Weird Iowa: VEISHEA Car Tipping, Attack by Saw Blade, No Pervert in Raincoat at Mall

It would be weird if there wasn't just a bit of mayhem in Ames during VEISHEA weekend.

So, it's not surprising that two vehicles were flipped on their sides on Welch Avenue and Sunset Drive last week, according to the Ames Police Department. Joshua Thomas Ryan, 22, of Spencer, was charged with second-degree criminal mischief in the Welch Avenue incident.

A group of people were seen rocking a vehicle until it flipped on its side about midnight April 20 in the 300 block of Welch Avenue. The second car was flipped about 2:30 a.m. at 2035 Sunset Drive.

The iPad can do everything, it seems, including saving a user from getting smashed in the face with a foul ball. 

The device proved to be more than a way to take pictures for a man at a recent softball game at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. A foul ball flew toward him - and slammed into his iPad instead of his face.

The next item is weird because it's such a sweet photo with an unlikely subject. Young Hadlei Thompson of Waukee is one of six finalists in Blank Park Zoo's meme contest. Her offering is Hadlei trying to brush a lion's mane; you can now vote up to five times per day per email address through Sunday, April 28.

Hadlei's entry is No. 3 on the zoo website; vote here.

Nothing motivates schoolchildren to give money like a chance to smack the school principal in the face with a pie.

So it's not really weird that kids at  for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. As thanks, Principal Eric Toot took more than a dozen cream pies smack in the face.

He donned protective plastic sheeting, a swim cap and goggles as kids -- and Johnston Schools Superintendent Clay Guthmiller -- lined up to pelt him with pies.

And then there's weird crime, which we never run out of.

First, a Solon man is in the Johnson County Jail in Iowa City after he allegedly used a saw blade to strike one teen and threaten another in downtown Solon.

Courtney Joseph Michel, 23, approached two teens, ages 13 and 15, at 310 S. Dubuque St. in downtown Solon. Michel was allegedly armed with a saw blade and struck the 13-year-old in the upper arm, causing a cut and bleeding. Michel then struck the 15-year-old on the forearm, and "continued to torment" him by placing the saw blade up to his neck, according to the criminal complaint.

The complaint also noted officers found "no justification" for Michel's actions.

Also from the police blotter, West Des Moines authorities are still searching for the prankster who broadcast a false alert at Jordan Creek Town Center, Iowa’s largest retail shopping mall, of “a pervert in a blue raincoat running away” and then urging, “Let’s get him.”

The bogus broadcast is being investigated as harassment, but may also be in violation of Federal Communications Commission rules.

Read more weirdness from Iowa:

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