The Wedding Ceremony | News of the Weird | Salt Lake City Weekly

The Wedding Ceremony 

A weekly roundup of international news oddities.

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Wait, What?
Akihiko Kondo, 35, of Tokyo, spent $18,000 on a Nov. 4 wedding ceremony to marry the love of his life, Hatsune Miku—a computer-generated hologram with big eyes and long, turquoise hair. Kondo told Reuters he found Hatsune Miku, who has thousands of fans around the world, singing on the internet. The wedding ceremony included traditions such as the exchange of rings (hers was placed on the finger of a stuffed doll created in her image) and friends and relatives in attendance, though Kondo's parents did not attend. "I believe the shape of happiness and love is different for each person," Kondo said.

Christmas Comes Early
A Bank of America ATM in Houston was the scene of a near-riot on Nov. 25 when it began dispensing $100 bills instead of $10s, reported Click2Houston. After the first lucky driver posted his score on social media, a crowd showed up and stood in line, with a few fights and arguments breaking out over about two hours, until police were summoned and the free money was shut down. Bank of America released a statement the next day that would have galled Ebenezer Scrooge: "Customers will be able to keep the money dispensed." Turns out the blame lay with a vendor who incorrectly loaded $100 bills into the $10 slot. There was no report of how much money was withdrawn.

Least Competent Criminals
Richard Robert Langely, 46, of Kansas City, Mo., was working part time for the Platte Woods Police Department in October when he decided to take part in the department's drug take-back program. Except, according to court documents, Langely wasn't disposing of drugs; he was helping himself to pills that had been collected in Lake Waukomis. And to make matters worse, The Kansas City Star reported, his own body camera captured evidence enabling prosecutors to charge him with felony theft of a controlled substance. Langely is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 10.

• Wesley Glenn Bost, 27, of Birmingham, Ala., made quite the impression when he fell through the ceiling of a Waffle House in Tuscumbia on Nov. 4, not least because he wasn't wearing pants. Bost apparently went into the restaurant's bathroom and used his pants to tie the door shut, then, said Tuscumbia police Detective Sgt. Wes Holland, climbed into the ceiling with the intent of robbing the office. WHNT News reported that video of the incident shows Bost shoving other restaurant patrons on his way to the door, which was being held shut by people outside, before hitting the door with his shoulder and falling to the floor. Finally he managed to flee ... without his trousers ... which held his driver's license.

Compelling Explanations
It happens all the time: A vehicle crashes into a building, causing damage and sometimes injury, because brakes don't function or a driver steps on the wrong pedal. In the case of Keith Rio Cavalier, 28, however, there was more to the story. WLOX reported that Cavalier drove his 1997 Toyota Tacoma into a glass wall at the Harrison County Courthouse in Gulfport, Miss., on Nov. 10 at around 6 a.m. The building was empty, so there were no injuries, and Cavalier can be clearly seen on surveillance video climbing out of the truck and leaving the scene. When police caught up to him, Cavalier told them he intentionally struck the building in order to report drug paraphernalia had been stolen from him. It will come as no surprise that Cavalier was found to have been driving under the influence and arrested; he was held at the county jail on $25,000 bond.

Picky, Picky
A referee in a Women's Super League soccer match in Manchester City, England, stayed cool at the start of the televised game on Oct. 26 when he realized he'd forgotten his coin for the kickoff coin toss. Thinking quickly, David McNamara had the captains of the Manchester City and Reading teams play "Rock, Paper, Scissors" instead. But the Football Association, soccer's governing body in England, was unamused, and on Nov. 26, McNamara began a 21-day suspension after accepting a charge of "not acting in the best interests of the game," according to the BBC. An FA refereeing manager said: "He should have been more prepared. ... It's very unprofessional."

What Is Fame?
Former Toronto Blue Jays star Jose Bautista has another honor to add to his résumé, thanks to entomologist Bob Anderson of the Canadian Museum of Nature. On Nov. 22, reported the Associated Press, Anderson named a newly discovered species of beetle after the star third baseman and right fielder. Sicoderus bautistai is a small black weevil found in the Dominican Republic, where Bautista hails from. "I thought what a great way to kind of recognize (Bautista's) contributions to Blue Jays baseball and to Canadian baseball, really, as a whole," Anderson said. The scientist has named about 120 weevils over his career.

Awesome!
Katherine Leigh Mehta, 26, of Arlington, Texas, accepted a gig to photograph a wedding at The Springs Event Venue in Weatherford on Nov. 24. But she became the star of the show when wedding guests discovered her having sex with another guest in a room at the venue, according to WSRZ Radio. A security guard summoned Parker County Sheriff's deputies, who found Mehta yelling by a fountain on the property, according to their report. She then walked to a tree and urinated. While she waited in the back of the patrol car, Mehta screamed: "Y'all families will be dead by Christmas. Y'alls daughters are dead. My dad is going to find out about this, and y'all are ... dead. D-E-A-D." At the jail, officers found a bottle of anxiety pills, which they believe she mixed with alcohol, causing her erratic behavior. She faces charges of public intoxication and obstruction/retaliation.

• All good things must come to an end, and so it seems for Robert Craig Davis, 70, of Key Largo, Fla. Drivers in South Florida had reported seeing a Chrysler Pacifica minivan rigged with a clever device that lowered a black cloth over its license plate each time it drove through an automated toll plaza. But on Nov. 17, according to flkeysnews.com, an off-duty Florida highway patrolman spotted the vehicle as it passed through the Bird Road toll plaza and he alerted his fellow troopers. Sgt. Carlos Vanegas soon stopped Davis, according to the arrest report, and found a remote control device used to operate the license plate cover. "The actions of the defendant showed an ongoing course of conduct with intent to defraud the SunPass toll system," trooper Dennis Gallo wrote in his report. Davis was charged with organized fraud and petit theft.

Crime Report
Suspected car prowler Isaiah John Gellatly, 31, of Vancouver, Wash., was going about his business late on Nov. 19 when Happy Valley police were called, according to Fox12 News. Responding officers found Gellatly lying fully reclined in the driver's seat of a Honda Accord matching the suspect vehicle's description. Suddenly Gellatly sat up and sped away, leading to a pursuit and the use of spike strips. As his ability to control the car decreased, police said, Gellatly opened his door to flee, but forgot to put the Honda in park, so it rolled alongside him as he ran. Eventually he tried to run in front of it, as the car hit a tree, a building—and Gellatly, breaking one of his legs. Suspected stolen items found in the car included a tennis racket, a Ping-Pong paddle and a Texas Instruments calculator, begging the question: Was it worth a broken leg?

Send tips to weirdnewstips@amuniversal.com

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