DUCK!
Police were called when residents of Poole in Dorset saw a man and a woman having a violent altercation over a duck in the middle of the road. “They were wrestling on the floor and trying to get the duck off each other,” said a witness. By the time police arrived the couple had fled the scene, and the fate of the duck remains unknown. Sun, 7 Jul 2023.
FIRE FAIL
Fourteen vehicles were destroyed in a fire on an industrial estate in Launceston, Cornwall, after a paper sky lantern landed on a van’s windscreen. The lantern set fire to the rubber on the vehicle’s wipers, which in turn caused the whole van to ignite, with the fire swiftly spreading to adjacent vehicles. Sun, 5 Jul 2023.
UNSAFETY SIGN
As a helicopter landed to pick up passengers for a sightseeing ride at West Usk lighthouse in Newport, South Wales, its downdraft dislodged a 2ft (60cm) pre-flight safety sign and sent it flying. It hit one of the waiting passengers, who needed hospital treatment for a cut on the leg that required several stitches. D.Mail, 17 Jan 2023.
ON THE DOT
Motorists in Lichfield have taken to calling a junction in the city the “Dot Cotton roundabout” after a sticker of the East Enderscharacter that has adorned a prominent yellow road sign there for years. No one seems to know how it got there, but one local said, “I saw Michael Fabricant on a light by Trent Valley Island,” while a woman added, “I’ve seen an Ainsley Harriot nearby too.” Sunday Mercury, 16 Apr 2023.
POO BALLOON
Following the spy balloon panic in the US, a police officer in Boxtel, Holland, gave chase to a suspected spy balloon there. He had pursued it for several miles without getting any closer when he realised that it was actually pigeon poo on his windscreen. D.Star, 5 May 2023.
THERE’S NO SMOKE…
Finding himself completely lost while hiking in Arizona’s Coconino National Park, with no food or water and a dead phone, Philip Powers lit three small fires in the hope that the smoke would help rescuers find him. It worked, but also started a major forest fire, earning Powers a $300,000 (£240,000) fine, which will take him 122 years to pay off at $200 (£160) a month. D.Mirror, 25 Feb 2023.
DRIVE-BY FRUITING
Pedestrians in Eastbourne and Hastings in East Sussex have been subject to a series of drive-by fruit attacks. One person was hit in the face with an apple while walking along Bohemia Road in Hastings, while another victim was struck in the arm with a tomato on Firle Road in Eastbourne, This was followed by two attacks
