subway lootUsing dental floss and

mousetrap glue, Puerto Rican native Eliel

Santos makes around $150 a day by retrieving
cash, jewelry and iPhones that have fallen
down NewYork City subway grates.
stinky town A pile of goat manure
spontaneously caught fire at a farmin Windsor,
Vermont, spreading a stink throughout the
town and up to 5 mi (8 km) away.
fish smugglerA Vietnamese man tried
to smuggle seven live tropical fish into New
Zealand by hiding themin plastic bags in
his pants pocketsbut his plan floundered
when Auckland Airport officials noticed water
dripping fromhis bulging clothes.
chimney geesePeople in Victorian Britain
who could not afford chimney sweeps dropped
live geese down their chimneys instead.
$17,500 tip Aurora Kephart, a bartender
at Conways Restaurant and Lounge in
Springfield, Oregon, is often tipped by a
customer with tickets fromthe state lottery. In
October 2013 one such ticket won her $17,500.
sting operation An attempted armed
carjacking in Craighall, South Africa, was foiled
when the suspects were chased down the
street by an angry swarmof bees.
emergency landing
A single-engine airplane
landed safely on a street
in San Jose, California,
in the middle of the
rush-hour traffic.
Noticing a malfunction
shortly after taking
off fromnearby Reid Hillview
Airport, the pilot was forced to make an
emergency landing and managed to avoid
all the traffic on the busy road before slowing
to a halt in a right-turn lane.
bottle messageDiving in Michigans
St. Clair River, Dave Leander spotted a bottle
sticking out fromunder a thick layer of silt, and
when he looked inside he found a message
written by two young women 97 years earlier,
in 1915.
quadrillion debtChris Reynolds of
Delaware County, Pennsylvania, became one
of the biggest debtors in the world for a minute
when his e-mailed monthly balance statement
fromPayPal mistakenly told himhe had a
negative balance of more than $92 quadrillion!
His debt was short-lived, however, as his
balance showed the expected zero when he
logged into his PayPal account.
time travelerEd Grigor fromEndicott,
NewYork, lost a gold watch engraved with his
name in 1959but 53 years later it was found
over 2,000 mi (3,200 km) away in Las Vegas,
Nevada, and returned to him.
termite terror An elderly
lady in southern China
lost over $10,000 of her
savings after termites
chewed through the
bills. The termites actually
nibbled more than $60,000
worth of cash that she had
kept in a drawer, but luckily
the bank managed to verify
many of the damaged bills.
MAILED OUT OF A JAIL
Turkish prisoner Yasar Bayrak went
on the run after he successfully mailed
himself out of a jail in Willich, Germany,
in 2008 in a giant FedEx box used for
dirty laundry.
SQUASHED IN A CAR
DASHBOARD
Officials at the MexicoU.S .border
stopped a suspicious-looking car in
2001 and found a 135-lb (61-kg) woman
squashed in the dashboard, peering out
through the glove compartment.
HID INSIDE THE LANDING
GEAR OF A JUMBO JET
A 20-year-old Romanian man hid inside the landing
gear of a jumbo jet on its 97-minute flight from
Vienna, Austria, to London, England, in 2010 and
survived despite enduring temperatures of 42F
(41C) and a severe lack of oxygen.
HID IN A PLANES
OVERHEAD LOCKER
A man hid in a planes overhead luggage
compartment at Pearson Airport, Toronto, in
2012, but was discovered before the flight took
off for Panama City.
SEWED INTO THE SEAT OF A CHEVROLET
In 2001, Mexicos Enrique Aguilar Canchola sewed himself into the seat
of a Chevrolet minivan in an attempt to sneak into California, but was
discovered when border guards spotted his legs and arms sticking out
fromthe base of the seat.
C R E A T I V E S T O W A W A Y S
Shane Willmott has taught his pet mice to skateboard by building
them a miniature skate park in the backyard of his home in
Queensland, Australia, where they ride mouse-sized boards down
vertical ramps and even through a ring of fire. Shane, who has also taught
his mice to surf, said: They love it. Mice are built to surf and skate because
their center of gravity is so low. When they do fall off, they want to get
straight back on board.
mouse
STOWED AWAY IN A
BUS WHEEL ARCH
A 21-year-old Tunisian man stowed
away in the wheel arch of a bus for
30 hours in 2011, hanging on grimly as it
traveled 500 mi (800 km) across Europe.
HIDING IN AN AIRLINE
CARGO CONTAINER
Roberto Viza Eges fled Cuba for
Paris, France, in 2000 after hiding
in an Air France cargo container at
Havana Airport. After a 14-hour
flight in freezing temperatures,
he arrived in France where his
application for asylumwas denied.
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PACKED HIMSELF IN
A SUITCASE
Mexican prisoner Juan Ramirez Tijerina tried
to escape jail in Chetumal by packing himself
into his girlfriends suitcase.
Guards spotted Maria
del Mar Arjona looking
nervous after visiting
himwhen she left
the prison pulling a
bulky case. When they
opened it, they found
19-year-old Ramirez,
who was serving a
20-year sentence
for illegal weapons
possession, curled
up inside.