Fujikawaguchiko, Japan, is a town built on tourism. So it says a lot that the town has started constructing a large black screen to stop visitors from using a sidewalk to view and photograph Mount Fuji in the distance. The Associated Press reported that construction began April 30 on the screen, which will be 8 feet high and 65 feet long. "I welcome many visitors," said Michie Motomochi, the owner of a cafe in the city. "but there are many things about their manners that are worrying," such as littering, crossing the road in traffic, ignoring traffic lights and trespassing. The town has reportedly tried other tactics — signs in multiple languages and security guards — to no avail.

Strange coincidence

The latest plane failure story — about the emergency slide that fell off a Boeing 767 leaving JFK Airport — gets a "whodathunkit" follow-up, the New York Post reported. On April 28, the slide washed up right in front of the Queens beachside home of Jake Bissell-Linsk, the attorney who filed a federal lawsuit against Boeing after the Alaska Airlines door blowout in January. "I didn't want to touch it, but I got close enough to get a close look at it," Bissell-Linsk said. He said a Delta Airlines crew arrived a few hours later and threw the slide into the back of a truck. "We haven't decided if the slide is relevant to our case," he said

Zebras on the run

Four zebras made a break from a trailer at a highway exit in Washington state on April 28, the New York Times reported. Kristine Keltgen was hauling them to her petting zoo in Montana when the latch on the trailer became loose, and the zebras "bolted out." David Danton of Mount Vernon, Wash., a former rodeo clown and bullfighter, happened to be driving by with his wife and stopped to help police round up the animals. "It was kind of divine intervention," Danton's wife said. Danton built a makeshift chute leading to a horse pen on a nearby farm. "It's just about being quiet, working them gentle and not getting excited," he said.

Monster report

Ashley Class of Charlotte was stumped by her toddler's reports of monsters in the wall of her bedroom, NPR reported. For months, the youngster told her mom she could hear something, but Class chalked it up to the stress of a new baby in the house. She and her husband deployed "monster spray" (water), but their daughter's concerns remained. Finally, Class called a pest control specialist, who discovered behind the wall a 100-pound honeycomb and about 50,000 bees. The bees were removed, but not before they had done tens of thousands of dollars in damage.

Call waiting

A convict in a Karnataka, India, prison, acted quickly to hide his smuggled-in cellphone when guards raided his cell in early April, The Indian Express reported. The convicted murderer, identified only as Parashuram, 38, swallowed the phone. When he started complaining of stomach pain, he was transferred to a hospital, where surgeons removed the phone, which was stuck at the entrance of the small intestine.

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