Crazy Money
BP Station Clerk Finds $10 Bill, Buys $1M Winner Lotto Ticket
Kristina Schneider tried to persuade a customer at the BP station where she works to buy the last ticket on a roll of the Magnificent Millions lottery game.
"I always joke that the last ticket is the winning one, but he said he only had enough money for three tickets," Schneider said.
This time, her advice was no joke.
The single mother — with nine maxed out credit cards and $8,500 in debt for her associate's degree — bought what turned out to be a $1 million winning ticket with a $10 bill she found in the store Friday.
10 Dumb But Very Profitable Internet Business Ideas
1. Million Dollar Homepage
1000000 pixels, charge a dollar per pixel – that’s perhaps the dumbest idea for online business anyone could have possible come up with. Still, Alex Tew, a 21-year-old who came up with the idea, is now a millionaire.
2. PickyDomains
The Million Dollar Coin.
OTTAWA (AP) - Got change for a million? Canada does: the world's biggest pure gold coin at 200 pounds. Already, three buyers have shelled out for one of the 1 million Canadian dollar coins introduced last week.
The Royal Canadian mint made the coins - 20 inches in diameter and 1 inch thick - mostly to seize the bragging rights from Austria, which had the record with a 70-pound, 15-inch wide coin.
"They're not doing this because there is huge demand for 100-kilo gold coins," Bret Evans, editor of Canadian Coin News said Saturday. "They're doing it because it gives them some bragging rights in having the largest purest gold coin in the world."
The $67 Million Pants: Washington, D.C., Lawyer Sues Dry Cleaners for Lost Trousers
A Washington, D.C., dry cleaners says its their business a long-time customer is taking to the cleaners. A $10 dry cleaning bill for a pair of lost trousers has ballooned into a $67 million civil lawsuit.
Plaintiff Roy Pearson -- himself a local judge in Washington D.C -- says in court papers that he's been through the ringer over a lost pair of prized pants he wanted to wear on his first day on the bench. He says in court papers that he has endured "mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort.''
He says he was unable to wear that favorite suit of his first day of work.
Couple Finds Winning $1000 Lotto Ticket in Trash
FRANKFORT, Ind. -- A couple picking up trash along a roadside found a winning scratch-off lottery ticket that led them to a $1,000 jackpot. Ronnie and Tina Abbott said they found a lottery ticket worth $15 Sunday while picking up garbage along a Clinton County road near Frankfort, about 55 miles northwest of Indianapolis.
The next day, they cashed in that ticket at a local store and bought one that turned out to be a $1,000 winner.
"It does pay to pick up trash," Tina Abbott said.
She and her husband haven't decided how they'll spend their winnings.
During their trash collection excursion, the couple also found three unopened cans of Billy Beer, a failed brand endorsed by former President Jimmy Carter's late brother, Billy Carter.
Man In Ohio Is Giving Away A Free House. Wanna Know What The Catch Is?
There's a man in Ohio who wants to give away his house. But there is one big catch.
It's in Bellevue, about 45 miles southeast of Toledo, and whoever takes it will have to get it out of there.
Mike Bassett's house is a big one. It's 3,600 square feet, with a fireplace, built-in cabinets, a bay window, two full bathrooms and walk-in closets. He estimates it's worth between $125,000 and $150,000, not including the land on which it sits.
One woman offered to buy it for $200,000, if Bassett would leave it in its place. But he said no. And, if he doesn't find a taker by July 1, he said he will raze the structure.
Scientist Needs $20,000 To Finish His Timetravel Experiment
The Seattle scientist who wants to test a controversial prediction from quantum theory that says light particles can go backward in time is, himself, running out of time.
It's not a wormhole or warp in the space-time continuum. The problem is more mundane -- a black hole in the time-and-money continuum spawned by today's increasingly risk-averse, "performance-based" approach to funding research.
"I guess you could say we're now living on borrowed time," wryly joked John Cramer, a physicist at the University of Washington. "All we need to keep going is maybe $20,000, but nobody seems that interested in funding this project."
Florida Nudists To Use $2 Bills Exclusively
PASCO COUNTY, Fla. -- Nude tourists are ready to dig deep into their pockets to shed more light on how important they are to the Florida economy.
Resorts that cater to nudists are big business in Osceola and Pasco counties. Now, the au natural tourists are stocking up on two dollar bills to prove how important they are to Florida's bottom line.
"We just want to show the merchants that, yes, we're still here and stronger than ever," said Chuck Foster, Caliente Resort.
The nudist resorts bring in more than 100,000 tourists a year. Now they want to flex their economic muscles.
Cabbie Says He Was Stiffed on $8,200
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - A taxi driver told police he was stiffed on an $8,200 cross-country fare by a female passenger he shuttled from Beverly Hills, Calif. to North Carolina.
The meter in Levon Mikayelyan's taxi cab hit the staggering fare after a 2,600-mile journey that ended at a Holiday Inn in Chapel Hill. Mikayelyan said the rider's family paid him only $800, Chapel Hill police spokeswoman Jane Cousins said Friday.
"We do get reports of people who are not able to pay cab drivers, but certainly not with this amount," Cousins said.
Mikayelyan filed a police report Tuesday but no charges have been filed. Cousins said police were done with the case and referred Mikayelyan to a magistrate judge.
