Weird Iowa: Weird Crime, Weird Confession, Weird Holidays, Weird Unending of the World

Weird you're looking for, weird you've found.

Let's start in Iowa City with a crime that really stinks -- in the nicest way possible.

Three Iowa City men are facing a charge of felony theft after they were allegedly caught with approximately $4,000 worth of cologne and $234 in additional merchandise stolen from Abercrombie & Fitch in the Coral Ridge Mall.

According to Coralville Police criminal complaints, officers detained a taxi cab while investigating a shoplifting complaint on Dec. 14 at 10:40 a.m. There they found three men with the missing merchandise in the vehicle.

All three were charged with second-degree theft, a Class D Felony. One of the men revealed, for unknown reasons, that he had marijuana in his home. Add a misdemeanor marijuana citation to his charges as well.

Speaking of stinking, Ames has found a way to turn trash into something more than foul-smelling refuse.

When visitors come to Ames throughout the holiday season they might wonder why a college town like Ames lacks a municipal curbside recycling program, but city staff would say Ames has been recycling since 1975.

With the exception of a few items there's no need to sort trash here. The Resource Recovery Plant has turned garbage into power for 37 years.

All the county's garbage is piled high and thrown into a grinder that rips open the bags and compacts trash to the size of footballs and then golfballs. A magnet pulls out the metal and another conveyer picks out the metal that doesn't stick to a magnet. Scrap metals are sold and burnable trash, like paper, cardboard and plastics, travel through a tube to the Ames power plant where it's mixed with coal to power Ames. The plant calls the processed trash, Refuse Derived Fuel.

Back to crime, just in time for the holidays.

If captured, two men could spend their Christmas in Linn County Jail after authorities say one -- with his face practically smiling for the security cameras. (See the men in the accompanying photo, nearly good enough for framing.)

Police say the two suspects were involved in stealing jewelry from Kohl's department store in northeast Cedar Rapids in November.

Police say the two men entered Kohl’s at 361 Collins Road NE and approached the jewelry counter. One of the men left and went to a vehicle in the parking lot, while the second man stayed at the counter and took jewelry valued at $4,000, police said.

Cameras factored into the arrest of a Cedar Falls Community School District employee who allegedly stole money raised at school-sponsored events from a vault at Cedar Falls High School.

Officers placed a security camera inside the vault after three thefts were reported on Sept. 24, Sept. 29 and Oct. 16. Police said security footage showed the woman taking money from a cash drawer and concealing it in her pocket on Nov. 27. Police said she admitted to taking $20 in that incident.

Police said the total amount of stolen money from the four incidents is $240.

Finally, since you're reading this, it would be really, really weird if the world did indeed end yesterday.

Lost in the hoopla over the unending of the world, though were a number of other "holidays" Friday.

In West Des Moines, the celebration at Raccoon River Park was for Forefather’s Day, whcih marked the day the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620. There’s a bit of confusion about whether it’s celebrated on the 22nd day of December, as the venerable Mayflower Society insists, or the 21st, as the John Howland Society says.That’s according to the Georgian Calendar. Why split hairs?

Friday was also Humbug Day. Coined by some people by the name of Ruth and Thomas Roy, it’s a day allowing “everyone preparing for Christmas to vent their frustrations.”  

To counter all that, Friday wass also Look on the Bright Side Day, a day for optimism. 

Also Friday: National Flashlight Day and National Hamburger Day. To save time, you may have celebrated them both at once, chowing down in the dark on a hunk of cow.

Maybe not.