Weird News: Forever Fire
Forever Fire
Turkmenistan’s top tourist attraction is the Gateway to Hell, a huge gas leak that has been burning since 1971 in the Karakum Desert, Yahoo! News reported on June 5. The fire started when Soviet scientists accidentally drilled into an underground pocket of gas and then ignited it, starting a blaze that could be seen from several kilometers away. Officials announced this week that the fire has been reduced three-fold. “Today only a faint source of combustion remains,” said Irina Luryeva, a director at the state-owned energy company Turkmengaz. Wells have been drilled around the site to capture the methane from the leak, she said.
Least Competent Criminal
Richard Pruneda, 42, of Edinburg, Texas, managed to get himself arrested twice over the Memorial Day holiday in Eddyville, Kentucky, the West Kentucky Star reported. The Lyon County Sheriff was called on May 25 to a business where Pruneda was allegedly intoxicated and making “alarming” statements to an employee. The next day, after bonding out of jail, Pruneda called the sheriff’s office to ask about retrieving personal items from his impounded car. When the officer picked up and inventoried the items, he found cocaine in the trunk. Eddyville Police assisted as they went to Pruneda’s motel and arrested him for a second time.
‘Gator-Aid
No Longer Weird: alligators in Florida. BUT this story caught our eye: Not one but two motorcyclists were injured on May 31 in Volusia County, Florida, after they hit an alligator crossing I-4, WFOL-TV reported. Cameron Gilmore, 67, said he and Brandi Goss, 25, were riding with a larger group when he saw a “big blob in the road.” Goss elaborated: “I just seen something and ... it was too late,” she said. Goss sustained a concussion and cracked wrist bone; Gilmore had a broken foot and toes. The alligator’s fate is unknown.
Peckish Pachyderm
A 30-year-old elephant named Plai Biang Lek escaped Khao Yai National Park and went shopping on June 2 in Bangkok, Thailand, the Associated Press reported. The enormous male pachyderm ducked through the door of a grocery store and helped himself to snacks while park workers tried to shoo him out. When he was ready to go, he backed out the door, still holding a bag of treats with his trunk. The only damage to the shop was mud tracks on the floor and ceiling. Kamploy Kakaew, the owner, said he ate nine bags of sweet rice crackers, a sandwich and some dried bananas. This isn’t his first offense: He’s been known to enter homes in search of food.