odd briefs 15A

Filthy lucre gets laundered, spun-dried

GREENSBURG, La. -- How do you dry out $67,380 in stolen cash recovered from a beaver dam? Very carefully, as St. Helena Parish deputies found out. First, the soggy bills were spread out in the vault at the Bank of Greensburg. But they started to smell. Then, the dough was dumped into one of the large dryers at the parish jail. But the muddy moolah simply clumped together. That was solved by adding a pair of tennis shoes to break up the wet wads of bills. Finding the proper dryer setting, though, wasn't so easy. "Regular dry" turned some bills in the first batch "a little too crispy," Maj. Michael Martin said. The next three and a half loads on "permanent press" came out warm and fluffy, but still slightly muddy. Muddy or not, owners of the Lucky Dollar video poker casino in Greensburg will get back all but $2,520, the amount that probably floated down the creek and into the Amite River.

'Leaf rage': Homeowner irate with city workers

STAMFORD, Conn. -- When city employees refused to haul away his raked leaves, Michael Peters blew up. His meltdown got him arrested for what police describe as "leaf rage." Peters, 67, of North Stamford, was charged Monday with breach of peace, after accosting municipal workers who told him they collected leaves only on the street and not those on a right of way, where his were stacked. "He grabbed my jacket and said, 'You're not going anywhere,"' operations supervisor Robert Gerbert said of Peters. "The guy was spitting and swearing -- it was the most disgusting scene I've ever seen." Peters admitted he lost his cool, frustrated by more than three decades of being ignored by the town at leaf time. "I went berserk. I got very angry," Peters said. "After 34 years, things build up."

-- From wire reports