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Stamp recovered after 40 years is sold

NEW YORK, June 15 (UPI) -- A unique U.S. stamp stolen in 1967 and recovered almost 40 years later has sold at auction for more than $400,000, the auctioneer said Sunday.

Dr. Arthur K.M. Woo, a prominent collector, bought the "Ice House Cover," Scott Trepel, president of Robert A. Siegel Auctions in New York, said in a statement.

The item was auctioned Saturday.

The "Ice House Cover" is an envelope bearing a 90-cent Abraham Lincoln stamp. It gets its name because it was mailed in 1873 from a Boston ice company to its ice house in Calcutta.

The envelope was discovered in India by a U.S. collector. In 1967, it was stolen from J. David Baker, an Indianapolis collector, by a team of thieves targeting members of the American Philatelic Society.

The FBI recovered most of Baker's collection in 1974, but the "Ice House Cover" remained missing. In January 2006, an elderly couple -- who said they found it while clearing out a dead relative's house -- brought it to a dealer in Chicago, wanting to know if it was worth anything. The dealer turned it over to the FBI and Baker's widow was eventually determined to be the rightful owner.

Digital switchover saves man's life

MEMPHIS, June 15 (UPI) -- The switch from analog to digital television may have saved the life of a World War II veteran in Memphis when lightning knocked down a tree in his yard.

Robert Monsarrat, 86, told the Memphis Commercial Appeal he was watching "Oprah Winfrey" in his kitchen instead of his bedroom Friday because the only television that gets a digital signal is in the kitchen. The storm brought a large red oak down on the house.

"I was curled up in the fetal position under the rubble when they dug me out," he said.

Monsarrat escaped without serious injuries. The story would likely have had a very different ending if he had received the digital converter box for the set in his bedroom, which was destroyed by the tree.

Woman delayed in cab after finding money

CHICAGO, June 15 (UPI) -- A Lisle, Ill., woman who found $5,000 in the back seat of a Chicago taxi says the driver began running up the fare once she told him what she'd found.

"He wouldn't let me out of the car," Ginny Narsete told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Narsete, 57, was taking the cab to the train station in Chicago Thursday night when she noticed a bag with the logo of La Bamba, a Mexican restaurant with 19 locations, including one in downtown Chicago. Inside the bag, was a deposit slip and $5,000 in cash, she told the Sun-Times.

Narsete told the driver to take her to a police station so she could drop off the money. The driver, however, just kept driving while insisting the money should be left at a cab stand.

Narsete called her husband, who yelled at the driver and threatened to call 911 if the driver did not immediately drive to the police station, the Sun-Times said. At the station, the police determined the bag had been forgotten by a restaurant manager, said Ramiro Aguas, co-owner of the restaurant chain.

"It was very nice of her to bring that money back," Aguas said.

As for the cab driver, he took Narsete's last $20 for his fare and disappeared, leaving police to get her to the train station.

The princess and the bailiff in Paris

PARIS, June 15 (UPI) -- A Saudi princess reportedly paid what she owed a Paris store after a bailiff showed up at her hotel with a court order allowing him to seize her luggage.

Maha al-Sudairi owed more than $120,000 to Key Largo, a clothing chain, the BBC reported. Jacky Benazerah, a lawyer for the chain, said she had ignored many requests for payment until the bailiff visited her at the upmarket George V Hotel, owned by Sudairi's nephew.

"The operation ordered by the judge began at 4.30 p.m. in the presence of the local police chief," Benazerah said. "It seems that during the operation the Saudi consul turned up in person and, following talks, a guaranteed (check) for the total sum owed to my client was handed over."

Sudairi is said to have racked up large bills during previous shopping sprees, with some stores complaining of being owed tens of thousands of dollars. Her husband is Saudi interior minister and she has diplomatic immunity from prosecution.