KION TV reported on Jan. 7 that a Salinas, Calif., family's Ring doorbell camera captured video of a man licking the doorbell for more than three hours. The homeowners were out of town during the encounter, which took place around 5 a.m., but their children were inside. Sylvia Dungan, who was alerted to the activity at her front door on her phone, said, "I thought, boy there's a lot of traffic. ... Who the heck is that?" Salinas police identified the man as Roberto Daniel Arroyo, 33. Arroyo also relieved himself in the front yard and visited a neighbor's house. "You kind of laugh about it afterwards because technically he didn't do anything," Dungan said, although police later charged him with petty theft and prowling.
Super fan
Dale Sourbeck, 49, of Pittston, Pa., had football on his mind after his arresting start to 2019. In the early morning hours of Jan. 3, he used a hammer to break into the Rock Street Music store and helped himself to two guitars — to start with, reported WNEP TV. Presumably realizing he was being watched by surveillance cameras, Sourbeck left and returned to the store wearing a mask and grabbed three more guitars. Police tracked Sourbeck down using the surveillance camera shot of his license plate and found the stolen guitars in his home. Upon his arrest, the only statement he made was "Go Eagles."
Special delivery
Veterinarian Molly Kreuze of Springfield, Va., is planning to purchase an artificial Christmas tree next year after her natural one came with something extra: more than 100 praying mantises. Kreuze told WJLA-TV the leggy insects emerged from an egg sac under the tree's branches and were "crawling on the walls, crawling on the ceiling, crawling on the windows." Kreuze captured as many as she could and was hoping to find a new home for them, as it seems "people really like" the bugs.
Unclear on the concept
Three customers and staff of a Wells Fargo branch in Solana Beach, Calif., were stunned on Jan. 3 when 35-year-old Clint Gray entered the bank shortly after it opened and yelled, "This is a robbery! Everybody get on the ground!" a witness told the San Diego Union-Tribune. But Gray, who was unarmed, didn't follow through. Instead, he stripped down to his underwear and sat in a chair near the front door, asking bank employees to call law enforcement. He also kindly told one female customer that she could sit in a chair instead of lying on the floor. A sheriff's deputy arrived shortly, and Gray surrendered without resistance.
Social media fail
Game Warden Cannon Harrison, 24, is well known around his area in Oklahoma, so when he filled out a profile for the dating app Bumble, he didn't include his profession. But when he "matched" with a woman nearby in December, he was surprised when she messaged him that she had just bagged "a bigo buck." "I thought ... it was someone who was messing with me because they knew who I was," Harrison told the Washington Post. Deer season had ended, although hunting with a crossbow was still legal, so he decided to play along. He wrote back, "Hell yeah, get em with a bow?" When the unnamed huntress demurred, he asked her if she had been "spotlighting" — an illegal technique that involves shining a light into the animal's eyes to stun it before shooting it, and she replied, "Yeahhhh." Next she sent Harrison a photo of herself with her trophy, and Harrison went to work. He tracked her down on social media, and the following morning, game wardens appeared at her door. The woman paid a fine and will avoid jail time.
News of the Weird is compiled by the editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication. Send your weird news items to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.
