Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe 'Cue card' bandit strikes two more banks CORONA DEL MAR, Calif., Sept. 22 (UPI) -- The so-called Cue Card Bandit struck two more banks in California, this time institutions in Corona del Mar and Laguna Woods. Advertisement The man, so-named by the FBI because his demand note is written in a spiral binder, did not get any money from the Corona del Mar bank but did get an unknown amount of cash from the Laguna Woods facility, the Orange County (Calif.) Register said Thursday. Both robberies occurred Wednesday, the paper said. Officers said the suspect fled from the Corona del Mar location when a teller told him the bank didn't carry cash. Later he robbed the Laguna Woods financial institution. The man is suspected in several bank robberies in the area, the newspaper said. NYC subway noise recorded for model trains NEW YORK, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A Lionel model subway train set for release this year will feature recorded sounds of New York's noisy subway system. Advertisement This week, Bruce Koball has been wandering the Metropolitan Transportation Authority system recording the rattling, rumbling, hissing and screeching of the trains, which will be incorporated into a control system that will replicate the sounds on the miniature model, The New York Times reports. The man behind the idea is musician Neil Young, who bought a minority interest in the Lionel company more than 10 years ago. He devised the system that will match action with sound and includes recreated 1964 station announcements. "Realism is the byword," Young told the Times. "It's a symphony of motion and sound." The model being developed is under a license from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Times said. Tea bag protest could cause postal problem PEORIA, Ill., Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A U.S. Postal Service official in Illinois has warned that a protest involving mailed tea bags could cause problems for post office machinery. Brian Wagner, customer relations coordinator for the Peoria, Ill., post office, said the tea bag protest called for by Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn against AmerenCILCO's 55 percent residential utility rate hikes could clog sorting machines or damage mail, the Peoria Journal Star reported Thursday. ComEd plans to increase rates 22 percent. Advertisement "If someone sends in a tea bag and it breaks open, it could actually damage our automated equipment or damage the mail," Wagner said. He suggested sending an empty tea bag or a picture of a tea bag as an alternative form of mail protest. Quinn said the suggested alternatives would work just as well for the protest. "If they want to use a wrapper or the virtual approach, the more the merrier," Quinn said. "The bottom line is to send a message and whatever is an effective way to send a message is fine with me. "We'll leave it up to everyday people to decide how they want to do it." Empire State-Golden Gate in toothpicks SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 22, (UPI) -- Steven Backman's toothpicks, a familiar sight in his hometown of San Francisco, are to be viewed rather than chewed. Backman is an artist with the skinny little slices of wood, creating fancy toothpick keepsakes for the past 30 years. He has turned out some remarkable designs from abstract art to the Empire State Building -- where he had a recent show featuring an ambitious 13-foot-long, 30,000-toothpick replica of the Golden Gate Bridge.
