Odd News
Police search for rapist thought to be dead
South African police announced on Monday that they were looking for a fugitive serial killer and rapist, whom they thought had been dead since May 2022 and the discovery of a charred corpse in his prison cell in Bloemfontein, where he was serving his sentence.
DNA analysis determined that the victim was not Thabo Bester, South African police revealed over the weekend.
“At this time, our priority is to find this fugitive and establish how exactly he made up his own death,” police spokeswoman Athlenda Mathe told AFP on Monday.
Nicknamed “the Facebook rapist” for luring his victims through the social network – at least one of them had been killed – Thabo Bester was sentenced in 2012 to life in prison.
On Sunday, the police revealed that according to the autopsy, the victim found in his cell had succumbed to a violent blow to the head, before his body was set on fire. A new murder investigation has been opened.
The case has caused a stir in South Africa where women’s rights associations regularly criticize the government for its inability to curb violence against women.
“The scenario of this story is like a movie and sends shivers down your spine. I can imagine how it was received by its victims”, lamented Bafana Khumalo, co-director of the NGO Sonke Gender Justice.
Between October and December 2022, the police recorded no less than 12,000 rapes in the country.
It was local media, GroundUp, which first raised doubts in November 2022 about Bester’s death. Since then, photographs have emerged showing the convict shopping in a shopping centre in an upscale neighborhood of Johannesburg.
And several women have publicly claimed that the serial rapist contacted them via social media.
Prior to his escape, Bester had reportedly managed to run a media scam from his cell under a false identity. A video, which has gone viral, shows him speaking to a company by videoconference where he claims to be in New York. –Africanews
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,”
