Dateline: EnglandA British man who has been arrested multiple times for having sex with cow manure has been transferred from a mental hospital to a prison. David Truscott, 44, has served three jail sentences because of his bizarre fetish. According to BBC News, he was moved by a judge at Exeter Crown Court following a doctor’s report on his condition. Truscott has admitted threatening to kill farmer Clive Ross and his family after they tried to ban him from their property. Truscott’s love for cow manure was first made public in 2004 when he told a court he got sexual pleasure from stripping to the waist and rolling in manure. Starting in 2005, he repeatedly violated Ross’ manure spreader. Ross tried to deter the trespasser by repeatedly cleaning the machine. Truscott retaliated by setting the farm on fire. The Ross family finally filed a restraining order against Truscott, but he was jailed in 2009 and 2011 for violating the order. Truscott will be sentenced for his latest violation, which took place in 2012, early next year. Depending on the verdict, he could serve out the remainder of his sentence in prison or in a mental hospital.Dateline: SwedenPolice responding to a report of a “domestic incident” instead found a frustrated couple trying to assemble some Ikea furniture. According to the Expressen newspaper, concerned neighbors reported “hearing banging and screaming” coming from the couples’ home in Strömstad. The noise turned out to be from the couple’s frustrated attempts to put together a piece of Ikea baby furniture. The police determined there was no crime and left.Dateline: CaliforniaA Southern California man has been arrested for allegedly attacking a cab driver with a didgeridoo. U-T San Diego reports that 31-year-old Joaquin Gonzalez and an unidentified woman were picked up in Mission Valley on the night of Sunday, Nov. 10, shortly before 7pm. The cabbie told police his two passengers fell asleep on the ride to a home on Montera Street in Chula Vista. Once they arrived at the residence, the cabbie woke them up and asked for his fare. An argument ensued. The man entered the residence and returned with a large Australian wind instrument known as a didgeridoo, which he allegedly used to threaten the cab driver. The cabbie drove away, but the enraged man chased him down the street, hitting the vehicle with the lengthy wooden instrument and causing several dents. Gonzalez was arrested on felony vandalism charges.Dateline: MichiganStudents and parents alike were upset when Lakeview Middle School in Battle Creek barred students from wearing t-shirts honoring a classmate who died after a long battle with cancer. Lakeview sixth-grader Caitlyn Jackson, 12, died last weekend in a hospital in Ann Arbor after fighting leukemia. On Monday, Nov. 11, at least a dozen students showed up in orange or blue shirts, many with Caitlyn’s name. Blue was the girl’s favorite color, and orange is the official color honoring leukemia victims. When they arrived at school, however, administrators order them to change the shirts, turn them inside out or put duct tape over Caitlyn’s name. According to the Battle Creek Enquirer, Lakeview’s administration made the decision Sunday night that they would not allow t-shirts, but did not notify parents. Amy Jones, the school’s finance director, said the decision was based on the school’s “crisis management plan,” which she says is “based on a lot of research and expert opinion.” The plan specifically bans “permanent memorials” at the belief that they can remind students of their grief. Apparently the administrators interpreted the handmade t-shirts as a permanent memorial. District officials acknowledged that their good intentions backfired and reversed the t-shirt ban by Tuesday. “Certainly the intent of our decision was good,” Jones told reporters. “Probably the ramifications of our decision caused more disruption than if we had let kids wear the shirts in the first place.” Officials met with Caitlyn’s family on Monday afternoon and promised to review the policies that led to the ban.Dateline: PennsylvaniaA newspaper in Pennsylvania has apologized for panning President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address—150 years after the fact. The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, located about 35 miles northeast of Gettysburg, officially retracted an 1863 editorial published by its Civil War-era predecessor, the Harrisburg Patriot & Union. At the time the staunchly anti-Lincoln paper dismissed the president’s famous speech, calling it a collection of “silly remarks” that deserved a “veil of oblivion.” The modern-day editors of the paper apologized for not seeing the “momentous importance, timeless eloquence and lasting significance” of the Gettysburg Address. Events remembering the 150th anniversary of the speech are scheduled to take place in Gettysburg this week.
Compiled by Devin D. O'Leary. Email your weird news to devin@alibi.com.
