Weird News: Rise of the Robots
Rise of the Robots
A 70-year-old woman in Macau, China, went to the hospital after being startled by a 4-foot-4-inch robot on March 5, the Macau Post reported. As the woman walked along the street around 9 p.m., the bot followed her; she turned around and shouted, “You’re making my heart race! You’ve got plenty to do, so what’s the point of messing around with this?” Two police officers escorted the bot away; they later discovered it is owned by a tutorial center in the neighborhood, and the man operating it remotely said he was testing it. The bot, a Unitree G1, retails for about $13,000. The woman was released from the hospital.
The Entrepreneurial Spirit
Talk about making lemonade. Javier Yat, a 23-year-old mechanic in Brooklyn, New York, is lining his pockets with cash after setting up a tire station next to a huge pothole, the New York Post reported on March 17. Yat works out of his van and typically runs out of replacement tires each night. “I have to pay a runner to go back and forth to the shop for me and pick up what I need,” Yat said. “I think the pothole is approximately 60 square inches and 12 inches deep,” he said. He arrives in the area around 12:30 a.m. and stays until 10 a.m., changing 15 to 20 tires each night and charging between $150 and $300 per tire. “One man’s misfortune is another man’s blessing,” Yat said.
Furry Find
On March 18, as a shopper perused the plush toys at Hobart International Airport in Australia, they spotted a cute little face peering out from the shelf -- and blinking. The Guardian reported that a brushtail possum had made itself at home among the stuffed kangaroos and dingoes, delighting customers and staff. Airport officials safely removed the little bundle of fur, but it’ll not be forgotten: “We’ll have a little shrine to the possum,” said Liam Bloomfield, retail manager. “There will be a nice little photo; once it gets a name, we will put a nice little post in front of the store to make sure it’s remembered.” No word on how it got through security.
Don’t Bank On It
Gustavo DeJesus Torres, 33, took his time in his bank-robbing spree, The New York Times reported on March 18, but didn’t net much of a haul. Torres robbed six banks in five days across Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx. At each Chase branch, Torres handed the teller a note saying people would get hurt if they didn’t hand over money. He got $320 and $265 from a couple of banks, but walked away with just $20 from another. And three branches gave him nothing at all. His total “earnings” were just $605. Police are still searching for Torres, who has been charged with bank robbery before.