This is a list of weird, wacky, and other unusual stories that we found around the web. It is for November, 2021.
You’re monthly fix of weird is in.
Canadian Bridge 1: Dump Truck: 0
You’d think it would be common sense to lower the box on a dump truck before driving somewhere – especially when you know you will be driving under a bridge. For one driver, though, that message didn’t get through:
A dump truck driver hit the Vanier Parkway overpass while driving west on Ottawa’s Highway 417, leaving the box behind and closing part of the highway.
Ontario Provincial Police tweeted about a collision and lane closure at about 8:45 a.m., on Wednesday. A photo tweeted about 10 minutes earlier shows what appears to be a truck’s box leaning against the overpass with debris on the road.
An OPP spokesperson confirmed in an email to CBC that the trailer is “currently stuck under the overpass due to open box,” and said there were no injuries.
As of 1 p.m., the westbound lanes of the highway just under the overpass were closed, according to OPP. The Vanier Parkway is open again.
The overpass and exit are just east of downtown Ottawa.
That’s gonna leave a mark!
How to Get Fired From Amazon Using This One Weird Trick
Back in October, a video surfaced on TikTok showing a woman exiting the back of an Amazon delivery truck. She wasn’t the driver. Long story short, imaginations lit up and the driver, well, isn’t working at Amazon anymore:
In a video interview with TMZ, the worker clarified that the woman was his partner. When asked what went down in the minutes before the video started recording, the former Amazon employee said he was “just doing his job.”
The TikTok became a viral sensation because of the speculation and resulting innuendos about what exactly the pair were doing in the truck. To date, the video has been viewed more than 11.6 million times on the video-sharing platform.
“It was just a one time incident, but I did what any other man in America would do,” he said.
The man said aside from the video’s public disturbance, there were no packages reported missing, and nothing was reported stolen.
That third paragraph certainly is something.
That’s One Way to Identify Government Waste
A municipality in Denmark is apparently under fire for actions many consider “completely idiotic”. The municipality spends $150,000 a year on a bulldozer to clear out all the seaweed and plastic waste on the beach twice a week. The problem is that it takes that garbage and dumps it straight back into the sea:
According to Danish national broadcaster Danmarks Radio (DR), the bulldozer can be found driving up and down the Stillinge beach in the Slagelse municipality twice a week during the summer months. A video released by DR appears to show the bulldozer driving a few yards into the water before dumping its contents into the sea.
Environmental experts have expressed dismay at the practice, with professor Torkel Gissel Nielsen of the Danish Technical Institute describing it to DR as “completely idiotic.”
Katherine Richardson, a professor in biological oceanography at the University of Copenhagen, agreed with Gissel Nielsen’s assessment. Not only does dumping the seaweed and plastic into the sea mean it will just quickly wash ashore again, she said, but constantly digging up the sand is also harmful for the organisms in the local ecosystem.
“This is by no means a helping hand to nature,” Richardson wrote in an email to Motherboard. “On the contrary, it is bad for the small organisms that live between the small grains of sand that are torn through or crushed by the tractor. And of course there is far more of that than seaweed being collected. This is about one thing—convenience for beach goers.”
Slagelse municipality did not respond to an email from Motherboard. In an interview with Danmarks Radio, however, Deputy Mayor Villum Christensen defended the method, arguing that beach goers want the beach to be “neat and clean” like holiday destinations in Southern Europe. While Christensen claimed large pieces of plastic are not dumped into the sea, he also argued that cigarette buds and other small pieces of plastic will “end up there for the most part either way.”
Puts a whole new meaning to the phrase “garbage in, garbage out.”
Once Again, Do Not Sell Regular Gas Blended With Diesel
In Ohio, a gas station made the news for selling “tainted” gasoline. The speculation? Diesel got mixed in with the regular fuel. oops:
The Speedway station in Avon Lake, Ohio admitted to Cleveland 19 News that it had mistakenly sold “tainted gas” to customers late Monday and into Tuesday. While the Speedway didn’t acknowledge exactly what made the fuel tainted, at least one local repair shop with cars lined up for repair believes that drivers may have received diesel or at least a blend of gasoline and diesel.
Casey Fields, a service advisor at nearby Automotive Specialty Services, told WKYC that he extracted samples of gasoline from vehicles that visited the Speedway. Upon inspection, he found it to have a green hue. This, according to Fields, is an indication that it had been tainted with diesel.
Repair shops have since begun fielding calls from hundreds of locals who believe that their vehicles may have been affected by the mix-up. And while drivers will need to address the problem, it won’t be without cost. Owners who received tainted gas are allegedly shelling out between $1,200 and $1,600 for repairs, as local mechanics quote jobs taking between eight and 12 hours to rid the car of the tainted fuel. These jobs include flushing the fuel system, replacing the car’s fuel filter, and potentially replacing injectors.
Fields encourages drivers who believe they were affected to have their vehicles checked, or at minimum have a fuel sample tested.
It was at that moment that the guy refilling the stations tanks realized that he f***ed up.
There Are Better Ways of Fixing Your Car Other Than Using Your Fists
Some kinds of car repair work are better than others. Some use rather unconventional methods. In Washington, a man tried to fix a car using nothing but his fists:
SHORELINE, Wash. — A driver who hit a car and then fled was found trying to conceal obvious damage to his hood by beating it down with his fists, the King County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.
On Nov. 13 at 11:08 a.m., deputies were called to a crash in the 19200 block of Aurora Avenue North in Shoreline.
The victim told deputies she was stopped at a traffic light when she was rear-ended by a man driving a silver 2001 Lexus.
She said after a brief conversation with the driver about exchanging information, the man took off.
While deputies were speaking with the victim, 911 dispatchers received a call about a suspicious man who was beating on the hood of his car.
Deputies went to the location and found the driver of a Lexus trying to fix collision damage to his hood —which was bent upward —with his fists.
When deputies asked him if he had just been involved in a crash, the man said no.
“Based on the condition of his Lexus, deputies had a hard time believing that,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.
Need some Band-Aid’s on those knuckles, sir?
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
