NEWS OF THE WIERD

CROOKS WITH MONEY MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS (II) A judge gave Vickey Siles of New Haven, Ind., just a suspended sentence and probation, ostensibly out of pity for the lousy job she did altering a check from Globe Life and Accident Co. Siles had tried to obliterate the "$1.00" amount of the check by typing "$4,000,000.00" over it, and then attempted to cash it at a neighborhood check-cashing store.

--Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, March 19

BLING 1, MATERNAL INSTINCT 0 Firefighters in Stamford, Conn., had to break a car window, against the owner's wishes, to rescue her 23-month-old son, whom she had accidentally locked inside along with the key. According to police reports and a 911 tape, the kid had been sweltering for more than 20 minutes on an 88-degree July day when Susan Guita Silverstein, 42 (who was later charged with reckless endangerment), asked firefighters to wait until she went home to get a spare key so they wouldn't have to damage her Audi A4.

--Stamford Advocate, July 26

DO I LOSE MY PLACE IN LINE? As a registered sex offender in California, James Andrew Crawford was required to notify authorities if he adopted a new "domicile" for more than five days. He was arrested in May for noncompliance after he camped out for two weeks in a theater line waiting for "Star Wars: Episode III" to open.

--North County (Escondido, Calif.) Times, May 19

SOON TO BE A BUSINESS SCHOOL CASE STUDY When Japanese business exec Takashi Hashiyama had to choose either Sotheby's or Christie's to sell off his company's art collection, he asked the two auction houses to play rock-paper-scissors to win the privilege. Sotheby's chose paper and lost out on the eventual $2.3 million commission. (A Christie's executive had taken the advice of one of his 11-year-old twin daughters, who said, "Everybody knows you always start with scissors.")

--Wall Street Journal, New York Times, April 29

There's more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/23/AR2005122302042.html