ODDLY ENOUGH | Wallet missing for 40 years in NYC is found

ODDLY ENOUGH

Wallet missing for 40 years in NYC is found

NEW YORK

A New York man whose wallet disappeared from his jacket pocket has gotten it back — 40 years later.

Rudolph Resta was working for The New York Times as an art director in 1970 when he left his jacket in a closet at the old Times building in Manhattan just off Times Square. When he went to fetch the jacket, the wallet was gone.

Fast-forward to last fall, when a security guard checking a gap by an unused window came across the wallet — apparently stashed there by a thief who’d pulled out the cash.

Resta was tracked down through pieces of ID linked to the Times.

Resta is now in his 70s. He’s enjoying the memories the wallet contained — photos of his sons as children, his glamorous wife and his late father.

Stop or we’ll schuss: Uphill skier busted

JACKSON, Wyo.

A 78-year-old retired doctor was handcuffed and hauled away on a toboggan for skiing uphill in Wyoming, but he won’t face charges.

Roland Fleck of Jackson was arrested the morning of Feb. 5 after refusing ski patrollers’ orders to stop. Jackson Hole Resort officials say avalanche danger and the presence of grooming machines made it unsafe.

Skiers can get uphill with snow-gripping “skins” on their skis, among other methods.

The Jackson Hole News & Guide says Fleck was jailed on charges of trespass, interference, unsafe skiing and theft of services.

Resort officials say they won’t press charges because Fleck’s removal resolved their complaint. Sheriff Jim Whalen says he sees no need for prosecution.

Fleck’s son, Atty. Dan Fleck, says his father did nothing wrong and the resort should change policies.

Eatery pulls billboards with cult references

SOUTH BEND, Ind.

An Indiana restaurant that erected billboards with references to the 1978 Jonestown cult massacre has removed the signs after complaints from residents.

The South Bend Tribune reports that the restaurant, Hacienda, posted signs with the message, “We’re like a cult with better Kool-Aid” and showed a glass containing an alcoholic beverage next to the phrase “To die for!”

More than 900 members of Jim Jones’ People’s Temple drank cyanide-laced, grape-flavored punch in a mass murder and suicide at the group’s compound in Guyana.

South Bend resident Patricia Barbera-Brown says the billboards were “extremely offensive and very irresponsible marketing.”

The company says it made a mistake and is pulling the ads because it doesn’t want to have a negative image.

Associated Press