Over the weekend, we received this below e-mail from a reader about a neighborhood parrot that repeatedly screams annoying the neighborhoods: "Over here just south of Melrose and Heliotrope there is a runaway parrot named Appo. He is jumping from tree to tree from alexandria to heliotrope refusing even his favorite treats of cheetos and gatorade from his owner [name redacted]. We've already had the fire folks out here to no avail. He is a......

Monsters and mysterious beasts are usually created by the press even when such cases are authentic, but far less dramatic. In May of 2007 it was reported that two bears, a mother and cub were prowling Bradbury, a gated suburb of Los Angeles. According to the press, the animals had come into town and been seen roaming the streets, padding between parked vehicles and sniffing at driveways of houses. Officials at the time claimed that......