Every Monday I round up some of the funniest ‘money related’ news stories from around the world, and present them for your light entertainment pleasure to help you get through that Monday feeling.

Robber Has Change of Heart

MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee police say a bank robber had a change of heart and returned to the bank he had just held up — to return the money.

But police were already at the bank, investigating the robbery.

Deputy Chief Brian O’Keefe says the alleged robber returned to ask if he could give the money back. He banged on a window, and a teller tried to tell him the bank was closed. Then another employee recognized him as the man who had just held her up. The man had entered the bank earlier that afternoon and demanded money, implying he had a gun. O’Keefe says it’s the first time he remembers a bank robber who wanted to give back his loot, but that doesn’t mean he’ll get off without charges.

Counterfeit Conundrum

TOKYO – Japanese police have been scratching their heads in bewilderment over the country’s latest counterfeiting trend — fake bills that cost more to make than their face value.
Experts estimate that it cost 1,000 yen ($9.10) to make each of the more than 400 bogus 1,000 yen notes that have turned up in vending machines in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, suggesting profit was not the motive, the Asahi newspaper’s English-language edition reported Tuesday.

“Police suspect a techno-maniac is involved,” the Asahi said.

The fake bills are made by replacing the middle strip of genuine notes with a color photocopy, and securing them with tape. To the human eye they are obviously bogus, but they fool some older vending machines.

Expensive Parking

SOUTH AFRICA – A South African woman mistakenly plunked a 100-year-old gold coin worth more than $1,000 into a parking meter while shopping without her glasses, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.
“I can’t believe I could have done something like that,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified.

The woman said she also believed she had spent an 1890 sovereign, worth a small fortune, as small change, the Cape Argus newspaper said.

The woman inherited the gold coins from her mother, but they became mixed up with loose coins she kept in a container and were transferred to her purse by mistake.