Shannon Stevens, along with her brother Erik and his girlfriend, snowmobiled to Erik's yurt in the backcountry near Haines, Alaska, on Feb. 13 and got the scare of a lifetime when she was attacked from below by a bear in an outhouse, the Associated Press reported. Erik heard his sister's screams and went out to investigate, opening the toilet seat to find "a bear face ... just looking right back up through the hole, right at me," he said. He shut the lid and ran back to the yurt, where they determined Shannon's wound wasn't serious. Alaska Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Management biologist Carl Koch said the bear probably swiped at her with its paw, rather than biting her. "She could be the only person on Earth that this has ever happened to," Koch speculated.
Anything to get out of work
Brandon Soules, 19, was arrested by police in Coolidge, Ariz., on Feb. 17, for falsely reporting to police that he had been kidnapped in an apparent scheme to get out of work. On Feb. 10, police found Soules lying near a water tower with his hands bound behind his back and a bandanna in his mouth, the Associated Press reported. Soules told officers two men had kidnapped him, knocked him unconscious and driven him around in his car looking for money his father had hidden around town, but detectives could find no evidence of a kidnapping or assault, and when pressed, Soules confessed he made up the story to avoid work at the Tire Factory, which subsequently fired him.
Smooth reaction
Vidam Perevertilov, 52, chief engineer on a supply ship sailing in the South Pacific from New Zealand to Pitcairn Island, fell overboard after finishing his shift at 4 a.m. on Feb. 16. Alone in the dark and without a life jacket, Perevertilov started swimming toward a spot that appeared on the horizon at dawn, The Guardian reported. The spot turned out to be an abandoned fishing buoy and Perevertilov spent the next 14 hours clinging to it before being rescued by his crew, who noticed his absence six hours after he fell and were able to determine where he left the ship. Perevertilov's son, Marat, said his father was unhurt, but exhausted, and he left the buoy in the ocean "so it could save another person's life."
A stiff crowd
The famed Peter Luger Steak House in Brooklyn celebrated the easing of local COVID-19 restrictions with a hand from Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, whose celebrity wax figures mingled with restaurant patrons. "Mad Men's" suave Don Draper was relaxing at the bar with a cocktail, joined by others, including Jimmy Fallon, Al Roker and Audrey Hepburn's Holly Golightly, the Associated Press reported. Restaurant vice president Daniel Turtel said it was a "fun, safe way to fill some of the seats that need to remain empty as we continue to fight the pandemic."
Math is hard
A Dunkin' Donuts customer was captured on video berating store employees on Feb. 15 and demanding she get 50 Munchkin doughnuts after ordering a dozen. "I need more," she forcefully told the clerk. "Fifty. Five, zero. That's what a dozen is." Upworthy reported that another customer tried to correct her, saying "Twelve is a dozen," to which the woman replied, "I want more than 12! I want 50!" and later continued, "You understand nothing! ... You're not understanding the English!" Or the math.
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