Scooping up Brink's booty, and more

Scooping up Brink's booty

When more than a dozen bags containing $335,000 tumbled out of a Brink’s armored truck in front of an antiques store in Syracuse, N.Y., owner David Jenks sprang into action. He, local man Hanson Herring, and several other passers-by began scooping up the booty and setting it aside to return to the owners. Although two bags of money containing $60,000 are missing, police say they could have fallen from the truck earlier on the route. Herring thinks his imposing stature helped persuade his fellow citizens to do the right thing. “Had I not been the size I was, it might have went a different way.”

For rent: Romeo and Juliet's balcony

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Romantics have long flocked to Verona, Italy, to visit the 13th-century mansion of the Cappello family, believed to be the inspiration for the Capulets in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Now, for a fee, the Verona town council is allowing couples to use the balcony on which Juliet was wooed by Romeo as a wedding venue. The first couple to get married on the famous balcony were local soccer star Luca Ceccarelli and his fiancée. “We hope that this brings us a lot of luck,” Ceccarelli said.

Inspired robber professes a new faith

Mohammad Sohail, a Pakistani immigrant who owns a convenience store on Long Island, N.Y., was closing up shop when a bat-wielding robber appeared, demanding money. Sohail grabbed a rifle from behind the counter and told the man to drop the bat. At that, the man fell to his knees and begged for forgiveness. “He started crying that he was out of work and was trying to feed his hungry family,” Sohail said. Moved, Sohail gave him $40 and a loaf of bread. The man was so inspired by Sohail’s mercy that he announced he wanted to become Muslim, which he correctly assumed was Sohail’s faith. Sohail intoned a profession of faith, which the man repeated, before he fled. Sohail says that if the cops find the robber, he won’t press charges.