Watercooler Stories

Man accepted $470,995 in unearned pay

BERNARDS, N.J., Oct. 28 (UPI) -- An Illinois man pleaded guilty to accepting $470,995.53 in paychecks from a New Jersey company despite rejecting a job with the firm.

Anthony Armatys, 35, was hired as a senior systems analyst/systems architect for New Jersey telecommunications firm Avaya in September 2002 and turned in the necessary human resources paperwork, but he was forced to decline the job due to the terms of his contract with his employer at the time.

However, Somerset County, N.J., prosecutor Wayne Forrest said the Avaya's computer system failed to remove Armatys from the payroll and he received paychecks by direct deposit to his bank account until February 2007, the New Brunswick (N.J.) Home News Tribune reported.

Avaya officials said Armatys also withdrew funds from an employee retirement savings account administered by Fidelity Investments.

Armatys pleaded guilty in Somerset County as part of an agreement with prosecutors. As part of the deal, he is expected to be sentenced to six years in prison during his Jan. 8 sentencing hearing.

Lewd e-mails uploaded to county's Twitter

GRETNA, La., Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Officials in Jefferson Parish, La., said an employee accidentally uploaded lewd e-mails about an old flame to the parish's emergency information Twitter feed.

The parish's Emergency Management Department said the employee had been writing an e-mail about a former lover and accidentally uploaded the lewd paragraphs to the department's Twitter feed, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported.

Officials said the employee realized the mistake almost immediately and deleted the Twitter postings.

The department issued an apology for the incident Monday afternoon.

"We sincerely apologize for this incident and for offending anyone who may have received this message," officials said in a statement. "The parish is removing the Twitter account from the site until such time as more safeguards can be put in place to prevent this from happening again."

It was not clear Tuesday whether the employee faced disciplinary action.

Funeral directors discuss tech, boomers

BOSTON, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- The hot topics at this year's National Funeral Directors Association convention in Boston include aging baby boomers and high-tech advances, organizers say.

Kurt Soffe, a Utah funeral home director and spokesman for the association, said much of the discussion at the four-day convention, which ends Wednesday, has concerned ways for funeral homes to adapt to increased demand for custom funerals for baby boomers, The Boston Globe reported.

"We need to be a funeral director, not a funeral dictator," Soffe said. "With the baby boomers coming of age, for lack of a better way to say it, we have embraced more personalized funeral ideas, and we have embraced technology."

The high-tech products on display at the convention include a bag created by BioSeal Systems to safely carry an infected or decomposed body, and a 100 percent biodegradable coffin made of wool by the British company Hainsworth.

Police: Officer drew gun in haunted house

ESSEX, Md., Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Authorities in Maryland said an off-duty police officer was arrested for pulling his handgun and pointing it at the chest of an actor in a haunted house.

Baltimore County police said Baltimore Police Department Sgt. Eric Michael Janik, 36, pointed his gun at Michael Brian Morrison, 32, who was dressed as "Leatherface" from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," while walking through "The House of Screams" in Essex with a female city police officer and his 9-year-old daughter just after 10 p.m. EDT Sunday, The Baltimore Sun reported.

County police said Janik, who smelled of alcohol and was slurring his speech after the incident, initially denied pulling out his handgun during the haunted house tour but later told officers he drew the weapon and pointed it at the ground. However, multiple witnesses said he pointed the gun at Morrison.

Janik, who was suspended from the police department, was charged with first- and second-degree assault and reckless endangerment. He was released on $25,000 bail.