Take a Break with These Wacky Security-Related News Stories
Strange things happen in this world, and sometimes those strange things have ties to security in some way. Once a month, we report some of the stranger security-related, or security-adjacent, articles the Security Management editors have run across.
Of course, security is serious, and even though we treat this monthly post with a lighter touch, we don’t want to diminish the pain, suffering, or harm that these stories may have caused.
The Story of the Hospital Squatter: A Florida hospital had a problem: A woman who had been discharged refused to leave her room. After five months (five months!) the hospital sued, asking the court for an injunction that would allow the county sheriff to help remove the woman. The story ends with a fizzle: The hospital dropped the suit when the woman left.
He Won a $167 Million Powerball Jackpot. He Then Got Arrested Four Times: A Kentucky man won the jackpot in April 2025. In the year since, he’s been arrested four times, with the most recent being perhaps the least logical. On 28 March, he allegedly broke into a residence and stole $12,000 in cash. His other run-ins with the law include two open cases: allegedly intimidating a participant in a legal process and allegedly leaving the scene of an accident. Previously, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery for kicking a Pinellas County deputy in the face.
Bank Robbing Ain’t What It Used to Be: If you go into a bank, rob it, and leave without getting caught, you would think you would be set financially for at least a little while. And if you do it five times, all without getting caught, that’s got to be retirement-level income, right? Not for one New York man. His haul after getting caught following his sixth bank robbery? A total of $605 from all the incidents. At three he left quickly without getting any money; at another he left with a grand total of $20. His big score was $320 from a Chase Bank branch in Queens.
The Colossal KitKat Caper: A truck carrying KitKat candy bars from Italy to Poland was stolen and is unaccounted for. The company, while working with law enforcement to try to catch the thieves, seemed to take the heist in stride, saying in a statement that they “appreciate the criminals’ exceptional taste,” and “we’ve encouraged people to have a break with KitKat, but it seems thieves have taken the message too literally and made a break with more than 12 tons of our chocolate.” That’s 413,793 KitKats, or more than 90 million calories of chocolate-covered waffle bars.
Protests that Are Truly Nightmarish: On just about anybody’s list of creepy, scary things: being surrounded by snakes. Or being surrounded by spiders. Being surrounded by clowns would also make that list. And that particular clownish nightmare played out in the streets of La Paz, Bolivia, where dozens of clowns in full make-up and costumes protested a new law they said adversely affected their livelihoods. (Article spoiler: If clowns are a trigger, be glad you didn’t go to school in Bolivia.)
