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Oddities

In this photo provided by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, an alligator was caught by an angler in Norris Lake in Union County, Tenn., on Monday, March 18, 2024. TWRA communications coordinator Matthew Cameron said the origin of the alligator was unclear, but it appeared that the alligator had been illegally held in captivity and possibly released into the lake. (Rick Roberts/Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency via AP)

A Tennessee fisherman reeled in a big one. It turned out to be an alligator

An angler in northeast Tennessee caught a surprise when he was fishing at a lake. Stuck on his bait was a 3- to 4-foot long alligator, which are not native to that part of Tennessee.

FILE - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet greets garment workers at Prey Speu village outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Aug. 29, 2023. Manet has ordered a ban on musical horns, after videos posted on social media showed people dancing on roads and roadsides as passing trucks blasted rhythmic little tunes. Hun Manet called on the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation and police to immediately take action against any vehicle whose normal horn has been replaced by a tune-playing one by ripping it out and restoring the standard honking type. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith, File)

Cambodia’s prime minister sounds a sour note on trucks’ musical horns

Arsenal's Caitlin Foord, left, and Chelsea's Melanie Leupolz battle for the ball during the Women's Super League soccer match between Chelsea and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge, London, Friday March 15, 2024. (Nigel French/PA via AP)

English women’s league showdown delayed by teams wearing matching socks

Bees swarm around a camera during a quarterfinal match at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament, Thursday, March 14, 2024, in Indian Wells, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Bees cause a buzz and lengthy disruption at Indian Wells tennis during Alcaraz vs Zverev match

FILE - Police patrol Pusher Street in at Christiania, Copenhagen, Friday, May 25, 2018, after the street reopened after having been closed for three days. The inhabitants of Copenhagen's freewheeling Christiania neighborhood want dig up the aptly named Pusher Street where cannabis has been sold for decades although the trade is illegal, in the latest attempt to stop the hashish sale which has led to deadly gang turf wars and sometimes violent confrontations with the police. (Nils Meilvang/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)

A Danish hippie oasis has fought drug sales for years. Now, locals want to tear up the whole street

Swedish appeals court rules space rock should stay with the owner of the property where it landed

A Swedish land owner has won a legal battle to keep a 14-kilogram (31-pound) meteorite after an appeals court ruled that such space rocks should be considered “immovable property” and part of the land where they are found.

Police say he got on a plane using a photo of a girl’s boarding pass. Now he faces a felony charge

A Texas man is accused of trying to sneak on board a flight by taking a photo of another passenger’s boarding pass, and authorities say he was caught because the flight was full and he didn’t have a place to sit.

In this grab made from video, a model wearing Belgium's jersey poses with actors impersonating characters from Tintin during the unveiling of the new Belgium soccer national team jersey, in Brussels, Belgium, Thursday, March 14, 2024. (SNTV via AP)

Blue jersey, brown shorts, white socks: Belgium’s new kit a tribute to comic book legend Tintin

The Belgian soccer federation has unveiled new home and away kits for its male and female national teams.

In this image taken from a video provided by the Richmond Wildlife Center, executive director and founder Melissa Stanley wears a fox mask as she feeds an orphaned red fox kit, March 10, 2024, in Richmond, Va. Stanley said the mask creates a visual barrier to prevent animals from imprinting on humans. (Richmond Wildlife Center via AP)

Staff at a Virginia wildlife center pretend to be red foxes as they care for an orphaned kit

Employees of the Richmond Wildlife Center in Virginia are doing their best to act like mother foxes as they feed and care for an orphaned kit that found her way into their care.

FILE - A customer pumps gas at a gas station in Mundelein, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. A Nebraska woman is facing theft charges, accusing her of exploiting a gas pump glitch at a Lincoln, Neb. service station. Authorities say the woman found that by double-swiping a rewards card, she could put the pump into demo mode and get free gas. She's accused of costing the station nearly $28,000 in gas over a seven-month period. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, file)

Double-swiping the rewards card led to free gas for months — and a felony theft charge

A Nebraska woman allegedly found a lucrative quirk at a gas station pump — double-swipe the rewards card and get free gas!

FILE - A 1988 polychrome resin sculpture of the comic character Tintin and his dog snowy from the 1941 "The Crab with the Golden Claws" album drawn by Belgian creator Herge is displayed at the Artcurial auction house in Paris, on Jan. 13, 2021. The Belgium international players taking part in the Euro soccer tournament this summer could well resemble a world-famous reporter. According to leaks on various specialized websites, the Belgium Euro 2024 away kit is a tribute to Tintin. The Belgian federation is set to unveil the new kit on Thursday March 14, 2024 during a press conference at the Hergé Museum. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

Belgium’s Euro 2024 alternate jersey is leaked. Is it a tribute to comic-strip hero Tintin?

Some Bellgium soccer players in the European Championship this summer could resemble a world famous reporter.

Auburn student makes a 94-foot, length-of-the-court putt and wins a car

An Auburn University student connected on a long-distance shot, draining a length-of-the-basketball court putt on Saturday to win a car.

Police tape surrounds the Skowhegan Indian statue in Skowhegan, Maine on Tuesday March 5, 2024. The 62-foot-tall sculpture is currently missing an arm and part of its face, and it's believed to be due to the effects of the weather and a windstorm that left part of its face, an arm and a spear missing. (Rich Abrahamson /The Central Maine Morning Sentinel via AP)

Weather beatdown leaves towering Maine landmark surrounded by crime scene tape

Crime scene tape surrounds the Skowhegan Indian, a local landmark in Maine, after an assault by Mother Nature.

A gorilla family is observed by people visiting the Fort Worth Zoo in Fort Worth, Texas, Friday, Feb. 23, 2024. Researchers will be standing by to observe how animals’ routines at the zoo are disrupted when skies dim on April 8. They previously detected other strange animal behaviors in 2017 at a South Carolina zoo that was in the path of total darkness. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

How do animals react during a total solar eclipse? Scientists plan to find out in April

Researchers and citizen scientists will observe how animals’ routines at several zoos are disrupted during the April 8 total solar eclipse.

A skijoring team competes in Leadville, Colo., on Saturday, March 2, 2024. Skijoring draws its name from the Norwegian word skikjoring, meaning "ski driving." It started as a practical mode of transportation in Scandinavia and became popular in the Alps around 1900. Today's sport features horses at full gallop towing skiers by rope over jumps and around obstacles as they try to lance suspended hoops with a baton, typically a ski pole that's cut in half. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

What do you get when you cross rodeo with skiing? The wild and wacky skijoring

What do you get when you cross rodeo with skiing? An extreme — and quirky — winter sport called skijoring.

Rare 2-faced calf born last month at a Louisiana farm is flourishing despite the odds

A rare calf born with two faces is continuing to flourish eight days after its birth at a southwest Louisiana farm.

Whitehall Police Officer Matthew Perez trains his dog Rico at a park Wednesday, March 6, 2024, in Whitehall, Ohio. Two Ohio lawmakers are looking to ease the looming financial burden faced by law enforcement agencies in the state who will have to replace marijuana-sniffing dogs after voters last year approved a plan to legalize recreational marijuana use. (AP Photo/Patrick Orsagos)

Nothing to sniff at: Bill would help pay to retire Ohio drug-detecting K9s under legal cannabis

Two Ohio lawmakers are sponsoring a bill that seeks to ease the financial burden on law enforcement agencies that will have to replace their marijuana-sniffing dogs.

Motorists pass through the town of East Hampton, Conn., Thursday, March 7, 2024. A small earthquake hit the small Connecticut town of East Hampton on Wednesday, but that's nothing new. Seismic sounds known as "The Moodus Noises" have been reported in the East Hampton area and the nearby village of Moodus for centuries. In fact, Moodus is short for Machimoodus or Mackimoodus, which means "place of bad noises" in the Algonquian dialects once spoken in the area. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)

A small earthquake and ‘Moodus Noises’ are nothing new for one Connecticut town

A small earthquake hit the small Connecticut town of East Hampton on Wednesday, but that’s nothing new.

In this image provided by Jake Molgaard, Kevin Bacon, a 450-pound porker wandered, Friday, March 1, 2024, from his pen before moseying down the road where he was caught hamming it up on the Molgaard family's security camera. ( Jake Molgaard via AP)

Wayward 450-pound pig named Kevin Bacon hams it up for home security camera

In Hollywood, actor Kevin Bacon is a big star. In Wisconsin’s Kenosha County, Kevin Bacon is one big pig!

In this recent image provided by Kentucky Lottery, Mark Perdue and his wife pose at the Kentucky Lottery's headquarters in Louisville, Ky. Luck struck twice for the Kentucky couple who thought they lost a winning Powerball ticket. The Bowling Green couple found out about a week after purchasing the ticket in late October that they had won $50,000, but they couldn't find the ticket, the Kentucky Lottery said in a statement. Three months later, Perdue went to check out the condition of a car at work and saw the ticket inside. The couple claimed $36,000 after taxes the following day. (Kentucky Lottery via AP)

Luck strikes twice for Kentucky couple who lost, then found, winning lottery ticket

Luck struck twice for a Kentucky couple who thought they lost a winning Powerball ticket. The Kentucky Lottery said in a statement that the Bowling Green couple found out about a week after purchasing the ticket in late October that they had won $50,000, but they couldn’t find the ticket.

4 are charged with concealing a corpse, evidence tampering in Long Island body parts case

Four people have been charged with concealing a human corpse and tampering with evidence in connection with the discovery of body parts in parks on Long Island.

This image released by Netflix shows Michael Fassbender as an assassin in a scene from "The Killer." (Netflix via AP)

Best cameo? Best hat? Ahead of the Oscars, AP hands out its own awards

The Academy Awards honor many things in movies but not some of the most important. Ahead of Sunday’s Oscars, AP Film Writers Lindsey Bahr and Jake Coyle make selections for their own awards.

City workers clean up tumbleweeds in South Jordan, Utah, on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. The suburb of Salt Lake City was inundated with tumbleweeds after a weekend storm brought stiff winds to the area. The gnarled icon of the Old West rolled in over the weekend and kept rolling until blanketing some homes and streets in suburban Salt Lake City.(AP Photo/Brady McCombs)

Iconic Old West tumbleweeds roll in and blanket parts of suburban Salt Lake City

Tumbleweeds, the gnarled icon of the Old West, rolled in over the weekend and kept rolling until blanketing some homes and streets in suburban Salt Lake City.

Venus flytrap poachers face arrest warrants in taking of hundreds of rare plant

Two people are facing arrest warrants in North Carolina in a poaching case involving hundreds of Venus flytraps.

This undated photo provided by the Metropolitan Police on March 2, 2024 shows a Ferrari stolen from former Formula One driver Gerhard Berger 28 years ago which has been recovered. British police said Monday, March 4, 2024 that they have recovered a Ferrari stolen from Formula One driver Gerhard Berger in Italy almost three decades ago. The red Ferrari F512M was one of two sports cars taken while their drivers were in Imola, Italy for the San Marino Grand Prix in April 1995. (Metropolitan Police via AP)

Ferrari stolen in 1995 from a Formula One driver is recovered by UK police

British police have recovered a Ferrari stolen from Formula One driver Gerhard Berger in Italy almost three decades ago.

2 police horses on the lam cause traffic jam on I-90 in Cleveland area

Drivers on an Ohio interstate came upon an unusual traffic hazard over the weekend — a pair of horses trotting against traffic.

FILE - The Phillie Phanatic comes out with his Hot Dog Launcher during the fifth inning of a baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies, Monday, July 4, 2016, in Philadelphia. For more than a quarter-century, Phillies fans thought dollar hot dog night was the best ballpark promotion — but the team has now decided it was the wurst. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola, File)

The Philadelphia Phillies are scrapping $1 hot dog nights following unruly fan behavior

The Philadelphia Phillies have scrapped their popular $1 hot dog nights for the 2024 season. The Phillies replaced dollar dogs on select dates with a two-for-one deal at two April games at Citizens Bank Park.

The satirical French newspaper 'La Bougie du Sapeur' is photographed at a newspaper shop in Paris, Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. Satirical French newspaper La Bougie du Sapeur only comes out on Feb. 29, once every four years. Some friends started the leap year newspaper as a joke in 1980, so the one published Thursday was just its 12th edition. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Looking for a leap year lift? Check out this silly French newspaper that only publishes on Feb. 29

Satirical French newspaper La Bougie du Sapeur only comes out on Feb. 29, once every four years. Some friends started the leap year newspaper as a joke in 1980.

Jet suit pilots race in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. Dubai on Wednesday hosted what it called its first-ever jet suit race. Racers zipped along a route with the skyscrapers of Dubai Marina looming behind them, controlling the jet engines on their hands and their backs. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)

‘Iron Man’ pilots race in jet suits against a backdrop of Dubai skyscrapers

Pilots lined up on a runway in Dubai and fired up their seven jet engines with an ear-splitting roar. But they weren’t preparing flying an airplane.

The burnt out remains of The Crooked House pub near Dudley, England, on July 8,, 2023. The owners of a quirky 18th century British pub destroyed in a fire last year have been ordered by a local council to rebuild it, keeping with its previous lopsided specifications. The watering hole — known as the Crooked House for its leaning walls and tilting foundation — in the village of Himley in central England, was gutted by a fire and subsequently demolished last August. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

Cheers to being crooked again. Quirky English pub bulldozed after a fire to be rebuilt as it was

The owners of a quirky 18th century British pub unlawfully bulldozed after a fire last year have been ordered by a local council to rebuild it, keeping with its previous lopsided specifications.

Jon Davis, left, loses his footing and most of his beer against Gary "Doughboy" Anderson, both of Jacksonville, in the "Florida Sumo" competition during the inaugural Florida Man Games, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, at Francis Field in St. Augustine, Fla. Hundreds turned out to witness the Floridian Olympic-style events. Team "Hanky Spanky," based out of St. Augustine, would take home the championship belt. (Corey Perrine/The Florida Times-Union via AP)

At the Florida Man Games, big crowds cheer competitors evading police and wrestling over beer

It’s a showdown that treats evading police and wrestling over beer like they were Olympic sports. The Florida Man Games made its debut Saturday in St.

Andie Nelson, right, embraces Brian Jaskot, both of Virginia, after their race during the 25 meter hat competition during the winter swimming festival on frozen Lake Memphremagog, Friday, Feb. 23, 2024, in Newport, Vermont. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

‘Totally cold’ is not too cold for winter swimmers competing in a frozen Vermont lake

Plunging into a frozen lake and swimming laps may not be everyone’s good time but it is for some winter swimmers.