ACROSS AMERICA — Glitter bombs, damaging fake social media profiles and a spoof call to a suicide hotline were all part of a campaign of intimidation in a tangled web of discrimination and harassment complaints against top leaders in a suburban Chicago police department, according to independent investigators.

Both the police chief and deputy police chief were cleared in the investigation into conflicting complaints filed against the Orland Park Police Department. A complaint filed by a now-former sergeant was found to lack merit.

But a former police chief who retired in 2019 is accused of creating the fake social media profiles and impersonating the deputy chief with the intent to defame him. Earlier this month, the former chief turned himself into police and faces misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and false personation.

Investigators didn’t say who was responsible for the glitter bomb and spoofing call.

Cicada Tourism & Hyper-Sexualized Bugs

We’ve been preparing you for the arrival of 13- and 17-year periodical cicadas in more than a dozen states sprinkled across the eastern half of the country. They’re noisy, with their mating calls reaching 100 decibel levels when enough of them tunnel out of the ground at the same time.

This year, trillions are expected. But one person’s “cicada-cation,” a road trip to hear this natural symphony, is another person’s fear and loathing.

“It’s awesome, right?” one person said on a Reddit thread. “Like as a bug lover, that’s something I should see? Or is just really obnoxious to deal with?”

It is. “We are really tempted to leave the state when it starts this year now that we have lots of old trees in our yard,” another person said.

“I guess I’m in the minority on this but I actually love cicadas,” someone countered. “It’s really cool to me that they just live underground for 13 years and crawl out of their deep slumber to have sex, make a lot of noise and freak out humans for a couple of days before dying, sometimes kamikaze style into some bachelorette’s fresh hairdo.”

Also, in case you’re wondering, “zombie cicada” is no urban legend. Cicadas sometimes get into a fungus that has the same properties as “magic mushrooms” and become so sex-crazed they do it until their butts fall off.

If You Think This Is Weird …

The ride-share company Uber has unlocked a treasure trove of head scratching mysteries, including how someone can lug around a 350-to 450--pound Jeep Liberty engine and forget it. Also left behind, a drawerful of undies, a thing called a fart sensor and enough meditation crystals to suggest we’re just one big mass of existential questions.

There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence of that in the company’s list of “50 most unique items” forgotten in Uber cars.

• Read the full story: Weird Stuff People Leave Behind In Uber Cars

It Was In The Cards

A Michigan woman won a $500,000 lottery prize on a scratch-off ticket the same day a Tarot card reading said she would be coming into money “very soon.”

The 59-year-old woman picked up the ticket before her Tarot card reading. After the reading, “I tried to think of ways this might happen, but I didn’t even think about the lottery ticket in my purse,” the woman told Michigan Lottery officials.

• Read the full story: Big Lottery Prize Was In Tarot Reading

An intruder in a Florida woman’s kitchen scared her so much that she began shaking. Mary Hollenback wasn’t sure what she was going to do to get the nearly 8-foot monster to leave, either.

The intruder broke through the door of Hollenback’s home and was plopped menacingly in front of the refrigerator. Authorities took the suspect alive.

Did we mention the intruder was an alligator, a 7-foot, 11-inch alligator?

• Read the full story: Gator Makes Itself At Home In Woman’s Kitchen