This week in weird news: Burglar crashes car into Oklahoma adult novelty store – WiscNews

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From giant snowmen to bizarre robberies, here’s a look at the stranger side of news from the past week.
In this photo dated Friday, Feb. 8, 2019 and released by Anna Zorina, showing herself holding a meter long measuring ruler, next to a snowman in the Arctic Circle city of Severomorsk, Russia, to enter a snowman competition. The YouTube channel SlivkiShow, popular among Russian-speakers with more than 12 million subscribers, announced a prize of 100,000 rubles (dollars 1,500) for the tallest snowman built by viewers and this monster looks like it has a good chance of winning, and Anna Zorina needs the money to help her 4-year-old son Stepa who is diagnosed with cerebral palsy.(Anna Zorina via AP)
MOSCOW (AP) — Building a snowman isn’t always just a way to while away a long winter. For some people in Russia and Ukraine, it’s a way to possibly earn some significant money.
The YouTube channel SlivkiShow, popular among Russian-speakers with more than 12 million subscribers, launched some elaborate construction efforts last month by announcing a prize of 100,000 rubles ($1,500) for the tallest snowman built by viewers.
A group of young men from Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine where armed conflict between separatists and Ukrainian forces drags on, looked like serious contenders until they were undone by war and weather.
“Our snowman turned out to be about 11 meters (36 feet), but we literally didn’t make it by a couple of hours — it melted,” said constructor Daniil Kovalenko. “And it’s not just the melting … but because we live in Donetsk — and everybody knows what’s going on in Donetsk — there were strong blows, the ground shook and the whole last part of the snowman we built in the last three days crashed down.”
The contest may be a potentially lucrative lark for some, but for a woman in the Arctic Circle city of Severomorsk, it’s serious business. She wants the prize in order to defray the costs of surgery for her son.
In videos submitted to the contest so far, building techniques have ranged from rolling a big ball of snow to well-organized work by teams applying the snow to solid frames. Contest rules say it has to all be done by hand — no machines allowed.
And, the contest specifies that each snowman — no matter how big and intimidating — has to have a jolly, classic carrot nose.
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, are searching for a man who crashed his car into the glass doors of an adult novelty shop, then ran inside and stole lingerie and sex toys.
Police say the heist at Hustler Hollywood happened at about 3 a.m. Monday, when the store was closed. It was captured on video. Employees discovered the damage later Monday morning when they came to work.
Police Officer Jeanne Pierce tells Tulsa TV station KOTV that authorities believe the man knew the store’s layout because he ran directly to one section to steal the items, which were valued at about $300 to $400.
Pierce says the greater cost is likely the damage to the glass doors.
Authorities have not yet identified the man. No arrests have been made.
LONDON (AP) — Zebra stripes are dazzling — particularly to flies.
That’s the conclusion of scientists from the University of Bristol and the University of California at Davis who dressed horses in black-and-white striped coats to help determine why zebras have stripes.
The researchers found that fewer horseflies landed on the cloaked horses than on the ones without striped coats, suggesting that zebra stripes may offer protection from blood-sucking insects that can spread disease.
“This reduced ability to land on the zebra’s coat may be due to stripes disrupting the visual system of the horse flies during their final moments of approach,” said Martin How, a research fellow at the University of Bristol. “Stripes may dazzle flies in some way once they are close enough to see them with their low-resolution eyes.”
From a distance, the flies were equally attracted to both horses and zebras, with the same number of insects hovering around both types of animals. But when the flies got closer, things get dicey. The flies landed less frequently on the zebras and the horses covered in striped coats.
“Once they get close to the zebras, however, they tend to fly past or bump into them,” said Tim Caro, a professor in the U.C. Davis Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology. “This indicates that stripes may disrupt the flies’ abilities to have a controlled landing.”
In this undated photo issued by University of Bristol, England, showing a horse wearing a zebra striped coat. Scientists from the University of Bristol and the University of California at Davis, dressed horses in black-and-white Zebra type striped coats for part of their research, offering evidence that zebra stripes provide protection from blood-sucking insects that spread diseases. (University of Bristol and University of California at Davis via AP)
The work , reported in the journal Public Library of Science ONE, seeks to answer one of the oldest questions in zoology — why do zebras have stripes? Charles Darwin had his theories. So did British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace.
But the scientists from Britain and California sought to examine that question by studying both horses and zebras at the Hill Livery in Britain, which works with zoos in Europe on conservation for zebras. That provided a controlled environment where the horses could be dressed up and closely observed to test the theory.
“It’s one of those pieces of research that you say, ‘why hasn’t someone done this before?'” said Tim Woodfine, the director of conservation at Marwell Wildlife in southern England. He did not take part in the study. “It’s simple and neat. I think it’s a great piece of work,” he said.
How, an expert on animal vision, told The Associated Press on Thursday there are reasons to be “quite excited” about the research, which he said helps scientists understand what’s happening in the mind of a fly.
The insights have broader implications for technology such as driverless cars, which are inspired by insect vision. If stripes disrupt a fly, they might also disrupt a driverless car’s systems, according to How.
“What we needed to do is get our mind into the eye of the fly,” How said. “They have very different eyes from us.”
Erica McAlister, the senior curator of flies and fleas at the Natural History Museum in London, said the research contributes information to a subject long debated by scientists.
“We’ve been arguing about zebra stripes for 75 years,” said McAlister, who was also not involved in the study.
But there are also human applications. How says from now on, he’s wearing stripes while riding his bicycle during horse-fly season.
Caro hopes the study will underscore the wonders that remain to be discovered in the natural world.
“If we can try to pique the public’s appreciation of the wonders of nature, they’ll be less cavalier about destroying it,” he said. “That’s my hope.”
— By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Authorities say an Oklahoma man stole a Pepsi truck as the driver was unloading soda in the back.
Tulsa police say no one was hurt. The driver jumped out of the back when he felt his rig move. A trail of sodas spilled out as the truck drove off.
Police say Steven Hart told them he was trying to get to the airport after an argument with his girlfriend. The girlfriend says he was searching for her.
Police say that when they caught up to the truck stopped in traffic, Hart jumped out and started to run off. Hart was arrested as the rig rolled into the back of a school bus. No children were aboard.
Hart is being held on pending charges that include larceny and attempted escape from the county jail as he was being booked into custody.
Genesee County Clerk-Register John Gleason, center, alleges that a recent trip county employees took to the Disney Institute in Florida was improper so he dressed up like Mickey Mouse to prove his point on Feb. 20, 2019, in Flint, Mich. (Jake May/MLive.com/The Flint Journal via AP)
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A county official in Michigan dressed as Mickey Mouse to help draw attention to what he describes as wasteful spending on a Florida trip for employee training.
Genesee County Clerk-Register John Gleason held a news conference Wednesday with play money and a suitcase as props while a woman dressed as Minnie Mouse stood behind him.
He says spending about $25,000 to send three employees to the Disney Institute was “another junket.”
County Board Coordinator Josh Freeman, who was among the attendees this month, says the expense was justified after about a decade of little spending on employee development and training. WJRT-TV reports the board president also defended the travel.
The Flint Journal reports commissioners approved the travel and lessons learned in Florida are to be shared with other county employees.
PLANTATION, Fla. (AP) — All dogs may go to heaven, but not all dogs go to church.
Saint Benedict’s Episcopal Church in Plantation, Florida, has welcomed dogs to its Saturday service for the past 10 years. The Sun Sentinel reported Wednesday that the service targets dog owners who want to avoid leaving their companions at home while they worship.
The rector of the church, Father Albert Cutie, questions if one can “really pray and leave a loved one behind.” Cutie says many of the church’s patrons live alone, and a pet can often become their closest family member.
He says the attending dogs are quiet, except when they meet after Holy Communion. An animal blessing ceremony is also held each year at the church, whose motto is “all are welcome.”
In this July 17, 2017 photo provided by Jamie Adams, four bottles recovered from the SS Oregon, a 133-year-old shipwreck, are shown at the Saint James Brewery in Holbrook, N.Y. Bill Felter of Serious Brewing in Howes Cave, N.Y., hoped to develop a new brew from ale salvaged from the SS Oregon. But the scuba-diving Long Island brewer, Adams, has scuttled those plans, saying he owns the shipwreck yeast and has used it to produce ale he’s releasing in March 2019. (Jamie Adams via AP)
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — News that an upstate New York brewer planned to recreate ale from a bottle salvaged from a 133-year-old shipwreck took the wind out of the sails of a scuba-diving Long Island brewer who has already done it.
Jamie Adams, owner of Saint James Brewery in Holbrook, said Wednesday he plans to release his new ale next month. He created it from yeast he painstakingly cultured from bottles of English ale he salvaged in 2017 from the wreck of the SS Oregon, which sank off Fire Island in 1886.
Adams, who has been diving the 135-foot-deep wreck for nearly 20 years, was stunned when he saw an Associated Press story over the weekend describing another brewer’s plans to use the Oregon yeast.
“One of the divers I had enlisted to help me find these bottles with the intent of making beer had given one of them to this other brewer, unbeknownst to me,” Adams said.
Adams learned about it when the State University of New York at Cobleskill announced that students were trying to culture yeast from a shipwreck bottle given to Bill Felter of Serious Brewing in Howes Cave. The plan was for Felter to create a new beer if the students were successful.
“I called Felter and he has agreed not to use the yeast,” Adams said. “I’m glad we could work it out amicably without my having to take legal action.”
Felter told the Syracuse Post-Standard he’s scuttled his plans out of respect for his fellow farm brewer. “I don’t want to step on their toes.”
The Oregon is “near and dear to Long Island scuba divers,” said Adams, a former Wall Street trader who took up brewing and diving after 9/11. “It was the Titanic of its day. It was built as a luxury liner to ferry people between New York and Europe.”
The wreck is 75 percent buried in sand, which shifts after storms to uncover various portions of the ship. “In 2017 we found the area around the first class dining room was accessible. It hadn’t been for years,” Adams said.
Adams and fellow divers used a dredge to uncover artifacts including china, silverware, and bottles of ale with corks intact. Through research, he determined the bottles contained classic English ale.
“We’ve opened a few and have been able to propagate a few different yeast strains,” he said.
After making numerous test batches since 2017, Adams had a yeast strain he was confident would perform properly.
“We’re calling it SeaKing New York Ale,” Adams said. It’s set to debut March 9 at the annual New York Craft Brewers Festival in Albany.
— By MARY ESCH, Associated Press
HOUSTON (AP) — Authorities say emergency personnel rescued a woman who got stuck trying to enter a vacant Houston home through an air vent.
A man was walking by the home around 4:30 a.m. Friday when he heard the woman crying for help.
The man, Arthur Reyes, told KTRK-TV he was going to a convenience store when he heard the woman and asked her, “What are you doing up there?” Reyes said he then called 911.
Houston District Fire Chief Eric Hutzley says firefighters had to cut the air vent and free the unidentified woman from inside the home.
Hutzley says the woman told authorities she doesn’t remember how she got in the vent.
The woman was taken to a hospital with leg injuries. Authorities say she may face charges.
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