LEOMINSTER, Mass. (AP) – A 500-pound moose crashed through the windshield of a car in Leominster and ended up sitting in the passenger seat with its head sticking through the glass.

Emergency personnel late Thursday had to cut the roof off the car to extricate the moose, which was later euthanized by state environmental police because of severe injuries, police Lt. Raymond Booth said.

The driver, Juleigh McDowell, 30, of Sterling, was able to get out of the car under her own power and escaped serious injury, police said.

Police in Leominster, a city of about 38,000 residents about 40 miles west of Boston, had received reports of a moose in the area earlier Thursday evening, Booth said.

McDowell was simply driving along Route 12 at about 11 p.m. Thursday when the moose crossed her path, he said.

$1,000 for $26 tab stuns Va. waitress

ROANOKE, Va. (AP) – The couple at one of waitress Amanda Newkirk’s many tables seemed ordinary enough. The woman ordered a turkey burger, fries and two Coors Lights. The man had a bacon cheeseburger and sweet tea.

Their bill came to $26.35. They left Newkirk $1,000.

Newkirk, seven months pregnant and teary with excitement, read the handwritten note on the check: “Keep the change! Have a great day.”

The 19-year-old thought it had to be a joke. But the manager at Ruby Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of the ten $100 bills with a counterfeit-detection pen.

Newkirk couldn’t figure out why the couple had given her such a generous tip. She didn’t think her service had been very good.

A couple days after the March 7 incident, Newkirk got her answer. A 28-year-old widow who said she’d been going through a tough time called Newkirk’s general manager and said she’d left the tip while at lunch with her fiance.

“It involved a lot more than good service at a great restaurant,” said Erin Dogan of Roanoke County. “I didn’t need it. It helped someone who … needed it. God put us there together. God answered my questions.”

Dogan, whose husband died last year, said she’s a shopaholic and could have easily spent the money at a nearby mall. But she decided to put it to better use. “It made me feel phenomenal,” Dogan said. “It has changed my life.”

Newkirk plans to use some of the money to help pay for medical bills related to her pregnancy. But aside from a few national radio and television appearances, life continues as normal for the teen.

“I’m not going to retire with a thousand dollars,” she said with a laugh.

No cash here, robbers discover

BENICIA, Calif. (AP) – Two armed men in ski masks slunk away from an attempted heist empty-handed after learning they had picked a cashless credit union, authorities said.

The unidentified men rushed into the First Pacific Credit Union in Benicia around noon Thursday with semiautomatic handguns drawn, Benicia police said.

But after ordering employees to lie down and hand over money, the suspects were told there was no cash to be had, police said.

The men were trying to rob a “cashless credit union” where the money is deposited into a vault inaccessible to most employees, said Benicia police Capt. Steve Mortensen.

The men fled the scene, and no one was injured. Police were looking into whether the men have attempted other heists around Benicia, about 35 miles northeast of San Francisco.

“I would say that apparently they weren’t really prepared,” Mortensen said.

Calif. town back on auction block

BRIDGEVILLE, Calif. (AP) – The first town ever auctioned on eBay soon will be back up for sale on the online auction site. Nearly two years after he bought the tiny town of Bridgeville, Orange County financial adviser Bruce Krall said Friday he plans to re-auction the Humboldt County hamlet on eBay next month.

“Due to family reasons, I’m pretty much tied to Southern California for the foreseeable future,” Krall said. “We can’t move up there. It only makes sense to pass it on to somebody else.”

Krall said the auction will open April 4 with a minimum bid of $1.75 million – more than twice what he paid for the 83-acre property about 40 miles southwest of Eureka.

Bridgeville, a picturesque village with about 25 people on the Van Duzen River, sparked a bidding war in 2002 when it became the first town ever put up for sale on eBay.

The buyer, who won the auction with a $1.78 million bid, never came to see the property and the deal fell through. The property was eventually posted on traditional real estate listings, and Krall bought it for about $700,000 in May 2004.

Since then, Krall said he’s invested “multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars” to restore old buildings, remove dilapidated structures and clean up mounds of garbage. He also found new tenants for the houses and received a conditional use permit for a riverfront resort.

“It’s come full circle,” Krall said. “Now it’s been fixed up, and I think it’s actually ready to be sold on eBay.”


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