Sex toys in a tree, pizza guy steals cat and other odd news stories from 2022
This year there were plenty of heavy topics that crossed the desk of Spectator reporters.
But, there was also no shortage of strange incidents, odd behaviour and decisions that make you go, huh?
Here are some of this year's oddities:
This past summer those wanting to play one of the fastest-growing sports found themselves with a paddle, but without a court to play on thanks to a mix of untimely construction and turf wars.
We could have been brown baggin' it. The city discovered it had been enforcing a non-existence booze bylaw for the last 16 years. Oops.
A proposal for a luxury housing development in Dundas was kiboshed over the location - 300 metres from an animal-product processing plant best known for its stink.
A grabby pizza delivery driver catnapped Dwight from his east-end home, later dropping him nearly 10 kilometres away. Thus started a weeklong search for the feline, involving hundreds of volunteers, an animal rescue group and a Dominos-funded reward.
City council created a safety plan" to ensure staff had a harassment-free workplace in the event then-councillor Terry Whitehead, subject of a recent ethics probe, appeared at city hall.
A revenge plot by a spiteful, and creative, Burlington man made Jimmy Kimmel. Shaun Oriold erected several sex toys atop a recently decapitated tree, directing them toward the neighbours who called bylaw about the previously overhanging conifer.
Unauthorized sexual enhancement drugs
Potentially hazardous sexual enhancement products, with names like Platinum Rhino Love 2000 and Super Panther 7K, were confiscated from a variety store down on Barton Street East. They posed unintended side effects.
Blizzard won't stop vet appointment
Though you might be sick of snow talk, a February blizzard was the scene when Jon Carter bundled his 11-week-old kitten up and strapped them to a sled. He had a vet appointment to keep, trudging through a kilometre of 40-plus centimetres of the fluffy stuff.
A Hamilton man just missed catching Aaron Judge's 61st home run of the season. His miss gave him 15 seconds of fame and a spot on Jimmy Kimmel's show.
A heist, a stakeout and a mysterious phone call - a community came together to solve a theft and return stolen patio heaters to a Hess Street restaurant.
Delaney Caulfield is a Hamilton-based web editor at The Spectator. Reach her via email: dcaulfield@thespec.com