It was a week for animals running amok, and an exceedingly hungry star, plus an Illinois traveller took getting to the airport on time to a whole new level. Then there was turmoil over tacos south of the border, all contributing to this week’s weird and wacky news file.

AN UBER MIGHT HAVE BEEN EASIER

A southern Illinois man has been charged with theft for allegedly stealing a backhoe to drive about 16 km to an airport to catch a flight, authorities said. Security camera footage shows a Carbondale man arriving at Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois atop a backhoe and leaving it in the airport parking lot, then proceeding to cross the street from the lot to the airport lobby, carrying a guitar case. The owner of the backhoe arrived at the airport a short time later and identified the equipment as belonging to his company, the sheriff’s office said. The owner said the machine, typically used to move large debris, had been parked at a job site.

FRIED CHICKEN

Service was temporarily halted on a line of Mexico City’s subway system after a chicken got loose on the tracks. Authorities quickly cut off the electricity at a station near the city’s centre while maintenance personnel and civil defense officers in hard hats pursued the elusive bird around the tracks with brooms, gloves and a trash bag. The chicken eluded several attempts to capture it before one worker tossed his coat over the bird.

CRITTER CAPTURED AFTER ‘MUCH TOMFOOLERY’

A team of wranglers – including one on horseback – captured a wayward steer named Lester that marauded across several lanes of Interstate 75 in Holly, Michigan, northwest of Detroit. A rider on horseback and three people in two ATVs can be seen in a video chasing Lester as the state police car follows slowly behind on the shoulder. “Eventually after much tom foolery, the critter was captured and removed from the freeway,” the state police wrote on the agency’s Twitter page. “Troopers reopened the freeway and things quickly got back to normal. The bovine was not charged and is back in the pasture with a story to tell all the other livestock.”

THE BIG GULP

For the first time, scientists have caught a star in the act of swallowing a planet – not just a nibble or bite, but one big gulp (illustration). Astronomers reported their observations of what appeared to be a gas giant around the size of Jupiter or bigger being eaten by its star. The sun-like star had been puffing up with old age for eons and finally got so big that it engulfed the close-orbiting planet. While there had been previous signs of other stars nibbling at planets and their digestive aftermath, this was the first time the swallow itself was observed, according to the study appearing in the journal Nature.

It’s also a gloomy preview of what will happen to Earth when our sun morphs into a red giant and gobbles the four inner planets. “If it’s any consolation, this will happen in about 5 billion years,” reassured co-author Morgan MacLeod of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

GIVE ME TACOS OR GIVE ME DEATH

Declaring a mission to liberate “Taco Tuesday” for all, Taco Bell is asking US regulators to force Wyoming-based Taco John’s to abandon its longstanding claim to the trademark. Too many businesses and others refer to “Taco Tuesday” for Taco John’s to be able to have exclusive rights to the phrase, Taco Bell asserts in a US Patent and Trademark Office filing that is, of course, dated Tuesday. It’s the latest development in a long-running beef over “Taco Tuesday” that even included NBA star LeBron James making an unsuccessful attempt to claim the trademark in 2019.

STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES

A convicted felon in Florida who appeared in a social media post holding a handgun was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in federal prison. Fort Myers police officers arrested the man on an active arrest warrant after he posted a video on Instagram at a local restaurant, according to court documents. That same day, prosecutors said he posted another video on social media of himself pointing what appeared to be a Glock pistol at the camera. As a convicted felon, the man is prohibited from possessing a firearm or ammunition under federal law, prosecutors said.