Weird News - Legal and Otherwise

We love weird news. In fact there are dozens of sites dedicated to the topic. You just can't make this stuff up....

#1. - Lawyers spend too much time with client. Maybe they shouldn't have returned so many of the clients phone calls.

Virginia capital-murder inmate Daryl Atkins, who had previously registered an IQ lower than the minimum 70 needed for execution, scored a 76, and a jury then sent him to death row. Legal experts attributed the improvement in IQ to the intellectual stimulation Atkins received from discussing his case with lawyers. ABC News-AP, Aug. 14

#2 Spooked by Certified Mail, avoiding the man, process servers? - throw out your cell phone!
Long arm of the law lets fingers do the walking
The Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea will begin sending indictments and other legal notices to people through mobile phones instead of ordinary mail next year, an official said. The move is designed to save time and money, and enhance privacy, said Jun Dae-jin of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office. “We plan to send text and voice messages to people if they want to receive legal notices electronically,” Jun said.

#3 Don't Carjack Vehicle with Official Plates. Really.
In Reseda, Calif., in September, one man was killed and his pal wounded in a shootout as they attempted a random carjacking but didn't realize that men in the targeted car were FBI agents on surveillance. [KCBS-TV (Los Angeles)-AP, 10-1-05]

#4 Even Squirrels go nuts.
Russian squirrel pack 'kills dog'

Squirrels have bitten to death a stray dog which was barking at them in a Russian park, local media report. Passers-by were too late to stop the attack by the black squirrels in a village in the far east, which reportedly lasted about a minute. They are said to have scampered off at the sight of humans, some carrying pieces of flesh.

A pine cone shortage may have led the squirrels to seek other food sources, although scientists skepticalical. The attack was reported in parkland in the centre of Lazo, a village in the Maritime Territory, and was witnessed by three local people. A "big" stray dog was nosing about the trees and barking at squirrels hiding in branches overhead when a number of them suddenly descended and attacked, reports say.

"They literally gutted the dog," local journalist Anastasia Trubitsina told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. "When they saw the men, they scattered in different directions, taking pieces of their kill away with them."

Mikhail Tiyunov, a scientist in the region, said it was the first he had ever heard of such an attack. While squirrels without sources of protein might attack birds' nests, he said, the idea of them chewing a dog to death was "absurd". "If it really happened, things must be pretty bad in our forests," he added.

Komosmolskaya Pravda notes that in a previous incident this autumn chipmunks terrorised cats in a part of the territory. A Lazo man who called himself only Mikhalich said there had been "no pine cones at all" in the local forests this year. "The little beasts are agitated because they have nothing to eat," he added.

#5 And some squirrels keep them as pets (from the archives)
¶ 1 This appeal revolves around the life and times of Nutkin the squirrel. ¶ 2 Nutkin's early life was spent in the state of ferrae naturae, in the state of South Carolina, and, as far as we can tell, in a state of contentment. She apparently had plenty of nuts to eat and trees to climb, and her male friends, while not particularly handsome, did have nice personalities. Life was good. ¶ 3 Then one day tragedy struck: Nutkin fell from her tree nest! FULL TEXT CASE


Anyhow you get the point. Any weird news we should know about?