Wednesday, December 26, 2007

News Day

Pigeon poop plunge wins New Yorker six million dollars
A former New York doorman who slipped on a pile of pigeon droppings on a subway station's stairs has been awarded six million dollars in compensation, according to a report on Monday.
Fifty-six-year-old Shelton Stewart slipped on the station steps in 1998, injuring his neck and back, despite saying he had noticed the pile of excrement on his way to work the same day, the New York Post reported.
A jury awarded Stewart 7.67 million dollars in damages, but New York City’s transit authority only has to pay 80 percent of the sum, or 6.13 million, since Stewart was found 20 percent liable for failing to avoid the fecal pile.
Stewart was reportedly planning to use his windfall to buy a house and take his two daughters and grandchild to Disney World in Florida.

Single Mom Duped by Fake Lottery Ticket
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) - When single mother Mary Ann Shaffer scratched a lottery ticket last week, she thought Christmas had come early.
The ticket indicated she was a $25,000 winner.
"I said, 'Oh my God, it's a miracle," Shaffer told the Naples Daily News.
She looked on the back to find a telephone number to claim her winnings.
Elation quickly turned to sadness as she realized the ticket, given to her by a customer at her concession stand, was a fake.
"Claim forms supplied by Santa Claus. All winning tickets must be validated by the tooth fairy and conform to her game rules ... All winners are losers and must have an excellent sense of humor," the ticket read.
"How can anyone be so mean around Christmas time?" said Bear Terstegge, a Naples Beach Patrol officer who examined the ticket.
Word about the fake ticket spread quickly around the Naples pier where Shaffer sells hot dogs and water.
"It touched everybody's heart," Terstegge said.
In the past few days, Shaffer, who has two young children, has received cards, gift certificates and hefty tips. One regular brought presents for her kids.
And she's even received a few lottery tickets - real ones.

Donor Drops $1,000 Into Red Kettle
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - Salvation Army Major Richard Hathorn knew when and where it would happen, but he still doesn't know who slipped the $1,000 bill into one of the charity's Christmas kettles.
Each Christmas since 1978, someone has covertly stuffed one of the big bills into a kettle in this northern West Virginia University City.
This year, Hathorn says, the donor alerted the Salvation Army that the tradition would continue with a deposit between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday at the Wal-Mart at University Town Center.
During the appointed period, Hathorn carefully scanned the faces of people dropping money into the kettle, but he didn't spot anyone with a bill bearing the likeness of President Grover Cleveland.
He found it later, wrapped inside a $1 bill.
Hathorn says he hopes to raise about $62,000 from the kettles this year to provide everything from toys and food to utility assistance.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Everyone is laughing about the guy who got $7 million (around $6 million after 20% is removed) for slipping in bird poop but he was really severely injured. I think he deserves the money when you look at the minimal cost that it would have taken to prevent birds from infesting the area. I mean when you look at this http://www.bird-x.com/products/index.html not a single product would be out of the price range of the New York Transit Authority. They need to care about their passengers a little more.