Forget courtroom sketches — a TV station in Cleveland created a courtroom puppet show. WOIO used Muppetlike puppets to reenact a local official’s corruption trial because the federal court did not allow cameras inside. The performances included colorful puppet versions of the judge, the suspect, jurors and witnesses reciting lines directly from the court transcripts. (AP)
Fans ofWeirdbut True will recall an item aboutagorgeous 20yearold Brazilian woman named Catarina Migliorini (left) who planned to auction off her virginity to raise money for charity. The auction took place in October—and the high bid wasawhopping $780,000, placed by a Japanese man known only as Natsu. (VirginsWanted.com.au/Rex / Rex U)
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Jet Pack weddings! Courtroom Muppets! Elementary school kids running gambling schemes!? Well, 2012 might not have been the year of the Mayan apocalypse, but was a plenty weird and wild 12 months nonetheless. Here is a compilation of the funniest, wackiest and most amazing stories of the past year from The Post’s Weird but True column.
If you ever want to get a Jesus tramp stamp, a church in Flint, Mich., is the place to go.
In January, the Bridge Church opened up a licensed tattoo parlor in its building as part of an effort to attract new members.
Whether God approves is another story.
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You can call this new drink a Barkweiser.
A pet-friendly pub in Britain brewed up a new beer especially for dogs. The nonalcoholic beverage — simply called Dog Beer — is flavored to taste like beef.
To go along with the beer, The Branding Villa in Newcastle serves canine guests a roast with what they say is a “cat-flavored” gravy.
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In February, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., judge sentenced a man who’d had an altercation with his wife to take her out on a “date’’ that included elegant dining at the local Red Lobster followed by a night of bowling.
Judge John Hurley also ordered defendant Joseph Bray “to stop somewhere and get some flowers’’ for his wife.
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Talk about getting stuck in traffic!
A man trying to get around a bottleneck in San Francisco in February drove his Porsche sports car into an empty lane — without trying to figure out why it was empty.
It turns out the lane had just been repaved — and the cement hadn’t dried.
A team of workers had to quickly dig him out — before the concrete set, trapping the $120,000 vehicle.
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A California man built a museum-worthy doghouse.
Jim Berger, 68, was a precocious 12-year-old when he wrote to architect Frank Lloyd Wright, asking him to design a home for the family dog.
Wright kindly drew up a pooch palace, but Berger didn’t get around to building it until last year. The doghouse is now featured in a documentary on Wright, “Romanza.”
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March Madness got 11-year-old Max Kohl in hot water when he started an NCAA basketball gambling pool — in elementary school.
Max was caught selling $5 brackets to fellow students, and the principal ratted him out to his mother.
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Most guys would be phoning their friends, not 911, about this.
A man in Berlin, Germany, called cops to whine that the woman he took home for a one-night stand was demanding too much sex!
He said he had to lock himself on an apartment balcony to avoid her amorous advances — until amused officers showed up to save him from his predicament.
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Blind British novelist Trish Vickers didn’t realize her pen had run out of ink — and was horrified to learn the first 26 pages of her new book were blank.
When cops in Dorset learned of the disaster, they used special lights to read the impressions her pen had left. It took five months, but they told her they’d enjoyed what they read so much, they couldn’t wait to see how it ends.
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Sometimes, it just doesn’t pay to do the right thing.
Michigan public-works employee John Chevilott thought he was being responsible when he turned a gun over to police after he found it while mowing grass on a roadside.
Blockhead Wayne County officials fired him for possessing a weapon while on duty.
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Way down upon the Suwannee River, fish commit assault.
A female boater was knocked unconscious in June on the Georgia-Florida waterway — which is immortalized in song — when an 80-pound jumping sturgeon hit her flush in the face.
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What are the odds?
A roulette wheel at the Rio casino in Las Vegas astounded gamblers in June when the number 19 came up an amazing seven times in row.
According to reports, the odds of that happening are 144 billion to 1. And if some insane gambler had let a $10 bet ride those seven times, he or she would have won some $643 billion.
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The rise of the Planet of the Apes has begun!
A group of chimpanzees managed to stage a jail break at a zoo in Germany after they fashioned pieces of wood from their enclosure into a makeshift ladder and climbed out.
Four of the five escapees went back to their pen on their own. Zookeepers said the fifth was caught trying to “visit the head gorilla” at the zoo — perhaps to coordinate a simian uprising.
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In one of baseball’s most bizarre calls, an umpire in August ejected the guy playing the organ music.
Derek Dye, an intern with the minor-league Daytona, Fla., Cubs, who was in charge of selecting the organ’s recordings, disagreed with a call.
So Dye thought he’d have some fun — and played “Three Blind Mice.’’
“And then . . . the home-plate umpire looks up and yells as loud as he can, ‘You’re gone!’ ’’ Dye said. “I couldn’t believe he was talking to me. Not the manager, the guy arguing the call. The guy pressing the button on the music.’’
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Here comes the bride, all dressed in a jet pack.
Grant Engler, 25, of Grand Rapids, Mich., wanted a unique knot-tying ceremony for his betrothed, Amanda Volf, 26.
So they donned matching wet suits and jet packs and hovered a few feet above the harbor at Newport Beach, Calif.
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It’s every fan’s dream come true.
The Scottish women’s national soccer team won a match against Norway in September — after pulling a spectator out of the crowd to play for them when several players got injured.
Sarah Crilly, 20, once a top youth player, had to wear an old, oversize uniform.
Despite having no top-level experience, Crilly became a hero when she scored the tying goal en route to the win.
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WTF?
A Montreal judge ordered a sushi shop to stop calling itself Fukyu.
The jurist conceded that it might be an innocent Japanese word for a form of martial arts — but ruled that “it was clearly inappropriate’’ in Canada.
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At least he got to drive a Ferrari.
A Swiss man thought he had a sweet deal when he got a coupon to drive a rare Ferrari 360 Spider F1 Challenge Stradale for just $40.
But his dream turned into a nightmare when he crashed after just 15 minutes. He now has to pay $400,000 to replace the car because his insurance won’t cover it.
Jet Pack weddings! Courtroom Muppets! Elementary school kids running gambling schemes!?1? 2012 may not have been the year of the Mayan Apocalypse, but was still a plenty weird and wild year nonetheless. Here is a compilation of funniest, wackiest and most amazing stories of the past year from The Post’s Weird But True column.
They broke a world record in Panama City, Fla., in March by more than the bare minimum — thanks to 450 bikini-wearing beauties. The town smashed the Guinness record for the longest bikini beach parade ever
“It was exhausting, but it was exciting,” said one of the champs.