Weird Week: Saved by the bear, and idiot escape artist

Some of the stranger stories from the news this week

• A hiker in Nevada was left dumbfounded after his life was saved by an angry bear.

Robert Biggs was hiking in California when he spotted a mother bear with two cubs. Realising the danger he was in, he began to walk away and leave the family in peace, when a hungry mountain lion jumped on his back.

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The lion, which had probably been eyeing up one of the bear cubs for lunch, caught Biggs unaware and a desperate wrestling match began. Brave Biggs tried to stab the beast with a sharp stone, but it didn’t appear to have much effect.

Just when he thought he was doomed, the mother bear swept in to the rescue, attacking the big cat and eventually scaring it off.

Biggs was said to have a few scratches and bruises but luckilly escaped serious injury.

• We’ve all seen it in a hundred films. The crafty criminal finishes the bank heist and runs out to the waiting getaway car, shouting “get out us of here”.

Well, choose your getaway car carefully.

Cary Patrick Cleyndert, a rowdy bar customer in Ontario, was being escorted from the premises this week when he broke free and jumped into a nearby car, ordering the driver to “get out of here”. The driver promptly arrested him.

Turns out the car he’d jumped into was an unmarked police vehicle providing back-up to the officers escorting him from the bar.

• Got a big day at nursery school coming up? Need something for your ‘Show and Tell’ project? Decisions decisions!

What are you going to take into school to show your teacher and classmates? What can you talk extensively about in order to get the highest grade? Your pet gerbil? Some flowers you picked from the garden? No?

I know, take your dad’s heroin!

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A five-year-old boy in Connecticut took packets of the drug to proudly show his kindergarten class, in a move which saw his step-father arrested.

The boy’s teacher noticed something suspicious about the packets of powder and called the police. When 35-year-old Santos Roman came in to collect the missing drugs, he was apprehended by the authorities.

• A woman in Virginia has been arrested after she faked terminal cancer to get better wedding gifts and freebies.

Jessica Vega was detained on fraud charges after a newspaper article caused the community to rally round to make her dream day come true, which included hefty donations by local businesses.

The venue, wedding dress, make-up and catering were all donated by locals touched by the story of Vega’s ‘dying’ wish to wed her child’s father, Michael O’Connell.

The big day came in 2010, with Vega showing one reporter a doctor’s letter claiming she had just months to live. From there the community banded together to make it happen. But just fou months after the wedding, O’Connell began to suspect his new wife hadn’t been entirely truthful.

Now Vega is facing up to four years in prison over fraud. Though who knows, she might get time off what with her condition and all.

• A pet hamster in Northampton was found by its owner suspended above the ground, stuck to its metal cage, after it swallowed a magnet.

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Smurf was said to be attached to the cage by a small magnet that she’d lodged in her cheek, and was only found by shocked owner Kate Meech after she returned from a day out.

Smurf was apparently relatively unharmed by the experience, but it makes you think. Magna-Hamster! Surely it’s a superhero waiting to happen.

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