Following a tense arm-wrestling match between a father and his young son that led to shots being fired and an eight-hour standoff with police, authorities say the man surrendered peacefully. According to ABC News the Boone County Sheriff’s Office in Kentucky received a call last week that gunshots were heard going off inside a residence. On arrival the officers found two family members outside of the home who said Curtis Zimmerman was still inside and refused to come out. The man was also armed. “Deputies learned that Zimmerman was intoxicated and challenged his juvenile son to an arm-wrestling contest,” said Boone County Sheriff’s Office. “When Zimmerman lost multiple times, he became agitated which led to a physical altercation with his son.” Zimmerman allegedly collected his firearm and shot twice inside the house as his son retreated to his bedroom. According to the suspect, he was not aiming for the juvenile and fired into the ceiling. Zimmerman refused to cooperate with police and stayed inside the home for over eight hours before the Boone County Sheriff’s Office Hostage Negotiation Team was able to talk him into surrendering to SWAT officers. He was reportedly taken into custody without incident.
Odds & Ends Dateline: New Zealand
A man cut a hole in a fence to escape a COVID-19 quarantine and buy alcohol. Global News reports that an Australian man who flew to New Zealand on July 1 cut through a fence to escape a temporary quarantine facility at the Distinction Hotel. “Initial information suggests an individual cut through fence ties at the 1.8-metre fence to break out of the facility, and returned to the facility sometime after that,” said police. Health officials say they do not believe the man was a threat to others, as he has tested negative for the novel coronavirus twice. It was determined that the man was gone from the facility for around half an hour last week and that he visited a single liquor store during that time. The store was notified and sanitized. The man is not in police custody, but he is facing charges in court. New Zealand’s COVID-19 policy requires that visitors be quarantined for two weeks and test negative for the virus before being allowed into the general public. Earlier in the week, another man reportedly broke out of a quarantine hotel to go to a grocery store. Earlier in the month, a woman escaped her quarantine facility and was reportedly found by authorities two blocks away.
Odds & Ends Dateline: France
A baker has made bread using wheat that was fertilized with women’s urine collected from public restrooms. Russia Today reports that engineer and “ecofeminist” Louise Raguet collects urine from public women’s toilets in Paris to fertilize wheat that is used in her best-selling Boucle d’Or, or Goldilocks bread. To sterilize the urine, Raguet adulterates the liquid at least 20 times before it’s sprayed on crops. She told reporters that urine is a more eco-conscious fertilizer than the nitrogen-based artificial fertilizers currently used by farmers. A recent French Urban Planning Agency study found that around 29 million loaves of bread using urine-based fertilizer could be produced in a day in France, saving farmers around 703 tons of nitrogen-based artificial fertilizers each day. Raguet says bodily wastes shouldn’t be destroyed. According to the baker, urine contains potassium, nitrogen and other nutrients that plants need. She says our current system of disposing of human urine is wasteful. “When you pee in water, treatment plants remove the nutrients. They do not return to the earth. The system is not circular,” she said. Raguet says she hopes her work will “break taboos over excrement.” She says she chose to use female urine specifically to empower women.
Odds & Ends Dateline: Oregon
Police say a man in a stolen vehicle led police on a high-speed chase before crashing into another stolen car driven by another car thief. According to FOX 12 in Oregon, police received a call that a Toyota Land Cruiser had been stolen. The vehicle was spotted driving through the city of Newberg, about 20 miles southwest of Portland. Officers were able to find the stolen vehicle and pursued. The suspect—later identified as Randy Lee Cooper of Portland—led police on a winding chase through downtown Newberg, Ore. before crashing into an occupied Buick Regal. According to police Cooper was arrested for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, attempting to elude police, third-degree assault and reckless driving. While the man was arrested, officers investigated the Buick and found Kristin Nicole Begue of Newberg sitting in the front seat. They learned that the Buick had been reported stolen weeks earlier. Officers allege that Begue also appeared to be under the influence. She was also arrested at the scene for driving under the influence of intoxicants and the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
Compiled by Joshua Lee. Email your weird news to josh@alibi.com.
