WEIRD BUT TRUE
A man visiting his elderly mother in La Crosse, Wis., ended up spending 17 hours in jail over an unpaid 1984 ticket for an obscure infraction.
Seems a background check during a routine traffic stop revealed there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest because of the ticket, which he got shortly before he moved out.
The ticket – which he said he never received – was for failing to display boat-registration numbers.
*
The burrito a Santa Fe, N.M., woman brought as a treat to a jailed friend had quite a kick to it.
Corrections officers found a hypodermic needle hidden inside.
And inside the needle was a brown substance that tested positive for heroin.
*
A surgeon at a hospital in Merseyside, England, delayed an operation so an associate could go to a nearby hardware store to buy a screwdriver.
Dr. Peter Mobbs had been removing a metal plate from a patient’s arm when he realized he didn’t have the right tool to take out the star-headed screws used by an overseas doctor.
When his associate returned, Mobbs sterilized the $4.65 screwdriver and removed the plate.
*
Attention, exterminators. Here’s a new weapon of mouse destruction to add to your arsenal.
Officials at the Botanical Gardens in Lyon, France, alerted by complaints of a foul odor coming from a carnivorous pitcher plant (Nepenthes truncata), discovered the partial remains of a mouse inside.
In the past, insects were the only live creatures known to be in the plant’s diet.
*
Solitary confinement in Vietnam apparently isn’t very solitary.
A woman who has been held on death row for a year is pregnant.
Nguyen Thi Oanh, who was slated to face a firing squad later this year, is now seeking a pardon so she can have her child.

