QUIRKY WORLD ... Royal flush as man drops fake poker chips into loo

USA: A North Carolina man has pleaded guilty to charges that he brought counterfeit chips to an Atlantic City poker tournament in a scheme discovered after he flushed $2.7m (€2.4m) of the chips down a toilet in his hotel room.

Christian Lusardi, 43, of Fayetteville, could face five years in prison at his October 22 sentencing after pleading guilty to trademark counterfeiting and criminal mischief before New Jersey Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury.

The chips were discovered on January 16, 2014, two days after the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City began hosting its Winter Poker Open, where Lusardi was a participant and where $800,000 of fake chips with a bogus Borgata trademark had been used.

Authorities said Lusardi, fearing he might be caught, flushed more than 500 fake chips down the toilet in his room at the Harrah’s Casino Hotel, clogging a pipe and causing a leak in the sewer line in two adjoining rooms.

State gaming authorities cancelled the tournament on January 18, when another 22 fake chips were found in a clogged toilet in a Borgata men’s room.

“When you gamble on a flush in high-stakes poker, you either win big or lose big,” said New Jersey Superintendent Rick Fuentes. “Lusardi lost big.”

Lusardi must also pay Borgata $463,540 for lost tournament revenue, and Harrah’s $9,455 for plumbing damage. He was sentenced in March to five years in prison in a separate case involving DVD bootlegging.

Boy racer

USA: An 11-year-old boy was arrested after stealing a car and leading police on a chase in Washington state.

King County Sheriff’s Office said the boy stole the red Subaru Impreza in the Seattle area after finding a hidden key. They said officers saw him driving recklessly at 3.45pm and used a manoeuvre to stop the car.

He was taken into custody six minutes after the chase began. Officers said no one was injured and by 5pm the car had been returned to its owner and the boy returned to his mother.

In for a penny

USA: A Pennsylvania borough has changed a policy that barred a disgruntled handyman from protesting against a $25 parking fine by paying with pennies.

Chambersburg officials had told Justin Greene, of Shippensburg, that his payment of 2,500 pennies was not allowed under a federal rule designating the copper coins as small change — not tender for debts greater than 25c. Borough officials said in a later statement following “public uproar” over the matter that officials had used an outdated federal rule in refusing the payment.

Borough manager Jeffrey Stonehill said coin-counting equipment would be put in within “the next few weeks” — although he is discouraging anyone from using piles of coins to protest debts.

Greene said that he is “pretty much over” the incident but still annoyed at the borough’s response.

Riveting record

USA: Hundreds of women of all ages donned blue coveralls, red socks, and red bandanas with white polka dots and gathered near San Francisco in an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for women dressed as Rosie the Riveter, the image used to recruit female industrial workers during the Second World War.

The attempt was probably successful but Guinness must still review and authenticate the headcount. It will also verify all the Rosies conformed to uniform specifications, which detailed the acceptable size of the polka dots on their bandanas.

Event organisers said they believe the record was broken because more than 800 bandanas that met the requirement were sold before the event at Rosie the Riveter Memorial in Richmond’s Marina Park. The last record was set in May when 776 Rosies gathered in Michigan.

The Rosies are credited with empowering girls and redefining a woman’s role in the workplace.

Phyllis Gould, 93, who participated in the record-breaking event, worked for three years as a welder at shipyards in Richmond until the Second World War came to an end.

“I felt like I could do anything if I set my mind to it,” she said.