Own Goal For Fraudulent Window Cleaner

Own goal: Footballer Gary Burnett claimed he had whiplash but was caught offside by his Tweet.

Footballer scores own goal after tweeting about match 24 hours after making bogus whiplash claim: A semi-professional footballer’s bogus claim for a whiplash injury after a crash at a McDonald’s drive-through was exposed when he tweeted about playing football 24 hours later. Gary Burnett tried to pocket £2,000 for the smash which he claimed left him with shoulder and neck injuries in October 2013.

But the 24-year-old then took to Twitter to update his followers about his side Northwich Victoria’s progress. One day after the accident in Birkenhead, Merseyside, Burnett wrote on Twitter: “Nice little trek to Kendal later for footy” - referring to an away match in the Lake District town. Three weeks later he was on Twitter again bragging about knocking higher ranked team Nantwich Town out of the FA Trophy with a second-half goal.

Investigators from insurance company Aviva tracked his messages and this week won a legal battle to make Burnett pay their court costs. The player, now representing Curzon Ashton FC in the National League North, was ordered by a judge to stump up £11,000.

The part-time window cleaner, of Lowton, Grt Manchester, had claimed the injury left him out of action for four weeks. Burnett’s claim was described as ‘fundamentally dishonest’ by a judge at Wigan County Court who accepted the footballer had misled his solicitors, his medical expert and the insurance company.

Dave Lovely, Aviva claims director, said: “This case highlights how a minor claim can be seen as an open-goal for fraudsters. “However, we are determined to tackle these fraudulent claimants and stop them scoring against us and our customers. “It shows that we will pursue and prosecute those who commit fraud, while taking care of genuine claimants.”

Jared Mallinson, partner at Horwich Farrelly solicitors, representing the insurers, added: “The hapless footballer clearly couldn’t resist boasting about his performance on social media despite claiming to have been unable to play. “The court’s decision to find him fundamentally dishonest is a red card to any would-be fraudster that they will be caught.”

Window Cleaner Makes $3,600 In 5 Minutes

Taco Bell - Giving away money.

Trio returns $3,600 mistakenly handed out at drive through: A recent West Ottawa High School graduate got more than she ordered at a drive-through window at Taco Bell in Kentwood last weekend. Instead of the fast food, Kennidi Rue, her boyfriend and friend received what could have been some fast cash — $3,600  — in their order on Saturday night. “I didn’t get any food. Just money,” Kennidi Rue of Holland said Monday. The money, including a big roll of 20s, was in three bags.
 

Rue, her boyfriend Grant Kruse of Holland and driver Luke Postma pulled over and counted the cash. After a brief discussion about what to do, they called police. They met the officer at the restaurant and returned the money to the Taco Bell employee who was in tears and grateful for the trio’s honesty.
 

“As soon as you see all that money, stuff runs through your mind about what to do with it,” said Kruse after finishing work Monday at Shine Window Cleaning in Zeeland (website). Kruse is a 2011 Holland Christian High School graduate who recently returned from nine months on the ground in Afghanistan with the Army National Guard.
 

They all agreed that the only option was to return the cash. “It felt like the right thing,” said Kruse. Keeping it would have been wrong, Rue added. “It’s not the right thing to do,” the 2013 West Ottawa graduate said about taking the cash. “It’s not the way we were raised.”
 

Rue will head to Davenport University in the fall to study nursing. This isn't the first time that a Taco Bell employee mistakenly gave a customer thousands of dollars, according to jobs.aol.com. A manager of a Taco Bell in Ohio said it's store policy to keep bank deposits in the same bags that are used for takeout orders, which reportedly is why a drive-through worker in May 2010 confusedly handed a customer $2,000. That customer, who appeared in surveillance video to be a “young woman in her 20s,”  and the money were never heard from again.

Taco Bell customers find and return $3600 received in order: Three hungry customers pulled into the Kentwood, Michigan Taco Bell drive-thru expecting meals, so they were surprised when they found thousands of dollars in cash in their bag instead of food. As reported by WZZM 13 On Your Side, Kennidi Rue, Luke Postma and Grant Kruse didn’t even realize the fast food restaurant’s mistake until they had driven miles away. Kennidi said, “I opened my bag to get my food and it ended up being three bags of money, a lot of money, and then another wad of like a ton of 20s. We added it up and it was like…” “It was like $3600,” the men added.

The trio had a decision to make: return the money or keep the cash. The friends admitted that there was a brief moment where they were tempted. “Of course, initially you want to keep it,” Kennidi conceded. “But then you’re like, ‘No someone’s going to lose their job. Let’s bring this back,’” said Luke. Grant added, “It obviously wasn’t ours. It’s not like we were losing anything by giving it back. So we just thought we’d bring it back and I don’t know, just do it the right way I guess.”

Luke explained what happened when they returned the money. “We went in and the lady, we met her, and she had just a stone cold look on her face. And we brought it in and she just started like, on the spot, just like losing it. She was crying. She was I guess, pretty happy.” The three customers were also happy. They said the best part of their good deed, was that they finally got their food from Taco Bell.