Tourists and father-son duos looking for out-of-this-world bonding experiences are paying up to $50,000 for the opportunity to "hunt" feral hogs from helicopters in Texas, sometimes using machine guns. "There's only so many places in the world you can shoot machine guns out of a helicopter and no one shoots back," said HeliBacon company co-owner Chris Britt. Texas passed the "pork-chopper" bill in 2011 allowing aerial hunting of feral hogs, and in May, legislators approved hunting from hot-air balloons, which are quieter and give hunters a steadier shot.

Pre-existing condition

Enterprising mother Jeannine Isom in Cedar Hills, Utah, took her 7-year-old son's dental care into her own hands in June when she purchased hand sanitizer and needle-nose pliers at Walmart, then ushered her son into the store's restroom and pulled out two of his teeth. Police were alerted after the boy's older brother heard him screaming. The mother was charged with felony child abuse.

Sweet revenge

A frustrated victim of bedbugs in Augusta, Maine, reacted to city inaction by bringing a cup of bedbugs to a municipal office building and slamming it down on the counter, scattering about 100 insects and forcing the closure of several offices as officials scrambled to contain them. The apartment dweller had requested help finding other housing, but city officials told him he didn't qualify.

Compelling explanation

College student Lydia Marie Cormaney almost made it out of a Gillette, Wyo., Walmart with more than $2,000 worth of merchandise without paying for it. When police arrived, she was ready with a reason: She was doing research about kleptomania, which also explained the stockpile of stolen items in her dorm room. However, as she was enrolled in only a biology class at Gillette College, it was unclear what she planned to do with the results of her study.

Prom to remember

A stretch limo wasn't posh enough for Saudia Shuler, a Philadelphia mom who wanted to make her son's high school prom memorable. Instead, she spent $25,000 creating a Dubai-themed prom night, including three tons of sand and a camel (for pre-prom photos). The lucky senior took not one but three dates to the dance, who along with him wore designer clothes and accessories. Shuler also sprang for a rented Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce and Range Rover.

Ewwwwww!

Thailand's Scorpion Queen, who holds the Guinness World Record for holding a scorpion in her mouth (3 minutes and 28 seconds), shocked onlookers in June as she let scorpions crawl all over her body and in and out of her mouth as part of a show in Pattaya, a city on the Gulf of Thailand. Kanchana Kaetkaew also holds the record for cohabiting with 5,000 scorpions in a 12-meter-square glass enclosure for 33 days.

Least competent criminal

Baggy bluejeans were the ill-fated getaway vehicle for 15 quart-size bottles of Pennzoil motor oil and 30 DVDs of "Treasure Hunt" in a badly planned theft in Lakeland, Fla. William Jason Hall, 38, stuffed the loot into his pants inside a 7-Eleven store without realizing that a detective in an unmarked police car outside was watching him.

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