Dateline: HawaiiA judge has suggested that an accused car thief avoid drinking Pepsi during probation. According to The Maui News, Hawaiian Second Circuit Judge Rhonda Loo heard a case against Christopher Montilliano Jr., who was accused of stealing a car earlier this month. Montilliano pleaded no contest to unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle and driving without a license. In court, Judge Loo said the man had lied multiple times when he was arrested—telling officers that his cousin had allowed him to drive the car and that he was heading to a grocery store to buy soda. Judge Loo reportedly asked Montilliano if his addiction to soda drove him to the act. “I’ve heard a lot of people addicted to meth. I’ve heard a lot of people addicted to alcohol,” the judge said. “This is the first time I’ve heard of a Coca-Cola addiction. I’m sure the soda didn’t make you steal the vehicle.” When asked what kind of soda Montilliano drank, he told her Pepsi. “It’s the Pepsi deprivation syndrome,” she remarked. Montilliano spent seven days in jail following his arrest. After failing to appear for his original sentencing date, he was made to serve three more months in jail before going before Judge Loo. A plea agreement between the defense and prosecution recommended probation instead of jail time, and Judge Loo ordered Montilliano to perform 100 hours of community service and pay a $100 fine. Dateline: BangladeshA woman with two wombs has reportedly given birth twice since February—the instances were a month apart. CNN reports that Arifa Sultana gave birth to a boy in late February at a hospital in Dhaka. The young mother was reportedly admitted to another hospital less than four weeks later, complaining of abdominal pain. An ultrasound was performed and doctors found Sultana was pregnant with twins. A C-section was performed and the twins—a boy and a girl—were delivered without issue. Sultana has a rare condition known as uterus didelphys. When a normal uterus develops, it comes from two tubes, which fuse together. For those with uterus didelphys, the fusion fails to occur, and the dividing wall does not dissolve. This condition allowed Sultana to conceive and grow her first child separately from the twins, but the situation went unobserved because an ultrasound was never performed before the first delivery.Dateline: KentuckyA man alleges his employer tried to make him undergo an exorcism. According to WKYT in Kentucky, Leslie County resident Jason Fields filed a lawsuit last week against Hampton Inn and Sharon Lindon. Fields—who formerly worked as a desk clerk at a Hampton Inn managed by Lindon—claims that when his boss found out he was getting a divorce, she blamed his marital troubles on demons. Lindon allegedly told Fields he would have to undergo an exorcism if he wished to continue working at the hotel and gave him a questionnaire concerning religious and intimate activities. Fields claims he was instructed to complete the form and return it to her before taking part in an exorcism. He refused. According to the lawsuit, Lindon retaliated by changing his shift and inviting people to come to the hotel and pray for him in front of other customers while he was on duty. Fields eventually quit his job, citing Lindon’s harassment as the reason. Lindon is accused of religiously discriminating against Fields. Hampton Inn released a statement saying it opposes all forms of discrimination and plans to investigate the matter fully.Dateline: MassachusettsA grocery store has publicly denied that it is haunted by Victorian-era ghosts. People magazine reports that a Market Basket supermarket in Wilmington, Mass., made the statement after more than one Facebook user claimed they’d seen an apparition in the store. The first person to bring attention to the alleged haunting was employee Christina Bush, who claimed she saw the ghost of a woman wearing Victorian-era clothes while working in the bakery on March 13. Her post asked if anyone had seen a ghost in the supermarket. At least one other commenter said they had. Bush spoke to Today about her experience. “I was writing on a cake for a customer. And when I turned around to bring the cake back to the counter, I saw the lady in the background — she was staring right at me. I looked down for a second because it didn’t register and when I looked back she was gone.” In response to public pressure, Market Basket officials released the following statement: “As far as we know, all of our stores are ghost-free. But if there’s anything to it, she’s probably attracted to our Victorian-era prices.”Dateline: CaliforniaA Los Angeles artist is helping President Donald Trump protect the US border by building a wall of cheese. According to the Los Angeles Times, Cosimo Cavallaro vowed to “make America Grate again” with a wall made of cotija cheese bricks. He began building his five-foot tall wall last week on a 14-acre piece of land he rented specifically for this purpose in southeastern San Diego County—only a few feet from a fence marking the line dividing Mexico and the US. Cavallaro told reporters he’s wanted to build a cheese wall for decades, but never had a reason to do so before Trump became president. The artist is known for working in perishable mediums. He says he’s using cheese in this project to highlight the absurdity of President Trump’s proposed wall.
Compiled by Joshua Lee. Email your weird news to josh@alibi.com.
