Best Shopping Trip Ever!

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) - The box of crackers Debra Rogoff bought from the grocery store had some crackerjack in it - an envelope stuffed with $10,000.

Yet the Irvine woman was more curious than ecstatic about her daughter's find. After all, who would leave money in such a place?

"We just thought, 'This is someone's money,'" she said. "We would never feel good about spending it."

Rather than go on a shopping spree, the family called police and was initially told the money could be part of a drug drop.


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.

Luckily for her, the box of Annie's Sour Cream and Onion Cheddar Bunny crackers were bought by the Rogoffs, who discovered the crisp $100 bills in an unmarked white envelope on Oct. 10.

The Rogoffs never heard from the woman and didn't receive a reward, but Rogoff did return to Whole Foods a couple weeks later.

"I asked them if I could have another box of crackers," she said with a laugh. The store obliged.

Good Samaritan

AUBURN, Maine - A Maine man found a wallet stuffed with cash on the floor in a home improvement store. Two days later, it found a loaded money bag in the same store. Gil Steward was shopping Tuesday at The Home Depot in Auburn when he spied the wallet, which was stuffed with nearly $1,000 in $100 bills. He returned it to The Home Depot store's service counter, and it was returned to a very grateful owner.

On Thursday, same hour and same store, Steward saw a green money bag on the floor. Again, it was returned to its rightful owner.

His wife, Dee, said her husband thinks he's being tested. As for Steward, he said he plans to play the lottery this weekend.

Phone Delivery

GALVESTON, Texas - Galveston police knew who to look for _ exactly _ when they arrested an alleged delivery man in a call-for-cocaine investigation. A 29-year-old Galveston man was jailed Friday on a charge of manufacturing or delivering a controlled substance. Sgt. T. Barr, at the Galveston County Jail, told The Associated Press that John Patrick Lacour Jr. was held on $250,000 bond. Barr had no information on an attorney for Lacour.

Lacour is accused of taking delivery orders for crack over the phone.

Officers, acting on a tip, called the number and pretended to want to buy cocaine. They requested a delivery to a certain address, plus asked the person to describe himself so they would know who to expect.

Lt. D.J. Alvarez told the Galveston County Daily News that Lacour was arrested early Thursday when he arrived. Police confiscated a small amount of cocaine.

New Gov. Of Illinois?

UNDATED (AP) - Questions have been dogging Illinois ever since Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested last week on corruption charges. Now a California couple says the answer to all the state's woes may, in fact, be a dog. Their dog.

Michael Sunday and his family have launched an Internet campaign touting their 14-year-old border collie named Scuba as the next governor of the state.

Sunday wonders if Scuba - who because she's deaf certainly wouldn't hear calls for her to step down - wouldn't do any worse than Blagojevich.

Sunday really doesn't think Scuba has a shot. But the way he sees it - Scuba - who also has trouble seeing because of cataracts - couldn't do any worse than Blagojevich.

You Tell 'Em!

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A San Antonio fast-food restaurant cashier laughed at a robbery suspect and told him to get a job if he wanted money during a failed holdup on Tuesday evening.

Police said the suspect approached the worker and demanded money, but the cashier laughed and apparently didn't realize the man was trying to hold up the place.

The suspect then allegedly pulled out a box cutter and demanded the cashier's wallet. The employee complied, but had no money in his billfold.

The suspect fled, but was caught by police who responded to the robbery call.

San Antonio police said the suspect is expected to be charged with aggravated robbery.

Sorry, We're Closed...

BERLIN (AP) - Berlin officials said they have rescued 1,500 parakeets from a two-room apartment. City veterinarian Margit Platzer said the birds were flying freely around the apartment, which was "littered with feces, feathers and leftover food." Platzer said it took her team more than seven hours on Tuesday to catch all the birds with nets.

The birds were taken Wednesday to animal shelters in Berlin and elsewhere because there was not enough room for them at facilities in the capital.

Local media reported, without citing sources, that the owner gradually bought and bred the birds until his apartment was full, and that neighbors had complained about the noise and smell.

The retired man, who was not identified, could face charges for endangering the animals' safety and health.

Science Class!?!

PAW PAW, Mich. - A human-sized heart found at a southwestern Michigan car wash has investigators wondering whether it came from a person or an animal. The organ was discovered in a corner of a manual wash bay at Soapy's Car Wash, Paw Paw police said. The owner of the business found it Monday on the floor of the bay, according to WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids and WWMT-TV in Kalamazoo.

Police first took the heart to an animal clinic, where a veterinarian was unable to determine its origin. The next stop was a local cardiologist, who said while it was "consistent in size to a human heart," he could not make a conclusive determination as to its source, said police Chief Patrick W. Alspaugh.

The chief took the organ Tuesday to Lansing's Sparrow Hospital, where forensic scientists were to examine it.

"If it's a human heart, that prompts the question, 'Then where's the body?'" Alspaugh told the Kalamazoo Gazette.

He said he didn't know when the forensic scientists will give him their findings.

If it turns out that the heart came from an animal, it would not be the first time that someone has left animal parts at the car wash

The owner told police that animal parts had been left before at the car wash, but never a heart.

He Is No Rudolph....

SEDALIA, Mo. - A hunter bagged a big buck on the second day of firearms season, but the kill caused him a lot of pain. Randy Goodman, 49, said he thought two well-placed shots with his .270-caliber rifle had killed the buck on Nov. 19. Goodman said the deer looked dead to him, but seconds later the nine-point, 240-pound animal came to life.

The buck rose up, knocked Goodman down and attacked him with his antlers in what the veteran hunter called "15 seconds of hell." The deer ran a short distance and went down, and died after Goodman fired two more shots.

Soon Goodman started feeling dizzy and noticed his vest was soaked in blood.

So he reached his truck and drove to a hospital, where he received seven staples in his scalp and was treated for a slight concussion and bruises.

Blame The Lord?

SAN ANTONIO - A man who rammed his truck into a woman's vehicle on a highway early Friday told authorities he crashed into her while going more than 100 mph because God told him "she needed to be taken off the road."

The truck rear-ended the car on U.S. Highway 281, both vehicles spun across a median then came to a stop along a barrier in the opposite lanes. Both drivers suffered only minor injuries.

"He just said God said she wasn't driving right, and she needed to be taken off the road," Bexar County Sheriff's Office spokesman Kyle Coleman said in the online edition of the San Antonio Express-News. "God must have been with them, 'cause any other time, the severity of this crash, it would have been a fatal."

The pickup driver did not tell police how the woman was driving. Police could not find alcohol or drugs in either driver.


A psychiatric evaluation has been ordered for a man

Endangered Neighbors

LEDYARD, Conn. - Police arrested a 44-year-old man who lit a small charcoal grill inside his apartment, endangering his neighbors. Police charged him with second-degree reckless endangerment after two people became ill.

Police said the grill created dangerous carbon monoxide levels in the apartment building. Two residents were taken to a local hospital for evaluation.

The man has been released on a $500 bond.