Weird News

Spider invasion in Missouri home
Weldon Spring, Mo. ---------------- A family was driven from their suburban St. Louis home by thousands of venomous spiders that fell from the ceiling and oozed from the walls.
                                                          Brian and Susan Trost bought the $450,000 home overlooking two golf holes at Whitmoor Country Club in Weldon Spring in October 2007 and soon afterward started seeing brown recluse spriders everywhere, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
                                                          The home, now owned by the Federal National Mortgage Association, was covered with nine tarps this week and workers filled it with a gas that permeated the walls to kill the spiders and their eggs.
                                                          "There'll be nothing alive in there after this," said Tim McCarthy, president of the company hired to fix the problem.

When your gargoyles go missing
Worcester, Mass. ------------------ Church officials and preservationists are trying to figure out what happened to several 1 1/2-ton gargoyles from a Massachusetts church.
                                                        The church in Worcester is a one-fifth-scale replica of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.  It was built in the 1890s and was formely known as the Chestnut Street Congregational Church.  It now is owned by an Assembly of God congregation and is on the market for $2.5 million.
                                                         The crumbling building was slated for demolition a decade ago but was saved with the help of Preservation Worcester.
                                                          The group's director told the Telegram & Gazette the 3,000-pound gargoyles were removed for safety reasons.  The company's assets were sold at auction, and the fear is the gargoyles were, too.

Don't question the King's rings
Bloomfield, N.M. ------------------- A New Mexico man is suing Burger King after he says a manager attacked him for complaining about cold onion rings.
                                                         KRQE-TV reports the lawsuit filed in state district court says Robert Deyapp was assaulted in June 2013 when he told a manager at the fast-food restaurant in the northwestern New Mexico city of Bloomfield about his cold order.
                                                         The lawsuit claims that when Deyapp asked for a refund, manager Francisco Berrera lunged at him with a stun gun and switchblade.

We forgive you, news-napper
Lakeland, Fla. ---------------------- Some 54 years after stealing several newspaper racks, a U.S. Navy veteran has sent a letter of apology and a check for $200 to the Ledger of Lakeland, Fla.
                                                         Bernard Schermerhorn says he's followed the rules for most of his 73 years, but caved to peer pressure as a teenager and went along with a friend's scheme to steal several racks from the Ledger.
                                                         Schermerhorn, who lives in Le Mesa, Calif., told the newspaper the check would more than cover the damage and theft of about $10.
                                                         Publisher Kevin Drake says he's sending Schermerhorn a thank-you letter and will donate the money.