Family finds ten grand in a box of crackers

A family in California opened their crackers to find a surprise. An envelope with ten thousand dollars in it.

They turned the crackers and the money into the police who thought it could be drug money.

Police later heard from store managers at Whole Foods in Tustin that an elderly woman had come in a few days earlier, hysterical because she had mistakenly returned a box of crackers with her life savings inside. In a mix-up the store restocked the box rather than composting it.

The Lake Forest woman, whose identity was not released, had lost faith in her bank and decided the box would be a safer place for the money.

The family that found the crackers did not receive a reward and have not heard from the owner of the money. They did receive a free box of crackers from the store though.

Man trying to defrost snow with a blowtorch sets house on fire

A man in Massachusetts set his house on fire while trying to remove snow. He was removing the snow with a blowtorch.

This guy is smart.

Fire Capt. Scott Kruger tells The Standard-Times of New Bedford that no on was injured during Monday's incident at the three-story home.

Kruger says the man was using a torch hooked up to a 20-pound propane cylinder. He got too close to the building's wood frame and ignited the vinyl siding. The fire quickly spread into the building's second- and third-floor apartments.

He is not facing criminal charges. I bet his insurance company isn't happy with him.

Snowmen protest at city hall

A group of snowmen showed up at city hall in Anchorage Alaska to protest the possible demise of snowzilla.

A group of protesting snowmen carrying signs like "Snowpeople have rights" made a brief appearance at city hall in Anchorage, Alaska, this week.

The 3-foot-high snowmen appeared Christmas Day, the Anchorage Daily News reported. By Friday morning, they had been removed and their signs placed in the trash.

They threw the snow-people in the trash. That's terrible.

Powers' denys being the creator of the snowmen protesters and also denys being the creator of snowzilla. He said that the snowmen protesters were very cute.

Other signs carried by the snowmen included "Heck no we won't go" and "Snowzilla needs a bailout."

The snowzilla saga continues.

Woman invents kidnapped baby to get her boyfriend back

A woman in Miami told police that her baby was kidnapped. The problem. She didn't have a baby.

Miami police said McCormic had a miscarriage when she was three months pregnant. However, investigators said she pretended to carry the baby to full term in order to keep her boyfriend from breaking up with her.

On Thursday, the supposed parents of the 6-month-old, which McCormic said was named Riley Buchness, made a tearful plea to have their baby come home safely. She said she last left the baby in the care of a babysitter on Tuesday. "I don't even know if he's dead or alive, if they were in a car accident, I don't even know if they're in Florida, I don't know where they are," said McCormic with the man she called the boy's father, 26-year-old John Buchness, crying at her side.

She provided pictures of her "baby" to the police that she'd gotten off of the internet and told police that her baby had one tooth, a Mohawk and a fake tattoo. She then invented a "nanny" that had kidnapped the baby.

Wonder if she was surprised when she got arrested.

Hope the boyfriend dumped her. Perhaps she should go out with the man who attacked his girlfriend with a burger. They seem to both have morality issues.

Man shoots talking movie goer

A man in Philadelphia shot another man in a movie theater because he wouldn't keep his family quiet.

According to police, suspect James Cialella, 29, told a man and his family to be quiet during the showing of 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.' Police said Cialella then threw popcorn at the victim's son and a physical altercation ensued between Cialella and the man.

Police said Cialella then began walking towards the man's family and the man stood between Cialella and his family. Police said Cialella then shot the man once in the left arm.

The man has been charged with assault.

Sounds like both parties were behaving badly, but really shooting someone because they're talking during a movie? Sounds like he needs anger management classes.

CIA uses viagra to gain intelligence in Afghanistan

The CIA has been using the power of Viagra to gain intelligence in Afghanistan.

The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

Four blue pills. Viagra.

"Take one of these. You'll love it," the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.

The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes — followed by a request for more pills.


Well, that's much cheaper than offering them cash and it sounds like the tribal leader probably could use the Viagra with his four wives, and he benefits without his neighbors knowing that he's tattling on the bad guys.

McDonalds pays 1,000 people to stand in line

A McDonald's in Japan has admitted that they paid people to stand in line to get the Quarter Pounder with Cheese which was released for the first time in Japan that day.

About 15,000 people flocked to McDonald's Japan's Midosuji Suomachi store in Chuo-ku, Osaka, on Tuesday, to buy the new "Quarter Pounder with Cheese," which was released for the first time in the Kansai region. McDonald's Japan announced on Wednesday that the store has set record sales of about 10.2 million yen on the day.

On Thursday, however, it turned out that 1,000 of the customers in the long line were part-time workers that McDonald's Japan requested a marketing company supply, including the first 20 to 30 people who waited from midnight.

"We didn't ask the company to make the people line up. We didn't intentionally do it," a spokesperson for McDonald's Japan explains.

The employees were hired by a research company to stand in line, buy a burger and eat it. They also filled out a questionnaire about the service and the burger. Sort of secret shoppers.

It doesn't shock me that McDonalds hired people to stand in line. It does shock me however that 14,000 other people were so excited about a quarter pounder that they were willing to face those crowds. I could understand if it was a special burger with fancy toppings and it was free, but a quarter pounder? Not exciting.

French government confiscates ten tons of counterfit chocolates

The french government has seized ten tons of counterfeit chocolates.

Lab tests and an examination by Ferrero itself found that the seized candies were harmless but low-quality copies. They arrived in France by refrigerated truck from Turkey and were seized in late November.

"It was the first time we had ever seized chocolates," Hocquerelle said — and what a seizure: 10 tons of coconut-filled dark chocolates and milk chocolate balls worth an estimated $312,000.

The french government will be destroying the chocolates. Seems like a waste. They should give them to the homeless like they did with the caviar.

Elderly woman gets 4,700 water bill

A woman in Houston has received a water bill that's 470 times higher than it normally is. 4,7o0!

Annabelle Baylous said her water bill is usually about $10, so she was shocked to see the amount on the bill she received this month, KHOU-TV, Houston, reported Thursday.

"Over $4,000!" Baylous said. "This is the worst Christmas present I could get."

KHOU said plumbers examined the home, which has only one bathroom and one occupant, and determined that there were no leaks and Baylous could not have possibly used as much water as the city claims.

"Even if she ran the water continuously, it wouldn't generate the amount of gallons she's being billed for," plumber John Cantu said.

The city reduced the bill to 1,000 which is still absurd. If the ladies usual bill is $10 then anything higher than $30 while they look into the problem is excessive.

Dog shoplifts bone

A dog in Utah waltzed into a grocery store took a bone and then waltzed out without paying.

The thief wasn't even perturbed by a face-to-face confrontation with store manager Roger Adamson.

"I looked at him. I said, 'Drop it!'" Adamson said. "He looked at me, and I looked at him, and he ran for the door and away he went, right out the front door."

No word on if charges will be filed. The bone was worth $2.79

Dr Fuels car with fat from liposuction

A plastic surgeon in California has been powering his car with the fat that he extracted from his patients while doing liposuctions.


For a time, Beverly Hills doctor Craig Alan Bittner turned the fat he removed from patients into biodiesel that fueled his Ford SUV and his girlfriend's Lincoln Navigator.

Using fat to fuel cars might be environmentally friendly, but it's definitely illegal in California to use human medical waste to power vehicles, and Bittner is being investigated by the state's public health department.

Although it's unclear when Bittner started and stopped making fat fuel or how he made it, his activities came to light after recent lawsuits filed by patients that allege he allowed his assistant and his girlfriend to perform surgeries without a medical license.

Sounds like he cut corners in every possible.

Snowzilla Returns!

Earlier this week we told you of Snowzilla a sixteen foot snowman that was banned by city council in a snow town in Alaska.

Well Snowzilla is back!

This year, Snowzilla is estimated to be 25 feet tall. He's wearing a black stovepipe hat and scarf.

"Have you seen him?" Powers asked when reached by telephone at his home, the sound of excited children in the background. "He's handsome."

Snowzilla has consistently risen outside Powers' modest home. His children — he is the father of seven — collected snow from neighbors' yards to make the snowman big enough. Each year, Snowzilla got a bit bigger.

Powers' claims that he did not build snowzilla and does not know how it appeared in his lawn.

Was it the local teenagers or Powers' himself? We may never know.

Merry Christmas

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Zoo Animals get to open their presents early

The zoo animals got to open their presents early at a Zoo in Sydney. The meerkats attacked the presents with the energy of a group of preschoolers while the lions were more reserved.


But Mary the gibbon was Taronga’s resident scrooge, refusing to come down from her tree to see what St Nick had brought her. Mary’s reaction came as a surprise to zookeepers, who had already put out a press release talking about her “delight in discovering her gifts” and her “cries of delight."


Click here to watch an adorable video of the animals opening their gifts.

Just what I always wanted: a robot that loads the dishwasher

A group of scientists in Japan have created a robot that does the dishes! The robot rinses the dishes in the sink and then neatly lines them up in the dishwasher.

Using its internal camera along with the sensors, the robot is able to determine the shapes and sizes of dirty dishes and utensils placed in the sink before picking them up and loading them in the dishwasher.

Scientists have set a target of creating a smaller and lighter robot which will be able to load the dirty plates and cooking utensils of a family of four into the dishwasher in just five minutes.

The robot will be available for sale in five years, with scientists also promising to tackle other household chores with the creation of devices capable of performing disliked activities such as the laundry.

I want one!!!

Milkman delivers pot

A seventy-two year old milkman in the UK has been delivering Marijuana to his elderly customers along with their milk.

He was caught placing small bars of cannabis resin into empty egg cartons, and leaving them on doorsteps.

When he was confronted by police, Holding told officers he would only ever supply pensioners with the drug to help them with their 'aches and pains'.


The judge told him that his deliveries will lead to jail time. Next time he should stick to delivering groceries.

China's favorite animal is a pig

A pig that survived being buried for thirty-six days after an earthquake has been voted China's Favorite Animal on a popular website.

The pig "vividly illustrated the spirit of never giving up," the report cited the webmasters who ran the poll as saying.

People come from all over to see the pig at its new home in a museum, the newspaper said, but it was becoming increasingly spoiled and ungrateful.

"It's gotten fatter and lazier by the day," it quoted staff as saying. "We used to take it out for a walk every morning and afternoon, but it's too lazy — and too fat — to do it."

And the pig is getting fed up with visitors, after initially being quite friendly.

"Now it just blocks the door to its bedroom when there are too many visitors outside. It's been increasingly difficult for us to convince it to open the door," the report said.

He does not sound very greatful. Perhaps they should stop spoiling him so much.

Snowzilla must go

A family in Alaska has recieved a cease and dissist order for their snowman. The family builds a sixteen foot snowman every year.

A few weeks ago, city code enforcers left three red signs at Snowzilla's bottom body ball telling its builders to cease and desist.

The city also tacked a public notice on the door of the Powers family home at 1556 Columbine St. The Powers family and some of their neighbors have been building Snowzilla in the Powers' front yard since 2005.

When the notices went up, Snowzilla still didn't have a full torso or head.

"The kids had spent hours and hours of work on it," Billy Powers said on Sunday.

The city declared that the snowman is a safety hazard and that the traffic it generates is dangerous and town council members have been told to watch out for covert snowman building at the Powers' house.

Poor Snowzilla.

Chocolate Hanukkah

A group of hasidic Jews in Palo Alto California will be beginning the Hanukkah season by lighting their chocolate menorah.

"We've already made a menorah out of ice, and Legos. Why not chocolate?" said Mushky Baumgarten, Chabad's program coordinator who bought 25 bags of Trader Joe's "Orthodox Union-certified" chocolate chips for melting and painting. "We're trying to reach as many Jews as we can."

No word as to if the menorah will be eaten at some point.

Happy Hanukkah!

Amazon staff refuses to moon the camera

Staff members in an Amazon warehouse were encouraged to drop their pants and moon the camera after a negative article was published about working conditions at the warehouse.

Staff at the warehouse said managers claimed the idea of the photograph came from Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s American founder. One said: “The managers called everyone in and said they were going to have ‘a little bit of Christmas fun and light-hearted spirit’ in response to the article. It was to say ‘up yours to the papers’, that it was good working there and not as bad as it’s made out.”

Another source said: “They were sending the supervisors to try to persuade people on a one-to-one basis. It’s ludicrous and a lot of the staff are upset about it.” More than 200 staff were eventually photographed – but waving to the camera instead of mooning.

Amazon headquarters denies any involvement in the encouraged mooning.

I think this would have gone over better in the US than in the UK.

Clowns are very supicious

A clown hired to entertain kids on a flight was searched and had some of his tools confiscated by airport security in England.

Dave Vaughn said when he attempted to board a flight at Birmingham International Airport dressed as PC Konk the clown, he was stopped by security and told to remove his costume, The Mail on Sunday reported.

Vaughn, who was to provide entertainment on a flight for disadvantage youth, said airport guards then deemed his plastic handcuffs as a security risk.

"My plastic scissors and camera got through fine, as did my funny glasses and bubble machine, but then they discovered my plastic toy handcuffs," Vaughn said of the recent incident. "I told them I had bought them from the Early Learning Center especially for the trip but they still said they were a risk."

They allowed him on the fight after determining that his suspenders were what set off the metal detector.

Seems like airport security has watched the Dark Knight too many times.