Odd News
Doctors find spider crawling in woman’s ear
A Spider
A woman went to a clinic after struggling to sleep for days – where doctors found a spider crawling around inside her ear.
The 64-year-old, from Taiwan, felt movement in her left ear for several nights in April, followed by clicking and rustling, before deciding to visit doctors.
Doctors then found a small spider moving around her ear canal upon examination. It had discarded its exoskeleton – otherwise known as its hard body covering – nearby.
Dr Tengchin Wang, director of the otolaryngology department at Tainan Municipal Hospital, told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News doctors then used a tube to suction out the spider and exoskeleton.
He added the woman “didn’t feel pain because the spider was very small” at around two to three millimetres.
But as it was the first case he had seen of an insect moulting inside a human’s ear, he wrote a case report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr Wang also urged the public to get checked if they have the same symptoms.
Dr David Kasle, a physician at ENT Sinus and Allergy of South Florida, said the image of the insect from Dr Wang’s report was “unusual and disturbing”.
But he added the average ear, nose and throat specialist will see “tens, if not more, of bugs or some sort of arthropod” in patients’ ears over their career.
—Sky News
Odd News
Loose goat evades pursuing police in Georgia
Police in Georgia are hot on the trail of a ‘hoofed Houdini’ — an escaped goat spotted running loose in Duluth.
The Duluth Police Department said on social media that numerous calls came on Tuesday, reporting a loose goat ‘trotting’ on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard ‘like it had somewhere very important to be.’
“Officers responded and attempted to corral the hoofed Houdini as it made its way toward Albion Farm Road, where it hopped a few fences and outsmarted us by disappearing into backyards,” the post said.
Police suspect the goat might be the same animal seen running loose recently in Suwanee.
“Apparently, it had unfinished business in Duluth,” police wrote.
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,”
