Weird News

Vulture shock in Philly home
Philadelphia, Pa. ---------------  If this keeps up, Philadelphians might want to consider renaming their football team.
                                                    The city's Department of Licenses and Inspections was set to demolish a long-vacant home that residents say has become home to a committee of turkey vultures.  Yes, a group of the birds ---- sometimes also called buzzards ---- is known as a "committee." 
                                                    Christina Ali-Bey says she lives next door to the home and can hear the vultures scratching and walking around all night long, "Like a horror movie."
                                                    She even afraid the birds will scoop up her tiny dog, Rocco, a teacup Yorke.  Other residents see the birds regularly picking through their trash.
                                                    The birds are a protected species, so it's illegal to harm or kill them.  Residents hope demolition forces them to move.

Can I get directions to the swamp?
Tampa, Fla. --------------------    A Florida family thought someone was trying to break into their apartment when they heard knocking sounds at 4 a.m.
                                                    It turns out a 5-foot alligator was outside their front door.  And so were Tampa police officers.
                                                    Police and Florida Fish and Wildlife officers caught the gator and returned it to the wild.
                                                    It was the second such alligator-knocking incident in the South in recent weeks.
                                                   Earlier this month a gator wandered into a neighborhood near Charleston, S.C., and appeared to reach for the doorbell at one home.  The incident was caught on video by a resident.

Playing opossum in the bathroom
San Diego ---------------------     The San Diego County Department of Animal Services says a baby opossum is doing well after being rescued from a toilet.
                                                   The soaking wet little creature is seen in photos posted on the department's Facebook page.
                                                   The agency says a Pacific Beach woman found the critter in her toilet on May 1 and Animal Control Officer Carlos Wallis responded and took it to the San Diego Humane Society's Project Wildlife.  It will be released when it is old enough to survive on its own.

And the money was fake, too!
Kochville Township, Mich.     A Michigan man is facing charges after a stripper was paid with a counterfeit $100 bill following a lap dance.
                                                   Stephen Gidcumb, 32, is charged with intentionally passing counterfeit notes, Police tell the Detroit News that fake bills were mixed with real $100 bills.
                                                   MLive.com reports the man arrested May 13 after returning to the strip club in Kockville Township, near Saginaw, later that day.  Chief Assistant Saginaw prosecutor Christopher Boyd says club workers were "on the lookout" for Gidcumb.
                                                    Other fake bills were found at his Mount Morris home.  Boyd says they were made on a computer.