OFFBEAT NEWS:

Escaped Bobcat Found After Three Days On The Run

After a few days out on the town, Ollie the bobcat is back home. The animal escaped from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington D.C. on Monday after crawling through a 5-by-5-inch hole in her enclosure’s mesh fencing.

The zoo was searching for Ollie for days and in that time, she even got her own personal parody Twitter account. “We very much believe she will want to come back to her exhibit,” Brandie Smith, the National Zoo’s associate director for animal care sciences said while the bobcat was on the lam.  “There’s shelter, there’s food, there’s warmth.”

It turns out Smith wasn’t wrong. After three days, Ollie was discovered on zoo property and now is back in her, probably reinforced, enclosure.

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Woman Faces 20 Years In Jail For Lighting A Plant On Fire

We don’t know why Kristina Gaskins set fire to a potted plant outside a townhouse in Virginia Beach, but it’s safe to say she regrets it now. The 29-year-old is now facing an arson charge, which could land her in jail for 20 years.

Police responded to the townhouse and found no fire, but a burned potted plant and damage to a section of the vinyl siding above the plant.

Gaskin turned herself in and is officially charged with burning or destroying a dwelling, a Class 3 felony which carries anywhere from five to 20 years behind bars.

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Man Refuses To Sell His Rooster Shaped Plant

Wang Genliang takes his landscaping very seriously. The 78-year-old Chinese man was given a shrub back in the last 1970s and now, it stands over eight feet tall and has been shaped into a rooster.

Despite the attention it brings, Genliang has says he won’t sell it. “I couldn’t bear to part with it,” he tells reporters of a recent $14-thousand offer he received. “It is my pastime and I don’t want to sell it for money.”

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STUPID CRIMINALS:

Cartwheeling teacher charged with indecent exposure:

If you’re planning on doing a cartwheel at any point, you should also plan to wear some undergarments. A substitute teacher in Pawhuska, Oklahoma did a cartwheel in front of a high school choir class, but apparently – wasn’t wearing anything underneath her skirt. She has since been arrested and charged with indecent exposure. Oops.

Police commissioner all smiles after domestic violence arrest:

The fact that Township, New Jersey Police Commissioner William Regan was arrested and charged with assaulting his wife is alarming. Perhaps more unsettling is the fact that 52-year-old Regan is all smiles in his mugshot. He’s accused of “grabbing (his wife) by the arms and pulling her to the ground and causing injury to her arms and knees.” Regan will head to court next week and will probably be a less smiley then.

Mayor charged with disturbing graves:

Bill Milbrand is the mayor of Shamokin, Pennsylvania and thanks to a questionable construction deal, he’s being accused of disturbing graves. Milibrand allowed construction crews to cover more than a dozen graves with dirt in order to place a cell tower at the back of the cemetery. Now, he’s facing 14 felony vandalism counts along with lesser charges. Ironically, Milbrand hoped the cell tower could generate $900 to $1,200 a month, which he said would be used for cemetery upkeep.