xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx
Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.
In 2002, Boston surgeon (and Harvard Medical School graduate) David Arndt, 43, made News of the Weird when his license was suspended for leaving a patient in the middle of an operation in order to run out to cash a check, and shortly after that he was arrested on drug possession and underage-sex charges, which are still pending. He was arrested again in 2003 when he allegedly received a pink, phallus-shaped Mexican pinata filled with an estimated $100,000 worth of crystal methamphetamine. In August 2004, a federal magistrate once again denied him bail on that charge, and anyway, he would have had trouble making bail since his parents, who put their house on the line to bail him out earlier, said they would no longer help him.
Stephen P. Linnen, 33, who was a lawyer for the Ohio House Republican state legislators’ caucus, was sentenced in September to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to 53 misdemeanors, including 40 times springing out from hiding places while naked and photographing the faces of women reacting to the surprise (and also for fondling 13 of them). However, the judge refused to label Linnen a “sexual offender” and said he poses “absolutely no risk to public safety.”
Three of these four things really happened, just recently. Are you cynical enough to figure out the made-up story?
(a) A zoo in Alaska announced it will build a special treadmill for its overweight elephant to exercise on.
(b) A couple rented out a pornography store in Mannheim, Germany, for their wedding, since they had first met at the store when she rang up his purchases as a cashier.
(c) Surveillance cameras at a London animal shelter revealed that one dog was using his teeth to unlock his cage and those of his pals so they could roam the premises night after night.
(d) Owners of buildings across the street from Chicago’s Wrigley Field earned more than $15 million this season charging people to watch Cubs’ games from their roofs.
Answer: (b) is not true, as far as I know.
Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, Fla. 33679 or [email protected]
Copyright © 2001 by Chuck Shepherd
NEWS OF THE WEIRD