Two people were spotted fighting in the middle of a road in Poole, over the custody of a duck.
A passersby reported seeing a man and a woman “wrestling on the floor – trying to get the duck off each other”. Police officers were called, however by the time they arrived the duo had left the scene.
Bournemouth Echo
(Leigh Hatts)
Prank patrol
A sea safari businessman operating off the coast of Devon, was startled this week when he came face-to-face with a great white shark fin – only to later realise it was a hoax.
Rob Hughes, who runs Devon Sea Safari from Teignmouth, says the incident took place during a boat tour with local school children.
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The skipper said the group were near Hope’s Nose when they came across the unusual sighting. Hughes said that although he was shocked at first, it only took a matter of seconds before he realised the realistic fin was, in fact, the work of a prankster.
Devon Live
(Richard Fearn)
Watch your greens
A grandfather has told of his shock at finding a live snake in a bunch of broccoli.
Neville Linton, 63, described finding the reptile – which was later identified as a ladder snake – as a “frightening” experience. He said he bought the broccoli at an Aldi branch in Stourbridge in the West Midlands.
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When he took the vegetable out of his fridge to prepare a meal, he found the non-venomous snake nestled in near the stem.
“It was pretty frightening. I’m not good with snakes,” Linton, from Birmingham, said.
Sky News
(Steve Morley)
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[See also: Blur and the strange death of Britpop England]
This article appears in the 12 Jul 2023 issue of the New Statesman, Tabloid Nation