Dec. 30 (UPI) — Officials in Texas town said residents weren’t just imagining it when it seemed to be “raining fish” during a storm.
The city of Texarkana said in a Facebook post that it was indeed “raining fish” during Wednesday’s rainstorms.
Multiple residents took to social media to share photos of the fish that fell from the sky.
“Animal rain is a phenomenon that occurs when small water animals like frogs, crabs, and small fish are swept up in waterspouts or drafts that occur on the surface of the earth. They are then rained down at the same time as the rain,” the city’s Facebook post said.
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Dec. 30 (UPI) — British bank Santander said about 2,000 customers mistakenly received double payments on Christmas Day, with a total $175 million being accidentally paid out.
The bank said the money was doled out over about 75,000 transactions for about 2,000 corporate and commercial customers. The institution said a technical error was to blame for the payments.
“We’re sorry that due to a technical issue, some payments from our corporate clients were incorrectly duplicated on the recipients’ accounts,” Santander said in a statement. “None of our clients were at any point left out of pocket as a result and we will be working hard with many banks across the U.K. to recover the duplicated transactions over the coming days.”
Santander, which is owned by Spanish bank Banco Santander, said the “technical issue” was tied to a scheduling error that was “quickly identified and rectified.”
The payments included one-time and recurring transactions, which the bank said may have included employee wages and supplier payments.
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Dec. 30 (UPI) — Animal rescuers in Pennsylvania said they captured one emu that escaped from a Somerset County farm, but another of the flightless birds remains on the loose.
The Somerset County Animal Response Team, or CART, said the two emus escaped Tuesday from Chuck Newlin’s farm in Reels Corner and were spotted roaming in the Rock Cut Road area.
“We were able to locate them quickly, but containing them proved far more complicated,” CART said in a Facebook post.
CART contacted the Central City Fire Department for backup, and the group was able to use a snow fence to contain one of the emus before running out of daylight.
“We are hoping it will find its own way home if it hears its buddy calling it,” the Facebook post said.
Area residents are being asked to keep a lookout for the Australia-native bird and contact CART to report any sightings.
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Dec. 29 (UPI) — A pair of treasure hunters on a Florida beach found a message in a bottle that appeared to have been launched into the water in 2014.
Taylor Ney and Aaron Murray said they made the unusual discovery Monday underneath a boardwalk in Neptune Beach.
“Aaron and I were out at Neptune Beach. We were doing some geocaching,” Ney told Action News Jax.
The glass bottle contained letters authored by three girls named Anna, Maddie and Laura. The girls wrote about their “bucket list” for the summer of 2014.
One of the letters was dated June 6, 2014, at 11:50 a.m.
“It says go night swimming and surfing with glow sticks, go on mission trips or VBS. Get henna tattoos. Fill a kiddie pool with jello,” Murray said.
The letters revealed the girls were 7th graders, and the bottle also contained a “BFF” pin.
Ney said on Facebook that he is hoping to get in touch with the authors to tell them their bottle had been found.
“I would love to get this back to the original writers,” he wrote.
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Dec. 29 (UPI) — A Virginia dad making a chocolate milk run for his kids ended up $1 million richer when he also decided to pick up a scratch-off lottery ticket.
Dennis Willoughby of North Chesterfield told Virginia Lottery officials he stopped at the 7-Eleven store in Richmond to buy some chocolate milk for his kids, and while inside the business he decided to buy a $1,000,000 Platinum Jackpot scratch-off ticket.
Willoughby scratched the ticket off and was shocked to discover he had won the $1 million top prize.
The winner decided to take his winnings as a one-time lump-sum payment of $640,205 before taxes, instead of the full amount in annual payments over the course of 30 years.
The Virginia Lottery said Willoughby is the second top prize winner for the $1,000,000 Platinum Jackpot game, leaving one $1 million ticket remaining in circulation.
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(Bloomberg) U.S. freight forwarder Flexport Inc. will help fly three planes loaded with potatoes to Japan, where a shortage of spuds has caused McDonald’s in the country to ration french fries.
“Flexport just contracted to fly three 747 loads of potatoes to Japan to help with the French fry shortage,” Chief Executive Officer Ryan Petersen said in a tweet, without providing details. Petersen said in a post last week that he had been learning about McDonald’s struggle with french fry shortages in the country.
McDonald’s Holdings Co. Japan said Dec. 21 that it would only offer small sizes of french fries after flooding at a Vancouver port and the Covid-19 pandemic cut off key supplies for the staple menu item. Footage from a local television report showed customers forming long lines at one of the stores in Tokyo to get their last orders of the larger portion fries before the ration went into effect.
One of the fun things about working at Flexport is that for any company in the world you want to learn about, someone at Flexport understands their operations at an incredibly granular level. This morning I’m learning about McDonald’s french fry shortages in Japan…
The fast-food company has said it expects the issue to be resolved by New Year’s Eve and that it was arranging alternative shipment options like airplanes. McDonald’s Holdings Co. Japan couldn’t confirm or deny it’s using Flexport to import its potatoes. The sale of medium and large size fries will resume as planned on Dec. 31, a spokeswoman said by telephone on Wednesday. Flexport’s Petersen didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The shortage isn’t just limited to Japan. In New York, iconic burger joint J.G. Melon said in an Instagram post last week that it was suspending sales of its cottage fries due to supply-chain issues. Flow of products from cream cheese to chicken tenders has also come under strain.
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Dec. 30 (UPI) — Animal rescuers in Britain rescued a portly badger that feasted on the contents of a resident’s compost bin and then discovered it was too big to climb out.
The RSPCA said Animal Rescue Officer Louis Horton was summoned to a Guildford, Surrey, England, home when a resident reported a badger was stuck inside their plastic compost bin.
“The green plastic compost bin would normally have a lid secured on top, but this inquisitive and hungry badger had spotted an opportunity for what he thought would be an easy meal and clambered in through the open top,” Horton said.
“The bin was set firm into the ground and his belly was a little bigger than anticipated, so the greedy chap soon realized he was stuck inside,” the rescuer said.
Horton said he used power tools to carefully cut off the top of the compost bin so the badger could be lifted out.
The badger was taken to the Wildlife Aid Foundation in Leatherhead for a veterinary check-up before being released back into the resident’s garden.
“It’s always so lovely when we get to rescue an animal, check they’re OK and then release them back to where they belong. It’s why we all do this job,” Horton said.
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(The Smoking Gun) DECEMBER 28–Prosecutors have dropped a felony charge against the Florida Man who allegedly walked into a Waffle House with his dog and, brandishing only “finger guns,” announced a robbery that netted him a handful of napkins, according to court records.
Edward Rodriguez, 28, was arrested in mid-October following a bizarre incident at a Waffle House near his home in Madison, a city 55 miles east of Tallahassee.
Cops say that Rodriguez walked into the restaurant around 8 PM and said, “Get on the ground, ya’ll are getting robbed.” He then added, “I’m high and drunk, I need napkins.”
A Waffle House manager told police that Rodriguez, who was accompanied by a small dog, did not brandish a weapon, but “just raised both his hands, and had his fingers in the shape of a gun,” according to an arrest report. A distraught waitress–whose hands shook when interviewed by deputies–said that the would-be robber was “pointing his fingers in the shape of a gun.”
After Rodriguez, pictured above, was given some napkins, he drove away from the Waffle House. Police subsequently identified Rodriguez as a suspect and questioned him at his residence. Rodriguez reportedly “admitted to being at the Waffle House to get some napkins” and stating that he “was going to rob the place,” investigators noted. Rodriguez, however, claimed that “the people must’ve taken it the wrong way.”
Rodriguez, wearing a SpongeBob SquarePants t-shirt, was booked into the county jail for unarmed robbery, a felony, and simple assault, a misdemeanor. He bonded out of custody after posting $10,000 bond.
A subsequent review of the case by prosecutors resulted in the robbery and assault charges being jettisoned in favor of a disorderly conduct rap.
Rodriguez, who was arraigned last week, has pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge. His rap sheet includes convictions for grand theft; credit card fraud; burglary; marijuana possession; theft; possession of a controlled substance; and possession of burglary tools.
Rodriguez’s bond conditions require him to stay away from the Waffle House (seen below). He is also barred from possessing or drinking alcohol and possessing a firearm. Finger guns are not addressed in the judicial order. (2 pages)
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Dec. 30 (UPI) — A British family of six brothers and sisters with albinism was awarded a Guinness World Record in the category of most albino siblings.
Coventry, England, residents Naseem Akhtar, Ghulam Ali, Haider Ali, Muqadas Bibi, Musarat Begum and Mohammed Rafi received the title after Guinness World Records confirmed all six siblings were born with albinism, a genetic condition that causes a person to lack pigment in their skin, hair and irises.
Naseem Akhtar, whose parents also have albinism, said she decided to apply for the record to celebrate the family being reunited after several months apart during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Over time, I have now come to like my condition because it makes me very unique. Being Asian but being white, it gives me a unique outlook on life, it gives me a very unbiased opinion of society and humanity,” she told Guinness.
“I like who I am, and the human being I became.”
