Reminds me of a story from college when some friends were high out of their minds on various things. They got pulled over for speeding by a cop who appeared to be running beside their car. Turns out they were only going a few MPH and the cop stopped them for driving way too slow. They got arrested for DWI, obviously. No idea if it was true or not, but still a funny story.
It was used for insulation. I once went to the filming location for The Hunger Games where Katniss was supposed to live. The location is in North Carolina. The houses are an abandoned mill town and still standing. Many of the houses had similar interiors, but a lot of the newspaper has been torn down over the years.