When Victoria Amith, 18, headed to college last fall, she couldn't take along her beloved cats, Tina and Louise. And her dad, Troy Good, 43, couldn't keep them at his new apartment in San Jose, Calif. So rather than abandon them, Good did what any doting daddy would do: He rented them an apartment of their own. Tina and Louise now live the good life in a 400-square-foot studio apartment behind the Willow Glen home of David Callisch, who told the San Jose Mercury News: "They're very quiet, obviously. The only problem is they stink up the place." Good pays $1,500 a month rent, and Callisch stops in every day to feed and play with the kitties.

Empty promises

On Jan. 1, Curtis Brooner filed a lawsuit claiming a Burger King in Wood Village, Ore., reneged on its promise following a traumatic incident on Dec. 15. KATU-TV reports Brooner was having lunch at the fast-food joint that day when he became locked in the restroom. Employees provided him with a fly swatter to use to wrench the door open, but Brooner cut his hand on it, and the lawsuit says employees laughed at Brooner from the other side of the door. It wasn't until an hour later, when a locksmith arrived, that he was set free. "To make things right," said Brooner's attorney, Michael Fuller, "the Burger King manager offered [Brooner] free food for the rest of his life" at that restaurant — and followed through for a few weeks. But eventually the regional manager ended it. Brooner's suit seeks damages of $9,026.16 — the price of one burger meal per week for the next 22 years. "There are funny elements of the case," Fuller told KATU, "but there is nothing funny about being locked in a dank bathroom for an hour."

Love gone wrong

It was love at first ... arrest, for 27-year-old Ashley Keister of Nanticoke, Pa., when she was apprehended by a West Wyoming, Pa, police officer last year. Ever since, Police Chief Curtis Nocera told the Associated Press, Keister had been harassing the officer with sexual messages on social media and would call 911 just to talk with him. On Jan. 7, police said, Keister took her infatuation a step further, using a large cigarette butt receptacle to break through the door of the West Wyoming police station around 1 a.m., where she rummaged through filing cabinets. Keister was caught on surveillance video and was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, burglary and vandalism.

Crime report

Isaias Garcia, 30, of Garland, Texas, pleaded guilty in a Bridgeport, Conn., courtroom on Jan. 10 to reduced charges stemming from a bizarre kidnapping scheme last April. Garcia had abducted a 21-year-old Fairfield man and was demanding $800 in ransom, the man's aunt and father reported to police on April 6. Police told the aunt to request a photo to guarantee the young man was still alive, and when the photo arrived by text, ctpost.com reported, it showed the victim lying facedown in a bathtub with a 3-foot-long alligator on top of him, mouth open. In a subsequent phone call, the victim told his aunt: "Titi, man they got this alligator on me and they saying that if no money is given they are gonna have him chewing on me." Police and the FBI traced the phone calls to a hotel room, where Garcia was apprehended.

Bright idea

In Williamson County, Texas, Sheriff Robert Chody has employed a new cadre of deputies to help deter speeding. Interestingly, they all look alike. The cardboard cutouts, which Chody has placed along roads where speeding is common, depict one of the department's real-life deputies pointing a radar device at the roadway. "It's a creative way to solve the problem without really working the problem," he told KTCB-TV. "Slow down because you never know if it's the real deal or not." The sheriff said he tested the idea in school zones and, "We didn't get one speeder."

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