the supposedly magical lamp for a cool seven million rupees ($93,000) after being promised it would bring him a lifetime of health, wealth and good fortune, cops say.
Khan contacted the police after figuring out the “genie” was just one of the men in disguise and that his lamp was not of the wish-granting kind.
Senior police offer Amit Ray says it’s not the first time the trickers have sold a non-magical lamp and adds, “The men have also cheated other families using the same modus operandi. The total amount of money involved runs into several million rupees.”
I guess you could say Khan was taken for a magic carpet ride.
Weird Life … Super Fly for an Old Guy
We’ve all been annoyed by a bug or a fly at some point or another, but one man has accidentally blown up his own kitchen while trying to kill a crafty fly with an electric bug zapper.
The octogenarian from France was trying to off the annoying insect without realizing he had a gas leak on his property.
According to a local news outlet, the 82-year-old had just sat down to dinner when he was joined by an uninvited guest. He wasn’t going to let a pesky bug ruin the atmosphere, so he grabbed an electric flyswatter, designed to zap the creatures to their demise. He swung the electro death racket, but instead of hitting his buzzing target, the apparatus ignited the gas and caused a sizeable explosion that destroyed his kitchen and part of the roof in the process.
Thankfully, the man escaped serious injury by diving onto the floor and was treated for a burned hand at a local hospital. It’s not known whether the fly survived the disaster.
This does not markthe first time an insect has caused grief for homeowners. In 2018, a man in California accidentally set his parents’ house on fire while trying to kill spiders. In the same year, an Australian blew up his house while trying to destroy a horde of cockroaches.
Moving now to the realm of disturbing …
Weird Life … Romp, Rinse, Repeat
Vietnamese police have seized more than 345,000 used condoms that were intended to be illegally resold to unsuspecting customers.
Market inspectors raided a warehouse near Ho Chi Minh City, where they discovered used condoms being repacked for sale. The condoms would be boiled in water and reshaped with wooden dildos under unhygienic conditions before being repackaged and resold. Footage showed police seizing dozens of bags, weighing a whopping 794 pounds.
The owner of the factory, a 34-year-old woman, confessed the company bought the used prophylactics from an unidentified man in the area and received a “monthly input” from him. How one man came to obtain more than 300,000 used condoms remains a mystery.
The kicker? No one knows just how many of these previously loved condoms were sold before the bust.
We’re all for saving the planet, but this level of recycling seems extreme.
Weird Life … Monster Wolf Robots
A Japanese town has deployed robotic wolves in an attempt to scare off bears that have started to roam the countryside.
The small town of Takikawa on the northern island of Hokkaido purchased and installed a pair of the terrifying robot wolves to combat the appearances of wild bears, and it actually worked.
The real Japanese wolf roamed the central and northern islands of Japan before being hunted to extinction more than a century ago. Having named it The Monster Wolf robot, officials describe it as having “a shaggy body on four legs, a blond mane and fierce, glowing-red eyes. When its motion detectors are activated, it moves its head, flashes lights and emits 60 different sounds ranging from wolfish howling to machinery noises.”
The effecitiveness of the Monster Wolves quickly became obvious as since the mechanical animals made their appearance there have been zero sightings of bears. Clearly the native animals have determined the situation un-bear-able.
And arriving finally at the power of love…
Weird Life … World’s Horniest Tortoise Retires
Diego, a Galápagos tortoise whose high sex drive has been praised for saving his species from extinction has now retired.
Ecuador’s environment minister, Paulo Proaño Andrade, says: “We are closing an important chapter.”
For decades now, Diego has been breeding in captivity to save his species from dying out. Now, the 100-year-old tortoise, with his long leathery neck, beady eyes and hefty 175-pound body, has been granted a much deserved retirement and is being sent to the uninhabited island of Española — to spend the remainder of his days celibate with 14 other male tortoises.
Jorge Carrion, the park’s director says: “He’s contributed a large percentage to the lineage that we are returning to Española.”
At the time the program began in 1965, there were only 14 tortoises left: 12 females and two males. The breeding program helped increase the tortoise population to 2,000 from 15, with Diego being responsible for around 40 percent of the offspring produced.
Good job, Diego. We hope you dream of your soulmate Carmen San, somewhere in the world.
Weird Life …‘Til Doll Do We Part
A bodybuilder from Kazakhstan has proven love is blind by marrying a sex doll he’s been “dating” for nearly two years.
Clad in a traditional black tux and bow tie, Yuri Tolochko grinned with giddy glee as he married his silicone bride, Margo, who wore a white gown and clutched a bouquet of flowers as she stared lifelessly into the distance.
The couple apparently got engaged in December 2019, when the bodybuilder — who described himself as a “sexy maniac” — popped the question. Tolochko and Margo have an active social media presence and often illustrate their romantic lifestyle, vacations and bubble baths, captioned with the hashtags: #ideal_relationship, #true_love and #happy_wife_happy_life.
In one post, Tolochko wrote: “Couples need to talk less and connect more. With time and experience, Margo and I realized that it takes more than words to have a conversation.”
The only legal requirements for a wedding to take place in Kazakhstan are that both partners have to be male and female and over the age of 18.
We simply could not let this one conclude without at least one of the relevant social awareness verifications. We do not want to be inviting any unwarranted audits or anything. Do remember we have have an entire section devoted to Weird History too. What can we say? We love this stuff.
