Surveillance camera helps find lotto winner, and more

Surveillance camera helps find lotto winner

A California woman would have missed out on a $23 million lottery win if not for a store’s surveillance camera. Julie Cervera, 69, says she asked her daughter to buy the lottery ticket on a whim, and then forgot about the ticket after stashing it in her car. As the ticket neared its expiration date, lottery officials circulated photos of Cervera’s daughter, and Cervera, who is disabled and broke, learned she was a multimillionaire—not a moment too soon. “I have maybe a dollar in my pocket,” she said. “My electric bill is $600.’’

Britney sheds some tears

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Justin Timberlake’s marriage to Jessica Biel has devastated Britney Spears, says the National Enquirer. Spears and Timberlake were sweethearts for several years, after meeting in childhood as Disney Mouseketeers, and a friend says that Spears, now 30 and engaged to her former agent, always “had it in her head that she could still win Justin back.” Spears thought Timberlake’s engagement was a ploy “to get her attention,” says the source, and when she learned he’d actually done it, she “flew into a rage and crumpled onto the floor in a heap of tears.”

Firefighters called to “a virtual fire”

Swedish firefighters raced to an apartment where a fire had been reported, only to find “a virtual fire” burning on the screen of a resident’s television. A DVD depicting a fake fireplace is popular among Swedish apartment-dwellers seeking a cozy atmosphere. When passersby spotted the fake flames through a window, they sounded the alarm. The simulation was so effective, said responder Goran Gunnarson, that “we even stayed and watched the fire for a while afterward.”