The sudden appearance of old 100 US dollar bills in South Carolina led to the arrest of two air-conditioning workers.
Police say 87-year-old Lois Brown told the workers that her husband hid $100,000 (€73,806) in the basement just before he died in 2003 in Gaffney. Mrs Brown told the workers that if they discovered the cash, she would give them a big reward.
Investigators say 50-year-old Joey Reed and 47-year-old Elie Spencer found the money during the September 2010 work, but did not tell Mrs Brown. Instead they bought a used car and a big-screen TV with bills so old they did not have the security thread or off-centre Benjamin Franklin portrait. The men are charged with grand larceny. (PA)
Great weather, so lessons are cancelled
The headmaster of a US school says he plans to cancel classes because of great weather.
Len McWilliams of Calvary Christian School in Columbus, Georgia, says he’s calling off classes because of a commitment he made to find a positive reason to cancel classes before he retires at the end of the year.
McWilliams told the Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus he’s had to cancel school because of bad weather for years, and thought he should eventually cancel classes because the weather was just too nice for students and staff to be cooped up all day. Sunny skies and a temperature of more than 80F are forecast. (PA)
Punk idols’ records are the most costly
Punk idols the Sex Pistols are more costly for vinyl buff devotees than the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, according to new research.
Experts at Record Collector magazine calculated the cost of amassing a set of the rarest items for music fans. And the God Save The Queen and Pretty Vacant hitmakers proved to be one of the most costly combos in the music world with the average cost per record among their hard-to-find releases put at £698.
The list is topped by Sir Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s early group the Quarrymen whose limited edition money-can’t-buy releases are always at the top of any list of the most costly releases. Pictured is Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon. (PA)
Husband left his bride at petrol station
A German couple’s marriage got off to a rocky start when the groom forgot his bride at a motorway petrol station on the way home from their honeymoon, only noticing she was missing hours later.
Police say the couple were heading home to Berlin from France when the man pulled over near the town of Bad Hersfeld to fill up their van. His new bride had been sleeping in the back but got up – unbeknown to the man – to use the toilets and he drove off before she returned.
Only after two-and-a-half hours on the road did he notice she was gone and called police, who said she was patiently waiting. (PA)
Biggest frustrations are exposed
Bad manners top a poll of people’s biggest frustrations, followed by gadgets not working properly, travel hold-ups and a bad night’s sleep.
The survey, carried out for the charity Arthritis Research UK, found 84 per cent of people hate bad manners, 78 per cent get annoyed by gadgets and 75 per cent are frustrated by travel problems. While 73 per cent dislike not sleeping, the same number get grumpy when ill and 69 per cent are upset by arguing with a partner or friend. (PA)