This week in odd news: Pokemon wins, mishaps, bear rescues and meth donuts

We come across many unusual stories in the news industry.

Here's the funny, unusual, and downright strange news from this week:

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Car drives up wire connected to utility pole after GPS says "turn around"

This woman was in such a rush to get to her destination, she ended up a utility pole.

Police in Vermont say a car ended up almost vertical when the driver swerved quickly in response to her GPS ordering her to "turn around."

The car was suspended almost vertically on guide wires attached to a utility pole in Mendon on Wednesday night.

Police say 30-year-old Nabila Altahan of Dorchester, Massachusetts, was headed west on U.S. Route 4 when she passed her intended destination and the GPS gave sudden directions to turn around.

Police say Altahan reacted quickly to the instructions, leaving the road at a significant enough speed to propel the vehicle up the wires.

Neither Altahan nor her passenger was injured.

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Florida man arrested after donut flakes tests positive for meth 

Daniel Rushing probably won't be eating Krispy Kreme doughnuts in his car any more.

The 64-year-old was arrested on drug charges when Orlando police officers spotted four tiny flakes of glaze on his floorboard and thought they were pieces of crystal methamphetamine, The Orlando Sentinel reports.

Cpl. Shelby Riggs-Hopkins wrote in an arrest report that during a traffic stop on Dec. 11, she noticed the flakes on the floorboard. 

Two roadside drug tests were positive for the illegal substance and Rushing was arrested. But a state crime lab test cleared him several weeks later.

"It was incredible," Rushing said. "It feels scary when you haven't done anything wrong and get arrested. ... It's just a terrible feeling."

It started on a Friday afternoon when Rushing dropped off a neighbor at a hospital for a weekly chemotherapy session. Then, he drove to a convenience store to pick up a friend who needed a ride home.

Riggs-Hopkins said she was staking out the area for drug activity. Rushing told her he had a concealed weapons permit, according to an arrest report. She asked him to step out of his car and noticed a "rock like substance" on the floorboard.

"I recognized through my eleven years of training and experience as a law enforcement officer the substance to be some sort of narcotic," she wrote.

Rushing agreed to a vehicle search. "I didn't have anything to hide," he said. "I'll never let anyone search my car again."

Riggs-Hopkins and other officers spotted three other pieces of the substance.

I kept telling them, `That's ... glaze from a doughnut," Rushing said.

He was charged with possession of methamphetamine with a firearm and spent 10 hours in jail before being released on bond.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement told the newspaper that an analyst in its Orlando crime lab didn't try to identify what police found in the car, only to determine whether it was an illegal drug. They determined it wasn't, and three days after Rushing's arrest, the State Attorney's Office dropped the charges.

Rushing, who retired after 25 years as an Orlando parks department employee, told the newspaper he has hired a lawyer and plans to sue the city because he was arrested "for no reason at all."

Orlando police said in a statement that the arrest was lawful.

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Bear stuck in tree with cheese ball container around his head saved by man with lasso

What do you get when you mix a man with a lasso and a bear with a cheese ball container stuck on his head? An odd story of heroism. 

A Colorado bed and breakfast owner armed with just a length of rope helped save a black bear with a giant plastic container stuck on its head.

Jim Hawkins got his lasso around the animal's midsection on the first throw. He said Thursday that he and the bear "did a rodeo thing for a while" before the animal figured out that Hawkins was the reason it couldn't run away.


That's when the bear went after Hawkins, leaving him with scrapes and a wound that needed stitches. It then scrambled up a tree, remaining there until officials arrived.

Carbondale District Wildlife Officer John Groves tells the Post Independent newspaper that officials tranquilized the bear and cut the container off its head.

It was released in the mountains and is expected to survive

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'Pokemon Go' player finds cash at Pokestop in New Jersey

A New Jersey man didn't find a Mewtwo, but he did find enough money to hire someone to find one for him.

The "Pokemon Go" player found $2,000 in cash at a Pokestop in New Jersey.

Hackettstown police say the player notified a nearby business Wednesday that he had found the money at a Pokestop, where players can get free in-game items, like an egg that can hatch into a full monster. The player said he would turn the money over to police.

Around the same time, the person who lost the money reported it missing near the business. An officer went there, and an employee told the officer the money had been found.

After checking surveillance video, the officer located the player, who turned over the cash

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Pennsylvania man arrested after standing naked next to mannequins at bridal shop

Two women noticed something odd standing in the display while window shopping earlier this week.

Police say a 44-year-old Pennsylvania man was arrested after he stood naked next to mannequins in a store display. The two women noticed him standing between the mannequins in the store display and called police.

Authorities say the man owned the store called One Enchanted Evening, which sells bridal, prom and pageant dresses.

Peter Scolieri, of Cranberry Township, was charged with open lewdness and disorderly conduct adding the man smelled of alcohol.

Court documents don't list an attorney. A listed number for Scolieri couldn't be found Wednesday and a message left at the shop wasn't immediately returned

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Rare, foul-smelling 'corpse flower' blooms in New York City

A foul smelling plant known as the "corpse flower" is finally blooming at the New YorkBotanical Garden in New York City.

Visitors were waiting in line more than an hour to see the rare bloom. It started emerging Thursday afternoon after more than 10 years of growth.

It's native to Sumatra's equatorial rain forests and emits an odor like rotting flesh while it's briefly in bloom.

It's one of the largest flowers on earth and can reach 6 feet in height. It emits the stench to attract pollinators.

The bloom at its peak only lasts about 24 to 36 hours — and it could be years before the flower blooms again.

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Man, 62, playing 'Pokemon Go' at night behind his NY home becomes trapped in a mud pit up to his waist

This one is certainly a Pokefail. 

Authorities say a 62-year-old man playing "Pokemon Go" at night in the woods behind his New York home became stuck in waist-deep mud and had to be rescued.

Police say the man was playing the game on his cellphone at around 2 a.m. Sunday when he wandered into thick woods behind his home in Coeymans, just south of Albany.

Officials say he became trapped in a mud pit up to his waist and couldn't get out.

He used his phone to call 911 emergency dispatchers, who guided an officer to his location by pinging the man's phone.

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Officials say woman robbed Wyoming bank, tossed cash up in the air because she wanted to go back to prison

A woman who was recently released from prison in Oregon robbed a bank in Wyoming only to throw the cash up in the air outside the building and sit down to wait for police, authorities said Friday.

Investigators say 59-year-old Linda Patricia Thompson told them she wanted to go back to prison.
Thompson said she had suffered facial fractures after strangers beat her at a Cheyenne park last weekend.

She said she couldn't get a room at a homeless shelter and decided to rob the bank Wednesday because she could no longer stay on the streets, court records say.

She faces a detention hearing Tuesday on a bank robbery charge and doesn't have an attorney yet.
FBI Special Agent Tory Smith said in court documents that Thompson entered a US Bank branch in Cheyenne and handed a teller a cardboard note that said, "I have a gun. Give me all your money."
The teller turned over thousands of dollars.

Outside, Thompson threw money into the air and even offered some to people passing by, Smith stated. He added that Cheyenne police Lt. Nathan Busek said he found Thompson with a large sum of money when he arrived at the bank.

"Lt. Busek asked Thompson what was going on, and Thompson replied, 'I just robbed the bank, I want to go back to prison,'" Smith wrote.

Thompson had been serving time at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, Oregon, for a second-degree robbery conviction in Union County until her release in June, Betty Bernt, communications manager with the Oregon Department of Corrections, said Friday.

Thompson told investigators then that she didn't want to be released and advised the Oregon state parole office that she would not do well on parole.