An 'alien' signal that turned out to be from Earth, a woman killed while impersonating a ghost, and some painters who got stuck outside the 26th floor of an apartment building after an ornery tenant cut their rope were among the strange and unusual stories to cross our desk this week.
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence popped up in the headlines this past week by way of two stories concerning our quest to find out if we are 'not alone.' First, researchers revealed that a peculiar signal from space that was detected last year and deemed a promising potential sign of alien communication wound up being traced back to Earth in the form of radio interference from a malfunctioning device. Meanwhile, a team of NASA scientists published an editorial calling for the development of a framework when it comes to announcing the discovery of life outside Earth, since such a development will likely occur over time rather than in a dramatic reveal akin to how pop culture depicts such a scenario.
This past week saw a pair of pranks that had wildly different outcomes, beginning in Mexico, where a young woman made the ill-advised decision to dress up as the infamous apparition La Llorona in order to scare her neighbors. Unfortunately for the faux ghost, her costume was apparently too realistic as one individual who encountered the 'spirit' was so frightened that he shot and killed the woman. On a much lighter note, down in Texas, cousins Morgan Blue and Veronica White decided to pull a fast one on their respective sons after the youngsters declared that they did not believe in Bigfoot. Putting their disbelief to the test, Blue's husband donned a Sasquatch costume and, much to the amusement of the adults in attendance, terrified the tots by emerging from some nearby woods during a family gathering.
The most bizarre story of the week came by way of Thailand where a woman has been charged with attempted murder after she cut the safety line of some painters who were working on the exterior of her apartment complex, leaving them stranded outside the 26th floor of the high-rise. The shocking incident unfolded as the two men were attempting to fix a crack in the facade of the building. Suddenly, they noticed that someone had leaned out a window and severed the rope which is needed to bring them back down to the ground. Understandably terrified, the workers eventually escaped the predicament by bravely jumping onto a nearby balcony. It was later learned that the woman cut the rope because she was aggravated by the work being done at what one assumes is her soon-to-be former apartment complex.
For more strange and unusual stories from the past week, check out the Coast to Coast AM website.