Weird News

3:31 PM PT -- Timmothy's Aunt and Grandmother have just spoken out, thanking law enforcement and promising that they will never stop looking for Timmothy.

They also asked everyone to join them in praying for Rini, stating, "We hope our tragedy will help to shed some light on the horrific problems of suicide and missing children in our country."

2:05 PM PT -- The story just keeps getting more bizarre ... the kid claiming to be Timmothy isn't a kid at all! Cops say he's a 23-year-old MAN named Brian Michael Rini.

1:48 PM PT -- According to The FBI, DNA testing has revealed the 14-year-old claiming to be Timmothy is NOT the missing child. A statement reads, "A local investigation continues into this person's true identity."

Timmothy Pitzen -- a 6-year-old child who famously went missing in 2011 and was featured on "Live PD" -- has allegedly been found in Ohio after escaping his captors.

The story's pretty wild. A teenager discovered by locals in north Kentucky Wednesday morning claimed to be Timmothy and said he'd just escaped his 2 kidnappers. He reportedly said they'd been holding him for 7 years. The locals then called 911.

Cops went on the hunt, and eventually found the boy in Sharonville, OH ... just outside of Cincinnati. He claims he's 14-years-old now, and managed to escape from a Red Roof Inn ... although he's unsure where the motel was. He describes his kidnappers as white men covered in tattoos on their necks and arms who look like bodybuilders.

It's unclear if the teen, who's now in police custody is, in fact, Timmothy. A DNA test to confirm his identity is reportedly underway and should take about 24 hours.

Timmothy initially disappeared after his mother took him out of school one day for a 3-day vacation, but she ended up being found dead a few days later at an Illinois hotel. A note was found near her body, saying Timmothy was safe with people who'd care for him.

The story was heavily covered at the time, and even featured last year on the popular A&E show, "Live PD." The show produced a visual rendering of what Timmothy should look like now.

Elon Musk appears to have gone from tech titan to SoundCloud rapper overnight -- assuming a goofy autotune track about Haramabe that he linked to is actually his doing.

The Tesla CEO tweeted out a SoundCloud song Saturday called "RIP Harambe," which sent users to an SC page ran by "Emo G Records." It's unclear if it's actually Elon's page, or if it's just something he stumbled upon, but he certainly made it seem he was behind it.

He wrote, "I'm disappointed that my record label failed." As for the song itself ... well, you gotta hear it to believe it. It's an ode to the Cincinnati Zoo gorilla that was shot and killed in 2016 after a child fell into its cage. Harambe became meme fodder for a minute after that.

That minute has come and gone though, so it's interesting that Elon (again, assuming he did this) focused the first song of his SoundCloud rap career on a years-old topic.

And, as if that wasn't enough, Elon kept the meme jokes coming on Sunday ... tweeting out a duck emoji -- in reference to a 2018 meme about ranking emojis -- and saying the detail in it far outweighed the clout of Emo G Records.

Post Malone knows how to get things delivered -- whether it's through Postmates or not -- which he proved yet again by snagging some cool, and pricey, night vision goggles ... totally gratis.

Post tweeted a screenshot of a Postmates order he was trying to make happen Tuesday -- $11,500 for a pair of FLIR Night Vision White Phospher Goggles. His caption read, "hope this works," with a laughing emoji attached for good measure.

Well, it worked alright ... FLIR Systems took notice of his tweet and decided to send the rapper a pair of the goggles for the low, low price of FREE 99. We're told the company overnighted the delivery to Post, and he got 'em early Wednesday morning.

He seemed pretty stoked by the gesture -- Post captured the moment he opened the package ... and like he says, "It's party time."

TGI Fridays is shady as hell for selling fake-ass potato skins chips -- at least according to one pissed off customer who's now officially seeking ... snack justice.

The chip lover in question, Solange Troncoso ... is suing Fridays, claiming the potato skins chips it hawks at grocery stores are deceptive because they don't actually have any potato skins. In docs obtained by TMZ, she says potatoes are peeled and turned into something called "potato flakes," but the skins are never put back into the final product.

Troncoso -- who is hoping to recruit more plaintiffs through a class action lawsuit -- says the labeling deceives consumers into thinking they're getting a healthy snack.

It's interesting ... Troncoso calls out 3 flavors -- cheddar and bacon, bacon ranch and sour cream and onion -- and says she was deceived into buying bags of the sour cream and onion back in June.

You know what goes horribly with a steak burrito ... STAPLES!!!

But, that's exactly what MMA announcer Jimmy Smith claims he found in his food on Tuesday when he took a bite out of a burrito he bought at a Chipotle in Delray Beach, Florida.

"I took one bite and it was something hard in there and I pulled it out of my tooth and it was 14 staples," Smith says ... "A brick of staples!"

Smith -- who's called fights for the UFC and Bellator -- says he called the restaurant and "freaked out" on the manager ... because he realizes how DANGEROUS swallowing a staple could be.

Smith also says he's LUCKY he didn't ingest the office supplies because he eats like a wild animal -- usually tearing through his food as fast as he can.

Fortunately for Smith -- and Chipotle -- Smith says it does not appear he injured his tooth or his mouth ... or suffered any other injuries from the fully loaded burrito.

Smith says the situation was escalated to Chipotle's corporate offices -- and he has already been contacted by a rep looking to make things right.

Smith says he's not looking for free food or money and does NOT plan on filing a lawsuit -- he just wants the problem corrected so nobody else chows down on 14 STAPLES!!!

"This can't happen to someone else."

3/25 -- The rapper and his creative barber tell TMZ ... the 3D haircut was a delicate affair that required mastery precision. Check out the vid ... they REALLY paid attention to detail. Joc also told us his new shower routine to keep the hairdo intact.

Yung Joc is back on his hair cut game -- this time he's paying tribute the late and great Tupac Shakur by getting him imprinted on his head ... in 3D, no less.

Joc showed off his new 'do Sunday on social media, and it's a VERY detailed portrait of Pac with the haircut he was rockin' on "Juice" -- a flattop, if you'll recall.

Even crazier ... Pac's "hair" is actually popping out of Joc's own head, as the barber left a patch of his hair to capture the real-life effect. In his video, you can hear Joc's pals admiring the work, and for good reason ... it looks incredible.

He notes he'll have to be careful with it since it's on the side of his dome. Like he says, one scratch can screw up the image.

This isn't the first time Joc has played around with different hairstyles ... he tried to one-up Usher a few months back with a retro pompadour 'do that was a throwback to the '50s and '60s.

Going from that to this is a BIG change ... so we'll obviously have to be on the lookout for Joc's hair moves from now on. Duly noted ...

Bill and Ted are coming back to the big screen, which means they'll be back in San Dimas, and there's one place that would LOVE to have them this time around ... their real-life alma mater.

Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter and the rest of the "Bill & Ted 3" crew are more than welcome to film any high school scenes at the real San Dimas High School ... according to the Bonita Unified School District, where SDHS thrives.

Better late than never. KR and AW announced 'B&T 3' was officially a go on Wednesday, which got fans of the cult classic series totally ready to be excellent to each other again.

Count the real San Dimas in on that too.

A BUSD official tells us ... while the district hasn't been contacted by anyone in the production so far, they'd be thrilled to provide a backdrop in the upcoming installment and would accommodate any filming. No one at the school or in the district is actively reaching out to studio heads to make it happen, but staffers are definitely trying to tweet it into reality.

Makes sense that SDHS would wanna be involved -- they were kinda snubbed on the first go-around. Most of the San Dimas High School scenes in "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" were shot in Arizona ... nowhere near the real deal in the San Gabriel Valley.

Besides ... the real San Dimas High School has bodacious-ly embraced a classic line from the first film ... and use it on merch they sell, like this sweet T-shirt for $10.

And, if filming at the real school ain't in the stars, BUSD wants Keanu and co. to know they're welcome there any time. FWIW ... the school's 50th anniversary's coming up.

Who knows ... stranger things have been afoot.

Cristiano Ronaldo wants to save you from BALD SHAME -- so he's opened up a new hair transplant clinic in Spain.

Seriously.

The international soccer superstar has launched Insparya in Madrid -- and Monday, the 34-year-old and his girlfriend, Georgina Rodriguez, faced the media to promote the place.

So, why???

Ronaldo says "image" is important to him and he wants to make sure other people have more control over the way they look.

When asked if he has ever had the procedure -- or ever would -- CR7 replied, "When I think it’s necessary [to have a transplant], of course I’ll do it."

In other words, Ronaldo claims his current hair is 100% his ... for now.

Oh, and Ronaldo says the clinic will also do eyebrow hair transplants too.

Ronaldo isn't the first athlete to get in the hair business -- ex-NFL star Brian Urlacher had a hair procedure done after his football career wrapped up.

Crazy story, crazy ending.

A Kobe Bryant high school basketball jersey -- stolen out of the school's trophy case in 2017 -- has been located by a fan in China who's returning the item ... for free!!

Here's the deal ... someone broke into a display case at Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania on Super Bowl Sunday in 2017 and jacked the autographed #33 Bryant jersey he had signed for the school.

Bryant was a high school phenom at Lower Merion -- where he scored nearly 2,900 points during his 4 years. He also scored a date to his prom with Brandy, 'memba that?!

Well, there was a huge break in the missing jersey case ... when a Kobe superfan in China named Liu Zhe noticed the jersey he recently bought for $2,000 looked VERY similar to the stolen jersey.

Turns out ... it IS the same jersey.

So, 28-year-old Zhe ... being a good dude ... decided to send the jersey back to the school, free of charge, because he felt it was the right thing to do, according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin.

The good news ... Lower Merion has already received the jersey and reps are now working with police to see if they can track down the thief who jacked it in the first place.

So, what does Liu want for his role in the jersey recovery? Nothing really ... just for Kobe to know he did the right thing.

10:47 AM PT -- We just got Mitt in D.C. who offered up an explanation as to why he plucked the candles off one by one -- and it's a legit reason -- dude just wanted to keep his staff healthy.

Mitt Romney's birthday got super freaky with lots of hot wax, Twinkies ... and his unique approach to blowing.

The Utah Senator turned 72 Tuesday, and his staff surprised him with a cake made of his "favorite snack," much to his delight. Check out the vid, though -- Mitt drops a quick dad joke ... then gets weird with it.

It's unclear why, but Romney takes his sweet time, removes each candle one by one ... and THEN blows it out.

Mitt's method doesn't seem very efficient, especially if anyone in his office has any place to be -- but he claims it rewards him with more than the customary single birthday wish.

On the upside ... less saliva to go around.

Queen Elizabeth's first ever post on Instagram is blowing up which is totally impressive ... considering it's just a boring old, OLD letter.

QE2 didn't even remember to add #latergram or #throwbackthursday when she hit the share button. Naturally, there was plenty of royal fanfare for the moment ... they had an actual ceremony for it at London's Science Museum, and she got cheers and applause when a right proper English dude announced, "It's worked perfect."

As for what the Queen posted to The Royal Family's account ... it's an 1843 letter written by computer pioneer and mathematician Charles Babbage to Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert.

The Queen wrote in her caption ... "In the letter, Babbage told Queen Victoria and Prince Albert about his invention the 'Analytical Engine' upon which the first computer programmes were created by Ada Lovelace, a daughter of Lord Byron."

(*EYEROLL*) Can't wait to see her #MCM.

Farrah Abraham's got a new side hustle for Penthouse that has her taking on some amazing women ... including Presidential hopeful, Sen. Kamala Harris.

Take a breath. Farrah's new gig is a fully-clothed one -- she's the new book critic for Penthouse magazine and specifically, she'll be tackling feminist literature. We're told the former 'Teen Mom'/porn star was brought on board 'cause the racy mag wants to see if traditional heroes of female empowerment connect with the "average all-American girl."

Yes, someone's referring to Farrah as the average girl back next door.

BTW, she's already got one review under her belt -- Joan Didion's 1968 book, "Slouching Towards Bethlehem." If you're not in the know ... Didion's an iconic American writer and journalist. She even has her own Netflix documentary.

Anyway, Farrah's got quite a hot take on Joan's breakthrough book -- a collection of essays about her adventures in Cali -- which got rave reviews back in the '60s.

We got some excerpts of Farrah's review and she goes IN, calling it ... "a great book for people who abuse substances every day." She adds, "Without ever feeling the need to grow up, these baby boomers drink their way through life. They only think about drinking and drugs."

Guess Farrah's never heard of the '60s -- but it's clear she's not afraid to speak her mind. She summed up Joan's work like this ... "Was Didion even trying when she wrote this junk?"

Penthouse digs her, anyway ... calling Farrah, "bravely brazen." Oh, and we're told her next review will be one of Senator Harris' books.

Donald Trump treated ANOTHER college football team to a fast food spread at the White House on Monday -- with the North Dakota State squad getting Chick-fil-A and McDonald's on a silver platter!

The NDSU Bison football team was invited to Trump's White House to celebrate winning the FCS Championship with a 38-24 win over Eastern Washington back in January.

The team reportedly wasn't expecting ANY food during the trip -- but after the success Trump had with the Clemson football team back in January, he decided to break out the fast food again!

You can see in the photo ... the spread was loaded with Big Macs and chicken sandwiches.

Remember when Clemson visited, Trump served up McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King AND pizza to celebrate their national championship win over Alabama.

At the time, Trump explained the menu by saying, "I would think that's their favorite food."

The food was a hit -- with Clemson's star QB Trevor Lawrence telling TMZ Sports, "It was awesome. We had McDonald's and everything. It was good."

The NDSU Bison have won the FCS Championship 7 times in the last 8 years -- but this is the first time they've gone to the White House.

Before the trip, head coach Matt Entz told the Grand Forks Herald ... "This isn’t a political trip, this is a Bison trip and, personally, I sold it as two things: It’s one more opportunity for the 2018 team to be together, but also in my mind the start of the 2019 season and the things we’re going to do together."

The big question ... how did the food go over with the players?

2:30 PM PT -- Danielle's rep, Steve Honig, has clapped back at Marty's insinuation, telling us ... "Marty needs to stop trying to parlay his 15 minutes of fame into a career in reality television."

Honig adds ... "He should be spending his time addressing his own issues, of which there are many, rather than providing commentary on Danielle."

Marty Caffrey says Danielle Staub getting remarried so quickly after their divorce is pretty shocking -- even for her -- but he thinks there might be an ulterior motive ... worth a couple million bucks.

"The Real Housewives of New Jersey" star's ex-husband tells TMZ ... he doesn't understand the urgency of Danielle tying the knot again UNLESS it has to do with their divorce agreement -- specifically, the part where she has to buy their $2 million NJ home.

Marty says he hopes Danielle and her new fiance, Oliver Maier, are truly happy and in love, but watch the clip ... he has a list of reasons that make him doubt it.

We broke the story ... Danielle was ecstatic leaving the courthouse just a little more than a week ago, flaunting her divorce papers and giving Marty a parting middle finger.

Days later she revealed she was engaged again -- for the 21st time! -- and is scheduled to marry Maier Monday in NYC. After it's official, Staub will become a duchess ... because Oliver is the duke of Provence. His family is from southern France, and owns 15 vineyards and 2 castles.

Nice catch.

Marty seems to be cool with all of it ... as long as the house gets paid off. If it does, he says he'll buy Oliver a drink.

We reached out to Danielle for comment -- no word back so far ... but she might be a little busy planning her 4th wedding.

11:02 AM PT -- We just got AOC on Capitol Hill, and she tells us the comic book is truly an honor, and she's happy the proceeds are being donated to a good cause.

AOC tells us the entire process has been humbling, and she's hoping the comic will inspire people to discover their inner superhero.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is about to become a superhero in a new comic book chronicling her rise to Congress ... and her story starts in the ring.

TMZ has obtained a couple pages from Josh Blaylock and Devil's Due's new project, "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Freshman Force: New Party, Who Dis?" which hits the shelves in May.

The graphic novel paints AOC as a larger-than-life character who shows up in D.C. to kick some GOP ass with her fellow freshmen. Sounds real enough, but check out these panels.

Here's how the storyline begins ... AOC is a promising wrestler, and in WWE style, she kicks the butt of veteran Congressman Joe Crowley in the ring, and back in the locker room she meets a RIPPED Nancy Pelosi.

It's clear ... Josh and co. are not skimping on all the pulp drama. For the record ... AOC is not involved in the comic and, so far, has said nothing.

Oh, and BTW ... there's another page we got our hands on that takes a big shot at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Peep it for yourself ... very "Where's Waldo?"-esque.

R. Kelly still has the star power to bring things to a screeching halt, 'cause he did exactly that on at least a couple of occasions this weekend while behind bars.

Sources tell TMZ that Cook County Jail became temporarily paralyzed twice between Saturday and Monday, while Kelly was incarcerated there after turning himself in Friday.

We're told the jail's guards were told twice -- once on Saturday and again on Monday -- to cease the other inmates' movements entirely while Kelly was being transported through the facility to meet visitors. Our sources say the visits lasted 15 minutes.

Think about that for a minute. Cook County jail houses roughly 6,100 inmates ... and all of them had to sit tight whenever R. Kelly was on the move. We're told jail officials are ecstatic he's gone, 'cause it's a pain to do that for one inmate.

A Cook County Jail spokesperson made no bones about it ... telling us Kelly's celebrity status is absolutely the reason for the temporary jail freeze. Officials didn't want the other inmates causing a fuss as the singer was taken from one division of the jail to another.