OFFBEAT NEWS:
To say Shirley Squires likes nativity scenes is an understatement. A huge understatement. The 87-year-old displays more than 14-hundred religious scenes throughout her Guilford, Vermont house.
Squires started collecting them after the death of her husband in 1991 and then her son in 1993, both around Christmastime. She says the figures helped get her through the first couple of years. Now, the nativity scenes cover every surface, taking over two bedrooms and overflowing into a specially built room in her garage.
While her collection started from a sad place, it now brings joy to the public. Squires says she gets 300 visitors a year. “This is my 20th year of doing it,” she explains. “It’s a lot a work but it’s worth the work when I see all the pleasure that the people get that come to see them.”
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There are probably plenty of guys who wish they looked like David Beckham. British 21-year-old Jack Johnson went under the knife to turn himself into the soccer star and now, more than $26-thousand later, he has some regrets.
When Johnson’s story first hit the news circuit last year, he says he was offered free procedures. Then, the pressure and notoriety became too much. “I tried to take my own life because trying to look like Beckham is a full time job and is not easy,” he admits. “Trying to look like Beckham nearly killed me and I don’t want others to make the same mistake.”
Johnson is working on reversing his procedures and paying off his $18-thousand-700 in debts. He also says he’s going to therapy and feels like he’s in the “best place ever” now.
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When you think of gifts your grandparents got you, chances are they weren’t always what you wanted. For a pair of senior citizens in Vermont, they decided to give out a lot of green…in the form of weed.
Police in York, Nebraska pulled over a pickup truck after it was spotted driving over the center lane and failing to use a signal. Immediately, the responding officers were hit with the smell of marijuana. No wonder, consider there was 60-pounds of weed in the back of the pickup.
Now here’s where the story really gets good. The 80-year-old man and 83-year-old woman in the truck explained to the cops that they were going to give the pot as Christmas gifts. It’s unclear whether the boys in blue believed them, but either way, the couple was arrested on multiple drug charges.
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STUPID CRIMINALS:
If you’re going to shoplift, make sure there are no cops around. A tip? There will be plenty of police officers during a “Shop with a Cop” event. Melissa E. Allen attempted to steal more than $1-thousand worth of goods from a Framingham, Massachusetts Target while at least 50 cops were inside shopping with kids during the annual event. Allen was stopped by a store security guard but it was only a matter of time before the cops on the scene got involved. It didn’t help that 32-year-old Allen did not go quietly. All in all, she’s facing charges of larceny resisting arrest, and giving a false name to police officers.
Angel Colon got into a road rage incident with 20 kids on board his school bus. What’s more, cops who arrived on the Lakewood, New Jersey scene noticed pretty quickly there was alcohol on his breath. Colon also slurred his words and had bloodshot eyes. No injuries were reported, but the 54-year-old was charged with driving under the influence and endangering the welfare of children.
When Hurricane Irma was approaching Florida, 70-year-old Cynthia Copley and her 69-year-old husband made plans to move the $26-thousand in gold bars they’d bought for their retirement. They asked a neighbor, Corey Lofton, who helped transport the bars from their hiding spot inside a cat litter box to a boat on their Panama City property. You can probably guess what happened next. A week later, their gold was missing. When they called Lofton, he told them he had since moved to Jacksonville. Sure enough, he was picked up on unrelated charges in Panama City and is now being brought up on grand larceny charges back in Panama City.