No Joke: Russian Online Store Auctions Off 21-Year-Old Man to Recover Debt

After failing to deliver on the contract he had signed with Russian online gift store Pich Shop, a 21-year-old entrepreneur agreed to be auctioned off to the highest bidder and marry a complete stranger for at least one year, in order to avoid being sued.

A week ago, a strange listing showed up on PichShop.ru – a young man named Aleksandr Kramarenko available for marriage, with a 1 year warranty. The “product” was listed as “in stock” and featured a detailed description – including age, height, weight, zodiac sign and interests – and photos (both dressed and topless). The listing mentioned that Aleksandr was going to be auctioned off to be married to the highest bidder, and invited women no older than 35 to bid for the chance to become his wife for at least one year. The minimum bid was set at 10,000 rubles.

This all sounds a bit too corny to be true, and, to be fair, such pranks are not exactly uncommon around the holidays. Some of them are actually pretty elaborate and end up attracting a lot of media attention, which translates into free publicity for companies, but this particular story seems legit.

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Man Divorces Wife after Seeing Her Without Makeup for the First Time

It sounds like one of those funny news articles you read on sites like The Onion, but this one is sadly true. A man from the United Arab Emirates divorced his young wife just days after their wedding, after seeing her makeup free for the first time.

The bizarre news was reported by psychologist Dr Abdul Aziz Asaf, who claims that the 28-year-old woman contacted his clinic to help her overcome the psychological suffering caused by the swift and unexpected divorce. Asaf did not reveal the woman’s identity for reasons of confidentiality, but told Gulf News that she had been engaged to a 34-year-old man for six months, before marrying him. Apparently, he had never seen her without makeup during all that time, because the first time he did, he hardly recognized her. The man accused Asaf’s patient of deceiving him by wearing so many cosmetics, including fake eyelashes, and not looking as pretty as before the wedding.

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Alabama Library to Enforce Jail Time for Overdue Books

Returning a book late at the local library usually gets you a scolding by the librarian, or maybe your permit revoked for repeat offenses, but failing to turn in a book on time at one Alabama library could actually land you in jail for 30 days.

With over $200,000 worth of overdue books to recuperate, the Athens-Limestone public library in Athens, Alabama, is taking extreme measures to deter patrons from returning borrowed books and DVDs way later than they should. Executive Director Paula Laurita announced that the library will be enforcing a new policy that includes fines of up to $100, a city jail sentence of 30 days, or possibly both. She added that the seemingly exaggerated rules were necessary to stop people from effectively stealing from taxpayers.

“We have too many outstanding books that haven’t been returned. People with several hundred dollars worth of library materials that are sitting at home,” Laurita told WAAY31. Sometimes we hear, ‘I lent my library card to my cousin’. I just want to ask, ‘Would you lend your cousin your credit card? If they go and get $700 worth of clothing and you’re responsible for the bill, would you do that?'”

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Russian Woman Spends 4 Months Trying to Revive Husband with Holy Water

Unable to cope with the death of her husband, a Russian woman reportedly spent at least four months trying to bring him back t life with the help of holy water and prayer.

The unnamed 76-year-old retired therapist from the central district of Volgograd stunned police investigators when she said she didn’t report the death of her 87-year-old husband because she believed she could revive him by sprinkling holy water on his body and reading prayers.

The woman’s bizarre secret was revealed on August 12, when she accidentally flooded the apartment below, and a neighbor forced his way into her home to turn off the water. He found the almost completely mummified of her husband laying on the living-room couch and immediately notified the police. Forensic pathologists determined that the man had been dead for four to six months, but found no traces of violence on his body and concluded he had died of natural causes.

Russian doctor tries to revive her husband with holy water

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Indonesian Man Returns Home One Year after Being Confirmed Dead by His Family

An Indonesian family got the shock of their life after their husband and father, 62-year-old Waluyo, just showed up at their doorstep one year after they had buried him. He was pronounced dead on May 15, 2015, after supposedly being involved in a car accident.

This bizarre story started last year, when Waluyo, from Suryoputran Panembahan village in Jogyakarta, left his home to work as a street cleaner in the city of Semarang, in order to support his family. It wasn’t long after his departure that his wife, Alim Eskatinah, got a call from the police who told her that Waluyo had been the victim of a serious car accident and was in critical condition at the emergency room. The whole family and even some of their neighbors rushed to the hospital to be by his side, but the injured man died after a few days. “In the hospital he was in a coma. Relatives and neighbors all visited him. He then died on May 7, 2015. Many came to his funeral, all the neighbors came,” Waluyo’s daughter, Anti Ristanti told Indonesian newspaper Detik.

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Man Repeatedly Vandalizes Childhood Friend’s Tombstone over 56-year-Old Grudge

They say time heals or wounds, but that’s definitely not true. Just ask Paul E. Donovan Jr., who admitted to repeatedly vandalizing the tombstone of a childhood friend against whom he had been holding a grudge for over five decades.

69-year-old Donovan, of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of institutional vandalism of a cemetery, last week. He had been arrested and charged with theft and vandalism in November 2015, after police identified him as the perpetrator of “at least four” acts of vandalism against a single tombstone in the Saint Matthews Cemetery in Whitemarsh.

The investigation in this truly bizarre case began in march of 2014, when a woman reported that her father’s tombstone had the name “John” written over it in orange spray paint, according to the criminal complaint. On April 29, 2014, the same tombstone was vandalized again with the same name in the same color spray paint, the woman told Whitemarsh police. Then, in December, a third complaint revealed that someone had poured a “tar-like substance” over the tombstone, which prompted police to set up hidden cameras to catch the vandal in the act.

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Russian Man Almost Blinds Himself for Fear of Cyber-Surveillance

A man from the Russian city of Perm recently made national headlines for cutting his own eyes in search of micro surveillance equipment and posting a video of the gruesome procedure online.

Alem Kulakhmedov’s story sounds like the topic of a modern cyber-surveillance thriller. A few months ago, he started experiencing bizarre symptoms like eye pains, stomach sickness and extreme tiredness. Alem says he went to see a doctor, but he couldn’t find anything that would explain his symptoms. This gave him some peace of mind and for a while, he managed to ignore his problems, but only until they started getting worse. The man recently told REN TV that he began losing consciousness for more than a day at a time. Whenever he woke up, he would find multiple scars on his body that looked like healing cuts.

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Car Chased by 20,000 Bees for Two Days After Hive Queen Gets Stuck in Trunk

A woman in the UK was left baffled by a swarm of about 20,000 bees that latched onto the back of her car and refused to budge for over 28 hours. The mystery was eventually solved when she discovered that they were actually following their queen, which had gotten stuck in the trunk of the car!

It all started last Sunday, when Carol Howarth, 65, parked her silver Mitsubishi Outlander in the town center at Haverfordwest, in Pembrokeshire, Wales, during a shopping trip. While she was away, thousands of bees began to gather around the car, much to the amazement of passersby. A rescue squad of three beekeepers and a national park ranger were called in to capture the bees in a special box and by the time Carol returned to the car, the situation was under control.

She was thankful for their help, but her tryst with the bees was far from over. Little did she know that as she drove back home, the rest of the swarm was following her . “The next day I realised that some of the bees had followed me home,” she said. “There were a lot less than the first swarm.” So she called the beekeepers once again and they arrived at her home on Monday evening.

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Man Who Got Breast Implants to Win Bet Finally Takes Them Out 20 Years Later

While some men work hard at the gym to get rid of their man boobs, this Canadian man actually paid for breast implants in order to win a $100,000 bet. And now, nearly 20 years later, 55-year-old Brian Zembic is finally thinking of having them removed.

It appears that Zembic, a professional gambler and magician, has always had a penchant for making outrageous bets. He’s done all sorts of crazy things in the past, like living in a friend’s bathroom for a month for $7,000, and sleeping under a bridge with $20,000 in cash strapped to his ankle for a week. But nothing tops the bet he made with a group of friends in 1997 that ultimately led him to getting silicone implants in his chest.

“It was about 1997-ish, I was in some restaurant in Europe and I was with two friends and his girlfriend at the time was flaunting her boobs and I said to my friend: ‘If I had boobs like hers I could get just as much attention as she would,’” Zembic said. And after made the bold statement, one of his friends asked him how much money it would take to actually have him go through with it. They finally settled on a $100,000 bet. Read More »

Norwegian Girl Says She Is a Cat Trapped in a Human Body

20-year-old Nano, from Oslo, Norway, claims that that she isn’t human at all, but a cat born in the wrong species. Her ‘feline tendencies’ include a superior sense of hearing and sight, a hatred of water, and the ability to communicate in ‘meows’. She even tries to hunt mice in the dark!

Her story was first revealed in a video report published by the Norwegian YouTube channel NRK P3 Verdens Rikeste Land. In the interview, Nano is seen wearing a pair of pointed ears and an artificial tail as she talks about her condition. She explains that she has been displaying cat-like behavior since childhood, but only realised it when she was a teenager. 

“I realised I was a cat when I was 16, when doctors and psychologists found out what was “the thing” with me,” the translation on the video reads. “Under my birth, there was a genetic defect. It’s also obvious that I’m a cat when I start purring and meowing. And walking around on four legs and stuff like that.”

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Desperate Suspect Tries to Chew Off His Fingerprints to Avoid Being Identified

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office in Florida recently released one of the strangest, most disturbing video we’ve ever seen – it shows a young suspect trying to chew off his fingertips in a bid to avoid being identified by the police.

According to the video’s description, it all started on Friday, when a traffic cop on State Road 82 stopped a 2015 Mercedes that had been reported stolen. The man behind the wheel, later identified as 20-year-old Kenzo Roberts, tried using a fraudulent ID with a fake name. But the officer soon discovered a hidden firearm and took the man into custody.

Kenzo-Roberts

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Bride Makes Wedding Entrance in Creepy Coffin

Here comes the bride, all dressed in white and laying in… a coffin? Yes, that’s exactly how 58-year-old Jenny Buckleff arrived at her off-the-wall wedding – in a closed coffin, pulled by a motorcycle!

Jenny, who used to work as an embalmer at a funeral parlor, said that she wanted do “something different” at her wedding. “Instead of turning up in a horse-drawn cart, I thought I’m going to turn up in a coffin,” she said. So she decided to conceal herself in her brother Roger’s black coffin, while her sister-in-law Hayley pulled her all the way to the Llangefni registry office behind a VW Trike.

Interestingly, Jenny revealed that she isn’t actually into any bizarre or goth stuff. “I don’t normally dress like this and I’m not goth at all,” she told the media. “I work for Bet365, so you have to be well presented and I’m normally very smart. But my brother is different. He’s covered in tattoos so for once he looked the part. My brother and I are very close so it was nice to be able to do something to honour him and do something a bit different. He loved it and said it made his day.” Read More »

Veterinary Student Stitches ‘I Love You’ into the Skin of Dog He Operated on

In a bizarre display of love, a Polish veterinary student recently stitched the words ‘I Love You’ on to the skin of a dog that he operated on. The fourth year student at the University of Warmia and Mazury, in Olsztyn, then posted the image on to his girlfriend’s Facebook wall, so she could admire his handiwork. The grisly picture was immediately criticized by the couple’s friends and college mates for being grotesque and unethical.

The girlfriend, who is a member of the student council at the same university, defended the photograph: “What’s so unethical about it? He learnt to sew in order to help and is just showing his skill.” Read More »

Woman Says She Feels Completely Free When Acting Like a Horse

Meet Leanne, a 40-year-old Australian website designer who loves dressing up like a horse. She goes by the name ‘Shyanne’ in her pony get-up, which includes a saddle, bridle and bit. Once the transformation is complete, she likes to trot about and pull her friend Grace behind her in a custom-made trap.

Each of her ensembles costs anywhere between £5,000 and £10,000 (that’s $8,000 to $16,000). “Once the bit’s in, the tongue is out so you’re not speaking,” she explained. “If you drool while wearing a bit, you’ve got to be wearing the wrong-size bit.”

As bizarre as it sounds, Leanne insists that behaving like a horse is fun and that it takes her to a wonderful place where she can relax and be herself. “When I’m in the pony gear, I feel freer,” she said. “It’s about who you are, it’s about expressing yourself. I become me.”

Leanne-horse

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Doctors Baffled by Indonesian Woman Who Claims to Have Given Birth to Gecko Lizard

Debi Nubatonis, a woman from Oenunto village, Indonesia, has baffled doctors and scientists with her claim – she says that she went through a full-term pregnancy, only to give birth to a bouncing, healthy baby gecko lizard! We’ve heard enough of such stories to know that it’s probably a hoax, but it looks like Indonesian authorities are investigating to check if it might just be true.

Last month, at the request of the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the nearby Kupang City, a special team was dispatched to Oenunto village, where the new mother lives. “Basically, there’s something not right here,” said CMO Messe Ataupa. “We are looking into whether this was intentional or not. Clearly the womb must have been empty and this is what’s known as pseudocyesis. So the gecko coming out is probably some kind of hoax. Childbirth of another species has never been reported in science.”

lizard-baby

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