Let's see the top news stories of the day.
Man Tells Cops Unicorn Caused Crash
Mar 14, 7:14 AM (ET)
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - A man told police not to blame him for crashing his truck into a light post - it was that unicorn behind the wheel. Prosecutor Ingrid Rosenquist said Phillip C. Holliday Jr. initially denied driving the truck involved in the March 7 crash in Billings. He told officers at the scene that a unicorn was driving, she said.
Holliday, 42, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to felony charges of criminal endangerment and drunken driving.
A pickup truck drove through a red light and nearly struck another truck in the intersection, according to court documents. The driver then made an erratic U-turn through a gas station, crossed the street and crashed into a light pole. Nobody was injured.
Holliday has five drunken-driving convictions. District Judge Gregory Todd kept his bail at $100,000 despite his lawyer arguing that Holliday's last such conviction was 14 years ago.
Five drunken-driving convictions and he is still allowed on the road?
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Police: Dad Hides Stash in Girl's Pocket
Mar 13, 8:15 PM (ET)
HILLSIDE, N.J. (AP) - Police here say a man charged with drug possession had an unusual place to store his stash: his 6-year-old daughter's jacket pocket. Dennis Riker, 41, raised suspicions Monday morning when he stopped by his daughter's school in Hillside, saying he had left his keys in her jacket.
But the staff at the A.P. Morris School would not let him in because Riker was not the girl's legal guardian. That role belonged to the girl's grandmother.
Police said Riker, unbeknownst to the school, called the woman to ask her to come to the school. Meanwhile, school officials called her, too, but believed someone else answered and impersonated the woman. And then, the actual grandmother arrived, saying she wanted the girl's jacket.
It was all so strange that principal Tracey Wolff called police to the school. An officer checked the coat and found 25 vials of cocaine and a half-ounce rock of crack in the pocket inside.
Riker was charged with drug possession with intent to distribute and possessing drugs within 1,000 feet of a school. He was being held in municipal jail on $40,000 bail.
The grandmother said her son duped her into asking for the jacket.
And the 6-year-old? Authorities said she had know idea what was in her pocket.
"It's unconscionable that an adult would knowingly put drugs in a child's coat pocket," Police Chief Robert Quinlan told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Tuesday's newspapers.
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Colorado Couple Find Faceless Dollar Coin
Mar 14, 2:15 AM (ET)
By CHASE SQUIRES
DENVER (AP) - Mary and Ray Smith can't make heads or tails of a new presidential dollar coin they found last week. It doesn't have either. A week after the revelation that some of the coins slipped out of the U.S. Mint without "In God We Trust" stamped on the edge, the Smiths said Tuesday they found one with nothing stamped on either flat side.
It does have "In God We Trust" on the edge. What's missing is the image of George Washington on the front and the Statue of Liberty on the back. Instead, the Smiths' coin is just smooth, shiny metal.
"We're just so excited," Mary Smith told The Associated Press. "I'm just dumbfounded that we actually found something significant."
Mint spokesman Michael White said officials had not confirmed the Smiths' find. But Ron Guth, a coin authenticator with Professional Coin Grading Service of Newport Beach, Calif., said after examining it he is certain the coin is authentic.
"It's really pretty rare," Guth said. "It somehow slipped through several steps and inspections."
The couple, who live in Fort Collins north of Denver and collect coins, bought two rolls of the presidential dollars March 7 after hearing about the earlier mistake. Mary Smith said she thought they might find a "Godless" dollar of their own.
The faceless dollar could be worth thousands of dollars, maybe more, Guth said. The value will depend on how many similar misprints are found, but the Smiths' will always be worth more because it will be the first one independently authenticated, he said.
The first "Godless" coins went into circulation Feb. 15.
The Mint struck 300 million presidential coins, about half in Philadelphia and half in Denver. The Smiths' coin bears a D, meaning it was produced by the Denver Mint. The "Godless" coins were all believed to have come from the Philadelphia Mint.
The Smiths said that when they get their coin back from Guth, they'll stick it in a bank vault for at least a while.