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Woman Puts Dead Husband's Cell Number On Headstone

It's something CBS 2 HD has never seen before, and you probably haven't either.

There's a headstone in a cemetery with more information on it than you'd think you'd need.

Tucked away in a cemetery in Paramus you will find the gravesite and headstone of 60-year-old, former Manhattan attorney John Jacobs, along with something else – his cell phone number.

"I wanted to have a way to remember him," said Marion Seltzer, John's wife of 21 years.

And after dialing the number, the phone service is still working.

"Hi, you've reached the voice mail of John Jacobs ... After you hear the beep leave a message and I'll return the call," is the message.

Of course that would be truly amazing ... since John's been gone since 2005.

"That's a little unusual," Seltzer said. "It is ... but so was my husband."

Seltzer says the phone on the stone was her idea, that it helps her stay close to John.

When asked if she still calls him, Seltzer said, "I call him now. I do call him. If I'm happy, if I'm sad...

"And I believe there are probably a lot of people who were very close to him who periodically call him."

Throughout his career as a criminal defense lawyer, the outgoing and larger-than-life Jacobs represented high-profile defendants such as mob boss "Fat Tony" Salerno.

Jacobs' cell phone constantly rings. It's inundated with calls, so Seltzer says why stop now?

"He would love this," she said. "He liked attention."

In the 2 ½ years since John died from pancreatic cancer Seltzer says she has no idea how many people have called him, or what they have said.

"I don't have his pin number ... I have no idea," she said. "I've never heard a message."

She says John was buried with his cell phone, the battery fully charged, of course, making Jacobs perhaps the only lawyer in the world who wanted to hear from his clients 24/7 … for all of eternity.

So once a month Seltzer pays the $60 cell phone bill and keeps her husband alive in her heart.

From CBS

Man Finds $140,000 Cash; Turns It In

It was a tempting sight for struggling landscaper Eli Estrada: a bag filled with $140,000 on a Cerritos street.

There was his credit card debt, upcoming wedding and making ends meet with his artificial grass and landscaping business.

But turning it over to Long Beach police last month was the right thing to do, he said.

The 40-year-old Estrada admits that some days "I think I was nuts," but he adds, "I know in my gut that to keep that money would be wrong."

The Bank of America money bag was lost March 11 by Brinks Armored truck drivers. The unmarked $20 bills were bundled into wads of $20,000 and bound for ATMs.

Long Beach police Sgt. Dina Zapalski said Estrada handed over the money bag to an officer who took a report at one of the landscaper's job sites.

Zapalski said she had never heard of someone turning in so much cash.

"I've had people come to me with purses and wallets with cash in it and they'll turn it in," Zapalski told the Los Angeles Times. "But not like this."

Brinks later gave him a $2,000 reward.

"They should have given him 10 percent," Estrada's mother told the newspapers.

Butcher banned from morning meat chopping

LONDON, April 10 (UPI) -- An outraged British butcher said he may move his business after authorities ordered him to stop chopping meat before 8 a.m. because it is too noisy.

Brian Clapton, 51, who said he is "the last English-style butcher" in his area of east London, has been ordered by city officials to stop chopping meat in the morning because he is disturbing locals, The Daily Mail reported.

Clapton said the order will force him to leave the business he has owned for 13 years.

"I'm the last English-style butcher in Barking and Ilford and I'm probably going to be going. Soon it will just be supermarkets or halal butchers left and they don't suit everybody's needs. It's very sad," he told the newspaper.

Clapton was ordered to pay for soundproofing his building, but refused, saying the city should not have given him a butcher lease if it was going to be too loud.

From Political gateway.



Marriage Proposal Too Hot; Fire Dept. Called

Lawrence Waterhouse III pulled out all the stops — and all the candles — when he proposed marriage to his girlfriend in the gazebo outside his suburban home. He had set it up very, very nicely," Chappaqua Fire Chief Andy Metz said Thursday. "He had candles in the trees, candles and dogwood petals along the path, a chandelier with votive candles."

The girlfriend apparently said yes to the romantic Wednesday night proposal, and the couple left town early Thursday for a trip out west, Metz said. Unfortunately, at least one of the candles apparently stayed lit.

"We got the call about 7:15 this morning, and when I got there five minutes later the gazebo was fully involved in flames," the chief said. "Luckily, nothing else burned."

Metz tracked down Waterhouse at a New York airport and told him about the fire, but advised him to continue with his trip.

"Nobody was hurt, so I told him to go ahead with his vacation," the chief said. "He gave me his brother's number, and the brother told me about the proposal."

The chief said the fire was "a unique event."

"We've had candle fires, of course, but I can't remember one at this level of romance."


From Yahoo News.



Masseuses told to padlock pants

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A bid by a local government in Indonesia's East Java province to curb prostitution by asking masseuses to wear a padlock on their pants was an insult, a newspaper quoted the minister for women's empowerment as saying.

The recently implemented policy in the tourist area of Batu was misguided, State Minister for Women's Empowerment Meuthia Hatta told the Jakarta Post on Thursday.

"It is not the right way to prevent promiscuity. It insults women as if they are the ones in the wrong," Hatta said.

The paper showed a photograph of a masseuse with a padlock on the waist band of her trousers and said the local administration's move was aimed at curbing prostitution and maintaining Batu's image as a popular tourist destination.

The best way to curb prostitution in massage parlors was to improve security systems including installing CCTV, Hatta said.

Batu, 75 km (46 miles) south of Indonesia's second-biggest city, Surabaya, is a popular tourist destination for its cool climate, hot springs and mountain scenery.

Indonesia has a flourishing ####### industry and massage parlors are frequently a front for prostitution. But there has been a vigorous debate over morality in recent years, exposing deep divisions in the Southeast Asian Muslim-majority nation.

Last month, Indonesia passed a bill to restrict access to pornographic and violent sites on the Internet, while parliament has yet to pass a controversial pornography bill that aims to shield the young from pornographic material and lewd acts.

Earlier draft versions contained provisions that could jail people for kissing in public and criminalize many forms of art or traditional culture that hinge on sensuality, sparking criticism it could curb freedoms and hurt Indonesia's tolerant traditions.

From Reuters.....

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