2-headed deer, flatulent guards, lobsters getting high: 12 bizarre stories from 2018.
An exploding wedding dress. A placenta whodunit. Deafening farts that got a security guard fired.
Absurd, laughable and eyebrow-raising news stories were everywhere in 2018. Florida alone provided enough zaniness to amuse the entire country.
But with so many oddities to read about (or scoff or laugh about), some stories were forgotten or overshadowed. So before embarking on another year that promises to be equally weird, here’s a roundup of some of the most deliciously bizarre stories from the last 12 months.
These stories were written by McClatchy reporters across the United States.
Big bang: You could feel this Texan’s divorce being finalized from ‘15 miles away,’ video shows
Family and friends advised a Texas woman to donate her wedding dress when her marriage ended. Instead, she rigged it with explosives and shot at it, unleashing an explosive end-of-marriage blaze: “It was liberating pulling that trigger. It was closure for all of us.”
He was hunting wild mushrooms. Instead he found a rare, inexplicable two-headed deer
A Minnesota man scouring a forest for wild mushrooms stumbled upon an “amazing and extremely rare” two-headed fawn, which had been stillborn. Researchers did a battery of tests on the deer to better understand the rare deformity.
Senior takes graduation photos with one of her ‘best friends’ — a giant Texas gator
Please do not dispose of your placenta in a park for dog-walkers to find, cops say
A Canadian woman left her bloody placenta (as well as forceps and a medical wrap) lying on the ground in a park so it could become part of nature. But a dog discovered the mysterious afterbirth, triggering chaos and a search because police worried someone was in medical distress.
“I was honestly really moved,” the woman reportedly said. “I’ve never had so many people worried about me. Combing forests for me. I was actually brought to tears.”
A gassy guard sought Instagram fame on the night shift. His bosses weren’t pleased.
A Florida hospital’s security guard made a name for himself and amassed a huge following on Instagram by posting videos of himself releasing thunderous farts at work. Then his employer found the clips.
Marijuana-smoked lobsters? Maine restaurant to get crustaceans stoned before cooking
Maine legalized recreational weed earlier this year, and one restaurant is taking advantage of it in a surprising way: It’s getting lobsters stoned before they’re cooked alive.
Her best friend was mysteriously killed. This selfie held the clue police needed.
After a Canadian woman was strangled and left dead near a Saskatoon landfill, investigators were unsure who killed her. But a selfie her best friend posted of the two on Facebook unraveled the mystery.
Broken toilet forces plane with 85 plumbers aboard to turn around
How many plumbers does it take to fix an airplane toilet? Despite having 85 plumbers on board, a Norwegian flight bound for Germany had to turn around because of a busted and unfixable toilet.
Tropical storm Michael tore down power lines and brought punishing winds to South Carolina in October. For one family, it brought something weirder: an infestation of swarming crawfish, which threatened to take over their garage.
The samples at Costco were free. Two men in their 70s got into a fight over them, SC police say
Police said it started when a 72-year-old budged in front of a 70-year-old in a line for cheese samples at a Costco in Greenville, South Carolina. But it was at the line for complimentary cheeseburgers that the younger man dared the line-cutter to do it again — and then got hit by the line-cutter, according to police.
A mysterious square aircraft hovering in night sky ‘scared me to death,’ NC man says
This North Carolina man said he didn’t believe in UFOs until he was driving and spotted something in the sky that he said “scared me to death.” He took pictures of it, then pulled over and tried to record video, but the UFO disappeared, he said.
Alligators use bizarre – and creepy – ancient ritual to survive NC’s arctic blast
Everyone has coping mechanisms for cold weather. But true to form, alligators’ cold weather rituals might be the creepiest of all, as video from a frozen North Carolina swamp shows.
This story was originally published December 20, 2018 at 11:14 AM with the headline "2-headed deer, flatulent guards, lobsters getting high: 12 bizarre stories from 2018.."