While the world continues its nearly decade-long hunt for terrorist Osama Bin Laden, the folks at British Airways have him located comfortably in first class — seat7-C to be precise. [More]
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Fidelity Sent Me Someone Else's $300,000 Retirement Savings
By 5.24.10
Douglas received an unexpected delivery from UPS last week: a check from Fidelity Investments made out to Vanguard Fiduciary Trust Company for over $300,000, along with a bunch of 401(k) rollover paperwork that included the real account holder’s address, date of birth, SSN, and phone number. [More]
How Steve Jobs Blew $10 Billion
By 5.19.10
So, you bought a house right before the property bubble burst? Got out of gold a year ago? Invested in Pets.com back in the 90s? Well, guess what? No matter how many dumb investment decisions you’ve made, they likely pale next to a little mistake Steve Jobs made a few years ago, which cost him about $10 billion. Ain’t schadenfreude grand? [More]
Health Supplement Guru Nearly Dies After Ingesting Own Product
By 5.4.10
Gary Null sells something called Ultimate Power Meal, which he says you’re supposed to eat twice a day every day. He did that for a month and nearly died, so now he’s suing the company that manufactured the product. [More]
Texas Woman's House Demolished By Mistake
By 4.27.10
A 69-year-old woman in Frisco, Texas, now has a pile of rubble to call home after a bulldozer operator screwed up and leveled her house instead of the one across the street that was supposed to be demolished. [More]
Walmart-Owned Store Delivers Sex Lube Instead Of Kids' Bubble Bath
By 3.19.10
Not even a week after Walmart-owned British retail chain Asda decided that “Fat Balls” might be an inappropriate name for bird food, they also managed to royally screw up an order for kids’ bubble bath and sent a bottle of lube instead. [More]
Bank Of America Seizes Wrong House, Holds Parrot Hostage
By 3.9.10
Bank of America finds itself the target of a new lawsuit filed by a woman in Pittsburgh who alleges that the bank not only improperly seized her home and damaged her other property, but also kept her parrot hostage even after they admitted making a mistake. [More]
Sony Asks "Fat" PlayStation 3 Users To Abstain During Bug Fix
By 3.1.10
In an update to yesterday’s global crash of the PlayStation Network that left many PS3 owners unable to use their systems, Sony has confirmed that the problem only affects that non-slim, or “fat,” PS3 units and has asked users to hold off on booting up until the problem is resolved. [More]
American Airlines Jet Goes Muddin', Gets Stuck
By 3.1.10
Talk about having one of those days… A jet belonging to American Airlines spent eight hours mired down — literally — at Sea-Tac International Airport outside of Seattle on Saturday after it got stuck in six inches of mud. [More]
Want To Spend $9,999 On A Mouse Pad? Go To Amazon
By 2.25.10
There are plenty of people selling Belkin F5L008 Mouse Trap mouse pads through Amazon, but if you want the one in gray, you’re going to have to pay a little bit more than you’d expect… like about $9,989 more (plus shipping). [More]
Revolutionary New Apple Service Bills Your AMEX Card For Nearly $50,000 In Music
By 2.9.10
I think we can all agree that Jobs and his crew at Apple are a bunch of visionaries when it comes to gadgets, online stores, and now getting really, really screwed by an iTunes purchase. Joel writes, “I just got a call from American Express stating that my recent purchase for iTunes plus for my entire library (cost $146) has been charged to my account over 300 times and is currently still being charged. I have called Apple to have them stop charging me and they told me the only thing I can do is cancel my card. There is no number for iTunes and I have sent multiple messages to them without response via email.” [More]
Cox Accidentally Offers Everyone In Arizona A Free PlayStation 3
By 2.7.10
Christopher writes about a promotion from Cox that sounded pretty great. The cable company and ISP offered a free Playstation 3 slim to customers who either signed up for a new account or upgraded to faster broadband. The problem with such a great offer? People tend to tell their friends. And those friends tend to call Cox to see if they can get in on the deal, too. [More]
Not Having A Mortgage Doesn't Stop Bank Of America From Foreclosing
By 1.21.10
Charlie and Maria Cardoso managed to do something few homeowners can: They own their vacation home in Florida outright, with no mortgage. But that didn’t stop Bank of America from kicking out a tenant who was renting the house, tossing out the Cardosos’ possessions, and, yes, foreclosing on the debt-free home. [More]
I Wonder Why This Ornament Didn't Sell
By 12.29.09
Josh sent us this photo of an ornament he found on the post-Christmas discount racks a few days ago. He notes, “Just goes to show you that typographic layout matters.”
HP Face Tracking Camera Doesn't Track Black Faces?
By 12.21.09
If you want to take advantage of this HP web cam’s face tracking feature and you’ve got dark skin, you’d better, I dunno, sprinkle glitter on your cheeks first or something. The software doesn’t seem to be able to recognize you otherwise. [More]
Power-Saving LED Traffic Lights Can't Melt Snow, Cause Accident
By 12.13.09
Sure, LEDs are a great new energy-saving technology. The problem is, they’re no match for a Midwestern winter. That’s what the town of West Bend, Wis. learned when they installed LED traffic signals. LEDs don’t generate heat, which is normally a selling point. It’s not so appealing when you’re trying to keep traffic signals snow-free, and the ostensibly green move has caused at least one accident. [More]
Experian Fixes Messed Up Credit Report By Deleting Everything
By 12.1.09
Monique X. is trying to get a loan to consolidate her debts into a more affordable payment. She writes that she’s been careful with her credit history and knew that her credit score was adequate to get approved at her bank, “even with the economy the way it is.” That’s when she discovered that someone else’s accounts had been folded into hers, and that Experian’s solution to their error was as bad as the problem. [More]
Trash Crew Helpfully Hauls Away Brand-New Dryer
By 11.22.09
It’s rather nice to live in a city or town where municipal trash pickup will haul away your old, unwanted appliances. When they haul your brand-new appliances away, though, you’ve got a problem. That’s what happened to a West Virginia couple, whose dryer disappeared from in front of their house before they had a chance to install it—at the same time the city hauled away their old washing machine.
