10 Crazy News Stories No One Expected to Read in 2025

Over the past couple of weeks, things have been extremely tense and volatile in the U.S. and pretty much everywhere else. The news is full of stories and events making people even angrier, and it seems that the boiling point is not far off.

To lower the temperature a bit, so to speak, it might help to focus on something completely different for a bit. In between the political and war news, other stories have crept in that can only be explained as “bonkers.” On this list are just ten of these stories, guaranteed to make your jaw drop at least halfway.

Related: 10 Cheesy Stories Sure to Both Delight and Leave You Speechless

10 Nuns on the Run

You’ve seen the movies. Nuns on the run, trying to escape. Now, it seems, three elderly nuns in Austria have taken that idea to heart. Having been forced into a care home they did not want to live in, the three plotted their escape.

They enlisted the help of some of their former students and a locksmith to regain entry to their beloved previous home, the Kloster Goldenstein convent in Elsbethen. The nuns had been living unhappily in the care home since 2023 before making a break for it. Now, they are living on their own at the convent and couldn’t be more overjoyed. However, the police don’t share their sentiment. Instead, they insist that the nuns returning to the convent is “incomprehensible” since the rooms at the convent are not usable.

For the moment, the nuns are still at the convent. They have had water and electricity connections partially restored, and people are bringing them groceries. Whether they will be forced to return to the care home is unclear.^[1]

9 Is That a Crossbow Bolt?

In August 2025, local police did a welfare check on a 64-year-old man in Ancona, Italy. What they found shocked them to their core. The man was lying in his bed with the end of a crossbow bolt embedded in his forehead. He was taken to the hospital immediately, where medical staff found that he could communicate incoherently and had not eaten in two days.

The head of neurosurgery at the hospital was astounded that the man had survived for so long. He stated that if the arrow had gone a millimeter farther, the man would have died instantly. The man underwent emergency surgery, which was successful. However, his condition remained serious afterward, and there is no update yet on how he is doing now.^[2]

8 Meow

Residents who live near Wallasey Beach in Wirral, Merseyside, in North West England had what can only be described as a confusing encounter earlier this year. A Facebook video emerged of car passengers screaming at a person dressed in a black cat costume who approached their vehicle.

Another person posted that they had been walking their dog when they encountered a man making cat noises. When the person shone a flashlight at the man, he waved his arms at them before crawling slowly up a hill.

A woman also saw the man, apparently dressed in a panther costume, crawling up a hill after growling at her and her dog. Some believe the man was playing a prank, while others are genuinely terrified. Either way, it is still unclear who the man is and why he dresses up as a giant cat.^[3]

7 No Werewolves on My Watch

Sometimes, you can only shake your head when you read some of the stories posted to news websites. For example, what else can you do when you read about a man attacking another man with a wooden stake because he believed the victim was a werewolf?

This happened in June 2025 when Jose Manuel Perez was eating lunch with the unnamed victim in Salt Lake City. During the meal, Perez abruptly began hitting the victim before putting him in a chokehold. Perez also produced a wooden stake with a nail in it and told the victim he was going to pierce his heart.

Fortunately, the victim eventually escaped and alerted the police. Perez took the victim’s backpack, which had been left behind, and fled. Police found Perez not long after and discovered he still had the victim’s backpack. Perez had also packed his pockets full of rocks and stones. He told the police that he believed the victim was a werewolf who wanted to kill him.

Perez was booked on aggravated robbery, which is a first-degree felony.^[4]

6 Box Demon

What would you do if a strange person wearing a crudely made paper plate mask turned up on your doorstep?

This is exactly what happened to a homeowner in Pennsylvania. The homeowner saw someone on their front porch wearing a paper plate mask. The person had an empty box with them and said the following into the Ring camera: “I am the box demon, I leave this gift, this box, a gift for you.”

This all took place at around 4 a.m. on March 11, 2025. The homeowner called the police, who have since confirmed they identified the “box demon.” They did not reveal the person’s identity but stated there were no public safety concerns.

The homeowner also made no further comment about the incident.^[5]

5 Freedom!

Sometimes, animals just want their freedom. This was the case with a mischievous kangaroo that escaped from private property in Alabama in May 2025. The marsupial’s name is Sheila, and she gave her owner heart palpitations as she decided to bound her way up Interstate 85.

Fortunately, Sheila’s owner was able to sedate her and get her back home safely. She was uninjured and back to eating and drinking water in no time. Sheila’s owner runs a petting zoo, but Sheila is the family’s personal pet.^[6]

4 Sometimes Horror Stories Come True

Children around the world are scared of monsters under the bed. Sometimes, they invent a monster so they can stay up late. Other times, they become terrified of something they see on TV or at the movies, causing them to believe something is hiding under the bed.

Parents, however, should always make the effort to actually look under the bed. If a Kansas babysitter hadn’t done that, the children in her care may have met a terrible fate.

In March 2025, the babysitter had her hands full with the toddler she was looking after. The toddler kept complaining that there was a monster under the bed. Looking to reassure the child, the babysitter got down on the floor and checked under the bed. As she did so, she unexpectedly stared straight into the eyes of a man hiding there.

The babysitter attempted to pull the man out from under the bed, leading to an altercation. The man fled, and the babysitter called the police. The police soon identified the man as Martin Villalobos Jr. and confirmed he used to live at the house he was hiding in. Villalobos was arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery, child endangerment, and a series of other charges.^[7]

3 In the Wrong Paws

Most dog owners allow their dogs to jump on the bed or the couch. Jerald Kirkwood is no different. In March 2025, Kirkwood was lying in bed with his girlfriend when his one-year-old pit bull jumped up on the bed.

What the couple could not have foreseen is that the pit bull, Oreo, would get his paw stuck in the trigger guard of Kirkwood’s gun, which was lying on the bed. As Oreo tried to free his paw, he squeezed the trigger, and the bullet grazed Kirkwood’s thigh.

Fortunately, Kirkwood sustained a very minor wound, but the situation could have ended like it did for Matt Branch in 2019. Branch’s Labrador retriever stepped on a hunting shotgun in the back of a terrain vehicle while on a hunting trip with Branch in Mississippi. The shotgun fired, and the bullet hit Branch in the leg. His leg was eventually amputated.^[8]

2 Attack of the Giant Fish

Mermaid performers are in high demand worldwide. They swim in massive aquarium tanks and feature in aquatic shows. What they don’t usually do is fight off giant fish trying to bite their heads.

This is what happened to 22-year-old Mariia Zelenina in China’s Xishuangbanna Primitive Forest Park in January 2025. Zelenina was floating underwater in a tank, entertaining the park guests and their children, when a Chinese sturgeon attacked her. The fish tried to close its mouth around her head, sucking off her goggles and leaving her with facial injuries and bruising.

The park visitors could only look on in horror as this happened, before Zelenina pulled free and swam to the surface of the tank. She was taken to the hospital and had to rest for a few days afterward because of pain in her eye.^[9]

1 But What If It Malfunctions?

Just when you think you’ve heard everything, China levels up its bizarre-meter. In September 2025, a video clip filmed in China quickly went viral on social media. The video shows a public restroom that provides toilet paper only when users scan a QR code and watch an advert.

It is said that the goal behind this weird toilet is to reduce toilet paper wastage. However, there are glaring issues with this concept. For instance, what if a user’s phone battery is dead? Or what if they don’t have internet access? Even worse, what if the user has already done their business, only for the system to malfunction and they don’t get any paper?

One can only hope this is a trend that will die out fast.^[10]