News of the Weird
Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.
It’s usually in Florida where one reads of lonely widows persuaded to pay extravagant prices for dance lessons, but Mimi Monica Wong, 61, is a different kind of dancing widow, according to an August Wall Street Journal report. A Hong Kong private banker with a top-drawer client list, Wong contracted to pay US$15.4 million over eight years for cha-cha and rumba lessons from two world-class instructors so she could excel on the international championship Latin dance circuit. However, she soured on their motivational approach (“lazy cow” and “(move your) fat arse” were allegedly part of their dialogue) and sued. In September, a court ordered Wong’s $8 million advance returned, and she has since signed on with another instructor whose fee is a bargain: $21,000 a month.
Tammie Lee Doss, 43, and two friends were charged with unlawful imprisonment in September in Athens, Ala., when Doss held her brother Randy at gunpoint and prayed for him. According to police, Tammie had confronted Randy, even firing a shot near his head to keep his attention, and urged him to redress his childhood mistreatment of her.
The guy in the Ronald Reagan mask who robbed a Bank of America in San Diego in August got away, but all his money was dye-stained, in a caper that went wrong from the start. According to police, the mask covered his eyes; he wore a cape that tangled with his gun, causing him to drop it; his getaway car got blocked in by a delivery truck; he rammed the truck to get away, provoking an argument with the driver; the dye pack exploded; and the mask and gun got left behind.
(Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or [email protected] or go to www.NewsoftheWeird.com.) NEWS OF THE WEIRD
