News of the Weird: Happy birthday, you're fired. – Greenville Journal
A birthday party for an employee at Gravity Diagnostics in Kentucky cost the company $450,000, but it wasn’t an expensive cake and decorations that ran up the bill, WLKY-TV reported. The employee, whose birthday fell on Aug. 7, asked the office manager days before to forgo the usual celebration because such affairs trigger his anxiety disorder, and “being the center of attention” would cause him to suffer a panic attack. However, the manager went ahead with planning a lunchtime to-do in the break room, which caused the guest of honor to flee to his car to eat his lunch. The next day, the birthday boy was called into a meeting and scolded for his reaction and was later fired “because of the events of the previous week,” according to a lawsuit he filed against the company. In the suit, the former employee said the company didn’t accommodate his anxiety disorder and caused him to suffer a “loss of income and benefits and emotional distress and mental anxiety.” The Kenton County jury agreed and awarded him the six-figure amount.
In Australia, Queensland’s Bill Edgar is known to some as the Coffin Confessor. As such, Edgar shows up at funerals and speaks for the deceased, telling off family members, setting friends straight and delivering bad news about beneficiaries, News.com.au reported on April 14. But Edgar’s job doesn’t stop there. His services, for which he charges $2,000 to $10,000, have expanded to removing items from the deceased’s home that they’d rather the family not see: “Could be sex toys, messages of hate, love, whatever it is they’ve written down, that they want removed from their web browsers. One gentleman had … a sex dungeon in one of his bedrooms. And that gentleman was 88 years of age, believe it or not,” Edgar said. He even delivers his services in the United States and United Kingdom, and he said Paramount has picked up the story for a movie.
According to Washingtonian magazine, a five-bedroom house for sale in Fairfax, Virginia, listed for $800,000, will “go quickly” in a neighborhood where many homes sell for $1 million or more. It’s not in great shape, granted, but the biggest drawback? The home has “a person(s) living in lower level with no lease in place.” And prospective buyers can’t see the lower level. Listing agent Zinta K. Rodgers-Rickert said the basement resident has “weaseled her way in” and does not pay rent, and the current owners can’t “emotionally deal with the eviction.” Nevertheless, the house already had attracted at least one offer, with more expected. Rodgers-Rickert helpfully drew a picture of the basement for one potential buyer and said it’s in no worse shape than the rest of the house. Except for that squatter, of course.
Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.
– by the Editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
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