Offbeat

Crocs as in the much-maligned footwear, not the reptile often read about in "Florida Man" articles.

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Joshua Hunt, 32, denies two Public Order Act charges of intentional harassment, alarm, or distress in relation to incidents allegedly committed on May 7 and May 9 in the Bleadon and Cleeve areas of Somerset.

Hunt, of Claverham, Somerset, was ordered to not "crawl, wriggle or writhe on the ground wearing a full-body covering or mask" or visit the areas where the offences are alleged to have taken place at an earlier hearing.

Previous hearings have heard that female motorists driving at night reported to the police seeing a man in a black costume.

At a pre-trial hearing today, District Judge Angela Brereton fixed Hunt's trial for a half-day at Bristol Magistrates' Court on October 27.

Hunt was released on unconditional bail until his trial.

Hunt is also separately charged with one count of affray and one count of possession of a bladed article in Bleadon, near Weston-super-Mare, on May 9.

The 31-year-old is also accused of affray in relation to an incident there two days earlier and is also charged with outraging public decency in Cleeve on October 25 last year.

Hunt had previously been due to stand trial at Bristol Crown Court in November for a different charge.

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Two American tourists have been found sleeping inside the Eiffel Tower after getting stuck while drunk, according to prosecutors.

The two men were found by security guards in the early hours of Monday.

They paid to scale the Parisian landmark at around 22:40 (21:40 BST) on Sunday and hopped security barriers while climbing down, police said.

They were found in an area normally closed to the public between the tower’s second and third levels.

The men “appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were”, Paris prosecutors told the AFP news agency.

A specialist firefighter unit for rescuing people from heights were sent to recover the men, the agency reported.

The usual opening time of 09:00 was delayed due to the discovery of the inebriated pair.

They did not pose any threat, said Sete, the publicly-owned Eiffel Tower operator.

Both men were questioned by police in Paris, while Sete said it would file a criminal complaint.

It comes after two bomb scares at the tower on Saturday forced the monument to be evacuated twice in the same day.

French police have launched an investigation after the false bomb threats were made via posts on a gaming site and a platform for online contact between citizens and police.

The Eiffel Tower, which was built in the 1880s and stands at 984ft (300m), attracted 5.8 million visitors last year.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/3211816

‘Flying aliens’ harassing village in Peru are actually illegal miners with jetpacks, cops say::Authorities announced their theory after visiting the isolated Indigenous community where the attacks took place.

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A man living in the village of Kållby in the Ostrobothnian municipality of Pedersöre in the west of Finland, found 12 kilograms of dynamite in two cars he owned on Thursday last week.

The dynamite had been stored in the cars by an acquaintance of the man, also from Pedersöre.

Tony Rauma, Detective Chief Inspector with the Ostrobothnia Police, confirmed that the two individuals knew each other prior to the incident.

"The suspect had called the owner of the cars to say that he had taken dynamite to the cars for storage. According to his own words, he had done it as a joke," Rauma told Yle.

The owner of the cars did not take it as a joke and called the police.

"In addition to the dynamite, detonators were also confiscated from the cars," said Rauma.

Police had to evacuate nearby buildings because of the large quantity of explosives. A police bomb squad from Seinäjoki removed the dynamite from the cars.

Terrorist act ruled out

The suspect was arrested later that day. He was later released, but is suspected of an explosives offence.

The suspect has admitted the crime to the police, but said he did not intend to blow up the cars. Police have also ruled out any possible terrorist intent.

It is not yet known for sure where the explosives came from, as there is no criminal record in the police register that would match the quantity of dynamite used in the prank.

"However, the suspect has access to a deserted house where the dynamite may have come from," said Rauma.

The explosives offence carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

The case was first reported in local newspaper Österbottens Tidning.

Don't come at me for the spelling of diarrhea, That's from the article title 😂

Seeking: Monster hunters.

The Loch Ness Centre is calling one and all to join a massive search this month for Nessie, the mythical beast said to inhabit the waters of Scotland’s famed Loch Ness — hoping to make it the largest hunt for the monster in more than 50 years.

Experienced Nessie researchers will use modern technology that has never before scanned the waters, said the center, which runs an exhibition and tours of the lake. They’re asking volunteers and “budding monster hunters” to join in and watch the surface of the 23-mile-long lake.

The event, scheduled for Aug. 26 and 27, could be the largest surface watch since 1972, said Alan McKenna of Loch Ness Exploration, a volunteer research team that’s working with the Loch Ness Centre. Its organizers hope the “Quest Weekend” will draw searchers to join the centuries-long tradition of looking for the Loch Ness monster.

“It’s our hope to inspire a new generation of Loch Ness enthusiasts,” McKenna told the BBC. “You’ll have a real opportunity to personally contribute towards this fascinating mystery that has captivated so many people from around the world.”

Cradled by green slopes, the vast blue lake sits in the Scottish Highlands, near the city of Inverness and about a 3½-hour drive from Edinburgh. Though Nessie has never been proved to exist, the myth’s attraction — like that of Bigfoot or Sasquatch — has endured over the decades, sparking research, exploration and stories.

McKenna told The Washington Post on Saturday that he’d heard from many reporters and “friends from around the world” since the announcement of the project.

During Quest Weekend, the researchers will use airborne drones that make thermal images of the water with infrared cameras, according to the center. They’ll also use a hydrophone that picks up acoustic signals — “any Nessie-like calls” — underwater. Meanwhile, they’ll stage six surface-watch locations, and anyone who signs up to join will indicate what area they plan to observe. (They can also note whether they believe in “Nessie, nonsense, or possibilities.”)

“The weekend gives an opportunity to search the waters in a way that has never been done before, and we can’t wait to see what we find,” Paul Nixon, Loch Ness Centre’s general manager, told the Scottish Daily Express.

Whiskey in the jar-o... I mean, spray bottle.