Odd News
Man returning from daughter’s birthday party dies after GPS directs him off broken bridge
Phil Paxson was driving home after his daughter’s birthday
A man from North Carolina, US, died after his car fell into a river while he was following his Global Positioning System (GPS).
The father of two was returning from his daughter’s birthday when the navigation system directed him to a bridge that was destroyed years ago.
The incident took place in the Hickory City of North Carolina on September 30. Phil Paxson, 47, was driving home after celebrating his daughter’s ninth birthday. He was taking directions from a GPS that night, Mr Paxson’s mother-in-law Linda McPhee Koenig shared in a Facebook post.
Ms Koenig stated that the navigation system guided Mr Paxson “down a concrete road to a bridge that dropped off into a river”. She added that the bridge had a dead end since it was destroyed nine years ago and was never repaired.
The mother-in-law alleged that the bridge did not have any safety barriers or signs that could have warned Mr Paxson about the danger.
“He will be greatly missed by his family and friends. It was a totally preventable accident. We are grieving his death,” she wrote in the post.
Following the accident, troopers said that there were barricades to warn drivers about the bridge but they were apparently removed. —ndtv.com
Odd News
Message in bottle floats from Canada to Ireland in 13 years
A message in a bottle launched by visitors to Newfoundland’s Bell Island was found washed up on an Irish beach nearly 13 years later, after apparently crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
Kate Gay said she was walking a Dingle Peninsula beach this week when she spotted the wine bottle with a sheet of paper inside.
Gay showed the bottle to members of Creative Ireland NeartnaMacharaí during a meeting at her house that evening, and they broke the bottle open.
The note, written by a couple named Brad and Anita, was dated Sept. 12, 2012. The letter described the couple’s day trip to Bell Island.
There was a phone number on the letter, but there was no answer when group members tried to call.
The Maharees Heritage and Conservation group posted photos of the bottleto social media on Monday, and within an hour group members were messaging with Anita.
Group member Martha Farrell said Anita reported that she and Brad had married in 2016 and are still together to this day. -upi.com
Odd News
Woman earns world record for collection of 15,485 egg cups
A Spanish woman who has been collecting egg cups for over 50 years earned a Guinness World Record when her collection was tallied at 15,485 items.
María José Fuster recruited two witnesses to help her tally her collection at a community center in her hometown of Campo, Spain.
Fuster’s collection includes multiple patterns, colors, designs and even novelty cups bearing the images of characters including Superman, Betty Boop and Garfield.
Fuster maintains two blogs related to her hobby — one to catalog each piece, and one to list the names of the people who have donated egg cups to her collection.
Some of her most prized egg cups, about 1,143 of them, are currently on display at a local museum.
-upi.com
