Believe it or Not
Anybody reading this who has an email address also has people who forward humor to them. Mostly they are jokes that we've heard starting in the seventh grade. Oh yes, there are also the virus warnings that supposedly came out yesterday and were on CNN. Sometimes they even include a note that says, "I checked this out on Snopes and it is really true. Send this to everyone you know..." Or the one about the child who has cancer and wants to get as many business cards as possible, or the one about a police officer who is warning you about "pre-verts," or even, I suppose, post-verts. Finally are the Darwin or Stella Awards, named after Stella something-or-other who burned herself at a McDonald's after dropping her hot coffee in her lap while driving. All of course are hoaxes. I often wonder what drives otherwise rational people to become so gullible when they receive email from somebody who received it from somebody that the recipient doesn't even know. Perhaps the more outlandish the story the more ready somebody is to believe it really is a good cause.
Well, this one is the real McCoy. Pull it up if you wish. It appeared in the Las Vegas Sun newspaper 12/19/07 and has been followed up on by several local radio and TV stations. Let me set the stage: Boulder City is a world away but in fact is just a few miles south of greater Las Vegas on the way to Arizona. Until not too many years ago Boulder City was dry - as in no liquor, and I believe it still observes a ban on gaming. The town was built to house the bosses and their families during the construction of the Hoover Dam and it is still pretty much a cultural company town. The raciest thing that exists is the sign that offers the "Best Hamburgers by a Dam Sight."
Residents are not jaded as they might be in the glitter and glamor of its sister cities to their north. They are more like Mayberry residents, or perhaps folks from Grinnell, Iowa. That is why this story is perfectly believeable to anybody in Southern Nevada who has ever gone to the Boulder City Art Fair, or otherwise spent time in BC.
It happened in the Boulder City AutoZone parking lot. Some legal tender, as in cash American money, started blowing around in the lot. A couple of BC residents chased down the errant cash and walked it back to the car to return it to the driver. Remember, folks, this is not New York, Chicago, or Miami. The finders, not keepers, even joked with the driver about winning a jackpot or looking for the bank's dye bomb in the bag. But the owner of the car was no Chatty Kathy. He scooped up the money and without a word peeled out of the parking lot.
"Odd," thought the resident who had just completed his good deed. So he copied down the car's Arizona license number and phoned the local peace officers who pulled the car over within a few blocks. The cash had come from the car's spare tire -over $ 500,000 worth. Air must be expensive in Arizona. Oh yes, the driver said he had no idea how the cash had gotten there - he had borrowed the car for his vacation. The coppers were born on a Tuesday, but not last Tuesday. The BC police will likely get a windfall. A little blogging music maestro... How about "Goin' To The Bank" by the Commodores? Don't know it? Well, anything by Johnny Paycheck will do.
Dr. Forgot
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