A possible ghost photographed at an Argentine fire, a scuba-clad man who robbed a riverboat restaurant, and a Russian woman who sold her soul for Labubu dolls were among the weird and wondrous stories to cross our desk this past week.
In a sign that spooky season is well underway, this past week featured a pair of stories centered around possible ghost sightings. The first case came from Argentina, where a photo from the scene of a fire showed what appeared to be a mysterious white-clad figure standing in the background amid the ashes. While some speculated that the anomaly was a spirit, others suggested it was the Virgin Mary, and skeptics asserted that it was likely a trick of light and shadow. Meanwhile, in Mexico, a factory security camera captured footage of an eerie figure on a stairwell. After briefly lingering on the landing, the spooky stranger disappeared from the scene in a manner suggesting it walked through a solid wall.
Photo: Orange County Sheriff's Office
One of the weirder crimes we've seen in a while unfolded this past week at Disney World, of all places, where a committed crook in scuba gear robbed a riverboat restaurant and then swam away from the scene of the crime. The wild heist occurred at the Paddlefish eatery, a sizeable faux boat moored at the amusement park's Lake Buena Vista. Managing to avoid detection by boarding the restaurant from the water, the ne'er-do-well tied up a pair of workers and quickly seized $10,000 to $20,000 cash from the manager's office. In a manner akin to an aquatic D.B. Cooper, the robber made off with the money by diving back into the lake and swimming away to the astonishment of authorities still investigating the curious case.
Photo: Getty Images
By far the most bizarre story of the week came by way of Russia, where a woman literally sold her soul and used the money to buy Labubu dolls. The strange exchange began as a social experiment from a marketing expert named Dmitri. In an ad posted on Russian social media, he offered around $1,100 to anyone willing to sell their soul to him. To Dmitri's surprise, he quickly heard from a woman named Karina who was keen to take him up on the offer. After signing a contract with her own blood, per the ad's requirement, the soul seller pocketed the rather paltry sum and expressed no reservations about the odd deal that, she later revealed, allowed her to buy a fairly large collection of Labubu dolls.
For more strange and unusual stories from the past week, check out the Coast to Coast AM website.