Dateline: RussiaA drunken animal trainer has reportedly been fired from a circus after he took a tiger cub for a walk at a Russian shopping mall. Witnesses posted multiple videos online of the man walking and playing with the small tiger cub outside the Ryazan Shopping Mall, some 128 miles southeast of Moscow. Police responded to the scene and the man, who was found to be drunk, was fined about $70 on a petty hooliganism charge. According to several Russian news sources, the man was fired from the circus after the incident.Dateline: EnglandA Frenchman is accused of “fighting with cheese” in a English supermarket after unsuccessfully trying to steal it. According to the UK’s Metro newspaper, Bernard Conche is on trial for assault after an incident that took place in November at a Waitrose supermarket on Kings Road in Chelsea. Conche had previously been banned from the store, but was spotted taking boxes of Camembert cheese by a duty manager. The manager, Kimberley Taynor, approached Conche. “At that point he had three blocks of cheese in his trolley, and he picked those up and threw them at me,” Taynor said in court. Security guard Shah Nawaz intervened, but Conche allegedly kicked him in the stomach and started swinging his shopping cart around. Taynor was injured as Conche’s cart struck her right ankle. Eventually three staff members managed to drag Conche into the store’s office. According to court testimony, Conche also kicked PC Jonathon Stanley in the chest as officers tried to place him in the police van. Conche did not appear at his trial in Hammersmith magistrates’ court, but according to the Metro he was “spotted lurking nearby in Wellington boots and a fisherman’s hat.” The trial proceeded in his absence. Conche faces two counts of assault by beating and one count of assaulting an officer in the course of his duty.Dateline: MarylandA Baltimore woman is suing city officials and contractors after she alleges her toilet exploded, drenching her in a geyser of feces. Angela Wright’s lawsuit alleges she was sitting on the toilet in her Baltimore home in November 2014 when she was blown off the bowl by an explosive backup of raw sewage. “I was literally covered in feces. Are you kidding? Who wants that?” Wright told WBFF-TV. According to Wright, who just filed the lawsuit earlier this month, the explosion was caused by a city contractor using high-pressure hoses to clean out the sewer lines in her neighborhood. Wright’s lawyer, Louis Glick, said his client suffered physical and emotional injuries in the incident. “She was blown off the toilet that day,” Glick said. “She had to clean it up herself. Can you imagine that?” The estimated damage to the bathroom, which has yet to be repaired, is $14,000. Glick said he would “probably seek $250,000 if we go in front of a jury to compensate [Wright] properly for the enormous blows to her psyche and physical self.” Wright’s lawsuit names Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the Baltimore City Council and two contracting companies involved in the sewer cleanup.Dateline: OhioPolice in suburban Cleveland have finally cracked the case of a house that has been egged more than 100 times in the past few years. Jason E. Kozan, 30, of Euclid, was arrested and charged with felony vandalism earlier this month. Homeowner Al Clemens Sr. says his home on Wilmore has been bombarded with eggs, produce and canned goods several times a week starting in May 2014 and ending in June 2015. That’s not-so-coincidentally when Mr. Kozan moved out of his home on Wilmore. The lengthy investigation included undercover stakeouts, neighborhood canvassing and testing of eggshells at a crime lab. Forensics determined that the eggs were purchased from a local Amish seller. Clemens, 86, told FOX-8 News that he used to clean up the mess, but stopped because the vandalism was happening so frequently. According to Clemens, his insurer wouldn’t settle a claim on the damage until police caught the culprit. Detectives haven’t identified a motive for the eggings, but when the crimes were first reported in the local media, Lt. Mitch Houser speculated, “Somebody is deeply, deeply angry at somebody in that household for some reason.
Compiled by Devin D. O'Leary. Email your weird news to devin@alibi.com.
