WEIRD NEWS

Cry Me A Pizza
In Helena, Montana, 35-year-old David Randall Lacey allegedly entered a Papa John’s pizza restaurant donning a bandanna over his face and gave the clerk a note demanding money. However then he broke down in tears and told the clerk he needed the money to support his wife and children, who were hungry. Rather than call police, the clerk took sympathy on Lacey and made him a free large pepperoni pizza with some chicken wings to help feed is family. However, when The Independent Record caught wind of the story they did a little investigating and discovered that Lacey has no children in Helena and only changed his story when he saw how little money was in the cash register – just $24.56, according to a police report. Police picked Lacey up and the clerk picked him out of a lineup. Lacey was then arrested on suspicion of felony robbery. (Independent Record)

More Silly School Suspensions
In Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, a 5-year-old kindergartner is headed back to class after being suspended for comments she made to another girl about a pink toy gun that blows soapy bubbles! Officials say the girl, whose name has not been released, told one of her classmates she was going to shoot her with a Hello Kitty pink bubble gun machine. Initially the school suspended her for ten days but that was later reduced to two. Robin Ficker, an attorney representing the family, says the girl didn’t even have the bubble gun with her and has never fired a real gun. (The Patriot-News)

Osama Amusement Park!
This is odd. Pakistan plans to build a $30 million amusement park on the edge of the town of Abbottabad — yes, the place where U.S. Special Forces killed Osama bin Laden! The private venture in the foothills of the Himalayas will include a zoo, water sports, a mini-golf course, rock climbing and paragliding. Jamaluddin Khan, the deputy provincial minister for tourism, said the project will take five years. Meanwhile, authorities have demolished the large white villa where bin Laden lived, and senior regional official Khalid Omarzai said he had advised the government to build houses for local officials on the site. Some had suggested the government should build a public park on the land but he had rejected the idea out of fears that some might call it “Osama Park”. Well what do you think they’re going to call this one???? (Reuters)

Zombie Teddy Bears… Happy Valentine’s!
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, British artist Phillip Blackman has created a range of zombie teddy bears! Blackman calls his “UndeadTeds” as “repurposed soft toys transformed into fluffy, bloody horrors to keep you awake at night”. The 45-year-old Blackman admits he’s been a Zombie fan since he was a teen and says, “I already knew how to make a person into a zombie, so why not use the same techniques and skills on the teddies!” He added, “They’ve all been great fun to make but of all the ones I’ve made so far my favorites are the Valentine ones, holding their torn-out hearts aloft as a grisly gift to their lovers. Horrible.” (Ananova)

Finders keepers!
Not everybody does the right thing. In Fayetteville, Georgia, a woman who found a lost wallet in a Kohl’s department store didn’t waste any time trying to locate the rightful owner. Instead she pulled out all the cash inside and started handing it out to her kids! All of this was caught on surveillance video. Here’s the kicker. The rightful owner of the wallet, Joseph Smith, is in seminary school and was shopping with his wife Lillie and their new baby when he accidentally dropped the wallet while folding up their stroller. The next day, Smith went back to the store and employees allowed him to watch the surveillance video, where he witnessed the woman using his lost wallet like an ATM. There was about $100 cash and 200 to 300 dollars in gift cards. In addition to losing his money, he was also dismayed about the example the woman set for her kids. Meanwhile the Smith family is asking anyone who recognizes the family in the video to call Fayetteville Police. (NY Daily News)

I Ain’t ‘Fraid of No Ghost!
Your parents probably assured you there’s no such thing as ghosts — but it seems a lot of you weren’t listening. A new poll shows that 45 percent of Americans believe in ghosts, or that the spirits of dead people can come back in certain places and situations. The idea of ghosts as hopeful evidence of life after death goes all the way back to ancient Egypt, where it was commonly believed that death was merely a transition to some mysterious netherworld of another existence. While skeptics deny the existence of ghosts, claiming there’s no real evidence, polls and surveys have shown the public strongly disagrees. Of the 1,000 adults interviewed in this Huffington Post/YouGov pole, 45 percent believe in ghosts although 43 percent also don’t think that ghosts or spirits can harm or interact with living people. (Huffington Post)

You Think Our Congress Sucks?
Of course the U.S. Congress may be suffering its worst approval ratings in history — ranked below having head lice according to one survey — but at least we’re better than India! India’s legislature currently has no less than six accused rapists at the state level and two in the national parliament. Thirty-six local officials, as well, have been charged with sexual assault. In fact, India’s Association for Democratic Reforms association recently reported that 162 of the lower house of Parliament’s 552 members currently face criminal charges. The problem is compounded by India’s notoriously paralyzed justice system, which practically ensures that the charges will be unresolved for years, if not decades. (Wall Street Journal)