We’ve reached the end of our countdown of the most-read Arlington stories of 2017.
Read on for the top five, including our most-read story of the year.
In at least the fourth such incident in Arlington County since 2015, dozens of dirt bike and ATV riders rumbled through Crystal City one Sunday evening in June. The riders followed Route 1, and that day were spotted in various parts of D.C., including downtown. A similar instance of ATV and dirt bike riders in Arlington occurred in April. In the aftermath of the April joy ride, D.C. resident Stephon Williams, 24, received a four-year jail sentence.
Yorktown High School history teacher Thomas Lenihan was charged in January with indecent exposure after allegedly exposing himself to two teenagers in the locker room of the Sport & Health Club on Greensboro Drive in Tysons Corner. Lenihan was placed on administrative leave.
- Arlington Resident Surprised to Find Anaconda in Toilet (32,175 views)
A Shirlington resident found a snake — a juvenile Yellow Anaconda, to be exact — in an apartment toilet in January. An Animal Welfare League of Arlington spokeswoman said the snake was likely someone’s pet that was either abandoned or escaped. No one was injured and the snake, named Sir Hiss, was safely removed from the apartment and taken to AWLA’s shelter. In September, the Arlington County Board banned residents from keeping various “wild and exotic” animals as pets, although they could keep non-venomous snakes.
A wild fight outside A-Town Bar & Grill one Sunday night in March resulted in two suspects being tased by police, including one man who was brawling while wearing a Pikachu onesie. According to police, it started when the man in the Pikachu costume, Steven Goodwine, Jr., tried to pick a fight with the bouncers at A-Town after being kicked out. The incident came just days before a regular review of the bar’s permit by the County Board, and resulted in more regular Board reviews and more stringent regulations. But in June, things appeared to have calmed down at A-Town in its latest review, with no major incidents reported since.
- Public Fornication Leads to Police Altercation (261,530 views)
Our most popular story of the year came on March 24, as two homeless people were arrested after police interrupted their (allegedly) very public lovemaking in Rosslyn Highlands Park. Nicole Faircloth, 42, was arrested and charged with assault and battery on police and performing a sexual act in a public place, according to a crime report. Petko Ubiparipovic, 42, was arrested and charged with performing a sexual act in a public place.
The eagle-eyed among you will notice that this article had more than 200,000 views more than No. 2 in our list.
That spike in traffic came after the article was picked up by the Drudge Report, a news aggregation website, and shared with its more-than 1 million Twitter followers.
In just a few months, it has become the most viewed article of all time on ARLnow.com, surpassing a 2015 morning poll asking if towing had become too predatory in the county and a 2014 piece on an Ebola scare at the Pentagon.
It’s been quite a year.