News of the Weird: Leapin' lizards, check out this smuggler

U.S. border agents at the San Ysidro crossing in California stopped a 30-year-old man driving a truck on Feb. 25 as he attempted to cross from Mexico, the Associated Press reported on March 8. In searching the truck, agents found 52 live reptiles — not so weird, except they were "concealed in the man's jacket, pants pockets and groin area," Customs and Border Protection said in a statement. Agents found nine snakes and 43 lizards, some of them endangered species. The driver was a U.S. citizen.

Some romantic relationships are full of drama and strife, so maybe Sandra, 28, of Budapest, Hungary, has come up with a better system. According to Oddity Central, Sandra has fallen for a plastic model of an airplane that she has named Luffancs. After breaking up with her latest human boyfriend in January, Sandra bought Luffancs for $660 and fell madly in love. "I don't know why I love him, I just love him," she said. Sandra works in the aviation industry and is around airplanes every day, but she said she will never cheat on Luffancs. In fact, she doesn't know if she'll ever date another human being. "Planes are more reliable as partners," she said.

Three Michigan men ice fishing in a homemade shanty on Saginaw Bay on March 6 went for the ride of their lives when winds nearing 50 miles per hour pushed their structure more than a mile across the ice, the Associated Press reported. The men had spent the previous night in the shanty and were aware that a storm was approaching, but thought they could ride it out. But the next morning, someone onshore saw one of them struggling with the hut as it scooted over the ice. Deputies eventually caught up to the wayward shanty and helped the men, who were unharmed, to shore.

As construction crews worked to remodel the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland, Calif., on March 9, they made an alarming discovery, NBC News reported. The building, which has been out of use since 2005, was the final resting place for "an unidentified, decayed body," said Lt. Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. "We found remains best described as mummified," he said. "The conditions in the walls were such that the body was preserved in good condition." He said authorities will obtain fingerprints to try to identify the deceased. "Any theory is possible," Kelly said, "from someone who got in behind the wall and became trapped ... to someone put the person there."

On March 3 in a quiet Denver neighborhood, someone broke into a truck parked along a street and stole a box marked "Science Care," KDVR-TV reported. Inside the box were a number of human heads that were being transported for use in medical research. The thieves also stole a dolly. Isaac Fields, who lives nearby, was perplexed: Why was the truck parked in his neighborhood? Where was the driver? Why would someone steal human remains? Police wouldn't provide many details because the case is still open.

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