• Danee Cook, a police captain in San Diego, said a woman who was living in a van with 320 pet rats, which she eventually agreed to give up, was not hoarding the animals -- she'd started with just two -- but things quickly got out of hand because rats can give birth every four weeks and can produce a dozen per litter.
• Ben Atkinson, 43, a tree surgeon, scaled the Big Ben clock tower at Britain's Parliament dressed as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, wearing a blond wig, suit jacket and tie, and unfurled a banner reading "No pride on a dead planet" as part of ongoing demonstrations calling for stronger action on climate change.
• Raylaine Knope was sentenced to 28 years in prison, and her daughter, Bridget Lambert, was sentenced to four years after authorities in New Orleans said they abused an autistic relative, keeping her in a backyard cage and forcing her to do chores in exchange for food and water.
• Donna Francis, 39, who fled from New York to London after she was accused of using silicone gel bought on eBay to inject 34-year-old Kelly Mayhew, who died when the substance entered her bloodstream, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide.
• Craig Milsap, fire chief in Bartow County, Ga., said 36-year-old Carey Lee Wolfe, a now-fired firefighter, had been an "exemplary" employee before he was accused of stealing 17 guns from his in-laws' house and burning the home to the ground.
• Andrew Pleviak, 42, a former agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, pleaded guilty to falsely identifying himself as an immigration officer and claiming that an inmate at a Kingman County, Kan., jail was an important confidential informant in a foiled attempt to free the inmate.
• Vernon Lee Millican, 37, of Leakey, Texas, a former Border Patrol agent, faces up to 30 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges that he produced child pornography, including videos of himself sexually assaulting a minor.
A Section on 10/19/2019