10. Heidi Montag Gets 10 Surgeries in a Day—We weren’t sure whether to include this with celebrity stories, but since Heidi Montag and her dumb-wit husband Spencer Pratt don’t exactly qualify, we figured most shocking was more appropriate. Montag underwent a mini brow lift, Botox in her forehead and frown area, a nose job revision, fat injections in cheeks, nasolabial folds and lips, chin reduction, neck liposuction, ears pinned back, a breast augmentation revision, liposuction on waist, hips and outer thighs and a buttock augmentation—and risked her life to do it. She also turned her once-pretty face into a plastic nightmare that made her mother cry.
9. Toyota Recall 2010—More than 2 million Toyota vehicles were recalled in 2010, first because of floor mat problems, then because of sudden acceleration gas pedal issues which are thought to have been the primary cause of 34 deaths across the United States.
8. WikiLeaks Founder Wanted For Sex Crimes—Whistle-blower website WikiLeaks grabbed the world’s attention again in 2010 with the release of hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents related to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including a video from a 2007 incident that showed Iraqi citizens killed by U.S. forces. Several months later, founder Julian Assange was condemned by the Obama administration and many have called for Assange to be prosecuted as a spy. Now, Assange is charged with sex crimes in Sweden.
7. Winter Olympics Death—The Winter Olympics in Vancouver suddenly turned tragic when Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed during a training run on a track where sleds hit speeds of up to 95 mph. The track was shortened and the games continued.
6. Acid Attack Victim Did It To Herself—In 2010’s version of the Balloon Boy scandal, a woman claimed she was attacked with acid. It was later determined she threw the acid on herself, deforming her own face. Pamela Storro had originally told authorities a stranger had splashed acid in her face while she walked through a Washington State park. Storro suffered severe burns all over her face.
5. Jet Blue Flight Attendant Freak Out—A hero to disgruntled flight attendants everywhere, Steven Slater cursed out a passenger over the plane’s PA system, took a few beers, then exited the plane by activating, then sliding down, the planes emergency chute at JFK International Airport in August. Slater said he had gotten into an altercation with and was injured by a JetBlue passenger over the use of an overhead compartment. Slater’s last words to the passengers? “I’ve been in this business 20 years. And that’s it, I’m done.” Slater lost his job with JetBlue and pleaded guilty in October to felony attempted criminal mischief and misdemeanor criminal mischief. Slater is now on probation and in the midst of a year-long drug and alcohol abuse counseling program.
4. Honor Killing in Arizona—Noor Almaleki, a 20-year-old Arizona woman, was the victim of an honor killing when her own father ran her over in his Jeep Cherokee in a Phoenix parking lot. Why did he kill his own daughter? Noor refused to marry a man in her father’s homeland of Iraq. Noor’s father was caught fleeing to London and is awaiting trial. He said that he had to kill his daughter because it was a matter of “Iraqi honor.”
3. Missing Ohio Family Found in Hollow Tree—The bodies of three missing people in Ohio—Tina Herrmann, 32, her 10-year-old son, Kody, and a 41-year-old friend of Herrmann’s, Stephanie Sprang—were found wrapped in garbage bags and stuffed into a hollow tree in November. Hermann’s 13-year-old daughter, Sarah Maynard, was the only survivor, and found bound and gagged in the basement of tree trimmer Matthew Hoffman, who is in custody and charged with kidnapping. Hoffman, 31, had been recently released from a Colorado prison after serving time for arson and burglary.
2. Chilean Miners Survive 69 Days Below Ground—On Aug. 5, the San Jose gold and copper mine in northern Chile caved in while 33 miners were working underground. All of the miners were assumed to be dead until 17 days later when a note was pulled up through a borehole saying, “We are OK in the refuge.” All of the men survived but it took several months to get them out one by one. The men lived on tuna and milk during that time, and later supplies were sent down to them. The miners were trapped for 69 days.
1. 13 Wrong-Way DWIs on Long Island In 8 Weeks—In July 2009 shock spread throughout the country when Diane Schuler drove the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway. Police say Schuler was drunk and high on marijuana when she drove the wrong way for almost two miles on a highway before smashing head-on into an SUV, killing herself and seven others. Fast forward to 2010. In the past eight weeks, there have been 13 wrong-way DWI arrests on Long Island, half of them involving crashes and three of them fatal. Police and lawmakers were left scrambling to figure out a way to stop the next one before it occurs.
