Chinese Restaurant Under Investigation for Charging 8 People $58,000 for Dinner

Authorities are investigating a Shanghai restaurant for charging a Dubai tourist and his seven friends a whopping 400,000 yuan ($58,000) for a 20-course dinner.

A photo of the 400,000 yuan receipt from Maggie’s Restaurant started circulating on Chinese social media last month, and although a spokesperson for the restaurant initially claimed that the photo was fake, adding that they don’t even serve some of the dishes listed on the receipt, the owner and master chef at the restaurant, Sun Zhaoguo, later confirmed that Maggie’s did serve the ultra expensive dinner to eight guests, a VIP from Dubai and his friends. Asked about the sum listed on the receipt, Zhaoguo allegedly said “That’s nothing at all in Dubai”.

Read More »

Mother Takes 10-Year-Old Son to Get Tattooed by Unlicensed 16-Year-Old Tattoo Artist

A young Ohio mother was recently arrested for allowing her 10-year-old son to get a permanent tattoo in unsanitary conditions, from a 16-year-old unlicensed artist. She later claimed she got simply got tired of her son asking for a tattoo.

34-year-old Nikki Dickinson was arrested last week in Bellefontaine, Ohio, after a disturbing video showing her young son getting a tattoo on his arm went viral on social media. Dickinson doesn’t appear in the video simply because she is the one recording the footage, but she admitted to police that she gave her parental consent for the tattooing, because her son had been pleading with her to get a tattoo of the first initial of his name. It’s unclear whether she knew that the 16-year-unlicensed tattoo artist had a history of malpractice and once gave a client MRSA (a Stafilococus aureus strain) from a dirty needle.

Read More »

Woman Gets Jail Time for Looking Through Husband’s Phone Without Permission

A court in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently sentenced a woman to three months in jail after her husband sued her for looking through his phone without his permission.

In a statement made against his wife, the unnamed husband claimed that she would access his phone while he was asleep, copying all the data, including pictures and chat conversations to her own smartphone so she could look through all the information at a later date. The man also complained that his wife would share some of his private information with her siblings. Although the woman defended herself by saying that her husband had given her the password to his phone and permission to look through it, because she had previously caught him chatting with other women, a court in Ras Al Khaimah found her guilty.

Read More »

Couple Leave 5-Year-Old Boy Alone in the Woods as Punishment for Wetting Himself

A Minnesota couple has been accused of abandoning a 5-year-old child in the woods as punishment for wetting his pants. The couple did reportedly come back for the boy after driving away a short distance, but couldn’t find him.

Lynda Michel and Gregory Wilson can kiss away their chances of winning a parents of the year award after showing off their parenting skills – or lack thereof – late last month, when they left a young child all by himself in a forest to teach him a lesson after he reportedly wet himself. The couple allegedly came back to get him after driving off a short distance, but the boy was nowhere to be found. He was spotted by a motorist on Aug. 28 walking along a highway south of St. Peter in Minnesota, all wet and sobbing.

Read More »

Woman Gets Arrested for Sheltering and Treating Pets During Hurricane

They say no good deed goes unpunished, and this kindhearted North-Carolina woman who took in dozens of abandoned pets as Hurricane Florence ravaged the US state is a prime example of that. She was arrested and is now facing several misdemeanor charges for practicing veterinary medicine without a license.

As Hurricane Florence was getting ready to make landfall in North Caroline, Tammie Hedges decided to turn a warehouse she had been remodeling into a shelter for pets. Pets came from the streets, where they were picked up by volunteers, but also from their owners, who had to evacuate but couldn’t take their animals with them. All in all, she sheltered 27 pets – 17 cats and 10 dogs – during the storm, and also administered some medical treatments to ensure their well-being. But whereas most people considered her actions an act of kindness to animals, local authorities saw them as a violation of the law and charged her with several misdemeanors.

Read More »

Spanish Minister Proposes Tax on Trying Out Clothes in Stores

A regional minister in the Spanish province of Castilla y León has come under fire for proposing that brick and mortar clothing stores charge a fee for customers to try on clothes in order to discourage the ‘unethical practice’ of trying on clothes only to buy them cheaper online.

María del Pilar del Olmo, Castilla y León’s economy and treasury minister, made her controversial idea known at a recent Retail Industry Conference, after reportedly discussing it with the province’s tourism, trade and industry minister. She argued that nowadays too many shoppers tend to first visit brick-and-mortar boutiques just to try on clothes, and, having figured out which items and sizes fit them best, leave empty-handed only to buy the same clothes online, at lower prices. The regional minister proposed a fee for trying out clothes in order to discourage this ‘unethical practice’.

Read More »

Russian Couple Claim Chicks Hatched from Store-Bought Eggs Left on Window Sill

A young couple has been making news headlines in Russia for claiming that live chicks hatched out of a carton of store-bought eggs they forgot on a window sill before going on vacation three weeks ago.

Irina and Ivan, two entertainers from Moscow, Russia, recently posted photos of cute yellow chicks on their social media accounts, which they allege hatched out of eggs that they forgot to put back in the fridge before going on vacation, three weeks ago. When they returned, they started hearing faint squeaks from the kitchen, which they initially attributed to faulty gadgets, but later traced back to a carton of eggs that had been sitting on a window sill for weeks. Shortly after, they claim chicks started chipping away at the egg shell from the inside.

Read More »

Man Gets Arrested in Saudi Arabia for Having Breakfast with a Woman

An Egyptian man working as a hotel receptionist in Saudi Arabia was recently arrested after posting a short video of himself having breakfast with a fully-veiled female co-worker on social media.

The man, known only as “Bahaa”, was arrested on Sunday after a video of himself having breakfast with a female co-worker at a Jeddah hotel attracted a lot of unwanted attention on social media. The short clip shows only Bahaa and a fully-veiled woman eating breakfast, but that was apparently a clear violations of a Saudi law that states that workplaces and eateries should have separate spaces for men and women. It drew condemnation from the vast majority of Saudis, who saw this behavior as incompatible with Saudi culture.

Read More »

Kindergarten Principal Fired After Kids Receive Pole Dancer Welcome

The principal of a kindergarten in Shenzen, China, was recently axed after videos of children as young as three being welcomed back by scantly-dressed pole dancers went viral online.

The first Monday in September marks the start of a new school year in China, and many learning institutions host special celebrations to mark the event. The Xinshahui kindergarten in Shenzhen was no different, but the parents of the roughly 500 children – aged three to six – enrolled there did not expect the ceremony to include pole dancers winding and spinning provocatively on a metal pole with a Chinese flag flying on top.

Read More »

Restaurant Owner Restricts Entry to Children Under 14 Years of Age

The owner of a restaurant in Binz, Germany, has come under fire for banning children aged 14 and younger from entering his establishment after 5 pm.

Rudolf Markl, the owner of “Oma’s Küche” (Grandma’s Kitchen), a traditional restaurant in Binz, on the German island of  Rügen got so fed up with children’s tantrums and unruly behavior that he recently made the extreme decision to ban them from his restaurant after 5 pm. He even put up a sign near the entrance letting patrons know that in the evening, Oma’s Küche is an adult-only restaurant. Despite being accused of discrimination, Markl said that this measure was a long time coming and that he plans to enforce it going forward.

Read More »

Russian Man Gets Over 11 Years in Prison for Shamanic Medicine He Bought in Peru

A young Russian artist was recently sentenced to 11.5 years in prison for bringing home two small bottles of ayahuasca – a famous spiritual medicine prepared by indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin  – that he bought while visiting Peru.

Maxim Gert, a resident of Nizhny Tagil, a city in Russia’s Sverdlovsk Oblast, had no idea that a simple souvenir he bought on a business trip to Peru could land him behind bars for over a decade. Maxim had long been suffering from back pain, and while in the South American country, someone suggested he meet one of the local shamans and try ayahuasca, a traditional spiritual medicine with known psychoactive properties. It’s unclear whether he noticed an improvement while consuming the brew in Peru, but he did decide to continue his ayahuasca treatment at home, so he took two small bottles with him on the flight home. That turned out to be a huge mistake.

Read More »

Nail Salon Gets Slammed Online for Sealing Live Ants in Transparent Acrylic Nails

A Russian nail salon has been slammed as ‘sick’ and ‘cruel’ on social media after posting photos and videos of live ants crawling inside models’ hollow acrylic nails.

Moscow-based Nail Sunny beauty salon has built a reputation for pushing the envelope, and several of their quirky ideas have gone viral on social media like Instagram or Facebook in the past. However, they may have gone a bit too far with their latest creation – hollow acrylic nails that act as display cases for live insects. While some of the salon’s 1.8 million Instagram followers commended its staff for the original idea, the vast majority of comments were negative.

Read More »

Venice Cafe Charges Tourist $50 for Two Coffees and Two Small Bottles of Water

A cafe in Venice, Italy has been slammed as a tourist trap after recently charging a man €43 ($50) for  two espressos and two small bottles of water.

Venice’s St. Marks Square is known for its notoriously pricey cafes and restaurants, but one such establishment has been getting a lot of negative attention online after a bill of €43 for two espressos and two small bottles of water went viral online. Juan Carlos Bustamente, a 62-year-old Chilean political consultant currently living in Italy, posted the receipt from Caffe Lavena on his Facebook page and it quickly went viral, with many commenters expressing their outrage about the insanely high prices.

Read More »

Long Island Family Thought They Had Bought a Pet Dog, Turns Out They Were Just Leasing It

A Long Island family is fighting for the right to keep their pet Golden Retriever Max, after a lending company threatened to have it repossessed unless they make a considerable final payment.

Danielle Cittadino and her family bought Max from the Shake-A-Paw pet store, in Lynbrook , New York, a couple of years ago. The adorable puppy cost $1,200, but the Cittadinos couldn’t afford to pay all of it upfront, so they were offered a financing option from a company called Wags Lending. They checked Danielle’s credit and after she was approved, the Baldwin woman had to fill out a bunch of paperwork, which she admits she didn’t go through thoroughly. She assumed that she was getting a loan, but in reality the contract specified that she wasn’t actually buying Max, but renting him until she paid all the required installments. Now the company is threatening to reposes the dog.

Read More »

British Woman Must Remain Married to Her Husband After Judge Rules that Unhappy Marriage Is Not Grounds for Divorce

A woman who has been trying to divorce her husband for three years was recently denied the right to do that by the UK’s highest court, which ruled that an unhappy marriage that had broken down for years was not grounds for divorce.

68-year-old Tini Owens had been hoping to finally end her 40-year marriage to Hugh Owens, 80, but the five judges at the UK’s highest court unanimously upheld rulings by a family court and the court of appeal that the two must stay married at least until 2020, when they will have been separated for five years and Tini will be eligible for a divorce without consent or evidence of fault. The decision has been met with criticism from divorce lawyers who believe it makes people more likely to falsely blame their partners and come up with embellished and inflammatory causes for divorce, to make sure they don’t suffer the same fate as Tini.

Read More »