News of the Weird: Sandwich fight victim hungry for justice

Javaughn J. Owens, 23, was charged with first-degree attempted murder after he got into a dispute over a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on Sept. 15, the DeKalb County (Ill.) Daily Chronicle reported. A witness told DeKalb police that Owens and another man argued about the victim “not cleaning up after themselves,” whereupon Owens swung a butter knife and struck the other man. The victim was hospitalized with a punctured intestine. Owens faces up to 60 years in prison.

In Japan, the number of people 100 or older has hit a record — 95,119, AFP reported on Sept. 17. The world’s oldest person, Tomiko Itooka of western Japan, is 116. Kiyotaka Mizuno, 110, told local media that he has “no idea at all about what’s the secret to my long life.”

About 40 feet off the coast of Miami Beach, the world’s first underwater cemetery is already home to about 1,500 “placements,” ClickOrlando reported on Sept. 17. The Neptune Memorial Reef’s community resource director, Michael Tabers, said the area already had been designated for an artificial reef when “a group of businessmen in the area ... had the idea.” Customers’ cremains are mixed with water and then modeled into an artist’s conception of the Lost City of Atlantis. Then the coral grows around them. The reef already has been extended once, and when it fills up, “we will launch the next phase,” Tabers said. Conservation activists are thrilled; the reef provides hard surfaces that help coral to thrive. And loved ones can dive to visit their family members’ resting places.

A family in Bedford, Ohio, reported their car and 8-year-old daughter missing on Sept. 15, the Associated Press reported. Witnesses had seen a small child driving nearby, but it wasn’t until police checked the parking lot at Target, about 13 miles away, that they discovered the car. The girl was inside the store. Authorities were weighing whether any charges would be filed.

Norton Havoc, 32, can smell normally again after blowing his nose and dislodging a Lego block that had been stuck inside for “at least 26 years,” the New York Post reported. Havoc had suffered from “multiple breathing issues” since the childhood incident. “I can breathe out of this side of my nose now, and it’s fantastic,” Havoc said.

Magnet fisher and YouTuber Dani Dip pulled a provocative find out of the St. Joseph River in South Bend, Ind., on Sept. 1, ABC57-TV reported. “We believe this is a 175mm Howitzer round,” Dip said. “It took four people to pull this big 2-foot round over the wall to safety so it wouldn’t fall back in and potentially go off.” The South Bend Police Department said further testing would be necessary to make sure the charge is not live.

When 33-year-old Ravesh Rabindranauth attempted to steal a Corvette in a Miami Beach parking garage on Sept. 17, he ended up locked inside the car, Local10-TV reported. The car’s security system wouldn’t allow the thief to start the car or escape, said the car’s owner, Julio Solano. “He didn’t know about the manual door release under the seat,” Solano said.

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