Vaev, a Los Angeles-based internet startup, is offering consumers the "luxury to choose" when to become sick with a cold, gushes 34-year-old Oliver Niessen, the company's founder. For $79.99, Vaev will send you a box containing a petri dish, which houses a facial tissue used by a sick person. Niessen explained to Time magazine that the recipient wipes their nose with the provided tissue and contracts a cold virus to get it out of the way before, say, leaving on a vacation. But Charles Gerba, professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, debunked Niessen's theory: "There are more than 200 types of rhinoviruses ... getting inoculated from one doesn't protect you against all the others." He adds that Vaev's customers will never know what exactly is on the provided tissues, which Niessen says are produced by a "stable" of 10 go-to sneezers, some recruited on the internet. Still, Neissen claims to have sold about 1,000 used tissues, although the company's website currently shows the product as sold out. "We've had some supply-chain issues," Niessen said.
Gift with purchase
A shopper at a Primark store in Essex, England, was startled to discover a human bone in a sock on Dec. 10. Essex police reassured the public that the bone "did not appear to be a result of recent trauma," and it did not have any skin attached to it, according to Sky News. A Primark spokesman said the company is checking with its supplier, and "no evidence of any kind exists to suggest that any incident has occurred in the factory, so it is highly probable that this object was placed in the sock by an individual for unknown reasons."
It's good to have goals
Pavol Durdik added another Guinness world record to his collection Aug. 3 in Puchov, Slovakia, by extinguishing 62 lighted matches with his tongue within one minute, according to United Press International. In a video posted by Guinness World Records on Jan. 25, Durdik had the matches laid out in front of him and lighted each one before putting it out on his tongue. He also holds the record for most socks put on one foot within 30 seconds.
Gutsy
So much for advanced Russian security. As art lovers browsed an exhibition at Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery on Jan. 27, Euro News reported, a thief nonchalantly strolled in, plucked a 1908 landscape by Arkhip Kuindzhi off the wall, and walked out of the building. Police quickly viewed surveillance video and arrested a 31-year-old man, who admitted he hid the painting, worth an estimated $185,000, in an unfinished building nearby. The gallery was able to recover the painting and announced that "security measures have been reinforced."
Least competent criminal
Police in Austin, Texas, caught up with 19-year-old suspect Luca P. Mangiarano on Jan. 24, a month after a bank robbery in large part because of his choice in getaway vehicles. According to police, Mangiarano entered a BBVA Compass bank on Dec. 18 and handed a note to a teller, reading: "This is a robbery, please give me all your 100's and 50's in a envelope and everything will be ok." The employee did as directed and the robber left the building, then hopped on a Jump electric scooter and took off down the sidewalk. He perhaps failed to consider that the scooters are linked to GPS tracking systems and online accounts with phone numbers, e-mail addresses and credit card information, which, after police obtained them from Jump, led them to Mangiarano. Austin Detective Jason Chiappardi told the Washington Post: "We had never had a scooter involved in a robbery."
News of the Weird is compiled by the editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication. Send your weird news items to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.
