The Rev. Alex Santora of Our Lady of Grace Church in Hoboken, N.J., called local police on March 14 when a suspicious package was delivered to the house of worship. But after officers from the Hoboken Police Department declared it to be safe, church staff found a surprising delivery inside: a baby Jesus statue that had been stolen from the church's Nativity scene about 90 years ago. WPIX-TV reported that an unsigned note inside the package explained: The statue was stolen when the note writer's mother was a young girl, and it became a sort of heirloom in her family. When she died, it was passed on to the note writer, who thought it should be returned.

Canine crisis

In the same week that a dog died after a United Airlines flight attendant insisted that it be stored in an overhead compartment on a flight from Houston to New York City, another family's pet was lost by the beleaguered carrier. Irgo, a 10-year-old German shepherd belonging to the Swindle family, was mistakenly sent to Japan instead of Kansas City. When Kara Swindle and her children went to pick up their dog March 13 after flying from Oregon, they were given a Great Dane — whose destination was supposed to be Japan. The dogs got mixed up in Denver, where they both had connecting flights. Swindle was concerned that her dog wouldn't survive the long flight back: "He is a 10-year-old dog, and he's never been on a flight before," she told KCTV 5 News. However, United had Irgo checked out by a veterinarian in Tokyo and loaded onto a private charter to Wichita, Kan., where he was reunited with his family on March 15.

I am not dead yet!

Constantin Reliu, 63, appealed unsuccessfully to a court in Barlad, Romania, in March to overturn a death certificate that his wife had obtained after not hearing from him for more than a decade. According to the Guardian, Reliu left Romania for Turkey in 1992 to look for employment, but neglected to keep in touch with his family. In 2003, Reliu's wife, believing he had died in an earthquake in Turkey, argued in court for a death certificate, which didn't come to light until Reliu was deported back to Romania because of expired papers in Turkey. Upon his arrival, immigration officers explained to Reliu that he had died in 2003. His appeal failed, as the court maintained he was too late, and the ruling is final, leaving Reliu in an odd state of limbo. "I am officially dead, although I'm alive," Reliu told Romanian media outlets. "I have no income and because I am listed dead, I can't do anything."

Least competent criminals

Siblings Antoine Dorsey, 23, and Antoinette Dorsey, 27, of St. Louis cooked up a clever scheme to steal a car. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that on March 14, the two went to Joe-K Used Cars and asked to test drive a 2012 Dodge Charger. The salesman drove them off the lot, and the Dorseys asked him to drive to their apartment building so they could retrieve their IDs. In the parking lot of the apartment, Antoinette got out of the car, and an unidentified person drove up next to the Charger in a Volvo and got into the Charger, pulling a gun on the salesman and demanding he get out of the car. Then the man with the gun got back into the Volvo and drove away, while Antoine took off in the Charger. However, Antoine crashed and flipped the Charger, then was tracked down by police aided by witnesses to the wreck. Both siblings were charged with first-degree robbery.

News of the Weird is compiled by the editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication. Send your weird news items to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.