Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Pirate ship runs aground on New Year's Eve CLEARWATER, Fla., Jan. 1 (UPI) -- A pirate-themed ship ran aground on New Year's Eve in west Florida, leaving about 100 pirates in need of rescuing, officials said. Advertisement The pirate-themed ship -- the Pirate's Ransom -- was actually one of two ships to run aground Saturday evening, CNN reported. The Island Time went aground while trying to take some of the Pirate's Ransom's passengers. Eventually police and fire boats arrived and ferried the 100 passengers on the Pirate's Ransom safely back to shore. The Pirate's Ransom belongs to "Captain Memo," whose Web site invites "briny buccaneers and seafaring seadogs" to join his crew for day cruises of eating, drinking and searching for dolphins. Hundreds jump into frigid Boston Harbor BOSTON, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Hundreds of swimmers jumped into the freezing waters of Boston Harbor Sunday morning for the annual New Year's Day polar bear plunge. Advertisement An estimated 600 to 700 swimmers joined the L Street Brownies in the annual New Year's Day polar bear plunge, The Boston Globe reported. Freddy Ahern, director of the Curley Community Center, where the event is held, announced the beginning of the plunge by counting down from five through a bull horn. "It was like a baptism with ice," said Anna Byrne, 47, who was visiting from Dublin, Ireland. Byrne said she jumped in twice, "because the first time I didn't get my hair wet. The first time it was cold. The second time it was not so bad." "What other way is there to bring in the New Year than with a bunch of crazy friends," said Justin Brown, 30, an investment adviser from South Boston. Walmart clerk rejects $1 million bill LEXINGTON, N.C., Jan. 1 (UPI) -- The old fake $1 million bill scam failed yet again, this time with a North Carolina man allegedly trying to use one at a Walmart store, police said. The Winston-Salem Journal reported Saturday an arrest warrant alleges Michael Anthony Fuller, 53, of Lexington tried to pay for a vacuum cleaner, a microwave oven and other items totaling $476 with a $1 million bill back on Nov. 17. Advertisement Court records show employees at the Lexington store called police and Fuller was later charged with felony counts of trying to obtain property by false pretenses and uttering a forged instrument, the newspaper said. With his bond set at $17,500, he was still in the Davidson County Jail as of Friday pending a Tuesday court appearance. "It is kind of strange," Lexington police Sgt. Shannon Sharpe said of the case. Every once in a while someone tries to pass off a fake $1 million bill. For the record, the largest U.S. bill now in circulation is the $100 bill. The largest denomination ever printed was a $100,000 bill printed back in the mid-1930s and used for transactions between Federal Reserve banks. Naked drive-through joke draws arrests GALESBURG, Ill., Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Two people who said they thought it would be funny to order fast-food while naked found themselves arrested for the stunt, Galesburg, Ill., police say. Galesburg's WGIL Radio reported Paul Kosur, 19, of El Paso, Ill., and Megan Gutierrez, 21, of Galesburg were arrested on public indecency charges early Wednesday after allegedly pulling up to a McDonald's drive-through window without any clothes on. Advertisement Police reports indicate investigating officers found the couple in the car in the restaurant's parking lot. The officers said the only clothes they found in the car were a pair of pants and a coat. The couple, who were taken to the Knox County Jail and later released pending court appearances, allegedly told the officers their stunt may not have been a great idea but they still thought it was funny, WGIL said.
