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Since 1994, this is the 1610th issue of Randy Cassingham’s...
| 20 April 2025: Only Angels Have Wings | Copyright ©2025 https://thisistrue.com |
Foot Long: A customer got irate with employees at a Subway sandwich shop in Merritt Island, Fla., complaining about their “bad attitudes.” According to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, “Cocaine became so irate with the employees, that yelling at them from across the counter wasn’t enough!!” Wait... what? The man was later identified as Edward Cocaine, 45, who thought it was “pretty cool” that his previous arrest — on drug charges — went viral online due to his unusual name.“I was famous for a minute,” he said then (see “Freak of Nomenclature, Florida Division” in This is True #1037, and “Another Minute of Fame” in #1044, when the charges were dismissed after he produced a prescription). In this case, he allegedly went behind the counter, where he pulled a knife, “drawing it back in a manner suggestive of a potential strike,” but a friend who was with him grabbed Cocaine and pushed him out the door. He was arrested several days later, and charged withaggravated assault. (RC/WKMG Orlando) ...Florida Man: best when paired with a sane friend.
This Should Bug You: Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19 and from Belgium, were arrested in Nakuru County, Kenya, after authorities discovered“captive wildlife” worth 1 million shillings (US$7,700) in the house where they were staying. The two men told a magistrate they’d collected the animals — 5,000 ants packed in 2,244 test tubes — for fun, and they didn’t know it was illegal. The Kenya Wildlife Service says the pair, along with two other men who’d allegedly stolen 400 ants, were illegally trafficking the insects to Europe and Asia. According to KWS, there’s “a shift in trafficking trends — from iconic large mammals to lesser-knownyet ecologically critical species.” (MS/London Independent) ...Definitely easier to transport than elephants and rhinos.
A Great Response Last Week to my lament about having to rip most of the stories out of the full edition for this free sampler, because I have to drop so many great stories. This week, those stories include the amazing statement from a U.S. Senator. The problems of an instant bus stop. The laughably stupid Tennessee man and his trip to the airport. A firefighter who is anything but a hero. The Florida Man who insisted “I know what I am doing.” When winning millions in a lotterybecomes pretty much a sure thing. A weird problem in a bomber’s cockpit. When a guy can’t take a restraining order for an answer. A non-firefighter who is a definite hero. Again the bottom line is, this is a free sampler for the whole thing, because the thousands of little bits of money that Premium subscribers pay, and they choose the price they want to pay starting at just $11 per quarter, add up to the budget required to run this newsletter. I’d love it if you joined them so youcan get all the stories each week too. See your upgrade options here and thanks!
Everyone’s an Architecture Critic: “We hope the building will be open as normal againsoon,” said a spokesperson for the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. Erecting the building was a 55 million pound (US$73 million) project, but it has a glass roof (and lots of other glass parts, a photo shows), and someone dropped a rock on it. Well, maybe not “someone”: it was a seagull, and it dropped the rock more than once. Experts suggested that this might have something to do with gulls’ practice of opening shellfish by dropping them. Anyway, a roof panel gotbroken. (AC/BBC) ...Oxford, legendary home of great geniuses and people who think it’s a good idea to use glass where, if it breaks, you have to close a whole building.
Extreme Friction: A “raging fire” in West Brighton, Staten Island, N.Y., was “suspicious,” declared Deputy Assistant Fire Chief David Simms. Three homes sufferedsignificant damage. After investigation, Harry Torres, 37, was arrested, charged with arson and reckless endangerment; his was the middle of the three homes burned. “I started the fire,” Torres allegedly admitted. “I was in the backyard at my house and I lit two sex toys on fire.” Torres lives in the home with his mother. (RC/Staten Island Advance, WABC New York, New York Daily News) ...All of this raises several questions, none of which I want answers to.
That Was Your Clue
Florida Man Accused of Trying to Cash Forged Check Felt He Was Doing Something ‘Shady and ‘Wrong’
WTVT Tampa headline
Did You Find an Error? Check the Errata Page for updates.
This Week’s Contributors: MS-Mike Straw, AC-Alexander Cohen, RC-Randy Cassingham.
Stories This Week were Written/Edited in Cartagena, Colombia.
Running a Bit Late this evening because we had a special meeting sprung on us, and it was one I definitely didn’t want to miss. Hope no one “had to” stay up late!
Yes, it is a little bit funny that I get waylaid into a meeting while living full time on a cruise ship. The thing is, we aren’t on a vacation, we live here; it’s our home, and sometimes we have meetings. So, sorry about the little delay.
Ten Years Ago in True: Dell Hell. (not MY Dell Hell, one from the news!)
The Last Item, about the guy with the flaming sex toys, is the Story of the Week (you’re welcome to share it), is posted to Telegram, Mastodon, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky,and/or Facebook, or grab from any of those to post elsewhere.
This Week’s Sunday Reading: Police get a full confession from a murderer after finding he had a diagram of the murder ...on him. I really mean ON him. An amazing story from 2011, with photos. Let’s See If You Can Picture This.
Last Week’s Honorary Unsubscribe goes to Edgar Kumley. This one is “different”: Kumley didn’t save the world, invent anything, and you probably haven’t heard of him. But he’s the sort of character you probably will wish you had met, if only briefly. The story in around 2 minutes.
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Copyright ©2025 by Randy Cassingham, All Rights Reserved. All broadcast, publication, retransmission to email lists, web site or social media posting, or any other copying or storage, in any medium, online or not, is strictly prohibited without prior written permission from the author. Manual forwarding by email to friends is allowed if 1) the text is forwarded in its entirety from the “Since 1994” line on top through the end of this paragraph and 2) No fee is charged. I request that you forward no more than three copies to any one person — after that, they should get their own free subscription. I appreciate people who report violations of my copyright.
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