Bradley Bell, head writer for "The Bold and the Beautiful," told the New York Post the show is experimenting with using blowup dolls in love scenes as the daytime soap, in hiatus since March, resumed taping on June 17. Challenged to adhere to COVID-19 protocols, Bell said, "We put our heads together trying to figure out a way to make these scenes work without breaking the 8-foot [distancing] rule ... and we brought out a doll we used years ago as a corpse." The result, he said, "was very convincing. ... We'll be using her with hair and makeup as a stand-in to match some of our leading ladies." The show has also recruited some of the actors' spouses as body doubles. "We've had stunt doubles before," Bell said, "but this is the first time we've had kissing doubles."

In search of justice

Car buyer Da Tong Yang of Richmond, British Columbia, became so frustrated with his local Mercedes-Benz dealership that in January he flew to the company's headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, to seek help. Yang bought his wife a new S550 in 2017, partly because he believed the $155,000 car to be one of the safest vehicles available, but a year later, the couple claimed, the steering wheel locked, causing the car to nearly crash into a concrete wall. Mercedes-Benz said an "internal electrical issue" was at fault and assured the couple it was fixed. Yang wasn't convinced, demanded his money back or a replacement car, then sued the company when it declined. The case has languished in court, prompting Yang's trip to Stuttgart in early June "to find justice, not only for him but also for other drivers," he told the Richmond News. Despite his personal appearance, litigation is still underway.

No good deed goes unpunished

An unnamed 66-year-old woman in Ewing, N.J., gave $1 to a man begging in a drugstore parking lot on June 18 and became the victim of a carjacking, according to the Associated Press. Ewing police said Tomasz Dymek, 31, of Queens, "was not satisfied with the dollar, so he forced his way into the victim's vehicle and drove from the lot, sitting on top of her in the driver's seat." Witnesses alerted police, who followed Dymek into Fairless Hills, Pa., where the car broke down and officers arrested him.

Most ambitious criminals

• Donnovan Russell Jester, 28, of Largo, Fla., was arrested on June 18 for grand theft of a vessel — a $900,000, 46-foot-long yacht. The Tampa Bay Times reported the theft took place March 20 at Thunder Marine, where Pinellas County deputies said the 2019 Jeanneau Leader was stolen and driven into four channel-marker pilings, doing about $60,000 worth of damage, before being abandoned to drift in an oyster bed. Investigators found Jester's thumbprint on a cabin door.

• At 1:28 a.m. on June 20, airport air traffic control in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., contacted police about a distress call coming from an aircraft. Officers already at the airport trying to locate a car they believed had been stolen from Daytona Beach found Robert Stienstra, 22, of DeBary, Fla., sitting in the airplane on the airport apron, according to an arrest report. Stienstra asked an officer whether he knew how to fly a plane, the report stated, then explained that he had recently purchased the aircraft (valued at $1 million) for $20,000 and needed to fly to California to take marijuana and meet his girlfriend. The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported that along with a bag of weed, Stienstra had in his possession a glass pipe with remnants of methamphetamine and other drug paraphernalia.

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