It has been another year of dramatic and, at times, historic news headlines.
In times like these, it can be easy to get wrapped up in the major stories of the day, globally and locally.
But the world can be a strange place, and mixed in with the big newsmakers are often smaller stories that make you sit up and say, “Wait, what?”
British Columbia was home to its fair share of these offbeat news items in 2024.
Here are just a few that caught our eye.
Couple finds 115 stuffed animals hidden in walls during B.C. renovation
It’s expected that you might find a few surprises when taking on a major renovation at your home. But not like this.
Vancouver Island couple Connor Nijsse and Brianne Hinkkuri were renovating their property earlier this year when they made an unusual discovery inside the walls: hundreds of stuffed animals.
The home’s previous owners were apparently using them as insulation.
“I was just removing some drywall and I had a pair of eyes staring back at me after I ripped off a piece,” he told Global News.
The couple recorded themselves prying the walls open to discover more of the stuffies, and posted it to TikTok where it delighted millions of people.
Scores of people also reached out to them asking to buy individual animals, which he said dated to the 1980s and 1990s.
“One in particular that kind of stuck with me, we had this bear (and) when we looked into it, it’s from about 1980 and this lady had it as a child and it was lost in a move,” Hinkuri said.
“So we were able to ship that one out to her and she lives in the States. So yeah, just crazy.”
The couple ultimately found 115 stuffed animals, which they said were “surprisingly well-preserved.”
Hundreds of pounds of dirty diapers left behind by family in B.C. woods
An Okanagan volunteer group found themselves with a nasty cleanup job this summer, and a bit of a mystery.
Okanagan Forest Task Force said it discovered hundreds of pounds of dirty diapers, left behind by a family of eight living in the hills above lake country.
“We managed to completely fill a dump trailer, hydraulic dump trailer full of just diapers and not very much other garbage other than just diapers alone,” volunteer Kane Blake told Global News.
“There’s probably close to doing 800 to 1,000 pounds of used diapers. The smell is not fantastic, especially during the summer days and a lot of these dumpsites, they’ve had time to sit there and cook in the sun.”
The task force says it has cleaned up after the family several times and each time they move to another location and leave another mess behind.
Caught on camera: A bizarre, unsanitary theft from Richmond gelato store
You’ve heard of shoplifting, but what about shop-scooping? How about bare-hand shop-scooping?
The bizarre and unsanitary theft at a frozen yogurt shop in Steveston was caught on camera in October.
Kaitlyn Sieg, who works at a nearby deli, spotted the man and filmed the incident. She told Global News she saw the man mumbling about wanting some ice cream and then just scooping some with his hands.
Sieg said the Timothy’s employee came over to her, saying a man who had caused previous issues at the store was now sitting outside.
“So I told her, ‘Let’s close down and then you come over here and wait for when your boss shows up,’” Sieg said. “And right when we came around the corner we actually saw him behind the counter rummaging through.
“And that’s when I just walked in and said, ‘You need to go.’”
Witnesses told Global News that Richmond RCMP arrested the man a short distance away.
Super-sized doggy door helps North Vancouver family coexist with local bear
- New York correctional officers pummelled handcuffed man before death, video footage shows
- Sweden embarks on a search for more cemetery space in case of war
- Bloodied Ukrainian soldiers risk losing more hard-won land in Kursk to Russia
- IN PHOTOS: Hundreds gather for Hong Kong’s 1st pyrotechnics drone show
-
![]()
NYC subway attack: Prosecutors seek life without parole for murder suspect who set woman on fire -
![]()
Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupts, spews glowing red lava in stunning Christmas display -
![]()
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe ‘safe’ after completing historic closest-ever approach to the sun -
![]()
King’s Christmas message: Charles delivers message of hope amid wars, battle with cancer
You’ve heard of a doggy door, but how about a bear door?
It’s a design North Vancouver man Curt Scheewe developed this year after a local black bear repeatedly knocked down his fence.
Scheewe’s family moved into the house about 10 years ago and said a local bear had repeatedly bashed a hole in the old fence that came with the property.
When the family put a new fence in this year, sure enough, the bruin was back to his old ways.
Get breaking National news
Rather than put the panel back, he left a one-metre by one-metre hole in the fence and framed it in to let the bear through.
“I think it was the kids — we’ve had big dogs in the past — who said, ‘Let’s do a dog door/bear door,’” he explained.
The result is a large panel on hinges, heavy enough to keep critters like coyotes out.
“Sure enough, two weeks later he comes walking down the driveway and walks right through it like he’s done it 20 times,” he said.
Sheewe’s family captured footage of the bear using the bear door, which the society posted on social media.
Reisner said she’s seen overwhelmingly positive reactions to the video, including a number of people asking for instructions on how to build one for themselves.
Maple Ridge raccoon revived with Narcan after suspected fentanyl poisoning
Call it a dramatic example of the scale of B.C.’s drug crisis.
A Maple Ridge woman recently helped save a family of raccoons believed to have been exposed to fentanyl.
Ashley Bennett said she found the mother and baby raccoon unresponsive on her back porch — and rushed the little one to a local vet.
“I took my cat out of its banana box that it sleeps in and picked up this raccoon, which was completely lifeless, flopped it into my arms and back into the box,” Bennett said.
Dr. Adrian Walton at the Dewdney Animal Hospital said the critter was cold, with dilated pupils and a slow heart rate, and ruled out a variety of toxins.
“So one of the things we started thinking of was fentanyl,” he said.
“We decided to do a reversing agent, a.k.a. the veterinary version of Narcan … “The next thing we know, we have this raccoon rampaging around the clinic and all of us are trying to herd it into an exam room so that we could actually get it confined,” he said.
After a brief period of chaos, the vet staff were able to contain the raccoon and get it to a cage.
“At which point it walked right in, turned around, grabbed the door by his hand and shut it,” Walton said.
“It’s like, ‘I’ve had enough of this.’”
The animal was taken home and safely released.
While this is the first raccoon they have revived with Narcan, Walton said over the last 18 years they have dealt with an increase in the number of animals, mostly pets, that have consumed narcotics.
Why did the Vancouverite carry a brick to cross the road? Safety campaign is no joke
Would the sight of a brick-toting pedestrian crossing the street get you to slow down?
That was the premise of an eyebrow-raising traffic safety campaign in Vancouver this spring — though the brick weren’t real.
The initiative was the brainchild of a group called Vision Zero Vancouver, which advocates safety improvements to bring traffic fatalities and injuries to zero.
The group installed bins of foam rubber “bricks” at crosswalks in Granville Island and the West End. Signage is posted encouraging pedestrians to “be seen” by grabbing a brick, looking for traffic, waving at vehicles and crossing.
“It’s to poke fun at the idea that it should be the obligation of a pedestrian … to actually beg for safe passage across the road. We can do better than that,” Vision Zero traffic safety advocate Lucy Malone said.
The campaign was a tongue-in-cheek response to a dangerous crossing at Nelson and Nicola Streets in the West End where one resident installed buckets of red flags for pedestrians to hold as they crossed the road.
Eels on a plane: Slippery specimens escape aircraft at Vancouver airport
You’ve heard of Snakes on a Plane — but what about eels?
Staff at Vancouver International Airport recently had to ask themselves that question.
The airport said ground handlers were unloading an aircraft in July when a shipment of eels opened and spilled onto the ground.
Video posted to social media shows dozens of live eels squirming on the apron surface around an Air Canada plane at YVR.
Crews were able to scoop the slithery subjects up and repackage them, according to Air Canada.
This chicken rides the bus to school. Now it’s been declared world’s smartest
That’s right, folks. B.C. is apparently home to the world’s smartest chicken.
Lacey the chicken set a new Guinness World Record this summer — not for her size, or for laying the most eggs, but for her intelligence, after pecking out the most identifications by a chicken in one minute.
Lacey’s owner, Gabriola Island veterinarian Emily Carrington, said chickens are a lot smarter than most people think.
Carrington trained six chickens to peck on letters, colours and symbols that would get them a treat.
After more than a year of training, they officially went for the record, with official timers and witnesses on hand.
Only one came out on top, completing a total of six tricks.
“Lacey was the one who got the most,” Carrington said. “She beat the other ones by one, so she’s got the record.”
‘Poop all over the place’: Free-roaming peacocks anger Vancouver Island neighbourhood
Living in B.C. means animal encounters are never out of the question, but some animals are more unusual than others.
Residents of one Vancouver Island community recently cried foul over the unwelcome presence of a flock of fowl.
Dick Zandee, who lives in North Cowichan, said his neighbourhood has been overrun with peacocks and peahens — which are both noisy and messy.
“They go almost 24/7. We sleep with the windows closed and I even have to wear ear muffs because I am not a sound sleeper,” homeowner Dick Zandee said.
“Peacocks have a very interesting sex life, they seem to have about a six-month mating season. And of course, that’s when they’re the loudest and most aggressive.”
Neighbours said about a dozen of the birds, believed to have come from a nearby property, have gone wild and are known to make a mess on patios, roofs and vehicles.
“They go to the bathroom wherever they feel like it, they are in my vegetable garden … they quite like my fountain,” neighbour Mona Anderson said.
The municipality has since lent them a live trap to try and catch the birds for relocation.
‘I love Costco!’: B.C. woman surprises husband with big box birthday party
Think you love Costco? Not as much as this guy.
Karissa Reynolds threw a surprise birthday party for her husband in Nanaimo this fall after getting the idea from a TikTok trend.
Her husband, Aaron, was oblivious to the fact that his wife arranged for his family and friends to show up at the store in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island — seemingly randomly.
“I drew a map of Costco and I sent it to all our friends and family, and I made sure that they were all standing a little bit farther apart. We’re lucky our friends and family are awesome and they just weren’t doing anything the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. So they all came last minute, (it) was great.”
Karissa said Aaron made it through about 20 people before he clued into what was going on.
Once Aaron realized what was going on, he was overjoyed so many people made his birthday a memorable one.
“It’s so funny to look back on now because it seems so obvious, but I was just so swept up in the moment of it and I love Costco and I love running into people,” Aaron said.
Eby stung, but wasp gets worst of ‘fatal’ encounter on B.C. campaign trail
British Columbia’s provincial election was historically close and will probably be remembered for bitter partisan rhetoric.
But it also had an oddball moment of its own: NDP Leader David Eby being stung by a wasp during a live event.
Eby was delivering remarks in Chilliwack while on the election campaign trail when the insect interrupted him, prompting him to swat at his neck and identify it as a “bug.”
But seconds later he was apparently stung, scrunching up his face in a grimace as he told reporters it was a bee that had made its way down his collar.
In fact, it was a yellowjacket that Eby eventually flung to the ground where it was later stepped on by a member of his staff.
Eby said he was fine after being stung, but the encounter was probably “fatal” for the insect.
“The bee is not gonna make it,” he said.
B.C. city drains millions of litres from pond overrun with thousands of goldfish
Thousands of feral goldfish, some nearly as big as three pounds.
No, it’s not the setup for a horror movie, it’s the problem Campbell River had to deal with in October.
The municipality was forced to drain 39 million litres from a local pond to try and root out the infestation, likely created by careless owners dumping their fish.
In the end, they removed more than 1,700 of the fish — which can grow quite large when they’re not in a little tank.
The city says the fish are an invasive species that can displace and sometimes eat native species, while also causing problems with the water and affecting the ecosystem.
Comments