Strange Security: Bulls Run Wild and a One Pound Weight Leads to a Felony
The optimist might say the security sector got a little less strange for a month, because our editors did not run across too many strange security stories—in fact, we’ve only got a top five going this month, not an extra cache of five or six more like usual. The reality, however, is that the security sector is likely just as weird as always is, and our editors were distracted preparing the GSX Daily and doing dozens of short, informative videos while at GSX.
Our usual disclaimer is that, while we approach this article with a lighter touch, security is usually pretty serious and there are often victims, even in these stories. Our intent is to expose oddities or ridicule particularly clueless (or unlucky) criminals, not to diminish any suffering that resulted in these stories.
Fake Retro Video Game Ring Worth €50M Smashed in Italy: It’s the math in this one that trips me up: “12,000 consoles holding over 47 million pirated games” with “an estimated value of €47.5m.” That’s a million Euros, give or take, per pirated video game. Sounds pretty steep to play a faux original Super Mario Bros. or, showing my age, Atari’s Adventure.
Last Bull Is Recaptured After Eight Escaped from Massachusetts Mall Rodeo: Not sure a reminder was needed, but here it is anyway: rodeos and Massachusetts, heck all of New England, do not really mix. No bulls or people were injured in the mini-stampede through North Attleboro, Massachusetts.
Butterfly Thieves Handed $200,000 Fine: You know what you are if you’re a poacher stealing butterflies out of a national park in Sri Lanka? You’re just a bully. Well, these bullies were caught with more than 300 butterflies they had lured with attractants and killed with plans to make displays of the butterflies in epoxy. It’s the largest fine for wildlife crime ever registered in Sri Lanka.
Man Sends Fake Mass Shooting, Bomb Threats After Fantasy Football Spat: Speaking of needing our standard disclaimer, fake threats of this nature are not at all a laughing matter. But the details of this case certainly qualify as bizarre. As the headline describes, a Philadelphia man was angered over a fantasy football argument and, upon learning that the subject of his anger was going to study abroad in Norway, contacted Norwegian officials with an anonymous tip that the subject was unstable and planned a mass shooting.
Fishing Has Cheating Like Any Other Sport: Cheating at a fishing contest—kind of like telling a little white lie in your "big fish" story, right? Wrong. When the contest has a prize of a bass fishing boat valued at $55,000, it’s a felony. A Texas man became a convicted felon after getting caught shoving a one-pound weight into a nine-pound fish, and he had to serve 15 days in jail and pay a $3,000 fine. Adding a bit of insult, he had to surrender his fishing license for five years.
