Strange happenings in the Middle West

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Sept 30, 2002 | by Stephen Goode

More odd events from the hot summer of 2002: One night in August folks who live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, awoke to dramatic but mysterious sounds coming from the vicinity of St. James United Methodist Church. What could it be? A church service scheduled at an unusual time? The voice of singing angels? The Second Coming?

No, it was merely the church's sound system run amok. Timed usually to play music from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m every day but Sundays, it somehow had slipped 12 hours and was belting out at midnight what it usually played at noon.

On the tape was the Rev. James Turner's recently purchased CD of Celtic Christian music. Turner, who lives in the parsonage next door to the church, told the Associated Press, "When I finally went outside, it was pretty loud and it did sound angelic."

Angels or no, however, sleepless neighbors called the police. And when the constabulary and the good pastor admitted they had no idea how to turn off the singing, the neighbors as a group lost no time in pulling the plug on the sound system.

Meanwhile, in Columbus, Ohio, police can find no explanation for the truly amazing infestation of fleas they encountered after they were summoned anonymously to a home where the front door was standing open.

No one was inside--no human, that is. But there were thousands of fleas. Tens of thousands. And very quickly the three officers who answered the summons found themselves covered cap to shoe with the critters. They said it looked like their pants were moving.

Other cops were called to the scene as backup to deal with the fleas. Five additional police cars came and their occupants promptly were infested. The entire Sixth Precinct Station had to be closed down due to fleas.

The police have scrubbed down and the precinct now is fumigated ... but how all those fleas got into an unoccupied house remains a mystery.