Watercooler Stories

New Zealand bank charges $5 to break $20

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Business college lecturer Peter Brown was surprised when he entered an ASB bank in New Zealand to break a $20 bill, and had to pay $5 to make change.

Brown told the New Zealand Herald he thought it was an early April Fools Day prank when he was asked to spend a quarter of his $20 bill to get smaller bills, but he quickly learned it was simply bank policy.

"I thought he was joking and I said, 'This isn't April 1, you know. You've got to be kidding,'" Brown said.

A bank officer told the newspaper the bank requires non-ASB customers to pay $5 to get change, to limit non-customers from monopolizing cashiers' time by changing large amounts of cash.

Brown said his experience has probably cost ACB any chance the bank might have had of gaining him as a customer.

"With this attitude to the currency of New Zealand and its citizens," he said, "I will not exactly be hurrying to open an account with this bank."

Lawmaker wants to outlaw street grooves

NEW YORK, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- A New York state lawmaker wants to eradicate "iPod oblivion" by fining pedestrians caught grooving to MP3 players while crossing the street.

Sen. Carl Kruger, D-Brooklyn, says his bill in the state Senate in Albany would impose a $100 fine for crossing the street in New York metropolitan areas while distracted by an electronic device, reported WCBS-TV, New York.

"We're talking about people walking sort of tuned in and in the process of being tuned in, tuned out," Kruger said. "Tuned out to the world around them. They're walking into speeding cars. They're walking into buses. They're walking into one another and it's creating a number of fatalities that have been documented right here in the city."

In response to criticism from angry MP3, Blackberry and cell phone users, Kruger advises them to "sit down and listen to it," take walks in the park or jog along paths -- all of which are exempt under his bill.

British over-50s more likely to cheat

LONDON, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- A British study suggests people older than 50 are more likely than younger Britons to cheat on their spouses or long-term partners.

The British Sexual Fantasy Research Project, which examined the sex lives of more than 13,000 Britons, suggested 30 percent of people over 50 in the country have had sexual relations with someone outside their marriage or partnership, The Daily Mail reported.

By contrast, only 14 percent of men and women under 30 reported similar behavior.

The study, led by psychotherapist Brett Kahr, found 42 percent of all men in relationships, and 31 percent of all women in relationships have kissed other people while in committed relationships.

"As we may not fully appreciate, sex might be the most sensitive barometer of the solidity of the relationship between husband and wife, or between two lovers," Kahr said. "When the gremlins of infidelity or inattentiveness or other forms of cruelty enter the relationship, then the sexual life will suffer as a consequence."

Man uses tick excuses to pinch butts

WAUKESHA, Wis., Feb. 8 (UPI) -- A Mukwonago, Wis., man is in trouble for allegedly using bogus claims of ticks to pinch women's rears.

Michael F. Knurr, 39, was charged with five counts of fourth-degree sexual assault for incidents in Muskego, New Berlin and Waukesha, Wis., last year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

The criminal complaint filed Tuesday details one incident involving the tree service owner in which he told his female client there was a tick on her rear.

When the alarmed woman said to get it off, Knurr allegedly lowered her shorts a bit, pinched her buttock and said, "I got it." However, the woman told police there was no tick in Knurr's hand.

Knurr's first court appearance is set for Feb. 26.