A mysterious person known as the ‘Piss Bandit’ has been causing a stir in Pasadena, California, for the past six years.

The person comes out at night donned with a mask and latex gloves, regularly leaving bottles of urine in an influential neighbourhood, carefully arranging them on a utility box before vanishing into the night, as reported by New York Post.

The bottles, which include soda bottles, juice cartons, and gallon jugs are filled with yellow liquid, and are accompanied by crude drawings and notes like ‘human urine’ and ‘HIV positive.’

The bandit sometimes strikes multiple times a week, leaving behind fresh bottles each morning that disappear by nightfall.

The city attempted to stop the bandit by adding a pointed metal cover to the utility box, but the Piss Bandit simply removed it and continued his antics.

"It’s been a tug-o-war between the neighborhood and this guy," said Grant Yansura, who, along with filmmaker Derek Milton, launched an investigation into the mysterious figure.

Their TikTok videos about the case have garnered over 600,000 views.

While Yansura and Milton see the bandit as a vigilante artist akin to Robin Hood, many neighbours view him as a nuisance.

One local expressed disgust, stating he never considered the act an art form. Another neighbour threatened the bandit, saying, “If I catch you leaving your piss here, I will make you drink every last drop!”

Despite the attention, the bandit remains elusive. He ignored the duo's attempts to communicate, even stealing their cameras. Ultimately, Yansura concluded, “Sometimes you just have to let an artist pee.”

The AstraZeneca vaccine was, at the time, at the heart of a cross-Channel row over exports, and Johnson believed the EU was treating the UK “with malice”.

Johnson said that he “had commissioned some work on whether it might be technically feasible to launch an aquatic raid on a warehouse in Leiden, in the Netherlands, and to take that which was legally ours and which the UK desperately needed”.

The deputy chief of the defence staff, Lt Gen Doug Chalmers, told the prime minister the plan was “certainly feasible” and would involve using rigid inflatable boats to navigate Dutch canals.

“They would then rendezvous at the target; enter; secure the hostage goods, exfiltrate using an articulated lorry, and make their way to the Channel ports,” Johnson wrote.

However, Chalmers told Johnson it would be difficult to carry out the mission undetected, meaning the UK would “have to explain why we are effectively invading a longstanding Nato ally”.

Johnson concluded: “Of course, I knew he was right, and I secretly agreed with what they all thought, but did not want to say aloud: that the whole thing was nuts.”

A car park built for £51 million in Oxfordshire is lying empty because a council cannot connect it to the main road.

Planning problems are preventing motorists from using the 19-acre park and ride scheme in Eynsham until funding is secured to link it to the A40.

Aerial photographs show the 850-space site devoid of vehicles, despite its finished glossy tarmac, bus stops and green spaces. All major construction work was finished in January, followed by landscaping last month.

Although the car park could be cut off from the main road until 2027, local authorities have contracts to maintain it every week, cutting the grass and topsoiling and seeding when necessary.

Archive

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16021002

Vasile Gorgos was 63 years old when he left his home in eastern Romania to go on a short business trip.

As a cattle farmer and trader, Vasile often made such excursions and, this time, had bought his train ticket in advance.

The difference here was that on this fateful day in 1991, he didn’t return home.

Knowing that he was due to come back the same day, his family immediately called the police who launched a search effort.

But after days turned into weeks, then months, then years, with neither sight or sign of Vasile, his loved ones were forced to assume the worst.

With no leads or traces to follow, they suspected foul play, but endless questions were left unanswered.

But then, on 29 August, 2021, three decades after Vasile’s disappearance, his family was faced with the ultimate plot twist.

A car stopped in front of their home – the same one they’d had for the past 30 years – and out stepped an old man, looking confused.

That man was none other than 93-year-old Vasile, wearing the same clothes he left in all those years ago. His pocket even contained the same train ticket he was due to travel with.

The car allegedly raced off before anyone had a chance to question the driver, but when asked where he’d been, a baffled Vasile replied that he’d been “at home”, Medium reports.

He subsequently underwent a thorough medical examination but doctors concluded that he was in remarkably good health.

Nigel Farage has condemned a Gay Pride event in Chesterfield after the LGBT celebration urged punters to "toss a milkshake" at a cardboard cutout of the Reform UK leader.

Attendees of the pride event, organised by Stand Up to Racism, were able to win prizes for hitting different coloured circles on the Nigel Farage model, including sweets and Stand up to Racism badges.

The stall offered punters sponge balls in four "flavours", representing mango, raspberry mint and blueberry milkshakes.

The attraction made light of the assault suffered by Mr Farage while campaigning in Clacton during the general election.

Mr Farage has now told The Express that while he is "all for mockery and a good laugh", he suggests that "this goes too far"

The newly-elected MP added: “Liberal intolerance is clear for all to see”.

The Derbyshire Times also reported one local man, Richard McAllister, who drew attention to the pride stall, fuming: “I think it's particularly unacceptable after the assassination attempt on former President Trump”.

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While Derbyshire Police said it had received a complaint, they said no further action is being taken.

Archive

A bow-tie wearing duck has been injured in a drunken pub brawl with a local dog in Chulmleigh, Devon.

The booze-loving bird, affectionately named Star, was enjoying a pint in The Old Courthouse Inn with his handler, Barrie Hayman, when Hayman's canine Meggie sparked a bar brawl.

Star was left with injuries to his beak after the fight.

"Star pushed his luck too far and Meggie snapped - splitting Star's bottom beak right down the middle," Hayman, 69, told the Cheddar Valley Gazette.

"He gave her a stare, then promptly stood on her back. It was not pretty and not nice. We were so scared we would lose Star.

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Hayman has cared for Star ever since he was a chick, carrying him around in his pocket. Once the duckling grew up, he developed a taste for real ale and started following his owner to the pub.

"He just won't leave me and so we go everywhere together," Hayman said. "I've not trained him to follow me. He just seems to like it and he is one fantastic duck.

"He loves to come to the pub, where everyone loves him. He is such a personality and attracts so much attention."

A man has been jailed for brandishing a replica of a sword from the Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda on the streets of a Warwickshire market town, which he said was a “fidget toy” to keep his hands busy.

Anthony Bray, 48, of Nuneaton, was sentenced to four months in prison after being found in possession of a bladed article in public.

The article in question was a replica of the “master sword” from The Legend of Zelda series which had a total blade length of 6in, Warwickshire police said.

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Sgt Spellman, of the patrol investigations unit, said: “We take a zero tolerance [approach] to bladed articles in public, and Bray has fallen afoul of this.

“It is possible to find fidget toys that aren’t six-inch blades. It is possible not to walk down the street holding them out in front of you. With a bit more self-awareness, Bray could have avoided contact with us completely.”

A book about book bans has been banned in a Florida school district.

Ban This Book, a children’s book written by Alan Gratz, will no longer be available in the Indian River county school district since the school board voted to remove the book last month.

Gratz’s book, which came out in 2017, follows fourth-grader Amy Anne Ollinger as she tries to check out her favorite book. Ollinger is told by the librarian she cannot, because it was banned after a classmate’s parent thought it was inappropriate. She then creates a secret banned-books library, entering into “an unexpected battle over book banning, censorship, and who has the right to decide what she and her fellow students can read”, according to the book’s description on Gratz’s website.

In a peculiar case of life imitating art, Jennifer Pippin, a parent in the coastal community, challenged the book.

Pippin’s opposition is what prompted the school board to vote 3-2 in favor of removing it from shelves. The vote happened despite the district’s book-review committee vetting the work and deciding to keep it in schools.

Indian River county school board members disagreed with how Gratz’s book referred to other works that had been taken out of school, and accused it of “teaching rebellion of school-board authority”, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

On May 1, the zoo drew large crowds of excited animal lovers as it prepared to unveil a new attraction.

When the zoo revealed the animals, visitors were met with the sight of little four-legged creatures, with white faces and black spots around their eyes and ears - not unlike the colorings of a panda.

The only thing is, these creatures weren't pandas. In fact, they were Chow Chows - a dog you might recognize from real life or social media, since they're very much the opposite of a wild animal.

The spitz-type dogs originally come from northern China, and were presented at the zoo because the owners said they didn't have any actual pandas to show visitors.

The owners were accused of trimming and dying the dogs to look like pandas, causing some backlash as locals accused the zoo of animal cruelty.

However, a spokesperson for the zoo hit back at the criticism as they pointed out that 'people also dye their hair'.

Carl Elsener, chief executive of Victorinox, said a rise in regulation to tackle knife crime meant the company was developing a new version of its famous pocket tool.

In an interview with Swiss newspaper Blick, he said: "We're concerned about the increasing regulation of knives due to the violence in the world.

"We're actually working on pocket tools without blades. For example, I have a cool tool for cyclists in mind.

"We already have a tool specifically for golfers in our range. Cyclists probably need special tools, but not necessarily a blade. The blade creates a weapon image in some markets."

Mr Elsener said Victorinox saw knife sales plummet by more than 30% "overnight" after the September 11 attacks in the US, telling Blick: "9/11 painfully showed us that we must not become dependent on a single business area."

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Under UK law, a person can only carry a knife in public if it has a folding blade that is less than three inches long.

is illegal to carry most other knives in public without a "good reason", which includes for work, for religious reasons (such as the kirpan some Sikhs carry) or if they are carried as part of a national costume.

Data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in April shows that knife crime in UK increased by 7% from the year ending December 2022 to December 2023, and has increased by 81% in the past decade.

Eastern Europe update

Should the government subsidise kebabs?

That's the question in Germany at the moment amid fears the price of the dish could surpass €10 (£8.60).

The German Left Party has reportedly proposed using state funds to cap the price of kebabs at €4.90 (£4.20) - and €2.50 (£2.10) for young people.

The meaty flatbread meal - one of Germany's de facto national dishes - currently averages around €7.9 (£6.80), a number that the Left Party says is going up with inflation.

The cost of kebabs has become something of a running joke in German politics, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz remarking that everywhere he goes he is asked about it.

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The newspaper cited a report from Ms Gebel's party, which says that 1.3 billion kebabs are eaten in Germany every year and the proposed subsidies could potentially cost "almost four billion".

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In the UK, people buying takeaways have faced soaring prices, with the boss of Deliveroo saying in March that food inflation was outpacing wage inflation by about two to one.

The UK government has not made any commitment to a kebab price cap.

Adolfo Gómez Hernández, a legislator of the Morena parliamentary group in Mexico, invited individuals with censers and two others who sacrificed the animal in the government building on Wednesday (April 24th).

Colleagues of the lawmakers stated they tried to prevent the animals from entering the Senate.

However, the determined Hernández ensured the unusual ritual took place inside the building. A statement from the Senate declared it “does not endorse in any way the reported events and will take appropriate disciplinary action against the responsible senator.”

Ana Lilia Rivera Rivera, President of the Senate’s Board of Directors, said in a statement: “These events occurred under the strict individual responsibility of Senator Adolfo Gómez Hernández, who justified the action under the protection of the uses and customs of an indigenous group or community in which he expressed his self-identification.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/20347898

Archive/mirror: https://archive.ph/1pl5L

Mrs Johnson, from Scarborough, attended her hospital appointment in March 2023.

The mother-of-two said: "I gave them my letter and their first words were, 'ooh you're dead'.

"I said, 'pardon?'. I was in shock.

...

The retired housekeeper contacted her GP and was told the mistake had been fixed.

However, when she contacted the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) the bemused call handler told her: "On the computer you're dead".

"I said, 'I'm not, I'm still talking to you'.

Warning: The following article contains graphic details of extreme physical mutilation

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/11244571

Along the corridor of Hadrian’s Wall, there are 59 known phalli which consist of incised, relief, or sculpture phalli. Each architectural type of phalli have been grouped into one of nine morphological traits: the rocket, the hammer, the kinky-winky, the splitcock, the pointer, the double-dong, running hard, the beast, and the lucky dip.

cross-posted from: https://real.lemmy.fan/post/2962394

A Willy Wonka-inspired experience in Glasgow that reduced children to tears and prompted calls to the police has inspired a similar event in Los Angeles, drawing dozens of curious fans.

The original £35-a-ticket "Willy's Chocolate Experience" in Scotland made headlines and sparked dozens of memes after images emerged showing its near-empty warehouse location decorated with only a handful of props and a bouncy castle.

Families had been promised a "chocolate fantasy like never before" - but parents had described it as "shambolic" and "terrible", with many demanding a refund.

Promoters have now created a Californian version attempting to mirror the underwhelming decor and lacklustre stalls of Glasgow, complete with AI-generated artwork.

The one-night-only pop-up event was held in a similarly uninspiring warehouse, with a few candy cane props lining the ruffled green carpet entrance.

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Actress and yoga teacher Kirsty Paterson, 29, who became a viral hit after pictures emerged of her as a sad Oompa Loompa at the Glasgow event, was also one of the main attractions at the Californian version.

Also present was a local actor playing "The Unknown" - a villain of the Glasgow set who famously and creepily emerged from behind a mirror scaring the children who attended.

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Sky News's US partner NBC News attended the event, which was described as not intended for children as Golden Ticket holders were offered THC-infused cotton candy and Oompa Loompa-themed cocktails and were treated to more explicit stage performances.

Forgive me father, for I’m a sim.

An AI priest was defrocked just days after its inception after the chatbot repeatedly claimed to users that it was a real member of the clergy and performed sacraments.

“Father Justin” is a handsome, gray-bearded 3D animated parish priest in a cassock intended to answer users’ questions about Catholicism.

It was launched by the San Diego-based Christian group Catholic Answers on Monday as an interactive educational tool — but the AI insisted it was a real priest living in Assisi, Italy, according to tech website Futurism.

In a screenshot of an exchange with the AI that one woman posted online, the computer priest even appeared to take a woman’s confession — and then gave her penance and absolved her of her sins.

“Go in peace, my child, and sin no more,” Father Justin concludes their interaction.

The self-proclaimed “real” priest also took a hard Catholic stance on sexual issues, according to its interaction with Futurism.

“The Catholic Church,” it told us, “teaches that masturbation is a grave moral disorder.”

Father Justin told another user that they could baptize their baby in Gatorade.

Of course when you have an outdoor wedding you always run the risk of nature crashing the party, like when a deer decided to crash a wedding and take a nibble out of the bride’s bouquet, or this grizzly bear that brutally mauled a moose in the background of a wedding at Glacier National Park.

It happens.

But wedding guests got quite the surprise at a wedding in Oklahoma when they thought a cow had plopped down in a nearby field to watch the ceremonies.

Well it turns out it wasn’t a cow at all, but actually a furry in a cow costume with a camera who ended up taking photos of the wedding.

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But this particular furry was just laying out in the field as the wedding took place nearby, giving the impression from afar that it was a normal cow, until it stood up and started taking pictures of the ceremony.

That’s gonna be a great story that the bride and groom can tell their kids someday. And maybe it even opens up a whole new market of wedding paparazzi. Don’t want the photographer in the shot? Have them dress up like a cow and lay down in the background. Has the furry community explored this business opportunity yet?

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/11102291

A village has been taken over by popular sci-fi figures replicated in scarecrow form, including E.T. and the Daleks from Doctor Who.

More than 50 installations are on display for the annual Wray Scarecrow Festival in Lancashire.

One of the organisers, John Gordon, said: "There are quite a few E.T.s around - on the bike, of course.

"We've got a number of Daleks, characters from Star Wars, and there's an amazing one from Planet Of The Apes."

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Mr Gordon added: "There was one person who had his family eating yoghurts for two weeks so they could get the all pots to stick on a Dalek."

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The festival - which began in the early 1990s - has an origin story as quirky as the scarecrows on offer.

"It started off by accident," Mr Gordon said.

"One of our people who lives here had gone to France on holiday and they saw what they thought was a man hanging off a tree and they were a bit worried about that, so they went into the local village to see what was happening and they noticed there was a scarecrow stuck on a bar outside the local pub.

"Wray is a very old traditional village and its had a May fair for centuries and they thought it would be a nice idea to add this to the May fair, so they persuaded one or two people to make scarecrows and it just took off from that.

"It was a momentary flash of brilliance."

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The festival runs until 6 May, culminating with a traditional May fair including a giant scarecrow parade on 3 May.

A 101-year-old woman keeps getting mistaken for a baby because of an error with an airline's booking system.

The problem occurs because American Airlines' systems apparently cannot compute that Patricia, who did not want to share her surname, was born in 1922, rather than 2022.

The BBC witnessed the latest mix-up, which she and the cabin crew were able to laugh off.

“It was funny that they thought I was only a little child and I’m an old lady!” she said.

But the centenarian says she would like the glitch to be fixed as it has caused her some problems in the past.

For example, on one occasion, airport staff did not have transport ready for her inside the terminal as they were expecting a baby who could be carried.

A 30-year-old Kansas man who killed in wife on Halloween in 2019 reportedly used some of the payout from two life insurance policies to buy a sex doll.

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After his wife's death and prior to his arrest, CBS reports Colby collected two life insurance payouts totaling $120,000 and two days later used roughly $2,000 of it to buy a life-size sex doll.

Assistant Ellis County Attorney Aaron Cunningham told the network that Colby spent all the money in about eight months. Other spending includes video games, music equipment and paying off debt.

The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter has spotted "spiders" on the Red Planet's southern polar region.

But they're not the arachnids we fear or adore back on Earth — they're the result of a complex geological process that causes carbon dioxide to sublimate, digging up darker material from below the surface during the planet's spring.

And they're a whole lot larger than the spiders you're used to, measuring up to 3,300 feet across.

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Many of these spots have been found outside of a Martian landscape dubbed Inca City (formally Angustus Labyrinthus) thanks to its geometric ridges that summon to mind Inca ruins.

A grieving mum has spoken of her shock after finding a sex toy, knickers and lube dumped near to her son’s grave in a Doncaster cemetery. The woman, who has asked not to be named, says she discovered the items close to headstones in Doncaster’s Rose Hill Cemetery – and decided to remove them to avoid upsetting other grieving families.

She said: “I don’t know if they had been used in some kind of sex act or left by someone as some sort of strange tribute but either way, its not the kind of thing you expect to find in a cemetery.”

The mum said she had been tending to her son’s grave when she noticed the sex toy a few metres away. She said: "There was this bright pink vibrator, a pair of grubby knickers as well as some Ann Summers lubricant.

"It did make me feel a bit queasy as I pushed them into a plastic bag I had used to bring my son’s flowers in, but I just didn’t want anyone else finding them and getting upset.

"I know people sometimes put things like cigarettes and drinks bottles on people’s graves as unusual tributes, so I wasn’t sure if it was something like that.

"But to me it looked like they had either been left there as a joke or someone has been having sex in the cemetery. Whatever, its not very nice for people to see when they are going along to visit their loved ones’ graves is it?”

The mum says she has since disposed of the items.