LocalNet - Offbeat News

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Police recover a swallowed FabergÃ© pendant after a 6-day wait for it to reappear

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand Police said Friday they have recovered a James Bond-inspired Fabergé pendant after six days of closely watching the man accused of swallowing the jewelry in an Auckland store.

They said the pendant was recovered Thursday night after it exited the suspect's gastrointestinal tract naturally without medical intervention.

The limited-edition, Fabergé egg pendant was inspired by the 1983 James Bond film “Octopussy," in which a jewel-smuggling operation involves a fake Fabergé egg.

A less glamorous photo supplied by... Read More

Lifeguards rescue dog swept out to sea by rip current off San Diego coast

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A pup that was swept out to sea by a rip current must be feeling doggone lucky after her unlikely rescue off the San Diego coast.

Sadie, a black Labrador retriever-mix, stole away from the home where her owners were staying during a football game last month, the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department said in a social media post. While her owners tracked Sadie down the coast using an Airtag on her collar, surfers in Ocean Beach alerted lifeguards that a dog had been swept into the rip current near the jetty, officials said.

A U.S. Coast Guard boat and... Read More

Detroit's own crime-fighter RoboCop finally stands guard in Motor City

DETROIT (AP) — RoboCop has finally found a permanent home in Detroit.

A statue looming 11 feet tall (3.3 meters) and weighing 3,500 pounds (1,587 kilograms) has been drawing fans since it began standing guard over the Motor City on Wednesday afternoon, after about 15 years in the making. Even in a snowstorm in the dark, people were driving by to see it, said Jim Toscano, co-owner of the FREE AGE film production company where the bronze-cast statue now stands bolted near the sidewalk.

“RoboCop” hit theaters in 1987, portraying a near-future Detroit as crime-ridden... Read More

A seal galumphs into a bar. The bartender says 'Grab the salmon!'

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A seal walked into a bar. Or to use a technical term, it galumphed.

The creature was apparently lost, curious and well below New Zealand ’s legal drinking age. It lodged itself under the dishwasher and showed no interest in calling a cab.

It was a wet, lazy Sunday evening when the baby fur seal waddled into the Sprig + Fern The Meadows craft beer bar in Richmond, at the top of New Zealand’s South Island. Accustomed to seeing animals in the pet-friendly bar, co-owner Bella Evans assumed the visitor was a dog before she took a closer... Read More

Decades-old palm trees in Rio de Janeiro flower for the first â and only â time

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Towering talipot palms in a Rio de Janeiro park are flowering for the first and only time in their lives, decades after famed Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx introduced them in the 1960s.

Towards the end of its life — which can span between 40 and 80 years — the palm tree sends up a central plume crowded with millions of small, creamy-white blossoms that rise high above its fan-shaped leaves.

The rare phenomenon that ties past to present has sparked the curiosity of passersby in Flamengo Park who stop, crane their necks to... Read More