Dateline: EnglandThe U.K.’s Food Standards Agency has ordered upscale supermarket chain Booths to remove all house-brand bags of “Wholehearted Roasted Monkey Nuts” because the packaging fails to inform consumers that the product may contain nuts. Monkey Nuts is a regional British term for whole peanuts. The supermarkets were selling the nuts in transparent bags, but the Food Standards Agency ruled that the parent company didn’t do enough to warn customers with peanut allergies that bags of peanuts could trigger their peanut allergies. The product has been removed from 29 of the chain’s grocery stores and the company issued a statement to customers: “If you have an allergy to peanuts, please do not consume this product and return it to your local store for a full refund.” The director of clinical services at Allergy UK told London’s Daily Telegraph many people might consider it “barking mad to require bags of nuts to carry a warning on the back that they contain nuts,” but that labeling the packages will ensure “there is no doubt that a product contains an allergen.”Dateline: FloridaWilliam Daniel Lloyd of Gainsville decided to bag himself a fine Southern dinner by shooting a squirrel with a BB gun. Unconvinced that his Pumpmaster 760 was enough to kill a squirrel, the 31-year-old hunter extraordinaire opted to tape a .40-caliber shell to the barrel of the rifle. His reasoning seemed to be that the BB would strike the casing’s primer, igniting the gunpowder and firing the bullet at his intended target. That’s not what happened. According to The Gainsville Sun, “the cartridge discharged and fragmented, striking Lloyd in the upper arm and lower leg. He was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.” Police charged Lloyd with discharging a firearm in public and possession of ammunition by a convicted felon. Plus he didn’t get to eat a squirrel.Dateline: FloridaPolice in St. Petersburg arrested 34-year-old Jarvis Sutton after he allegedly called 911 operators 80 times on Sunday, April 28. “The defendent admitted to calling 911 because he wanted Kool-Aid, burgers and weed to be delivered to him,” an officer wrote in his affidavit. Police did not bring the requested items with them, but they did deliver Sutton to the Pinellas County Jail. Arresting officers noted that Sutton must have had a severe case of munchies because he kept chewing on the foam rubber covering attached to the metal caging in the back of the police cruiser. According to the Florida Sun-Sentinel, this is Sutton’s seventh visit to jail in the last two years.Dateline: CaliforniaSalvatore Bevivino, a manager for a biotechnology company in San Francisco, is suing Virgin America airlines for half a million dollars after the flight crew of a westbound plane accused him of not flushing the toilet. Bevivino claims he was unfairly detained on April 28 following a flight from Philadelphia to San Francisco. According to the lawsuit, trouble started about an hour into the flight, when the 52-year-old Bevivino tried to order a soft drink from a flight attendant, but was informed he had to do it through the plane’s touch-screen entertainment system. Moments later a second flight attendent came over to discuss the matter. Bevivino made the mistake of trying to get a drink from the second flight attendant. Eventually a third flight attendent brought Bevivino a soda. According to a police report, however, Bevivino went to the airplane’s bathroom a few minutes later and “emerged with a smile on his face.” A flight attendent then reportedly, “passed by the restroom and saw that Bevivino left the door open and did not flush the toilet.” After the plane landed in California, Bevivino was detained for his alleged actions. The pilot said that neither he nor his crew felt threatened by Bevivino. Bevivino denies cursing at the crew during the soft-drink-ordering dispute and swears he flushed the toilet. He’s seeking $500,000 in damages for embarrassment, humiliation, mortification, fright, shock, mental anguish and emotional distress.
Compiled by Devin D. O'Leary. Email your weird news to devin@alibi.com.
