Oddacity News
Cheating in ethics class, plastics bottles cause beach panic, your prosthetic leg has been found
Trust fail: A Canadian man had another person impersonate him at an online class called “Ethics – Building Trust” and then lied about it to investigators, reports CTV News. Ang “Leon” Li, a real estate agent in British Columbia, sent a family member to attend the class, a mandatory part of his professional training. When investigators challenged him, Li offered a variety of explanations, saying that he had been sick, sleepless, had allergies, was supposed to attend his grandfather’s funeral, and had had a power outage at home. Eventually, he admitted he had not attended the class.
Lost-and-found: Riders on the Los Angeles Metro transit system have accidentally left behind a variety of items, including a prosthetic leg, a blowtorch, electrical generators, and a 55-inch television, reports the Los Angeles Times. An engagement ring was found on a train this year on Valentine’s Day. The system finds about 1,000 items a month on its trains and buses and manages to return about 30% to their owners.
Cemetery career: The world’s longest-serving grave digger is retiring after over 73 years on the job, reports the Guinness Book of World Records. Allen McCloskey, 92, started digging graves at the Galveston Cemetery in Galveston, Indiana, as a temporary job in 1952 and has dug thousands of them since. The taciturn McCloskey retired quietly, telling few people. Said his son: “I asked, ‘Were you gonna tell us??’ His response was, ‘Well, I figured you’d hear about it sometime.’”
Late call: Senegal’s national soccer team lost a game two months after the match ended, reports ESPN. The Senegalese team had defeated Morocco 1-0 on January 18 to win the African Cup of Nations title. But this week Africa’s ruling soccer organization declared that Senegal had actually “forfeited” the game after walking off the field for 15 minutes late in the game to protest a foul call. Senegal defender Moussa Niakhate remained defiant, posting online an image of himself holding the trophy and saying, "Come and get it!”
Bottle warning: A panic and stampede among spring break revelers in Daytona Beach, Florida, was triggered not by gunshots, but by people crushing water bottles, says Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood. “You hear all this stuff, ‘Oh, they were shooting guns on the beach,” he said. “That is absolute bullshit.” Chitwood noted that carrying a gun is legal in Florida, a factor that could contribute to jittery reactions. “That’s what we had out there, a lot of people armed with guns, on top of the bad guys armed with guns.”
Election: In a story that would sound particularly intriguing if you heard it rather than read it, Hittler is running against Zielinski for public office in France, reports the BBC. Charles Hittler, mayor of the small town of Arcis-sur-Aube (population 2,785), is up for re-election against Antoine Renault-Zielinski. The matchup of famous-sounding names has drawn wide media attention. “It's out of control,” said Hittler. “I've seen online articles saying '37% of the people of Arcis are Hitlerites!'. My wife is in tears.”