This Week's Weird News 5/16/25

An 'exploding bird' problem troubling a California neighborhood, a possible glitch in the matrix in Switzerland, and a treasure hunter who claims to have found the legendary lost Nazi gold train were among the weird and wondrous stories to cross our desk this past week.

The tale of a legendary lost Nazi 'gold train' was back in the news this past week when it was revealed that a treasure hunter has come forward claiming to have discovered the apocryphal cache of riches pilfered during World War II. The anonymous individual detailed his alleged find in a letter to officials in the Polish city of Wałbrzych, where it has long been said that the horde was hidden. Asserting that he had located three WWI railroad cars tucked away in a camouflaged tunnel in a wooded area of the community, the man included multiple documents seemingly bolstering his story. However, town officials noted that the letter writer has yet to apply for the proper permits to retrieve the treasure, raising the question of whether or not his tale is genuine.

This past week featured a pair of stories involving neighborhoods plagued by troubling mysteries. First, in California, residents of a street called upon authorities to investigate a strange situation wherein dozens of birds have died after sitting on one specific patch of power lines. While witnesses and home security footage seemed to suggest the unfortunate animals were being electrocuted, an examination by wildlife officials found that they were being downed by a blunt force trauma brought about by a gun or a slingshot. Meanwhile, in England, people living on a street in a small village lamented that an anonymous writer has been tormenting them with threatening 'poison pen' letters for the last several years.

Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising story of the week came by way of Switzerland, where a duck was photographed by a traffic camera under rather unusual circumstances. Sharing the peculiar account on social media last Saturday, officials in the town of Koeniz explained that the picture was snapped on April 13th, exactly seven years to the day that the device was also triggered by the same kind of bird flying down the street. Making the image all the more mystifying was that it was taken in the same location both times and, eerily, both animals traveled at the same speed. The trio of remarkable similarities left many wondering if the traffic camera had somehow captured a proverbial glitch in the matrix.

For more strange and unusual stories from the past week, check out the Coast to Coast AM website.