WEIRD NEWS

Homeowner Kills Intruder! Cops Kill Homeowner!

It's another truly tragic story out of Aurora, Colo. Around 1:30am, multiple 911 calls came in about a disturbance, including one call from an adult female who said an adult male was breaking into her home. When police arrived, they heard gunshots fired inside the house, then encountered an armed adult male. An officer fatally shot that man, but when clearing the home to make sure it was safe, officers found the actual intruder dead on the bathroom floor; the armed male killed by police was a resident of the home who, police believe, had shot and killed the intruder. Police also found a juvenile in the home who had been injured by the intruder; he was taken to the hospital with serious but not life-threatening wounds. Police say more details, including the identities of the two men, will be released as the investigation continues, but the family of the man killed by police identifies as 73-year-old Vietnam veteran Richard Black, and they say he owned the home. The officer who shot the resident is on paid administrative leave. A statement from police reads: "This is a very heartbreaking and tragic situation for everyone involved. We are providing assistance through our victim advocates to help the family of the deceased resident through this very difficult time." (FOX 31)

Turns Out Not So Hard to Get a Job

David Casarez, an engineer and web developer, moved from Texas to California's Silicon Valley in the hopes of working in the tech industry. But when he used up all his savings and was still without a job, he found himself homeless, sleeping in parks and stairwells. So he decided he had no choice left but to stand on a street corner in Mountain View-not to ask for money, but to hand out copies of his resume. His sign read: "Homeless. Hungry 4 Success. Take a resume." When Jasmine Scofield, who works in tech, drove by and saw it, she snapped a photo and tweeted it to her followers with his permission, asking for retweets to help Casarez out. What happened next blew both of them away. The tweet was retweeted more than 138,000 times; some on social media even started using the hashtag #GetDavidAJob. " Since then, Casarez, who graduated from Texas A&M University in 2014 with a degree in Management Information Systems, says he's been contacted by more than 200 companies including Apple, LinkedIn, and Netflix, and is scheduling job interviews. One company has offered to put him up in a hotel during the interview process. Casarez said, "I didn't expect it to have turned out this way. The support has just been so overwhelming, very positive." He's sharing updates on his story on Twitter. (KRON)

Don't Fool Around in North Carolina

Keith King says no amount of money could make up for his busted marriage. Not even $8.8 million! Nonetheless, a North Carolina judge has ordered his wife's lover to pay him just that amount per an obscure law on the books in six states called "alienation of affection." In this case, the 48-year-old King claims he was in a happy marriage with 33-year-old Danielle, whom he wed in 2010, until she began an affair with a man she met on a business trip. He says, "I've compared it to like a nuclear bomb going on around my surroundings." King first got wind of the affair thanks to phone records. That led to a confrontation between King and Francisco Huizar that was recorded, followed by King learning that he could actually sue his romantic rival over all this. King says, "My marriage was murdered," and a Durham County judge agreed, ordering Huizar to pay $2.2 million in compensatory damages and $6.6 million in punitive damages. The result is unusual, with most of the 200 alienation of affection claims filed in North Carolina each year settled out of court. But this was "a very classic case that just happened to have all of the factors," says King's attorney. Still, some argue there should be no alienation of affection law at all as it's based on the outdated view that a married woman is her husband's property. It's "archaic ... and should be stricken," says Huizar's lawyer, who claims King was controlling of his unhappy wife. "Verdicts like these ... remove personal responsibility for a person's own marriage." Huizar plans to appeal. ((WRAL)

The Rich Get Richer

It would seem part of making America great again includes making sure the rich get richer. After urging from the White House, the Treasury Department is considering a significant change that would affect how capital gains taxes are figured in regard to inflation, with the upshot being that the amount owed to the government would be less. Great news if you're rich. Let's say someone bought a stock for $100,000 in 1980 and sold it for $1 million today, they'd pay taxes on the profit of $900,000. Under the change, the initial price would be adjusted for inflation and raised to $300,000, reducing the profit and saving the investor about $40,000 in taxes. The other controversial aspect of the change is that Treasury is considering doing this under its own power, instead of through Congress. However, making such a fundamental change through executive power "would be highly unusual and could be vulnerable to a legal challenge." The White House of George HW Bush considered the same thing back in 1992 but ultimately concluded Treasury didn't have the authority. Still, it would be politically dicey to ask Republicans in Congress to approve the measure, especially given quotes like this one collected from Chuck Schumer by the Times: "At a time when the deficit is out of control, wages are flat and the wealthiest are doing better than ever, to give the top 1 percent another advantage is an outrage and shows the Republicans' true colors." (Washington Post)

That Ain't Right or Fair!

Online entrepreneurs in China have found an ingenious way of profiting off of couples paranoia - renting out "love testers" who do their best to try and seduce one of the partners in order to check how faithful they really are. A simple search for "boyfriend loyalty test" on China's largest e-commerce platform, TaoBao, yields dozens of results, with companies charging anywhere from $3 to $190 for their services. The tester will befriend the target on popular social networks like WeChat or QQ and use all kinds of tricks to check if they truly are faithful to the client. Some couples break up when the test finishes because the tester has successfully seduced disloyal men who agree to come for an appointment or deny that they have girlfriends. Perhaps unsurprisingly, women tend to use online fidelity testing services more than men, but testing women is a bit more expensive, as "trapping women is apparently harder than men." (Oddity Central)

A Baby... Shark?

In Texas, Leon Valley has been arrested after trying to steal a shark by making it look like a baby. The unnamed thief took the shark from a petting tank at the San Antonio Aquarium then wrapped it up to look like a baby then wheeled it out in a stroller. Footage from inside the aquarium shows two men and a woman sneaking the 2ft-3ft gray horn shark from the building on Saturday. They then put it in a pick-up truck before driving off with it. Thankfully the shark survived its ordeal and is now back at the aquarium (Metro)

What the What?

In England, five teenagers have been arrested after they allegedly attacked a disabled woman by covering her in flour and eggs, then posing for pictures they posted on social media. Police said two 17-year-old boys and two 15-year-old boys have been arrested in connection with the incident but have been released on bail. The victim, a woman in her 40s, was severely distressed but not physically injured. (Metro)

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