The world is a very, very strange place. And on this week's episode of Afterwyrd, Andy and Craig prove that by diving headfirst into a whirlwind of bizarre headlines that will leave you scratching your head—and checking for ghosts in your closet.
The Creepy Doll from the Charity Shop
First up, the story that’s got everyone talking: a celebrity psychic from the Real Housewives of Cheshire, Deborah Davis, purchased a "haunted" doll named Annabelle from an Edinburgh charity shop for a hefty £220. The doll, which the hosts noted was from the high-end Ashton Drake Gallery, was eerily displayed with a sign that reads "I am not creepy," which made them wonder just how many other haunted items Davis keeps in her home. It's a truly chilling tale that makes you think twice about what you find in a charity shop.
Accidentally Washing Nan's Ashes
Moving on to a story that’s a little less scary but just as weird: a woman named Briley Coates accidentally put her late grandmother's ashes in the washing machine and, in a moment of pure disbelief, blamed her cat. While some might see this as a sign of disrespect, the woman and her mother found a strange humor in it, seeing it as the nan's way of "playing tricks." This bizarre tale led to a wider discussion on the show about the respectful handling of cremains and a prank involving fake ashes.
High Rats of New Orleans
Next, a police report from New Orleans reads like something straight out of a movie. Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick claimed that the rats infesting their headquarters' evidence room were eating confiscated marijuana, leaving them all "high." This naturally raises the question: were the rats truly high, or were the officers just trying to find a scapegoat for a missing stash? The hosts had a hard time believing the official line, agreeing that the story was exactly what you'd expect to hear from a cover-up.
Is Nessie Real? New Video Reignites Debate
Of course, no weird news roundup is complete without the Loch Ness Monster. New footage, compiled from a series of rediscovered photos taken by photographer Chi Kelly, seems to show a large, unidentified creature moving in the loch. The hosts explained how the video was created by the podcast The Cryptid Factor with the help of Nessie hunter Steve Feltham, who has famously lived on the loch's banks for 32 years. This led them to a shared "healthy skepticism" and a discussion on how they love the mystery more than the potential reality.
The Pentagon's Explanation for Roswell
The weirdness doesn't stop there. We also dived into a new report from the Pentagon's All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (ARRO), which claims the famous Roswell UFO sightings were simply a classified program called Project Mogul. The hosts were quick to point out the irony, as they also discussed a recent whistleblower, David Grusch, who swore under oath that the government possesses "non-human" spacecraft and bodies. The conclusion of the report was exactly what you would say if you were trying to cover something up.
A Mysterious Door in Antarctica
The conspiracy theories continued with a viral Reddit post that claimed a "massive door" in Antarctica was found on Google Maps. This led to a discussion of some of the most ridiculous theories about the frozen continent, from a secret Nazi bunker to a wall that surrounds the flat earth. The hosts pointed out that the coordinates are actually just a few hundred meters from a Japanese research station.
The Bookshop Fire and the Miraculous Bibles
We also covered a bizarre case of Bibles miraculously surviving a bookshop fire in Guatemala. The hosts debated whether this was an act of divine intervention or simply because the bibles, being stacked together, would not burn easily. This reminded them of a similar incident from a 2006 tsunami where a stone church survived while the rest of the village, made of flimsy shacks, was leveled.
A Baby Born with a Tail
Finally, we rounded things off with a story about a baby born with a four-inch tail in Hangzhou, China. The hosts discussed the medical reason—a tethered spinal cord—which prevents the tail from being removed. This led to a humorous discussion about the social implications of having a tail and how, if they were the baby, they would lean into it, despite the obvious difficulties.
The world is a tapestry of the strange, the unexplained, and the flat-out ridiculous. And we, at Afterwyrd, are here to pull at every single thread.