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Since 1994, this is the 1651st issue of Randy Cassingham’s...
| 1 February 2026: Hidden Figures | Copyright ©2026 https://thisistrue.com |
Another Promising Career Flushed: An employee at SWCORP in Miami, Fla., noticed the company’s “smart” toilets being sold on Facebook “at prices and in quantities inconsistent with legitimate retail distribution.” She called the number in the listing pretending to be an interested buyer, and the seller confirmed he could supply the toilets in quantity. The unnamed employee checked security cameras at the plant and found a truck at the dock with toilets on “pallets being loaded quicklyand without paperwork.” She called in sheriff investigators. Detectives say Paul Joe Gomez, 37, an employee at the company, “diverted company merchandise,” including more than 400 toilets, bathtubs, saunas, and other items worth more than $400,000, to sell online in “a repeated pattern of diverting company merchandise from the premises rather than a single isolated occurrence.” Gomez is charged with grand theft and organized fraud. (RC/WTVJ Miami) ...Florida Man: officially dumber than atoilet.
Crazy Rat Lady: When pets get way, way out of hand. [Premium Only]
Fanning the Flames: A Florida Man drunk driver with a twist. [Premium Only]
Was He Robed? A man set down his harp by the river’s edge, disrobed, and immersed himself before calling out to God. Well, nothis harp; the actual owner was identified later. The man was afloat in Point State Park in Pittsburgh, Pa., when Dakoda Perry spotted him in the icy water. “He was yelling out things like, ‘thank God, save me, God,’ and so on and so forth,” he said. “And we were trying to talk to him ... trying to just get him to at least come to the edge, so this way if he does start to go under, we don’t have to swim out and try to get him.” Ultimately, professionals got the man out of the water. Theharp’s manufacturer looked up the serial number and told police who owned the $30,000 instrument, which turned out to have been stolen from a Bethel Park residence. Police in that community are investigating the burglary, the Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety said, but park rangers have set their sights on a different charge: receiving stolen property. (AC/KDKA Pittsburgh) ...A harp does not an angel make.
Calm vs. Confrontation: Convenience store customer threatens clerk, who stands her ground ...and records the evidence. [Premium Only]
Equitable Loss: A pro sports team does something that really pleases the fans ...which every other pro sports team hopes never to do themselves. [Premium Only]
Week 6 of No Ads thanks to your continued support. I would much rather readers support True than ads. Each week it takes ~5 upgrades (or equivalent contributions) to pay this free edition’s bills. With 2 carried over from last week, we only needed 3 more. Actual support: 3 new upgrades! And also 3 returnees, including Henry after a 12-year lapse, who commented,“I think you deserve the support for all your work. I wanted to contribute to keeping the newsletter ad-free too.” So we only need two upgrades to skip the ad next week (as always, more will carry over). If you love True please support it, and help others enjoy the ad-free experience. Upgrade here, and thanks!
That Just Sucks: Florida Man arrested for what he was doing ...with a vacuum cleaner. Yes: that. [Premium Only]
The Best Way to Get You Down: The movie Speed comes to life ...sort of. [Premium Only]
Absence Noted: Major broadcaster falls all over itself apologizing, but the damage is done. [Premium Only]
It’s All Aerodynamics: A study published in the journal Frontiers in Sports and Active Living said adding just 1 cm (0.4 in) of fabric to a suit could increase a ski jump by 2.8 m (9.2 ft), enough to make a difference in championships. So when Norway was caught adding fabric to suits, Marius Lindvik’s 2025 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships silver medal was revoked and the coaches who did it were banned from the sport for 18 months. “The area stretched by the V-position of thelegs in the crotch area is the most noticeable and also offers the greatest advantage,” explained the study’s co-author, Sören Müller. Yes, that’s where a whistleblower’s video revealed fabric had been added to ...ahem... stiffen the area and add surface area to give the team an edge during their jumps. Now, new measures are in place ahead of the Milan Cortina Winter Games, using 3-D scanning technology and tamper-proof microchips to ensure athletes’ suits are properly fitted.(MS/AP) ...Well, they picked the right place to show what kind of move it was.
Hair-Raising Sport: Boxer surprises the crowd when something goes a bit wrong (but he still won!) [Premium Only]
Bye: Man in court plugs his ears so he can’t hear the judge, but that’s just part of the problem. [Premium Only]
Quick Turnaround: Mercy Health Anderson Hospital in Anderson Township, Ohio, had a very sick baby boy who needed a higher level of care requiring transfer to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. The problem: the terrible snowy weather, with wind chill as low as –25 degrees (–32 C). Cinci Children’s has a special ambulance for the job, but suspected it wouldn’t be able to get through the weather. They knew just who to call: the Ohio Department of Transportation, asking for asnowplow to respond to Children’s to plow a path through the snow all the way to Mercy — and back. ODOT’s Joe Estes had just arrived at work, and his boss told him the situation. “It’s probably the most important trek of my ODOT career,” Estes said, noting the roads were completely covered in snow. He set a target speed of 35 mph, but if the ambulance needed to go a little slower, he’d drop down to match it, trying to keep the ambulance within 150 feet behind him. “It was nerve-racking,” saidrespiratory therapist Heather Lipps, who rode in the ambulance to monitor the baby, identified only as Bryson. He made it to Children’s. (RC/WCPO Cincinnati) ...Public Service done right: helping to clear the obstacles in life.
Fell Out of His Head
Florida Man Gets 4 Years after Trying to Rob Taco Bell with a Rock
WKMG Orlando 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 Port Vila, Vanuatu, where we paused for R&R as we continue on our long trek toward Australia.
The Last Story was really hard for me to write since I had tears streaming down my face, and it took me a bit to realize why. As I sat with it, it dawned on me: the story was stirring memories from my own EMS past.
Sitting with it took me on a trip into a crazy memory that involves what I had to do behind the wheel of an ambulance to save the patient. The result is in my blog.
I Really Rolled My Eyes about the first (stolen toilets) source story. Not at the content of the news article, but the way it was written by an apparent middle-school dropout at WTVJ-TV. First, reporter Briana Trujillo writes, the events happened at “SW Corportation [sic] in a [sic] Brownsville,” an industrial neighborhood of Miami.“Corportation” was used twice, but maybe it looked wrong because she then wrote that Gomez was “selling SW Coportations [double sic: she doesn’t know how to use possessives, either] Anzzi brand smart toilets.” Nowhere on the page was “Corporation” spelled correctly, nor was the company’s name presented in the way the company styles it: “SWCORP” — their actual registered trademark. At least the heroic unnamed female employee at SW clearly has a brain! And, hopefully now, a promotion.
Dale, a Premium subscriber in Oregon, writes: “I thoroughly enjoy every issue, including this one, and this is probably a very small gripe, but is it really necessary to add ‘Canada’ following ‘British Columbia’? I would hope most (all?) of your readers know British Columbia is a Canadian province. I have the same gripe about the Jeopardy TV show. The announcer always adds ‘Canada’ when introducing a contestant from that country, rather thanjust saying the particular province.”
My answer, which is in my blog, is almost certainly the same reason that Jeopardy! does it the same way: Why Mention the Country?
Ten Years Ago in True: A True classic: Beezow Doo-doo Zopittybop-bop-bop is back-back-back.
Last Week’s Story of the Week (you’re welcome to share it), about the Canadian’s beaten up car, is posted on Telegram, Mastodon, BlueSky, Instagram, Threads, and/or Facebook, or grab from any of those to post elsewhere.
This Week’s Sunday Reading: This is True: saving damsels in distress since 2001 (a wild story about a story). Diamond Girl.
The Latest Honorary Unsubscribe goes to Gladys West. Wait until you read what the technology West’s mathematical mind enabled: you carry it around with you. The story in 4 minutes.
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Copyright ©2026 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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