Tennis Tussle with a Bee Brigade & The Ethical Entanglement of a Fuel Fiasco

Ever wondered how a tennis match and a beehive could possibly be connected? Well, strap in as we recount the harrowing yet humorous incident at Indian Wells where bees brought a professional game to a standstill. Carlos Alcarez and Alexander Zverev might have been prepped for a tough match, but they weren't ready to volley against a swarm of bees! Join us to relive the buzz and find out how a single vacuum-wielding hero saved the day—proving that sometimes the best defense is a good... cleaning tool?

Then, shift gears with us to Nebraska, where a gas station's technical mishap turns into a full tank of ethical quandaries. We explore the curious case of a woman who found herself swimming in free gas thanks to a rewards card glitch—and later, wading in legal hot water. It's a conversation that pumps out questions on responsibility, ethics, and just how far one can ride the wave of a corporate oversight before it crashes into the shores of felony charges. Remember, we're all about the strange and unexpected here at Weird World Variety, and Matt and Jesse can't wait to hear your take on these bizarre tales. So, get ready to fuel up on laughter and intrigue because this episode is anything but regular unleaded!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

What's going on world. What's going on world, how we doing. How we doing. Welcome back, welcome back. Yeah, I see you all back. I see you all back, let's go Alright. Alright, cut the music, let's get it going how we feel, everybody Alright. That's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1: 0:35

So, if you don't know this podcast, this is a podcast that brings you weird and funny news every single week. This week is just myself, so we're going to dive into some crazy and funny stories, maybe some weird stories. We'll see what happens. Let's hit the vault. Everybody ready? Alright, let's get into it. Here we go, alright. So this week we are diving into some weirdness.

Speaker 1: 1:16

The first thing on our items are something to do with this sound. I'm going to play a sound for you. Let's see if you recognize it. Alright, here we go. A little bit irritating, right? Everybody knows this sound. Anything, maybe flies, maybe bees If you guess bees, you are right. Here we go.

Speaker 1: 1:46

So in our first story, we are talking about bees. Now, I don't know if you know this, but bees are a big system to the world. They help cultivate our food, they help distribute everything like they are the workers. They are literally. I'm telling you, they pass around a positivity. But today, today was not a positivity. They were feeling a little rambunctious, let's put that out there. They were feeling a little ambitious, alright.

Speaker 1: 2:26

So, and what I mean by that is our first article has to do with sports. So bees cause a buzz and a lengthy disruption at Indian Wells Tennis during Alcora's and Zivarev match. Alright, so during the match. The picture here from my audience, if I had to describe it, is a woman I don't know how safe this is she's just got a long sleeve. Yeah, she's just got a long sleeve on and she's vacuuming the bees. I can't tell if that's a yeah, I don't know who that is, but just vacuuming the bees off this device.

Speaker 1: 3:24

I assume that's the camera. You know, like the cameras that they have on the lines. Let me see here. Yeah, it is the camera. Bees swarm around the camera. You know, like the cameras that they have on the lines, like during a game, that have what do they call the cable lines that go across the arena. So you know if you're at a tennis match or if you're at a football match or whatever, but you see those cameras on the lines that go across the top of the field over in the sky. That's what one of these cameras is and apparently bees were swarming around the camera during the match. These pictures are crazy. There's a ton of I mean probably hundreds, maybe a thousand or so bees swarming the camera and I assume that's why they had to stop the match. There's people, there's literally people, and let me see here. No, I think okay, I called a, I called a woman, I think that's a guy, but there's people like helping out and getting rid of the bees and spraying and vacuuming. I don't know how safe vacuuming is, but they're trying to vacuum the bees and get them off this camera. Let's see what happens.

Speaker 1: 4:45

Indian Wells, california. A swarm of bees forced a nearly two hour disruption two hours to the quarterfinal match between Carlos Alcarez and Alexander Zavetarev at the BNP Padre Bis Open on Thursday. Alcarez swatted at the bees buzzing around him before running for cover and the match was suspended 19 minutes in, with Alcarez serving tide at 1-1. It sounded a little like this.

Speaker 2: 5:19

And we have the tennis match. It is 30. Oh, we are doing it. Wait, what is Alcarez doing? He's swatting at the air. What's going on? There seems to be some bees swarming around him. Oh, he's running. He's got to run, he's got to run, he's running. We may have to stop the match. Folks, I don't know, they're looking good.

Speaker 1: 5:44

Meanwhile, the Spaniard went on to win 6-3-6-1. In less time than the delay of one hour and 48 minutes, dozens of bees attached themselves to the overhead spider camera that's what they call it that traverses the court, and a man without any protective covering used a vacuum to clean them off. There you go. It was a man, my apologies, they had the angle. They had long hair. Okay, so the angle. I couldn't see if it was a man. All right, don't judge me. All right, the players left the court during the delay. When they returned, the chair umpire told them there were still some bees around and Zavadov joked that he was fine to play on his side of the court. The bee vacuumer was summoned back to the court with a spray bottle and was cheered wildly by the crowd. He posed for selfies with fans, causing Alcarez and Zavadov to laugh as they watched him wander the seat spraying for bees. That's pretty awesome. The man also doused the walls around the court. A bee also landed on a player's towel. Alcarez expressed ongoing concern that the bees would swarm again on his side, but an ATP tour advisor encouraged him to give it a try during the warmup. The owner and billionaire, larry Ellison, and former Microsoft CEO, bill Bill, bill B Be gates, bill Gates, were watching the match from Ellison's box. There you go, and the day was saved. Give that guy a round of applause. Yeah, yeah, he definitely saved the day. Coming in now, no protection at all. That is brave, because if you know anything about bees, you know they swarm really easily and they sting really easily, which is why beekeepers have the hive suits, like they have the full suits, to keep them protected. This was not the case. So anytime you're playing a tennis match and there are bees swarming around, please call this guy. All right, here we go. We're going to move on to our next story right now.

Speaker 1: 8:14

Now, this next one is an interesting one, going on the premise of animals. We're going to keep with the topic here. This is an interesting little tidriff, and they are. They do have a video on this. So if you do want to see a video, there is a video. This is interesting. This brings new meaning to the word furry. Yeah, I don't, I don't like, honestly. This is interesting. We are going to check this out. So here we go. And in case you don't know what furry is, it's somebody who dresses up as an animal or, you know, has, like you know, those mascot type style outfits. Yeah, so they're just a fan of dressing up like that, but this is not the case. They, there was a reason why they did this. This is interesting, all right.

Speaker 1: 9:11

Staff at a Virginia Wildlife Center pretend to be red foxes as they care for an orphaned kit. Now, kit, I am assuming, refers to a young fox. Yeah, and they do have a video here. Let me look at it. Let me look at it, see what's going on. No, yeah, yeah, so I'm going to look at the video here. Meanwhile, what I can see, yeah, looks like a small baby. Here they're doing treatment. Yep, interesting, got it Okay. So the reason why that they do this? Let's dive into this.

Speaker 1: 10:02

Okay, employees of the Richmond Wildlife Center in Virginia are doing their best to act like mother foxes as they feed and care for an orphaned kid that found her way into their care. Now, let's be honest. If you woke up as a young baby animal, you probably would be a scarred for life if you saw a human dressed up as a fox. The video is literally yeah, it's literally a human dressed up as a fox to prevent, I assume, imprinting. And if you don't know what imprinting is imprinting is as soon as a baby wakes up if it sees somebody, it immediately thinks that it's their parents. Okay, that kind of imprinting.

Speaker 1: 10:51

In a video posted to the center's Facebook page Tuesday, executive director Melissa Stanley is shown wearing a red fox mask and rubber gloves while feeding the tiny kit from a syringe. The kit sits on top of a large stuffed animal fox that is supposed to look like her mother, stanley said. The same Facebook post explained why staff are wearing the mask to feed her. So they got a big fox mask on. Okay, it's straight out of a horror movie, but it's for good reason to feed her. Minimizing human sounds, creating visual barriers and taking other precautions it's important to make sure that the orphans that are raised in captivity do not become imprinted upon or habituated to humans. The post said all those measures make it more likely the kit could be introduced into the wild someday. So, yeah, so the reason why they do this is so that they don't imprint, so they can release them back into the wild and they can kind of enjoy life not having to go back to the humans thinking that one of them is their mother.

Speaker 1: 11:58

Stanley said in an interview Tuesday that the kit was admitted to the center on February 29th, after a man walking his dog found her in an alley in Richmond, thinking she was a kitten, he turned her over to the Richmond Society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. She was less than 24 hours old and her umbilical stump was still attached. So she was, yeah, she needed to be rescued and they took care of her. So you know, honestly, props to them for going the extra mile. I don't know if everybody would do that, but this wildlife center took it upon themselves to go the extra mile.

Speaker 1: 12:36

I will say the Fox mask is horrifying, yeah, but it is definitely necessary, probably to try to prevent imprinting and do the best they can to save this fox. So there you go. They saved the baby fox, yeah, so all is well that ends well. All right, right, so here we go, we're going to along those lines. We've got the orphan kit, red foxes, we got the bees why not switch a little bit? And we're going to dive into the next section of our channel. Here we go and we're back, and we're back. How we doing, how we feeling, here we go. Let's dive in to the next story that we've got today. Um, and this story, this story has some interesting things to. I thought this was interesting because I was like, wow, you can get a felony for this. This is definitely informative. So, yeah, we're going to have to check this out.

Speaker 1: 14:23

Double swiping the rewards card, which I did not know was possible, led to free gas for months and a felony theft charge. Now see, here's the thing. I don't know how many gas stations this works on, because of what I've got. As far as like rewards cards, I don't think you can swipe them twice and even if you do, you don't get free gas out of it, necessarily, you get discounts. So I'm curious about this story. Let's dive in, all right.

Speaker 1: 15:05

Lincoln, nebraska. A Nebraska woman allegedly found a lucrative quirk at a gas station pump. Double swipe the rewards card and get free gas. Unfortunately for her, you can't do that. Prosecutor said the 45 year old woman was arrested March 6 and faces felony theft charges, accusing her of a crime that cost the gas station nearly $28,000. Now, this is just my take on it. Um, you don't have to agree, you don't have to disagree, whatever, but it sounds like again this sounds like a case of another person that found a way to beat the system and they're just mad, like that's all it is, like they're just jealous that they beat the system and it's like how many times Is this stuff gonna happen to, where it's like you can't get ahead in life, cause anytime you get ahead the system is gonna fight back and be like, nope, you can't do that, but we'll see. We'll see. She probably did do something illegal, but that's just my take.

Speaker 1: 16:13

Prosecutors say the woman exploited the system over a period of several months, which apparently you can't do. That Police I don't even know how you swipe a card twice. Police learned of the problem in October when the lost prevention manager at Bosselman Enterprises reported that the company's pump and pantry in Lincoln had been scammed. Yeah, I don't know anything about that. We don't have that out here. That's probably why it's not possible out here. Like when you go to the pump or the gas station or whatever. When I go to swipe rewards card, you cannot put in that thing twice. It doesn't work. Like it's not like swipe it twice and you get double the points. Like that doesn't work out here. So it would be impossible for us to do this anyway.

Speaker 1: 17:00

Fuel pumps at the station received a software update in November 2022 that managed, among other things reward cards but the company was unaware of a glitch. Now see, that's not the woman's fault, that's your fault. This is where I disagree with society. They have no right to arrest that woman when that's clearly their fault. They had no idea about the glitch. They pay like hundreds and thousands of dollars for these guys to program all these software systems. And if you're unaware of a glitch, I'm sorry, I don't care how much money you lost. That's on you, that's not on the person that exploited the system. That's on you. But the company was unaware of a glitch that allowed anyone swiping a rewards card twice to put a gas pump into demonstration mode. In demo mode, the user could pump a gas at no cost. Pump a gas, pump gas and no. Again, that's their fault.

Speaker 1: 18:03

Sorry, I would fight back on this. Me personally, me personally. I'm not saying this is right. I'm not saying you should exploit any kind of system. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying in this particular incident, it doesn't sound like the woman's fault, it sounds like it's their fault for not knowing about the glitch. And then they just needed somebody to arrest. Like how are people getting away with this? Why is society in a right with this? Like I don't understand.

Speaker 1: 18:33

A probable cause statement from prosecutors said the lost prevention manager determined that one particular card had been used repeatedly to obtain free gas. Police were able to trace the card to the suspect and video surveillance showed the woman pumping gas on multiple occasions from November 2022 until June 1st when the glitch was fixed. The statement said why did you let her pump gas that long? Huh, again, this sounds like the law abusing its power, because, number one, she should have been allowed to. They should have immediately noticed it. Like, here's the thing if you have demo mode or glitch or anything, usually with these computer systems they are able to tell immediately. So why wasn't this brought forward sooner? You're telling me that for, let's see, november December, like November December, january, february, march, april, may for almost eight months, you didn't notice this. Ah, I'm sorry, this is weak. They should let that woman go. Let that woman go. This is all your problem. This is how in the world, like I said, you should be able to tell immediately if something like this is happening, because I used to be in that system, I used to work for those kind of companies and I know that stuff like that can be detected immediately, and these guys were not on the ball, I guess Okay.

Speaker 1: 20:10

Authorities believe the woman not only used the scam to get free gas, but that she allowed another woman to use her card for a fee. Again, she's just doing what she thought could help out. The probable cause statement said the other woman's whole police that she paid to use the card for discount and fuel. Authorities believe the woman paid Thompson $500 for gas purchases that should have cost about $700 will be $200 difference. All toyed, all toyed, all told.

Speaker 1: 20:43

The card was used 510 times, which is way too many times. They should have known this from the beginning and they should have caught it right away. Too many times. I'm sorry. This is not her fault. You need to let that woman go. This is all on you. If you are losing tons of thousands of dollars on a glitch that your system and your guys didn't notice, that's on you. I'm sorry. It's crazy. The suspect is free on bond and has a court here in April 11th.

Speaker 1: 21:09

The phone message was left Tuesday with her attorney. Well, I hope her attorney is good and shows that this is the abuse of the law. Like, I'm sorry, but if you go and you do that, obviously what she did wasn't right. That's not what I'm saying. But on the flip side of that as well, this is also their fault for not noticing the glitch at all, letting the glitch be a problem and letting the glitch take place for over eight months. That's unacceptable. You have auditors, you have software engineers, you have everything you need in corporate to take care of the problem immediately. And you would notice that immediately, because those gas stations and those systems I'm sorry, they're not from the 90s, those are updated, everything is modern. Now you can't have the excuse of saying, hey, these are old computers so we didn't notice it. It's not our fault, no, it is your fault.

Speaker 1: 22:05

And everything that woman got away with, sorry, she should get off scot-free, in my opinion, because that's her finding a way around the system that you didn't catch. If nothing else, you should pay her to go find more glitches like that. So maybe she should be an asset to the FBI, to the CIA, to find more glitches like that and see if she can pick up any other gas stations that have that problem, cause then you wouldn't have that problem across the nation. There you go, problem solved. Give her a job. There we go. What do you think guys? Give her a job. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I thought. That's what I thought. Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah, that's what I thought. I mean, if she's that good that she can spot these things and she can find these glitches, why not Give her a job, like she shouldn't arrest her. It's not her fault. You lost money because you couldn't tell what the glitch was. You didn't pick it out. I'm sorry, that's not a customer's fault. In that case, all right, here we go.

Speaker 1: 23:17

Moving on to our final story. I am done ranting, but stuff like that irritates me. When people are arrested for things that they are just taken advantage of because other companies have negligence and they just neglect the problem for months and months at a time and then say it's not their fault. I'm sorry it is. You have your own auditors, you have your own software, you have everything updated. You should tell right away when something like that happens, it is your fault. Moving on, here we go On a much more positive note.

Speaker 1: 23:57

We have something very cool. So we didn't report on this last time, but a couple months ago we had a Jersey reveal, or not a Jersey reveal. There were rumors of a Jersey reveal using an action figure, and if anybody knows. Has anybody seen the movie 1010? Yeah, okay. So if you've seen the movie 1010, then you know what the character, the main character, looks like. Well, they released an action figure, I believe, and this was a clue to one of their Jersey releases and people were spreading rumors that it could be a tribute to the adventures of 1010. Okay, today we have confirmation Blue Jersey, brown shorts, white socks Belgium's new kit, a tribute to the comic book legend 1010. And if you want to go see this picture it's apnewscom slash oddities there is a picture of the new Jersey reveal. He's standing next to some other people that are dressed up as the characters of 1010. And yeah, it's, it's perfect. It literally looks like the comic book hero the adventures of 1010. If you haven't seen that movie, it is pretty, pretty adorable. It's a fun movie. I suggest highly to go see it. It is cool. But the whole comic book character, the soccer jersey, is modeled right after the character. So here we go. If Kevin De Bruin goes back to his old haircut, he will make a perfect 1010.

Speaker 1: 25:43

At the soccer European championship this summer, the Belgium football association unveiled the new home and away kits for its male and female internationals on Thursday. The home kit continues with the traditional red color worn by the nationals team, whose players are nicknamed the Red Devils in the red flames. But the away kit is a tribute to the Belgian cartoonist Her her day here Her day I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right and the character may that made his fame 1010. The intrepid reporter. It is composed of a blue jersey with a white collar, brown shorts and white socks. In his action packed adventures, 1010 often wears a blue sweater over a white collared shirt, paired with the brown cut off pants, white socks and brown shoes. 1010 also had a trademark quiff haircut. Over the years, belgium media had often pointed to the resemblance of a Belgian midfielder, kevin De Bruin, to 1010, particularly particularly when the Manchester City star sported a shorter haircut. As a big Hold on, hold on, I got to do this right.

Speaker 2: 27:03

As a big 1010 fan, I am delighted that our Red Devils will be conquering Europe in a jersey based on one of Belgium's greatest heroes.

Speaker 1: 27:16

Said Piet van der Reis, the Belgium FA CEO.

Speaker 2: 27:25

Oh, I got to do my oh. There we go. We are thrilled to pay homage to a true global icon. He not only captured my heart and mind growing up, but that of so many generations, and that is exactly what the Red Devils, but also the Red Flames, are trying to achieve. Hopefully, 1010 will give them inspiration to put up great performances, starting this summer in Germany.

Speaker 1: 27:55

The new home jersey, which features a burgundy shade of red, will be worn by all Belgian national teams from March 23rd onwards, when the Red Devils play Ireland as part of their preparations for Euro 2024. The men's team will debut the away kit and a friendly match against England on March 26th. So there you go. We have the official 10-10 jersey sported, and the rumors were true. Now I gotta say, looking at the character and knowing what the character came from from the movie, it is literally a perfect match, and if he did cut his hair he would be almost perfect for the role. It's pretty crazy. And they have people dressed up next to him as the other characters. It's hilarious, oh man. And then they have the 10-10 backdrop. They were taking a photo with Jersey looks real nice. All the red jerseys the red jerseys are nice too. Those are nice. The burgundy you gotta go take a look at this. If you haven't seen it, go check it out. Pretty cool lineup of jerseys, I gotta say that would definitely make me want to watch and maybe it'll spark some new fans in the future.

Speaker 1: 29:13

Well, ladies and gentlemen, that is all the time we have for today. Yeah, I know, I know, I know. It's been a fun ride. Again, if you have stories, comments concerns, we have a Facebook, an Instagram, a YouTube channel, all at Weird World Variety with Matt and Jesse. Any time you guys want to send us in your stories comments concerns, message us, let us know. We want to know the crazy things that you find around the world From Matt and Jesse and all the World World team. Stay weird everybody.