Offbeat News

SANDY HOOK, N.J. (AP) — A concert series on a popular New Jersey beach is canceled this summer to protect dozens of shorebirds nesting there. Piping plovers usually only visit Sandy Hook but this year, unusually, they’ve

YORK, ME -Alicia Jessop knew Friday was going to be a memorable day, but she didn’t realize it would be one she’d never forget. The 34-year-old Pepperdine University professor planned to finally visit New England, hitting some

SKOWHEGAN, Maine (AP) — Apparently hungry and thirsty vandals have trashed a fairgrounds booth in Maine, stealing 120 whoopie pies and drinking half a gallon of iced tea. John Youney, a director of the Skowhegan Lions Club,

MOORINGSPORT, La. (AP) — Sheriff’s deputies in Louisiana say an alligator took a bite out of one of their patrol cars. WBRZ-TV reports deputies were called Monday to Louisiana Highway 1 in Caddo Parish after someone spotted

PHOENIX (AP) — An 81-year-old man who has spent most of his adult life behind bars for stealing from banks said he robbed a credit union in Tucson months after his release from prison because his monthly

MOORPARK, Calif. (AP) — A big-rig truck driver has been arrested after authorities spotted a phony license plate on his rig. How could they tell? Well, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department says the 1960s-style yellow-on-black plate had

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say an 11-foot alligator busted through a kitchen window and broke several bottles of red wine in a Florida home before it was captured. Police tweeted that the gator was removed from

PROVO, Utah (AP) — A puppy and its 43-year-old owner are recovering after getting trapped in a garbage truck. Provo Police Sgt. Nisha King said Tuesday officers rescued the man and his puppy after they got caught

DENVER (AP) — A boulder the size of a house that tumbled across and gouged a southwestern Colorado state highway last month will stay put. State officials plan to rebuild the highway next to it, saving taxpayers

CLEVELAND (AP) — An Indiana company is raising the ire of its neighbors in the Buckeye State with its marketing of an unscented Ohio candle with the description, “Not much to see. Not much to do.” The

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — It isn’t Australia but residents of a Mississippi town might be feeling like they’re down under. News outlets report that Jojo the kangaroo went missing from an elementary school in Gulfport Wednesday morning.

OAK ISLAND, N.C. (AP) — A volunteer water rescue team saved an 8-year-old boy who floated away from the North Carolina coast on a raft shaped like a unicorn. News outlets report that the Ohio boy was

HARPURSVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — There will be no more babies for April, the giraffe that enthralled viewers worldwide with two livestreamed pregnancies and births. Jordan Patch of Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, New York, says Thursday that

LUFKIN, Texas (AP) — Police who surrounded a house in eastern Texas because they thought they had a burglary in progress found a deer instead. The homeowner called Lufkin police early Thursday after she heard glass breaking.

PARK FOREST, Ill. (AP) — How do you handcuff a snake? Police in Park Forest, a Chicago suburb, spent 30 minutes removing a snake from the engine of a patrol car Wednesday night. Chief Chris Mannino and

PHOENIX (AP) — U.S. Air Force officials say their pilots did not intentionally draw male anatomy with aircraft contrails in the skies above the Phoenix area. Photos taken of a series of sky ovals near Luke Air

BERLIN (AP) — New parents got the fright of their lives in Germany after accidentally forgetting their newborn in the taxi taking them home from hospital. Hamburg police said Monday that the couple took the baby’s one-year-old

PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) — Traffic was disrupted in a Washington state city when boxes holding thousands of bees fell off a truck. The Moscow-Pullman Daily News reports the boxes fell off a Washington State University truck on

BERLIN (AP) — Police in western Germany say divine intervention saved a speeding driver from getting a ticket, after a pigeon photobombed a traffic enforcement camera at just the right moment. Perhaps inspired by this week’s Ascension

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a ball python slithered out of a toilet and bit a South Florida man on the arm. Coral Springs police spokesman Chris Swinson said the man was treated at the

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine’s supreme court has upheld a ruling granting a man sole custody of his dog, denying his ex-girlfriend’s bid to take the pet. The Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday affirmed that pets are

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut police department has reached a deal with a fugitive that would have him surrender if enough people respond to a wanted poster on social media, an agreement that at least one

MARLBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Whoever broke into a Massachusetts man’s home last week didn’t take a thing. They did, however, leave the house spotless. Nate Roman tells The Boston Globe that when he returned to his Marlborough

CLINTON, Maine (AP) — A natural gas distribution company in Maine plans to get into the production side of things with a poop-to-gas renewable energy project to heat homes. Summit Utilities is partnering with Maine’s dairy industry

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A police camera caught a beaver’s surprise appearance near a traffic stop in Alaska’s largest city. Anchorage police posted the brief video on the department’s Facebook page Wednesday showing the creature ambling into

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Staff at a U.S. Air Force base in Florida had to bring in a front-end loader to remove an alligator that was lounging on a runway. The Tampa Bay Times reports that the

TEANECK, N.J. (AP) — A little birdie has displaced soccer players in New Jersey. The Record reports that a killdeer laid its eggs about two weeks ago on a patch of synthetic grass near the south goal

LONDON (AP) — A British restaurant has given some customers an unexpected treat, accidentally serving them a 4,500-pound ($5,760) bottle of red wine. The Hawksmoor Manchester said on Twitter it hoped the diners “enjoyed your evening” after