Strange RSS feed for the Strange tag
found 35 stories.
News
Brett Gibbons B'ham Mail 19 Feb 11
A Walsall dad is facing a Chinese bigamy charge after marrying his online date who was almost half his age.
John Bray, from Pleck, claimed he was duped into tying the knot with Liu Fei after flying to China last November.
He said he signed what he thought was a work permit – only to be told the couple were now man and wife…
Feature
Sarah Taylor Mercury 30 Jan 11
It is supposed to be the Midlands answer to the Da Vinci Code, a centuries-old riddle that holds the key to the Holy Grail.
The Shepherd’s Monument, on the Shugborough estate in Staffordshire, is engraved with a series of letters that has baffled experts for 250 years, and sparked worldwide conspiracy theories.
But now a historian believes he has cracked the code – and that it is just the equivalent of …
Comment
Derek Bennett EU Sceptic 23 Dec 10
Urban legends abound, we all hear about all sorts of tales of strange things that happened from a friend of a friend who told the story to another friend of a friend. When we here these tales you always sigh and the natural instinct is to respond with the answer: ‘I’ll believe that one when it happens to me’.
In a similar vein we often read unbelievable items in the press about a 90 year old pensioner being refused a purchase because they don’t have proof that they are over 18 – or some other mad thing. Well, yesterday something akin to this happened to my better half while doing some last minute Christmas shopping – and this ain’t from a friend of a friend – it comes direct to you from the missus.
Linda, Mrs Euro sceptic blog, was in BHS in Walsall mooching around and picked up one or two items on the ground floor, then went upstairs to get one or two other things and when finished she went to the till on that upper floor…
News
Alison Dayani B'ham Mail 21 Dec 10
A collector of old coins has stumbled across a 50p piece from the future that’s dated 2011.
John Brealey, from Walsall, found the time-travelling money in a jar of spare change he was planning to give to charity.
A spokeswoman from the Royal Mint said the Paralympic themed coin was worth…
News
Express & Star 23 Nov 10
A wannabe policeman fitted blue flashing lights to his Ford Focus and pulled drivers over on West Midlands roads after failing to get a job in the force, a court heard.
Daniel Bunce was facing jail today after a judge told him impersonating a policeman was “very serious”.
The 20-year-old from Tipton bought the lights after his application to get a legitimate job in the police was turned down…
News
Express & Star 5 Nov 10
A large panther-like cat has been spotted in Wednesfield, alarming eye-witnesses who have warned local dog-walkers to be cautious.
Police are investigating the sighting in Wednesfield after retired union officer Andrew Hall alerted them to the potential danger. The 55-year-old was on the phone in his kitchen when he saw what he thought was a black bin liner stuck in a tree beyond his back garden…
Comment
The Plastic Hippo 27 Sep 10
Strange happenings often engender even stranger conspiracy based explanations and the goings on during last week confirmed, in what is left of the minds of many, that the omens and portents are comparable to the four horsemen of the apocalypse galloping across the Arboretum ring road junction.
Electrical storms of biblical intensity coincided with Facebook crashing and Twitter being infected by a worm. The wailing and gnashing of teeth coming from spare bedrooms and that useful space under the stairs where the computer lives could be heard across a terrified nation. There were reports of a mysterious 3,000 mph jet aircraft low over Lichfield and, stranger still, a Liberal Democrat and former executive of a multi-national oil company now actually in government talked of attacking greedy capitalism. The end of the world must surely be imminent as Walsall council were discovered red handed trying to improve the bin collection service. Another council, Suffolk, finally admitted defeat and announced that it would outsource all of the services that are its job to provide. It will become a “virtual” council and be nothing more than a web page. Astonishingly, the refusal to do what it is supposed to do will result in only a 30 per cent budget saving. These prognostications, according to conspiracy theorists, cannot be blamed on unusual sun spot activity…
News
Daily Mail 19 Aug 10
Police chiefs have come under fire after they issued a dictat advising officers what kind of underwear they should wear beneath their uniforms.
West Midlands Police has issued a warning that requires underwear to be ‘an appropriate colour’ and ‘inconspicous’ beneath their uniform.
The strict guidance was issued as part of a revised uniform policy to present a ‘professional and corporate appearance’ to the public…
News
Express & Star 2 Jul 10
A fake fireman who was rejected from the brigade fitted a car with sirens and flashing lights and sped through the Black Country on his way to a non-existent car crash, a court heard.
Dean Jones, aged 19, turned his father’s car into a makeshift fire-engine. Police spotted him driving along Beacon Road in Walsall with red and blue lights flashing and sirens blaring and followed him for a mile, at speeds of up to 60mph…
News
BBC Black Country 2 Jun 10
A Walsall man has told BBC WM that aliens and UFOs are responsible for a string of animal attacks in the UK.
Mike Freebury, a member of the Animal Pathology Field Unit, has investigated the mystery of ‘cattle mutilations’ for a number of years. The phenomenon, first reported in America in the 1970s, involves the unexplained deaths of rural animals…