What's old may be new again — and considerably weirder — when social media resurrects an old stunt for a much larger audience.
Who can forget the "creepy clown craze" from about a decade ago?
Police in New Jersey wish everyone would. Please. It's not funny, they say
A bizarre social media trend involving the classic Dr. Seuss character The Cat in the Hat is reportedly scaring the bejeezus out of people both close to and far away from home.
The trend is showing up in Snapchat and TikTok videos internationally and across the United States, including in Texas, Florida, Michigan, Louisiana, and California.
In Canada earlier this week, a teenage girl was chased down the street by a person dressed as the Cat in the Hat. She made it home safely, but authorities said a "joke" that causes people to fear for their safety is "extremely concerning."
While there have been no major Cat in the Hat incidents reported in New Jersey, authorities are asking residents to keep an eye out for the bipedal cat character. The state had its share of "killer clown" sightings back in the day.
In the 2026 iteration, social media users are either dressing up like the tall black-and-white fictional feline or using AI to generate him. The cat is then captured on video lurking outside of windows, homes, or along isolated highways, police say.
Morris County police added that the character is often depicted as a "serial killer" or someone who "appears to want to cause widespread alarm."
In neighboring Pennsylvania earlier this summer, a man in a clown mask who chased and terrorized victims in Philadelphia was tracked to Las Vegas, where he was arrested.
The Cat in the Hat videos may be intended as social media mischief. In northern Virginia, police said a man wearing a "Scream"-inspired mask and black robe had actual bricks in hand.
Fairfax County detectives were waiting near a Lorton community center Aug. 17 after six vandalism incidents caused about $8,000 in damage. Police said they watched the 22-year-old suspect put on the costume, retrieve bricks and run toward the building.
The outfit matched one captured in surveillance videos of someone smashing the center's windows with rocks, a hammer and cinder blocks since July 9, police said.
Gibbs faces three felony and three misdemeanor property-damage charges, along with a felony charge of wearing a mask in certain places. All charges remain pending.
Police searching the basement of a Wisconsin man accused of stalking a woman he briefly dated in 2013 found a jar labeled as containing part of notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy's brain.
That wasn't the creepiest thing police found in the Fond du Lac home of 47-year-old Benjamin C. Larson. He is accused of stalking the woman for 13 years and faces multiple charges, including felony stalking.
Other grisly findings included a mummy, human skulls, skeletal remains displayed in a glass casket and bottles labeled as poisons.
Inside a padlocked room, police found a silicone doll beneath a nude painting of the woman and a clay head that appeared to depict her.
Police also found 25 handwritten pages describing violent fantasies, a trip to the woman's home with a machete, details about her car and the theft of her garbage.
Authorities said Larson continued contacting the woman after she moved without giving him her address. Last December, he allegedly sent a card to her home naming her husband and child, whom the family had intentionally kept off social media.
Authorities are testing the human remains. An initial examination indicated that many may be ancient Native American remains.
As if swimming the English Channel weren't sufficiently unreasonable, Carly Miller did it through about five miles of jellyfish — millions of them, each armed with thousands of tiny cells capable of firing microscopic, venom-bearing tubes into her skin.
The Hermosa Beach, California, marathon swimmer was repeatedly stung as she crossed roughly 20 miles of open water from England to France on Aug. 23. She kept going for 11 hours and 41 minutes, finishing faster than the 12 to 15 hours she had expected.
Miller described the final portion as a roughly five-mile "jellyfish minefield."
"I had anticipated jellies but not to the extent I experienced," Miller told Patch. "After it had gone on for about an hour, I started to realize it may last for a while, and after I got stung pretty badly a few times, it definitely affected my mood."
She added, "Of course you want to quit, but the pain of the jellyfish is temporary. The pain of quitting is forever."
The crossing, which is pending final ratification, would give Miller the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming. She had already crossed the Catalina Channel and completed the 20 Bridges swim around Manhattan. Only about 400 swimmers worldwide have finished all three.
A New York hiker may have photographed Bigfoot. Or a naked person in a pond. Or something else entirely, because it's hard to tell from 240 feet away.
The woman spotted the figure while hiking in a remote part of Onondaga County on Aug. 10, according to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. She initially thought it was a man wading in the marshy pond but decided the figure looked "inhuman" after reviewing her photos at home.
An investigator estimated the figure was about 4 feet, 9 inches tall and declared it was likely a juvenile sasquatch — although to be clear, there's no scientific proof that sasquatch exist as a species beyond the imagination of dedicated groups like the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization and their members.
The organization acknowledged the far less thrilling possibility that the subject in the photo was an elderly human but argued that no sensible person would choose such an unpleasant spot for a skinny dip.
No one has stepped forward to claim the blurry title of the "Syracuse Figure," and the Bigfoot group has kept the location of the photo equally obscure.
A New Jersey widow seeking contact with her late husband instead found herself with a $78,500 bill for spiritual services, according to a lawsuit. Now she wants the money back, along with her husband's jewelry.
Marisol Meza alleges a Bergen County psychic charged her $500 for an initial consultation, followed by $7,000 to "cleanse" her and $6,500 to cleanse her husband's spirit. The largest payment was $65,000 to remove a supposed curse from inherited money, calculated at $1,000 for each year of her husband's life, the lawsuit says.
The psychic, Holly Stanley, denied scamming Meza and said the money paid for months of meditation, counseling, crystals and other services. She also said she would return Meza's late husband's belongings.
Meza is seeking the return of her money and property, triple damages and attorney fees. She has requested a jury trial.
An accused burglar's plan to rob a Waukegan, Illinois, restaurant wasn't especially slick. He was, however, after becoming stuck in the kitchen ventilation system.
The 24-year-old suspect was covered in grease when firefighters used a rope to pull him through a rooftop vent above the grill at Liguez Brunch Restaurant. The man had crawled into the vent to hide, police said. He now faces a felony burglary charge.
This has happened before. About a decade ago, a parolee spent 11 hours stuck in a Michigan pizza-oven vent before an employee heard his cries for help, fortunately before firing up the hot, hot oven.
A suspect who entered a New York pizzeria through a rooftop vent last year escaped with $4,000 but was later caught. Also in 2025, authorities in San Jose rescued a man who became stuck in the ductwork of a pizzeria he allegedly intended to rob.
A handful of spectacularly bad decisions don't make it a trend. Just file it under stuff that makes you go "huh?"
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