Trending Facts

During an Easter egg hunt in Surrey in 2016, about 30 kids spotted two men sprinting across a field with a police helicopter circling overhead. Without being told, the children lay down in the dirt and formed a giant human arrow pointing the helicopter straight at the fleeing suspects. Both men were caught. The helicopter crew landed and handed out chocolate to every kid.

Eminem's mother sued him for $10 million in defamation over one line in "My Name Is." A judge ruled in her favor — for $25,000. Her lawyer took $23,354.25 in fees. She walked away with exactly $1,645.75.

In 2011, MI6 hacked an Al-Qaeda online magazine and replaced bomb-making instructions with a cupcake recipe from The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

In 1986, federal prisoner Ronald J. McIntosh escaped during an unsupervised prisoner transfer. Eight days later, he returned in a stolen helicopter and broke out his girlfriend, bank robber Samantha Lopez, from federal prison in a daring daylight rescue.

Depression-era bank robber "Pretty Boy" Charles Floyd reportedly destroyed mortgage documents during at least one or two heists. While the legend claims he freed hundreds from debt, FBI historians note this was likely occasional rather than routine—but the rumors helped cement his Robin Hood reputation among struggling Oklahoma farmers.

Al Pacino didn't sign his own checks. His accountant did. By his 70s, his $50 million fortune was gone. He was unknowingly paying for 16 cars, 23 cellphones, and a $400,000-per-year landscaper at a house he never lived in. The accountant got seven and a half years in prison. Pacino had to take roles in movies he openly disliked — including Jack and Jill — just to pay the bills.

In 2008, Russian man Dmitry Agarkov received a credit card offer from Tinkoff Credit Systems. He didn't like the terms, so he scanned the contract, rewrote it to include 0% interest, no fees, no credit limit, and penalties of up to 6 million rubles if the bank violated the terms, then signed and returned it. The bank approved the modified contract without reading it. When the bank later sued him for unpaid fees, a judge ruled the altered contract was valid and Agarkov only owed the principal. The two parties eventually settled out of court.

At the 1912 Olympics, a marathon runner quit and went home to Japan without telling officials and was considered a missing person in Sweden for 50 years. In 1966, he was invited to complete the marathon. His time: 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.379 seconds.

Jeremy Clarkson once published his bank account number and sort code to prove that the information couldn't be used to steal money. Someone used it to set up a monthly direct debit from his bank account to a charity.

Edwin Robinson lost his sight and hearing in a truck accident in 1971. Nine years later, he stepped outside during a storm in Maine to rescue his pet chicken — and was struck by lightning. When he woke up the next morning, he could see and hear again. Doctors had no explanation.

In 1999, David Phillips spotted a Healthy Choice promotion: 1,000 airline miles for every 10 barcodes. During the bonus window, that doubled. He found pudding cups at 25 cents each, bought 12,150 of them for $3,140, and donated them all to the Salvation Army — earning an $815 tax deduction. Total haul: 1,253,000 frequent flyer miles and lifetime Gold status. His story inspired the Adam Sandler film Punch-Drunk Love.

Dunkin' Donuts rigged nearly 500 city buses across Seoul with hidden scent atomizers. Every time the Dunkin' jingle played on the radio, the bus filled with the smell of fresh coffee. Commuters would step off — right next to a Dunkin' location. Store visits near bus stops jumped 16%. Coffee sales shot up 29%.

Michael Larson was an unemployed ice cream truck driver who recorded episodes of Press Your Luck on his VCR and played them back frame by frame. He discovered the "random" game board only had 5 repeating patterns. He memorized them all. On the show, he hit 45 consecutive winning spins without a single Whammy and walked away with $110,237. CBS investigated and couldn't do a thing.

Barbra Streisand sued a photographer for $50 million to remove an aerial photo of her Malibu mansion from the internet. Before the lawsuit, it had been downloaded exactly 6 times. Two of those were her own lawyers. After the lawsuit, 420,000 people viewed it in a single month. She lost the case and paid $177,000 in legal fees. The entire phenomenon of trying to suppress something and making it more famous is now called "The Streisand Effect."

In 2012, archaeologists dug up a parking lot in Leicester, England, and found the skeleton of King Richard III — lost for 527 years. He was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, the last English king to die in combat. His body was buried in a hasty, unmarked grave at Greyfriars friary. When the friary was demolished in 1538, the grave vanished. Centuries later, the site became a city council car park. An amateur historian named Philippa Langley convinced the University of Leicester to dig it up on a hunch. They found him in the first trench, six hours into a two-week excavation. DNA testing confirmed the identity with 99.999% accuracy. The skeleton showed 11 battle wounds — nine to the skull. The parking space above his grave was marked with the letter “R.”

A man sued Bank of America for erroneously foreclosing on his home and won. When they didn’t pay the fees, he foreclosed their bank.

Dolly Parton once entered anonymously into a "Dolly Parton lookalike contest", but lost to a drag queen.

In 2012, Walmart ran a Facebook contest to send Pitbull to the store with the most votes. The internet hijacked it and voted for a tiny Walmart in Kodiak, Alaska — a remote island only reachable by plane or boat. Everyone expected him to back out. He didn’t. He flew to Alaska, performed for the whole town, took photos with fans, and called it "the greatest thing ever."

A man secretly outsourced his programming job to China. He filled his work day watching cat videos, surfing Reddit and Facebook. Before being caught and fired, he made hundreds of thousands.

During development at Pixar, Toy Story 2 was accidentally deleted, but was recovered by an employee who saved the movie to her computer at home while on maternal leave.

Norway has a king penguin as Colonel-in-Chief of their royal guard.

Lemurs chew toxic millipedes and rub the secretions on their fur to repel mosquitoes, but the side effects accidentally send them to another dimension.

In 2012, a couple in Manchester sent a wedding invitation to Queen Elizabeth II as a joke — never expecting a reply. During her Diamond Jubilee tour of the city, the Queen made a surprise detour to Manchester Town Hall and walked into their ceremony unannounced. The bride nearly collapsed. Buckingham Palace later confirmed it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.

In the “Forrest Gump” novel that the movie is based on, Forrest goes into space with NASA. Upon return, he crash lands on an island full of cannibals. He only survives because he beats the head cannibal at chess everyday.