Funny Friday story - Bank of America pays property tax erroneously, requests twice the amount back

This story was reported in the Times of Northwest Indiana by Phil Wieland.

Make no mistake. Bank of America Corp. doesn't make mistakes like the mistake it made with Valparaiso Councilman John Bowker's property taxes.

At the end of 2010, Bowker got a check for $612.66 from the Porter County treasurer's office with a note saying it was for the overpayment of his property taxes by BAC. This came as a surprise to Bowker, whose mortgage is with Centier Bank.

Although a Red Sox fan, Bowker is smart enough to know BAC would eventually come looking for that money. So he put it in the bank and waited. And waited. Finally, in April, after he'd earned several cents in interest, the much-anticipated letter arrived.

In it, BAC said Bowker must repay $1,316.02, which would have been the total for the final 2010 tax payment and the first one in 2011. This was another surprise because the county had no record that anyone other than Centier paid his property taxes in 2011.

Bowker tried several times to reach someone with BAC before finally getting a response from a person who assured him BAC didn't make such mistakes. When he told BAC he would not pay more than the $612.66 unless they provided proof he owed it, BAC said it would have to verify the figure with the county.

A week later he had no return contact from BAC, but he got a second BAC letter saying he hadn't responded to the first letter and he should send the check for $1,316.02 forthwith. That was about the point where Bowker decided I might like to hear the story.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Super Bowl special #2 - "Two good things happened" after Patriots punter embarrassed himself in front of 100,000

From Sports Illustrated:

[New England Patriots punter] Zoltan Mesko does not need much prodding to launch into a story about what was at once both his most embarrassing and most famous moment as a Michigan Wolverine.

One of the Wolverines’ longest-running traditions is to leap up and slap an eight-foot-tall “Go Blue” banner as they sprint onto the field before a home game. As a senior in 2009, Mesko was one of the first players out for Michigan’s season-opener against Western Michigan.

Only he was a little too enthusiastic. The 6-foot-5 punter got a little too much air and smacked the banner hard — a little too hard — with both hands. That caused him to lose his balance and tumble awkwardly to the turf, where he was smacked into by several of the 80 or so hard-charging Wolverines running behind him.

The clip hit YouTube immediately. ESPN’s “GameDay” interviewed Mesko after the Wolverines’ eventual win, just to talk about the banner incident.

Mesko laughed the mishap off then. And now, despite being in the NFL for two years and making his first Super Bowl, he’s still more than happy to talk about it.

“So, two good things that came about because of that, besides a lot of laughs,” Mesko said Thursday. “I got a little one-minute special on ‘Gameday’ — they interviewed me about what was happening when I was getting trampled.

“And second, a sorority noticed it was at 90,000 views on YouTube, and they said they’d throw a party for the football team when it hit a (hundred thousand).”

The original YouTube video reached that milestone, and Mesko took his teammates to celebrate at that impromptu sorority get-together. Consider that the prime example why Mesko was a huge hit with his Michigan teammates and a veritable legend around campus.

Here's the video: