Weird News: Does This Make Scents?
Muddy Lucky
After being reported missing on Feb. 14, a 36-year-old Florida man was found on Feb. 26 up to his neck in mud, WCJB-TV reported. Andrew Giddens, who friends said had been depressed after a recent breakup, was found near the Vulcan Sand Plant in Melrose. A Vulcan employee discovered him and called authorities. Rescue crews from three counties spent more than two hours using ropes, ladders and other supplies to free him from the mud. After 12 days in the elements, without food or water, he was in critical condition at a local hospital.
Nice Try
Mob boss John Gotti’s grandson, Carmine Agnello, 39, is headed to prison after pleading guilty to fraud in 2024, the New York Post reported. As his sentencing date, March 13, approaches, Agnello is hoping the federal judge will give him a break because he’s donating a kidney to his mom, Victoria Gotti. But the Eastern District of New York isn’t having it: “Being a kidney donor does not ... constitute extraordinary family circumstances and warrant a below guidelines sentence,” the office wrote. They also argued that the Bureau of Prisons is more than equipped to care for Agnello after his kidney donation.
Does This Make Scents?
Scientists in China have used gene editing technology to create a new tomato variety that smells like buttered popcorn, The Independent reported on Feb. 26. The project was conceived to address the problem of tomatoes losing some aroma and flavor during transport and storage. Peng Zheng, an author of the study, compared the alteration to creating varieties of fragrant rice. But why buttered popcorn? Why couldn’t they smell like ... tomatoes?
Moving Violation
Layne Featherngill, 58, took matters into his own hands on Feb. 26 in Sykes Creek, Florida, WFTV reported. An ambulance on a call had parked in a way that blocked Featherngill from moving his car, so he got into the ambulance and started to move it out of the way. Brevard County Fire Rescue crew members were working on a patient in the back when they felt the truck begin to roll. When one of the first responders got out and confronted Featherngill, he jumped out of the ambulance and into his own car, then struck a paramedic in the leg as he drove away. Deputies tracked him down and arrested him for grand theft of a motor vehicle and burglary of an occupied conveyance.