7 minute read
Odd-but-True Stories
Chicago Carjackings Spike
Carjackings in the Windy City have spiked, and police are pointing fingers at young adults and teenagers, many of whom are out of school due to the pandemic.
Chicago saw more than 180% more carjackings in January than during the same month in 2020. The police department recorded 218 carjackings in the first month of the year; last January saw 77 in the city.
Carjackings rose about 135% last year to 1,415 and continue at a high pace this year, police statistics show.
The startling pattern has grown to be cause for concern among police brass, who, on January 21, announced the creation of a team dedicated to finding those people responsible.
According to data, most of the perpetrators are between the ages of 15 and 20, although some are even younger.
“We’re having 12-year-olds commit these acts now,” Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said, “and we gotta do something together as a city to stop these actions.”
CPD’s new carjacking team consists of 40 police officers and four sergeants assigned to work across CPD’s five detective bureaus. The program extends beyond just manpower to include public programs and collaboration with community groups and local, state and federal partners.
Deenihan said pandemic-driven changes, such as civil unrest and the lack of fully-functioning school and court systems have contributed to the surge. He noted the lack of fear on the part of the carjackers, pointing to one involving a 12-year-old that occurred on January 15, when a woman was parking her car in a garage.
“She came back out and a 12-yearold was getting in her car with a gun,” Deenihan said. “She stood in front of the car to say, ‘Get out of the car.’ The 12-year-old pointed a gun at her and said, ‘Move or I’ll shoot you.’”
The boy took off with the car and was eventually arrested.
“This shows the brazenness of these carjackers,” Deenihan pointed out. “And it shows what we’re up against.”
Amazon’s New Helix
Amazon’s new site in Virginia will dazzle the eyes.
An outdoor amphitheater, public plazas for farmer’s markets and a 350-foot-tall tower inspired by a double helix are all among the latest design proposals for Amazon’s new headquarters.
The plans, made public and submitted to authorities for approval on Tuesday, will form the second phase of the tech giant’s $2.5 billion HQ2 project in Arlington County, Virginia.
More than three years after Amazon announced that it was expanding beyond its current Seattle headquarters, construction at the Virginia site – located across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. – is now well underway. Dubbed PenPlace, the newly unveiled proposal for the project’s second phase will provide a further 2.8 million square feet of office space across three 22-story buildings.
The site’s focal point will be The Helix, a tree-covered glass structure where a series of “alternative work environments” will be set amid indoor gardens and greenery from the nearby area, tended to by a team of horticulturalists. According to the architecture firm behind the project, NBBJ, a spiral “hill climb” will allow employees and visitors to ascend the outside of the structure.
“We’re doing a lot on the site to connect people to nature,” said lead architect and NBBJ principal, Dale Alberda, adding that the design aims to symbolize both nature and science. “But with the Helix we really take that to the extreme,” he added. “We’re building a series of indoor atriums and gardens that are not a conservatory or a place you just visit, but a place you can actually go and work.”
The new proposal includes 2.5 acres of public space, offering art installations, communal grassy areas and a 250-seat amphitheater.
“If we do this right, you won’t necessarily even know that you’re on an Amazon headquarters property,” said Alberda, adding that the “vast majority” of the site will be accessible to the public, including office buildings’ lobbies.
If Amazon’s PenPlace proposal is approved, the project’s second phase would break ground in 2022, with construction projected to complete by 2025.
Six Time’s a Charm
Bryan Moss is a very, very, very, very, very, very lucky man.
Last week, the Idaho man won the first $250,000 jackpot on the Idaho Lottery Scratch Game $250,000 Crossword.
But Moss is no stranger to winning. This is the sixth time that he won a large prize from the state lottery. Thursday’s win, though, was his largest jackpot and the first time he’s ever won a top prize.
“This is a remarkable run of good luck for Mr. Moss,” David Workman, the Idaho Lottery spokesman, said. “While he has had success winning, he also truly understands that playing wisely benefits our local businesses as well as Idaho public schools and buildings.”
Since 1990, the annual lottery dividend has benefited Idaho Public Schools and the Permanent Building Fund, which supports state-operated facilities like colleges and universities.
“I’m proud to help support Idaho public schools,” Moss said in a statement. “That’s really why I play.”
With his new $250,000 jackpot winnings, Moss told lottery officials he plans on using the money to pay for his daughter’s future education.
“Bryan Moss is someone who has a positive outlook toward life and today, he has an additional 250,000 reasons to be happy,” the lottery said.
If only money could buy happiness.
Lost & Found
One good deed leads to another.
A city worker in Taiwan found more than $10,000 when he was sorting through donated clothes and returned the bundle of cash to its owner.
Huang Chi-lung, a member of the Taichung Nantung District Environmental Protection Bureau cleanup team, was sorting through clothes at a collection site when he found $10,140 in cash that had been stored in red envelopes and placed in pockets in the clothing.
Officials took the bag that contained the money to a local police station, where officers found receipts and other documents that identified the owner.
The owner, a 72-year-old woman, said her husband had gathered the clothes to be donated without realizing one of the items contained the envelopes of money she had been saving for retirement and a wedding gift for her daughter.
The grateful woman brought the cleanup team a basket of apples to show her appreciation to them for returning the money.
Hope they were expensive apples.
Sleeping Beauty
If you love to sleep, this job is for you.
A mattress reviewing platform said it is seeking “a real-life Sleeping
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Beauty” to get paid $3,000 to test out mattresses. mattresses in a two-month period and writing detailed reviews of each experience.
The “Sleeping Beauty” will be paid $3,000 for the mattress testing job, as well as being allowed to keep the mattress of their choice at the end of their duties.
“To be the right fit for the role you will need to be a self-starter, available to work immediately and independently, have clear writing skills, good evaluation skills and be exceptionally good at sleeping,” the website said.
That’s one company that won’t penalize you for sleeping on the job.
Oranges All Around
Orange you glad they didn’t pack more?
Four men gobbled down 66 pounds of oranges at a Chinese airport after they learned that it would cost them around $46 to transport the oranges back home.
It took them around a half hour to consume the box of fruit.
“We just stood there and ate the whole thing up. It took about 2030 minutes,” said Wang, one of the travelers, who spoke with the Global Times.
The four men were coworkers who had hoped to bring the fruit back home to split between themselves.
After gorging on the citrus fruits, though, they were left with painful sores in their mouths.
“We never want to have any oranges again,” Wang declared.
Fruit for thought…
Record Heat
A Canadian man with a love for spicy food broke a Guinness World Record by eating three Carolina reaper chili peppers – the hottest chili peppers in the world – in under 10 seconds.
Mike Jack scarfed down the three peppers in 9.72 seconds during his attempt in London, Ontario.
According to Guinness, each pepper needs to weigh at least 0.18 ounces.
This achievement is too hot to handle.
