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Wacky News Stories

<i>Continuing the cigarette saga, now that is an expensive pack of ciggys....:</i>

<b><!--sizeo:3--><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Consumers Get $23 Quadrillion Credit Card Bill Because of Visa Glitch<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

A New Hampshire man was shocked to learn that when he purchased pack of cigarettes he also got charged $23,148,855,308,184,500, or more than $23 quadrillion — a number that rivals that of the national debt.

Josh Muszynski swiped his debit card at a gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes and a few hours later noticed the exorbitant charge when he checked his account on the Internet, WMUR-TV reported.

"I thought my card had been compromised. I thought somebody had bought Europe with my credit card," Muszynski told the station. "It was very concerning."

Muszynski told WMUR-TV that he spent two hours on the phone with Bank of America trying to sort out the string of numbers — and the $15 overdraft fee — but the company couldn't explain what exactly happened.

"She just tried to assure me that everything would be fixed, and I couldn't see something like that being fixed," Muszynski said.

The bank corrected the error the next day.

Bank of America said the card issuer, Visa, could answer questions. Visa, in turn, referred questions to the bank.

Muszynski is not alone.

An unidentified teenager was reportedly charged the same amount at CVS, according to Consumerist.com.

The girl's mother told the Web site that the charge showed up on her Visa Buxx debit card, and when she called the company, they told her there was a "system problem."

Two more cases of the $23 quadrillion charge showing up on credit card statements for packs of cigarettes have been reported in Memphis, Tenn., and in Texas.

Jason Bryant bought a pack of Pall Malls at a Memphis Exxon and was flabbergasted to see how much he was charged.

"I paid for the deficit multiple times over," he told WREG-TV in Memphis.

And a North Texas man got the same charge on his bill when he went to Five Sixty by Wolfgang Puck.

"For that amount of money, I could actually own Wolfgang Puck himself," joked Jon Seale, according to NBCChicago.com.

Visa said it was a glitch that only affected some customers with prepaid cards, according to the Web site.

"A temporary programming error at Visa Debit Processing Services caused some transactions to be inaccurately posted to a small number of Visa prepaid accounts," Visa spokeswoman Elvira Swanson said in a written statement. "The technical glitch has been corrected, and all erroneous postings have been removed.”
 
They still owe the $15 overdraft fee though. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheeky" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" />
 
If they remove the erroneous postings, then the over draft fee should also be removed I would think. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" />
 
<!--quoteo(post=337644:date=Jul 16 2009, 12:12 PM:name=Meigger)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Meigger @ Jul 16 2009, 12:12 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=337644"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If they remove the erroneous postings, then the over draft fee should also be removed I would think. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Penalty for smoking <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blah:" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />
 
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />
 
Some things just make you say ....WTF???? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" />


<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><b>Johnny Depp Wants to Be an Old Lady</b>

Thu., Jul. 16, 2009 7:20 AM PDT by Breanne L. Heldman


When you're as awesome as Johnny Depp, you can pretty much do—or be—anything you want.

After a pirate, John Dillinger, Willy Wonka, Ichabod Crane, Sweeney Todd and a surfer dude on SpongeBob SquarePants, what else is there?

The steamy actor points out several new frontiers for himself in an interview in the U.K.'s Mirror.

"My dream role would be to play music legend Carol Channing in a biopic of her life," he said. "I love her, I really do. She's amazing. With all the digital technology these days, I could probably pull it off."

The Tony Award winner is 88 years old!

He jumps even further off the deep end when he adds, "I'd have a go at playing a 12-year-old girl if they asked me to."

Hmm...We're not so sure we want to see that. Do you? Or would you rather him stick to typical (if you could call it that) Tim Burton fare like Alice in Wonderland?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Original story here :
<a href="http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b134381_johnny_depp_wants_be_old_lady.html" target="_blank">http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b134381_jo...e_old_lady.html</a>
 
Depp always has been a little strange anyway.

Great actor, but very strange <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/jackrum.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":j3" border="0" alt="jackrum.gif" />
 
<i>Now, thats what I'm talking about</i> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/guns.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":2guns" border="0" alt="guns.gif" />

<b><!--sizeo:3--><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Missouri Car Dealer Offers Free AK-47 With New Truck<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>

Friday, July 17, 2009


<b>BUTLER, Mo. — Buy a truck and get a free AK-47 gun.</b>

That's the deal a Missouri truck dealer is offering new customers who buy a pick-up truck in August.

Mark Muller, owner of Max Motors in Butler, says he knows people will be bothered by the promotion.

But not to worry, Muller is not handing out free guns. Instead, he will give buyers a voucher to use at a gun store after they obtain a license to carry a concealed weapon.

The AK-47 is an upgrade on a previous promotion in which Muller gave away vouchers for the price of a Caltec pistol.

The retail value of an AK-47 is $450 dollars but Muller says customers can spend their voucher on the gun of their choice.
 
I hope he doesn't sell any lemons. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheeky" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" />
 
Heh, that would be ironic to get shot up by a disgruntled customer <b>you</b> gave the gun to <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ko.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":ko" border="0" alt="ko.gif" />
 
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />
 
No Joke: Kelly Hildebrandt Will Marry Kelly Hildebrandt

Monday, July 20, 2009

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. — Kelly Hildebrandt will marry Kelly Hildebrandt.

This isn't a joke. An engaged Florida couple has the same first and last name.

Here's how it all started: 20-year-old Kelly Hildebrandt decided to search Facebook for other people with her name. Up popped Kelly Hildebrandt of Lubbock, Tex. For the next three months the two exchanged e-mails and then started calling each other.

Then he decided to visit, and the couple soon began dating. Eight months after Kelly Hildebrandt sent her first e-mail, he proposed. The couple plans to marry in October.

It hasn't been all smooth sailing. A trip on a cruise ship almost got canceled when the travel agent deleted one ticket from the system, thinking someone had plugged in the same information twice.
 
Chinese worker commits suicide over missing iPhone
Updated Wed. Jul. 22 2009 9:28 AM ET

The Associated Press

GUANGZHOU, China -- An employee at a factory that makes iPhones in China killed himself after a prototype went missing, and Apple Inc. responded Wednesday by saying its suppliers are required to treat workers with dignity and respect.

The dead worker, Sun Danyong, 25, worked in product communications at Foxconn Technology Group, a Taiwanese firm that makes many Apple products at a massive factory in the southern city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong.

Although Apple and Foxconn have confirmed Sun's suicide, they have not provided details about the circumstances, which have been reported by the state-run Southern Metropolis Daily, one of the region's most popular papers.

There's tremendous pressure on employees dealing with Apple's new products to maintain a high-level secrecy over the gadgets, traditionally launched amid great suspense and a big marketing buzz. Apple is also a constant target of prying journalists, rabidly faithful customers and competitors who make great efforts to try to steal a peek at its latest technology.

Sun was responsible for sending iPhone prototypes to Apple, and on July 13 he reported that he was missing one of the 16 fourth-generation units in his possession, the newspaper reported. His friends said company security guards searched his apartment, detained him and beat him, the paper reported.

In the early morning of July 16, Sun jumped from the 12th floor of his apartment building, the paper said.

Jill Tan, an Apple spokeswoman in Hong Kong, issued only a brief statement about the incident.

"We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee, and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death," Tan said. "We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect."

The hot-selling iPhone has helped make Apple immune to the global recession. On Tuesday, the Cupertino, California-based company said its earnings jumped 15 percent in the third quarter -- growth propelled by laptop and iPhone sales.

More than 5.2 million iPhones were sold in the third quarter -- seven times what it sold at the same time last year -- and the spike in sales was partly because of a newly released version of the device, the company said.

One of Apple's most important manufacturing partners has long been Foxconn, owned by Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. -- the world's biggest contract manufacturer of electronics. The corporate behemoth has also produced computers for Hewlett-Packard Co., PlayStation game consoles for Sony Corp. and mobile phones for Nokia Corp.

Foxconn said in a statement its security chief has been suspended and turned over to the police.

The security official, Gu Qinming, was quoted by the Southern Metropolis Daily as saying he never hit Sun. Gu reportedly said after three security personnel searched Sun's apartment and did not find the phone, the employee was ordered to go to Gu's office on July 15.

The security chief said he didn't think Sun was being truthful about the phone, the paper reported.

"I got a bit agitated. I pointed my finger at him and said that he was trying to shift the blame," Gu was quoted as saying.

He added, "I was a little angry and I pulled his right shoulder once to get him to tell me what happened. It (the beating) couldn't have happened," the paper reported.

Local police declined to respond to questions from The Associated Press.

Foxconn executive Li Jinming said in a statement that Sun's death showed the company needed to do a better job helping its employees with psychological pressures.

"Sun Danyong graduated from a good school. He joined the company in 2008. He had an extremely bright future. The group and I feel deep pain and regret when a young person dies like this."
 
"Pulling the right shoulder" means "massive beating" over there. He was probably thrown out of the window also.

Apple is fast becoming Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and everyone else is Slugworth trying to get in and take a peek.
 
o_O
slap.gif


Police: Fake Cop Tried to Stop Real Cop in California

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Oakland police say a man impersonating a police officer tried to pull over a real undercover officer and was arrested.

Police say 21-year-old Antonio Fernandez Martinez of Oakland was arrested Wednesday in the Fruitvale district after trying to pull over an unmarked police vehicle. Martinez was driving a Ford Crown Victoria outfitted with flashing lights, a microphone and speakers.

Martinez, a convicted car thief, will have his felony probation revoked and could face a prison term.

The officer, Jim Beere, says Martinez probably thought he'd be an easy mark to rob.
 
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