Dateline: ThailandA 41-year-old monk living on the outskirts of Bangkok won nearly $175,000 after he says a tree gave him the winning lottery number. Phra Prawit Techapalo, of Cheepakhao Temple in Samut Sakhon, claims he “interpreted” the lucky number from the textures of a teak tree at his temple. Phra Prawit, who has been a monk for 10 years, told Bangkok’s Morning News he has had a longtime habit of buying multiple lottery tickets a month. The monk said he would use his 6 million baht ($173,410) prize to buy his mother a house, pay for his child’s tuition and help cover the cost of a funeral for the temple’s abbot who recently passed away.Dateline: South CarolinaPolice in Myrtle Beach are on the lookout for a naked man who held up a convenience store at gunpoint and got away with some Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. According to a Horry County Police Department report, the unclothed candy bandit walked into a Scotchman store just before midnight on Aug. 22. An officer responding to the 911 call spoke to a 51-year-old clerk who “states an unknown black male came into the store naked with a gun and stole candy.” The victim told the officer that the suspect pointed the gun at him “while he was running toward the candy.” The employee said the robber was naked except for a bandana over his face and a pair of black shoes. The robber said nothing and took only an unspecified amount of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Police have been unable to identify or locate the man in question.Dateline: Rhode IslandA 50-year-old man has been arrested for shooting corncobs at his neighbor’s house. The Westerly Sun reports that Jeffrey M. Osella was taken into custody on charges of disorderly conduct and firing in a compact area. Officers were called to a home along Wompag Road in Westerly around 7pm on the night of Aug. 30 after a neighbor reported Osella was shooting corncobs at his house with a potato gun following a yelling match. Another neighbor said Osella’s daughter was nearly struck by a corncob while she was walking home. Police went to Osella’s home, and he reportedly came to the door shirtless with “multiple corn kernels” stuck to his chest. He admitted firing the potato gun toward the neighbor’s house, but denied shooting at the neighbor. Interim Westerly Police Chief Shawn Lacey told the Sun that the two men have had disputes regularly over the past 13 years. Dateline: FloridaPolice easily identified and arrested a fugitive after he used a wanted poster for his Facebook profile picture. Officers responded to a disturbance call on the night of Monday, Aug. 29, at a home in Stuart, located just south of Port St. Lucie along Florida’s Treasure Coast. According to the Palm Beach Post, one of the officers who responded informed the other investigators that 42-year-old Mack Yearwood had two warrants out of Citrus County. In order to determine if they had the right man, one of the officers checked Facebook, hoping to find a photo of Yearwood. What they found was that Yearwood had recently replaced his profile pic with an image of his “Wanted of the Week” poster, which had been issued by the Citrus County Sheriff’s Department. While he was being arrested on the two outstanding warrants for violation of probation on two counts of battery, Yearwood asked officers if he could put on some pants. While he dressed in the pair of jeans that was lying on the floor near his bed, a bag of marijuana fell out of his pocket. A charge of possession of cannabis under 20 grams was added at the jail.Dateline: TexasAccording to Hustonia magazine, a Houston man came up with an excuse for a potentially embarrassing Google Street View photo a full two months before it hit the internet. Joshua Justice, the manager of Flying Saucer Draught Emporium in downtown Houston, posted a message to his Facebook page two months ago. It read, “I just poured half a cleaning keg all over my pants. Went outside to stand in the sun … as a Google maps car drove by. Look for me on Street View soon. I’ll be the guy that looks like he pissed himself.” Sure enough, when the new Google Maps images went live late last month, Justice could be seen standing at the intersection of Capitol and Main with a dark stain running down his crotch. Speaking to the Houston Chronicle after the photos appeared online, Justice reiterated that the stain was beer keg line cleaner composed of warm water and mild acid. “I do a lot of the social media for Flying Saucer,” he told the newspaper. “So seeing something like this blow up on Reddit and Houstonia and all over the place has been pretty funny.”
Compiled by Devin D. O'Leary. Email your weird news to devin@alibi.com.
