The Mirror’s US editor Christopher Bucktin reports on the best of the most bizarre it-could-only-happen-in-the-USA stories in his The Buck Stops Here column. This week, a classified secret turns out to be a Star Wars movie prop
POTTY Pennsylvania Republican Doug Mastriano tried to jump on the mystery drone scandal gripping the East Coast – only to end up being mocked into a galaxy far, far away.
In a post on X, the state senator shared a meme of what he believed was a high-tech US drone. The problem? It was a film prop of a TIE fighter, the Empire’s go-to spacecraft from Star Wars.
“Breaking News: Crashed drone in Orange Beach retrieved from water, and taken to undisclosed location for further investigation,” Mastriano reposted before adding it was “inconceivable that the federal government has no answers”.
Because clearly, when classified secrets leak, they always include props from a 1977 movie.
Itching for some well-earned R&R? Turns out, people are forking out hundreds to get professionally scratched – yes, scratched.
Toni George is the 55-year-old mastermind behind The Scratcher Girls, based in Miami.
For $130 – that’s £103 to you and me – for an hour, she wields her three-inch manicured nails like tiny rakes over clients’ backs, arms, scalps and, for the truly adventurous, the insides of their ears.
A man who decided his Great Dane simply had to experience the magic of air travel is getting roasted online after he took his “emotional support” pet to the skies.
The US passenger was captured casually boarding a plane with a dog roughly the size of a compact car.
Now boasting 4.8 million views, the clip even captures a flight attendant at the door greeting the duo – probably wondering if the airline’s pet policy included “miniature elephants”.
Emotional support? The dog caused “emotional distress” for some of the other passengers.
Two brothers in Alaska took sibling rivalry to a new level, resulting in one dead crocodile, one traumatised alligator, and animal cruelty charges. The chaos began with an argument over anime… because, of course, it did.
Tyler Lowe, 33, allegedly threw his younger brother Rickey’s pet alligator into the snow. Rickey retaliated by launching Tyler’s crocodile outside, and let’s just say things didn’t end well for the croc.
A Massachusetts man’s attempt to flee police took a festive twist when he got stuck in a chimney.
Robert Langlais, 33, and Tanisha Ibay, 32, tried escaping via a rooftop as officers executed a search warrant in Fall River.
While Ibay jumped on to a car, Langlais opted for a Santa-style slide down the chimney – minus the magic.
Police found him wedged in the flue, bringing his holiday heist dreams to an abrupt end. Both suspects were arrested, and Langlais likely won’t be coming down any chimneys any time soon.
