In the last three months of 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported a 108% increase in a certain smuggled item at ports of entry, Fox5-TV reported on Jan. 18. It wasn't fentanyl or heroin, though. The contraband consisted of egg products and poultry, which became hot items as prices soared in the United States. "My advice is, don't bring them over," said CBP supervisory agriculture specialist Charles Payne. Or, he advised, if you do, declare them so you won't be fined. As of the end of December, 30 eggs in Juarez, Mexico, cost $3.40 — far less than what a dozen cost in the United States.
A real-life Gilligan
Dominican sailor Elvis Francois, 47, was rescued by the Colombian Navy on Jan. 18 after surviving 24 days drifting near the island of St. Martin in the Netherlands Antilles, NPR reported. Francois said he had been making repairs to a sailboat when currents swept it out to sea. He scrawled "help" on the boat's hull, then survived on a bottle of ketchup, garlic powder, seasoning cubes and collected rainwater while he hoped to be rescued. "There was nothing else to do but sit and wait," he said. He finally caught the attention of an airplane by signaling with a mirror. "I thank the coast guard. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be telling the story," he said.
Special delivery
Carrier pigeons have been couriers of legitimate and nefarious items for centuries, but officials at the Pacific Institution in Abbotsford, British Columbia, nonetheless were stunned when a gray bird with a tiny backpack landed in a fenced inmate prison yard on Dec. 29. The CBC reported that officers "had to corner it," according to John Randle, Pacific regional president of the Union for Canadian Correctional Officers. They were able to remove the backpack, which contained about 30 grams of crystal meth. "We've been focusing so much on drone interdiction ... Now we have to look at, I guess, pigeons again," Randle said.
Seeing the light
When Minnechaug Regional High School in Wilbraham, Mass., was built in 2012, the district installed a high-tech lighting system that was intended to save on energy costs, NBC News reported. But the software that controls the lights failed on Aug. 24, 2021, and every light in the school has been on since. Aaron Osbourne, the assistant superintendent for the district, said the glitch is costing taxpayers "in the thousands of dollars per month on average." But help finally is on the way. Parts from China have arrived, with repairs expected to be completed within a month.
Repeat offender
An unnamed 62-year-old man from Garfield Heights, Ohio, was arrested — for the 70th time — in early January after he allegedly stole a shopping cart full of packaged meat from a Walmart intending to sell it to restaurants, WJW-TV reported. Police caught up with him in the store's parking lot, where he was transferring the meat to a suitcase — which also turned out to be stolen — so he could take it into restaurants, where he sold the meat for half-price. He was booked for theft — again.
Send your weird news items with subject line Weird News to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.
