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Top 20 Most Outrageous Business Stories
Tabloid Column editors have reviewed more than 10,000 news articles from our archives to present the Top 20 most outrageous Business stories of 2005. If an article link has expires, search Google for addition references. Take A Look At All 6 Categories!
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By Jake Easton Tabloid Column.com Posted: December 16, 2005 |  |
1 Aspen Car Dealership Sues Over Protest Signs. An Aspen man who took his frustration with a new car dealer to the public is being sued by the dealer after the man mounted a protest campaign. Seth J. Turok bought a $40,000 Audi A6 from Elk Mountain Motors in 2000 and said he has had problems with the car ever since. When he didn't get satisfaction from the dealer, he attached signs to his car saying "Friends don't let friends shop at Elk Mtn Motors." 
2 Farmers' Insurance finds loophole in devastating crash. Ethel Adams was driving along minding her own business when a pickup truck slammed into her head-on. Even though Adams didn't know the driver of the pickup, he was intent on causing a crash, according to Farmers' Insurance, therefore the company does not consider it an accident and has denied her insurance coverage despite being critically injured and in a wheelchair. Farmers' later reversed their decision after the state insurance commissioner threatened the company with a lawsuit.
3 12,000 paid not to work. Ken Pool is making good money. On weekdays, he shows up at 7 a.m. at Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, signs in, and then starts working - on a crossword puzzle. Pool hates the monotony, but the pay is good: more than $31 an hour, plus benefits. Pool is one of more than 12,000 American autoworkers who, instead of installing windshields or bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the hours in a jobs bank set up by Detroit automakers and Delphi Corp. as part of an extraordinary job security agreement with the United Auto Workers union.
4 Disabled Boy Booted From Loews Theater For Laughing Too Loud. The family of a disabled 7-year-old boy wants an apology from a movie theater after the manager threw him out for laughing too loudly. The boy has cerebral palsy and autism. The family said he was enjoying the movie "March of the Penquins" from his wheelchair when a Loews Cineplex theater worker said he was laughing too loudly, and would have to leave.
5 FedEx discrimination suit moves ahead. The suit contends the delivery service paid thousands of current and former minority employees less than their white counterparts. James Finberg, an attorney representing the class action case said "FedEx knows that black and Hispanics fail at a much higher rate, but yet has not changed the test."
6 Burger King employee 'has it his way.' In a case of road rage meets restaurant rage, an argument started at the drive through window when a customer got the wrong order on Saturday. When he came back to Burger King last night he complained and got into an argument with an employee. As the altercation escalated, the Burger King employee allegedly came outside and slit the customer's throat in the parking lot.
8 Plant worker defies Chrysler-only parking; his GMC truck towed. A DaimlerChrysler Indiana Transmission plant worker has defied a new policy by parking his GMC pickup truck in one of the front spots reserved for Chrysler products.
9 Surgical tools washed in hydraulic fluid. 3,800 patients at two hospitals run by Duke University Health System were operated on last year with instruments that were washed in hydraulic fluid instead of detergent, hospital regulators said.
10 Special sneakers aid immigrants’ run to the border. Some new designer running shoes are causing a major controversy in San Diego. The $215.00 "Brinco" shoes are intended to help people attempting to cross the border from Mexico into the U.S. "Brinco" is Spanish for "jump." The high top sneakers come with a compass, flashlight and a pocket for money or pain relievers. A rough map of the border is printed on the insole.
11 Coupon Misprints Could Cost Casino Millions. A misprint may end up costing an Illinois casino millions of dollars. Harrah's Joliet Casino said there was a mistake in about 11,000 coupons mailed to customers last week. Instead of being worth $15 or $20 apiece, each had a face value of $525 in cash. While the casino initially refused to redeem the coupons, the Illinois Gaming Board ruled that Harrah's must honor them. The company could be liable for as much as $5.8 million.
12 Executive sued over $241,000 strip club tab. A Missouri businessman who claims that a $241,000 bill for a night of lap dance luxuriating at Manhattan's leading strip club is a fraud is being sued by American Express for refusing to pay the debt.
13 How Funeral Directors Earn Free Flights. Airlines have always made their money by putting bodies in the seats. Increasingly, they're also turning a dollar by putting dead bodies in cargo, as carriers pursue the funeral-home and mortuary business. "The yield on transporting human remains - I want to be sensitive when I say this - is definitely worth our while," says Dale Anderson, director of mail and cargo for JetBlue. "I have to move close to 1,000 pounds of general cargo to equal the revenue of one human remain."
14 Couple finds first home padlocked. A couple preparing to move into their first home arrived to find it padlocked and all of their belongings gone due to a real estate company's foreclosure error. Aaron and Lanell Yoder discovered that First Preston, a real estate management company, was supposed to foreclose at a home with the same numbered address on West LaSalle Avenue. Their home is on located on East LaSalle.
15 Exxon-Mobil Employees Got Fake Flu Shots. Federal investigators say fake flu shots were given out last week during a health fair at Exxon Mobil's complex in Baytown. An Exxon Mobil spokeswoman said a doctor provided the shots and that it was the company's first use of an outside contractor to administer them. The spokeswoman said the FBI told the company it was "definitely not the flu vaccine," but doesn't appear to be harmful.
16 UPS driver finds 9-foot python snake in truck. For at least two calm and relatively happy hours, United Parcel Service deliveryman Brian Adams drove around in his brown truck, oblivious he was toting around a 9-foot albino python.
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