Wordle saves pensioner held hostage in her basement
And other stories from the stranger side of life

The viral word game Wordle is thought to have saved an 80-year-old US woman who was imprisoned in her basement bathroom for 17 hours by an intruder who broke into her house in the dead of night. Police in Illinois were alerted to the predicament of Denyse Holt after she did not text her daughter with her Wordle score, reported The Times. Holt was saved and the man arrested. The local police chief said he did not play Wordle himself, but added: “I may have to start now”.
False teeth returned 11 years later
A man’s missing false teeth turned up in the post 11 years after he vomited them into a Spanish bin. Paul Bishop, 63, last saw the false gnashers while celebrating a friend’s birthday in Spain in 2011. After bountiful boozing, he threw up into a bin and lost his teeth in the process. Spanish authorities and the British council used biological information to locate the teeth’s owner and send them back to him. Bishop told the Daily Star that he “couldn’t believe it”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Trump denies flushing papers down the loo
Donald Trump has denied allegations that he often flushed documents down a bathroom toilet at the White House. A new book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman claims staff found documents blocking a toilet and had to call in a plumber who found “wads of clumped-up printed wet paper” in the system. The former US president described the report as “another fake story”, said the Daily Telegraph.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
Interest rate cut: the winners and losers
The Explainer The Bank of England's rate cut is not good news for everyone
-
Quiz of The Week: 3 – 9 May
Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
The Week Unwrapped: Will robots benefit from a sense of touch?
Podcast Plus, has Donald Trump given centrism a new lease of life? And was it wrong to release the deadly film Rust?
-
What happens if tensions between India and Pakistan boil over?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION As the two nuclear-armed neighbors rattle their sabers in the wake of a terrorist attack on the contested Kashmir region, experts worry that the worst might be yet to come
-
Why Russia removed the Taliban's terrorist designation
The Explainer Russia had designated the Taliban as a terrorist group over 20 years ago
-
Inside the Israel-Turkey geopolitical dance across Syria
THE EXPLAINER As Syria struggles in the wake of the Assad regime's collapse, its neighbors are carefully coordinating to avoid potential military confrontations
-
'Like a sound from hell': Serbia and sonic weapons
The Explainer Half a million people sign petition alleging Serbian police used an illegal 'sound cannon' to disrupt anti-government protests
-
The arrest of the Philippines' former president leaves the country's drug war in disarray
In the Spotlight Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the ICC earlier this month
-
Ukrainian election: who could replace Zelenskyy?
The Explainer Donald Trump's 'dictator' jibe raises pressure on Ukraine to the polls while the country is under martial law
-
Why Serbian protesters set off smoke bombs in parliament
THE EXPLAINER Ongoing anti-corruption protests erupted into full view this week as Serbian protesters threw the country's legislature into chaos
-
Who is the Hat Man? 'Shadow people' and sleep paralysis
In Depth 'Sleep demons' have plagued our dreams throughout the centuries, but the explanation could be medical