This Week's Weird News 10/1/21 – iHeart
A haunted house performer way too into his ‘craft,’ a drone video of the Loch Ness Monster that wasn’t, and the official demise of the ivory-billed woodpecker were among the strange and unusual stories to cross our desk this week.
As is so often the case with promising potential paranormal footage, a jaw-dropping drone video said to show the Loch Ness Monster sparked worldwide headlines this past week before it was revealed to have been a clever hoax. The maddening tale started over the weekend when a canoeist claimed to have inadvertently captured footage of Nessie while participating in a charity event at the iconic Scottish site last month. By virtue of the fairly clear glimpse of the famed creature, the video quickly went viral. Alas, after a few days, Nessie researchers were able to dissect the footage and show that the ‘monster’ was, in fact, a photograph of a toy that was superimposed onto the film.
Researchers hoping to someday locate the legendary ivory-billed woodpecker, which has not been officially seen since 1944, were dealt a harsh blow this week when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service called for the creature to be removed from the endangered species list because, in their estimation, the bird has gone extinct. Akin to an American version of the Tasmanian Tiger, the sizeable animal has been the subject of numerous searches throughout the southeastern United States, especially over the last twenty years. While these expeditions have purportedly produced some evidence that the bird may still exist, mainstream science apparently begs to differ and has finally given up the proverbial ghost of the ivory-billed woodpecker at last.
With the Halloween season in full swing, with it come the requisite weird stories that wind up happening at events and attractions devoted to celebrating all things spooky. This past week saw a particularly bizarre incident that began when a haunted house performer approached a young boy with a knife in an attempt to scare the child. The precocious tot was unmoved, however, and dismissed the man and insisted that he was wielding a fake knife. That assumption proved to be shockingly incorrect as the actor began jabbing at the boy’s feet until he accidentally stabbed him in the foot with what turned out to be a very real Bowie knife. As one might imagine, the overzealous performer was subsequently fired and arrested for the ill-advised bit of ‘method acting.’
For more strange and unusual stories from the past week, check out the Coast to Coast AM website.
