Fun Facts That Are

Will Ferrell was offered $29 million to star in Elf 2. He read the script and realized it was terrible. He told his agent he couldn't lie to the fans just for a paycheck. He walked away from $29 million. To keep the first movie special.

A four-year-old girl in Seattle started feeding crows. They started leaving her presents: earrings, buttons, LEGO pieces, a rusty screw she labeled "Third Favorite." Then her mom dropped a camera lens cap in an alley blocks away. The crows dove into the water, fished it out, and left it on the birdbath. The bird-cam caught the whole thing.

After 14 years at Chipotle, manager Jeanette Ortiz filed a workers' compensation claim for carpal tunnel syndrome. Within months, she was accused of stealing $626 from the safe - caught on video, they said. When she asked to see the footage, Chipotle told her it had been destroyed. A jury awarded her $7.97 million.

Jessica Vincent paid $3.99 for a swirled glass vase at a Goodwill in Hanover County, Virginia. She recognized the "Venini" signature on the bottom and posted it to an Italian glass collecting Facebook group - experts identified it as a rare Carlo Scarpa Pennellate vase from 1942, one of only two known in that color. It sold at Wright auction in Chicago for $107,100.

The US military spent $2.7 billion on a giant missile defense blimp called JLENS. On its second day of active duty, it broke free. It dragged 6,700 feet of cable across Pennsylvania. Knocked out power to 30,000 people. F-16s were scrambled but couldn't stop it. It deflated in a field. State police secured it. The program was quietly shelved.

Dr. Dre was about to become hip-hop's first billionaire when Apple bought his company Beats for $3 billion in 2014. Then he posted a video bragging about it, and Tim Cook used the leak to shave $200 million off - landing Dre just under a billion.

Ryan Ferguson spent nearly 10 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit - convicted after a witness claimed he 'remembered' the night through dream-like flashbacks. Both witnesses later admitted they lied. An appeals court freed him, then a jury handed him $37.9 million.

Keanu Reeves was set to earn over $200 million from The Matrix sequels. He gave $75 million of it to the special effects and costume crews. His reason? "They were the ones who made the movie." Then he bought every stunt performer a custom Harley Davidson.

A stray puppy was smuggled onto a troopship in a coal bin in 1917. He served 18 months in the WWI trenches, warned his regiment of mustard gas attacks, located wounded men in No Man's Land, and bit a German spy's leg until soldiers arrived. He is the most decorated war dog of WWI and the only dog promoted to sergeant through combat. His body is at the Smithsonian.

A California couple were walking their dog in February 2013 when the woman spotted a rusty tin can sticking out of the soil on their property. They dug it out - and found it packed with 19th-century gold coins. Eight canisters total, containing 1,427 Gold Rush-era coins dated 1847-1894. Face value: $27,980. Market value: $10 million.

When a gray SUV was T-boned and flipped onto its side at a busy Daytona Beach intersection in March 2024, eight strangers - including Army Iraq war veteran Amy Ridgely - ran over and rocked it back onto its wheels in under 60 seconds. The whole rescue was caught on a traffic camera, and Daytona Beach Police called it the spirit of Daytona Beach.

Diane Hendricks handcrafted a Raggedy Ann doll and asked her husband Bill - a Marine Corps Reserve major in Los Angeles - to find an organization that could give it to a child in need. No such organization existed. So he started one. By Christmas, his Marine unit had collected 5,000 toys. Toys for Tots has since delivered over 708 million toys to 314 million children.