Odd News
Man unknowingly buys his own stolen car
A British man who paid more than $26,000 to replace his stolen car later discovered he had unknowingly bought his own vehicle back.
Ewan Valentine, 36, from Solihull, England, said he discovered Feb. 28 that his black 2016 Honda Civic Type-R had been stolen from its overnight parking space.
Valentine said he was distraught about the loss and hoped to replace the car with a nearly-identical vehicle.
The license plates and VIN were different from his stolen vehicle, so he didn’t think too much about the similarities until he had already paid more than $26,000 for the replacement ride.
“I started to notice some odd things when I got it home. I noticed a tent peg and some Christmas tree pines in the boot. I noticed the locking wheel nut was in a Tesco sandwich bag. I noticed some wrappers in the central storage section. All oddly similar to my stolen car,” he said.
Valentine decided to check the car’s on-board GPS and discovered it had previously been to his house, his parents’ house and even his partners’ parents’ house.
“A part of me felt sort of triumphant for a moment until I realized, actually, no, this isn’t some heroic moment; you didn’t go and get your car back; you’ve actually done something a bit stupid,” Valentine told the BBC.
He took the vehicle to a Honda dealership, where technicians confirmed the VIN was a fake and the car was indeed the one that had been stolen from Valentine.
“The first Honda technician, he pulled the physical key out, puts it straight in the door and unlocks it and he’s like, ‘Yes, it’s your car,’” Valentine said.
Valentine said he does not believe the garage that sold him the car knew it was stolen.
“The police and the Honda garage all said this was one of the best clone jobs they’d ever seen, so if it wasn’t for these little artifacts, no one would have ever known,” he said.
The car is currently being investigated by police for forensic evidence and will then be turned over to Valentine’s insurance company.
“The police are now handing the car over to my insurance company, who will either get it road legal again and in a position that it can be insured on my original policy again or pay out for the car if that costs more than the car,”
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
