Contents of Witch Bottle Tasted (UK) – Horse Thieves Mark Properties (NJ) – Coin Tosser Fined (China)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7836595/Antiques-Roadshow-expert-drinks-urine-live-air-thinking-vintage-port.html

Daily Mail [UK]

30 December 2019

Antiques Roadshow expert is left stunned after discovering what he thought was 150-year-old port when he tasted it was actually urine and brass pins

An Antiques Roadshow [expert] tasted what he thought was a 150-year-old bottle of port - only to discover it was actually full of urine, several brass pins and one human hair. Glass expert Andy McConnell was handed the mysterious bottle during an episode in Trelissick, Cornwall, after a local found it buried in the threshold of their house. […] Host Fiona Bruce […] revealed the object was actually a witches' bottle - which had been buried by the front door of the house to guard against evil spirits. […]

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https://www.recordonline.com/news/20191231/horse-farm-owners-unsettled-by-suspicious-activity

Times Herald-Record [Newton, NJ]

31 December 2019

Horse farm owners unsettled by suspicious activity

An animal sanctuary in Columbia is one of several farms in Sussex and Warren counties at which employees have recently observed suspicious behavior from unidentified individuals who they speculate may be looking to slaughter horses and sell their meat. […] [Tamala Lester, founding director of The Barnyard Sanctuary,] urged local residents to be alert for ribbons, chalk marks or any other signs left on fences facing public land, which animal thieves often use as a signal to others in the group that there is an animal on the property to be taken. If such markings are found, she said, the person should immediately notify police. […]

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7845263/Passenger-ordered-pay-Chinese-airline-13-000-throwing-two-coins-planes-engine.html

Daily Mail [UK]

2 January 2020

Passenger is ordered to pay an airline £13,000 as compensation for throwing two coins at a plane's engine to pray for a safe flight

A Chinese passenger has been ordered to pay an airline company more than £13,000 as compensation after throwing two coins at the plane's engine, causing the flight to be cancelled and more than 160 passengers stuck overnight. The 28-year-old man, named Lu Chao, was travelling by air for the first time with his wife and son when he tossed the coinage towards the aircraft in eastern China, according to a regional court. […] The superstitious man was travelling with his wife and one-year-old child and was hoping for a safe journey when he threw the money, Anqing police said in a previous statement. […]

Coin Tossing (China) – Restaurant Meal Induces Labor – Cab Drivers Required to Carry Condoms (India)

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3029670/chinese-woman-fined-us28-tossing-coins-plane-cure-babys

South China Morning Post

20 September 2019

Chinese woman fined US$28 for tossing coins from plane to ‘cure baby’s diarrhoea’

A woman who threw coins onto the parking apron at an airport in southwest China in the superstitious belief it might cure her cousin’s baby’s diarrhoea was instead fined 200 yuan (US$28), local media reported. The incident happened on September 5, as the woman, surnamed Wang, and a group of her relatives arrived in Xichang, Sichuan province, after flying from Nanchang, Jiangxi province, to attend a family wedding, the Chengdu Business News reported on Friday. Wang, 23, dropped the coins through the gap between the aircraft and the jet bridge as she and her family were disembarking. […]

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https://www.swnewsmedia.com/shakopee_valley_news/news/women-give-birth-after-eating-the-labor-inducer-burger-at/article_2962b72c-a416-5058-afe0-df4541d486f4.html

Southwest News Media [Savage, MN]

19 September 2019

2 women give birth after eating The Labor Inducer burger at Excelsior restaurant

The Suburban restaurant in Excelsior never expected to be in the business of babies, but a special spicy burger has purportedly sent two women into labor unexpectedly and brought two babies into the world. […] The Suburban has seen some more pregnant women come in and try The Labor Inducer, but as far as they know, no one else has had success, [according to co-owner Cindy Berset]. […]

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https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/delhi-cabbies-fall-fake-news-start-keeping-condoms-cabs-1601563-2019-09-21

India Today

21 September 2019

Delhi cabbies fall for fake news, start keeping condoms in cabs

A bizarre rumour has taken hold in Delhi. Delhi cab drivers are nowadays mandatorily carrying condoms with them to escape challans. The cab drivers say that if they won't carry condom, they are likely to get fined. […] In response, Delhi Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Taj Hasan said, "There is nothing mentioned in the Motor Vehicles Act about condoms. We are not issuing any challan to drivers for not having condoms in their first aid kits." […]

Bubblegum Boy (Hull) – Coin Tossing Warning (China) – Oil-Covered Rapists (Tanzania)

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/history/bubblegum-boy-hull-legend-truth-1398415

Hull Daily Mail [UK]

9 June 2019

The heartbreaking story behind Hull’s tragic Bubblegum Boy

[…] The urban legend of the little boy from Hull who died after choking on a piece of chewing gum was used as a cautionary tale by parents across the city. Now, the true story of the 12-year-old, who died in 1933, has been uncovered – and far from the grim tale that has been bandied around school playgrounds for decades, it tells a tale of a mother's heartache at losing her son. […]

[This is just the latest appearance of Faye Preston’s article on the Hull Daily Mail’s website. It also appeared on 29 March 2018 (“What really happened to Hull’s Bubblegum Boy – and it’s even more tragic than the legend”) and 29 August 2015 (“The tragic truth about Bubblegum Boy – a Hull urban legend”).]

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7124075/Chinese-airport-warns-passengers-tossing-coins-planes-good-luck-jinx-lives-instead.html

Daily Mail [UK]

10 June 2019

Chinese airport warns passengers that tossing coins at planes for good luck will JINX their lives instead after multiple travellers were detained for the superstitious act

An airport in south China has issued a notice warning passengers not to throw coins at planes for good luck, claiming that the superstitious act would jinx them instead. The advisory was displayed on a screen near the security check area at the Phoenix International Airport in Sanya, Hainan Island around two weeks ago, according to Chinese reports, following a number of recent coin toss incidents at other airports across the country. […]

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https://africanarguments.org/2019/06/10/tanzania-strange-worrying-rise-oil-covered-rapists-kigoma-teleza/

African Arguments

10 June 2019

Tanzania: The strange and worrying rise of oil-covered rapists in Kigoma

[…] Sexual violence is a serious problem across the world, but in the last few years, it has taken a particularly strange form in […] Kigoma. In this area, scores of women have similar accounts of rapists breaking into their homes, covered in grease. The first attacks of this kind reportedly occurred around 2014 and have increased ever since. The attackers – known locally as Teleza, which refers to the fact that they cover themselves in oil – typically break into the homes of women in the night. They are often armed and threaten violence, sometimes leaving the survivors with life-threatening injuries. […]

https://globalvoices.org/2019/06/11/in-tanzania-advocates-pressure-police-to-investigate-teleza-rapes-and-robberies/

Global Voices

11 June 2019

In Tanzania, advocates pressure police to investigate ‘teleza’ rapes and robberies

On May 27, 2019, Tanzanian police announced the launch of an operation to investigate and prosecute “teleza” — armed men who have allegedly raped and terrorized women in the Mwanga Kusini Ward of Kigoma in western Tanzania since 2016.  The men reportedly grease their faces and bodies with oil before breaking into female-majority households to rape and rob women throughout the Mwanga Kusini area. Teleza means “slippery” in Swahili and the term has been used to describe these types of attacks. […]

[One would think that being covered in oil would make perpetrating a rape more difficult. Some other oily assailants are the orang minyak of Malaysia and the “grease devil” of Sri Lanka.]