Odd & Interesting

As the setting sun left a yellow tinge on dirt-colored cactuses as far as the eye could see, park ranger Anna Roberts gave us a lesson on what we were about to hunt.

Emergency workers caught an unusual prowler lurking around rooftops in northern France: a black panther.

Officials have a warning after a Colorado Springs woman put an injured bobcat in her car, inches away from where her child was in a safety seat: Don’t pick up wildlife.

Utah police used their vehicle sirens to drive a 2-year-old bear up a tree after its presence in a northern Utah town caused traffic delays Wednesday morning.

Two suspects are being penalized after they allegedly stole a life-sized cutout of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, then crashed their getaway car.

A cat-like creature in Oregon’s coastal forests that’s so rare it was once thought to be extinct can no longer be hunted, trapped or collected as roadkill under new rules that could go into effect as soon as next week, officials said Monday.

Events involving thousands of Earthlings answering an internet buzz about an invitation to "Storm Area 51" in the Nevada desert have been mostly festive, with crowds numbering in the low thousands and few arrests, officials said.

Seaside New England is known for rocky shores, seafood shacks, chance whale sightings and, in recent months, lots of gooey, tentacled blobs.

A pastor wearing a colander on his head offered the opening prayer on behalf of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to open a local government meeting in Alaska, the latest blessing from a nontraditional church since a court ruling.

Visitors descending on the remote Nevada desert for “Storm Area 51” are from Earth, not outer space.

Police in Lincoln say a 19-year-old woman sparked an apartment fire Monday by burning love letters from her ex in her bedroom.

Two Dutch tourists who told authorities they wanted to take video of Area 51 have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor trespass and illegal parking following their arrests at a different secure U.S. government site in Nevada.

Officials say a mountain lion wandered inside a California house and was captured in a photo lying on a bathroom floor.

Authorities say a man and a woman who were stopped for drunken bicycling in a Florida beach town had sex in a deputy’s patrol car before one of them fled naked.

Police in South Florida say thieves stole up to $80,000 in merchandise from a wig warehouse.

Two Swiss women have recreated Homer Simpson’s gourmandizing tour of New Orleans, snarf for snarf, finger-wiggle for finger-wiggle.

California authorities have captured an emu after the flightless fugitive led officers down a highway.

Swarms of dragonflies are taking over several western Pennsylvania communities and have even showed up on weather radar.

You stink, stay out! That’s the message from one Mississippi Delta convenience store to workers at a neighboring soybean oil mill.

A unique solid gold toilet that was part of an art exhibit was stolen early Saturday from the magnificent home in England where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born.

A pigeon apparently didn’t think much of a lawmaker’s ideas to address a messy situation at a Chicago Transit Authority stop known by some as “pigeon poop station.”

A suspended New York judge has pleaded guilty to attempted burglary for trying to sneak into a neighbor’s home to steal her underwear.

A worker has found what’s believed to be a Civil War cannonball lodged in a Kansas City area tree that he was hired to take down.

Authorities in Virginia say a yak on its way to the butcher’s shop escaped to the nearby mountains avoiding animal control officers and treats trying to lure it back into a trailer.

Authorities in Delaware say a Cheetos bag carried by a suspected drug dealer contained smack, not a snack.