News of the weird

[thecreech]

And in Camden, N.J., in February, schoolteacher Eileen Blau filed a lawsuit for "severe and multiple injuries" caused when 11-year-old, 90-pound student Daniel Allen accidentally ran into her while engaged in hallway horseplay. [New York Daily News, 5-21-03] [Camden Courier-Post, 3-29-03]

Michael Machetti, 31, filed a lawsuit in Riverside County, Calif., in April against Bullseye Tattoo and its owner, charging that the tattoo removal he had done on his neck had infected him with the flesh-eating disease necrotizing fasciitis. Machetti said he went for the removal because co-workers had complained about the familiar two-word obscene phrase (the second word: "you") on his neck, and he wanted it replaced with the apparently more acceptable "666." [San Bernardino County Sun, 5-1-03]

Sue the Victim (continued): Kenneth J. Lewis II, serving 12 years in prison for burglary, filed a $140,000 lawsuit against property owner Nina Baugh, who had chased after Lewis and shot him in the arm (Bentonville, Ark., April). Willie Brown, 44, serving four years in prison for a convenience store robbery, filed a lawsuit against the clerk who had shot him (with Brown maintaining, "(T)here was no need for the use of deadly force," even though Brown had claimed to have a gun) (Muncie, Ind., April). And in a court filing in May opposing early release for farmer Tony Martin, who had been convicted of killing a burglar, Britain's Home Office argued against parole, maintaining that the government must protect burglars from violent homeowners. [Benton County Daily Record, 4-19-03] [Muncie Star Press, 4-17-03] [The Independent (London), 5-5-03]

Justin Scheidt filed a lawsuit in May against the Showgirl III strip club in Fort Wayne, Ind., for "serious and permanent injuries" to his groin area received after he consented to take the stage with several dancers during their show. Scheidt, as a climax to his bachelor party that night, complied with the women's requests and lay on his back with his legs around the dancers' pole, after which they began climbing the pole and sliding down squarely on his groin. Scheidt went ahead with his wedding but said he was unable to consummate the marriage because of his injuries. [Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, 5-16-03]

Chicago police arrested six people in June and charged them with running an insurance scam, which was allegedly led by a 39-year-old man known as Bonecrusher; police said homeless men consented to have Bonecrusher administer compound fractures of the arm or leg, and they would then be taken to staged accident scenes and instructed how to make quick settlements with insurance companies of up to $100,000 (but getting to keep only about $1,500 of it). (2) And Sheffield Hallam University (Sheffield, England) announced in May that it would inaugurate a Master's degree program in creating video games; a spokesman for a Sony UK company said, "We hope more universities will start offering (curricula) like this." [Chicago Sun-Times, 6-7-03] [The Sun, 5-23-03]

Another PETA Tactic: In April, The Independent (London) revealed that the founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the 53-year-old Ingrid Newkirk, will be advocating her cause even after she passes away. To continue PETA's campaign to educate people on the treatment of animals for food, fashion and testing, her will provides that part of her body be publicly barbecued; that her feet be turned into ornaments; that part of her skin be turned into a leather product; that the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency receive her eyes, mounted; and that the owner of the Ringling Brothers circus receive one of her fingers, mounted. [The Independent, 4-19-03]

A 20-year-old motorist was killed in Boggstown, Ind., on June 5 when he lost control of his truck while apparently aiming his rear end out the driver's side window (but no other details were released).
In March in New York City, after six months of warnings about a street widening, the electric company finally moved its utility pole, which was anchored in what by that time had become a lane of traffic, about 10 feet from the curb. And in June, a private road-striping crew on state contract painted a prominent crosswalk on Cucumber Hill Road in Foster, R.I., connecting a hedge on one side with a stone wall on another (and zero pedestrian traffic except for occasional wild animals).
At La Mesa Junior High School (where students can be expelled for carrying even squirt guns), the yearbook came out with a quarter-page ad for the National Rifle Association (Santa Clarita, Calif.).