From Bigfoot to bugs: The year's top quirkiest stories

Dec. 22—From the offbeat and intriguing to the humorous and outlandish, the Tribune has covered quite a few quirky stories in 2023.

Here are the top five:

Searching for Sasquatch

In October 1967, filmmakers Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin captured a video of what they believed to be a giant hairy creature walking on two legs.

And since that time, the question of whether Bigfoot actually exists has captured the curiosity of thousands of enthusiasts.

That includes The Indiana Bigfoot Research Organization.

And earlier this year, the organization conducted its annual camp-out in the Morgan Monroe State Forest in hopes of catching a glimpse of the bipedal creature.

Around 40 people attended the camp-out, according to a Tribune article at the time, including the organization's leader Leroy Nail.

Nail admitted to the Tribune that while he has never seen Bigfoot face-to-face, he has "seen bioluminescent eyes stare out from the forest and heard unseen creatures lurking in the shadows."

"I don't need that because I've experienced so much other stuff," Nail told the Tribune. "I know that he's there."

Kiss and tell ... off

When Kiss lead guitarist and co-founder Ace Frehley took the stage to perform at the Haynes Apperson Festival in July, no one probably expected the real fireworks to happen behind-the-scenes.

But that's exactly what happened when John Ostrosky, Frehley's tour manager and personal assistant, was arrested on a handful of charges related to intimidation and public intoxication after reportedly making a death threat toward former Howard County Commissioner Paul Wyman.

Wyman has also been the festival's chairman for the past several years.

According to court documents, police were called to Rhum Academy, 500 W. Superior St., just before midnight June 30, in reference to a disturbance, Tribune archives note.

When police arrived, they reportedly saw Ostrosky inside the business pacing back and forth, and witnesses to the incident state Ostrosky told Wyman, "One day, I'm going to come back here, and you're dead."

Ostrosky also reportedly stated Kiss would never return to play another concert in Kokomo, according to court documents.

Court documents did not state what initially caused the argument between Ostrosky and festival staff.

A hairy situation

Back in October, Kokomo made the national news and even a couple late-night talk shows after a picture showed a woman getting her hair cut at a local Taco Bell.

The situation has since been "corrected," according to restaurant officials.

It was a woman named Jen LeGear who originally took the photo, which appeared to show a Taco Bell shift manager giving a haircut to the restaurant's general manager in the back area of the building, according to a Tribune article at the time.

LeGear then shared the photograph with a few friends.

But before too long, the photo went viral and sparked a complaint to and inspection by the Howard County Health Department.

LeGrear told Tribune newsgathering partner WTHR that she was actually fired after it was discovered by her managers that she took the photo and disseminated it.

As for the general manager in question, she reportedly did admit to getting her hair cut in the Taco Bell, telling the health department that the hair was "swept up with a wooden broom and both the hair and broom were thrown away into the dumpster located outside the building," per Tribune archives.

A unique treat

It was a creepy crawly good time at Pettit Park Elementary School in February when several students attempted a feat many of them probably never had done before, or perhaps will ever do again.

Eat bugs.

The event started as an opinion-writing unit for the school's fourth grade students, according to Tribune archives, but the unit quickly began to explore another question.

Should bugs be added to the school menu?

"Then we thought, wouldn't it be cool if we bought bugs and made them eat them," teacher Pattie Zirkle.

And though the flavored crickets were met with mixed reactions, most of the students participated in the experiment.

Teachers added that they also hope to secure a grant to make next year's opinion writing, insect-eating unit even better, Tribune archives state, though future fourth graders will just have to wait and see what that means.

A local inventor

A couple years ago, when the world was shut down and in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, local resident Joe Kinney came up with an idea to design workout equipment that he had never seen on a store shelf.

Two years and eight prototypes later, Kinney's creation finally took off.

It's called the Complete Upper Body Bar, or CUBB, and its aim is to "target more muscle groups during upper body workouts via resistance bands and rotating handles," according to Tribune archives.

"Believe it or not, there's nothing out there like this," Kinney told the Tribune in January. "When we patented it, there was nothing out there. So it's unique to the industry."

And the equipment is mostly locally made, Kinney added, with assembly set up in Peru and the majority of the pieces manufactured across the Hoosier state.