A Visit From Three Wives
Melvyn Reed's triple-bypass heart operation led to triple heartbreak.
First one wife came to see the 59-year-old British car salesman in the hospital. Then another. And then a third.
"Unfortunately, the timing of the visits went out of sync, and they all arrived at once," the admitted bigamist, or even trigamist, admitted to police after he turned himself in in Wimbledon, south London, on May 12.
The three women first met each other at Reed's bedside in late April, then compared notes in the parking lot of Leicester Royal Infirmary (search), near Reed's home in Kettering in the English Midlands.
Each believed herself to be his lawful wedded wife. Alas, only the first, Jean Grafton, now 61, whom Reed married in 1966, fits that description.
The couple temporarily separated after having three kids, but never divorced, making Reed's 1998 marriage to Denise Harrington, now 45, and his 2003 marriage to Lyndsey Hutchinson, now 55, legally nonexistent.
Reed's lawyer told the Times of London that his client stayed married to Grafton out of sympathy and "kind of fell into the other relationships."
"He used to be away quite a lot," a neighbor of Grafton told the London Evening Standard. "He did use to say he had a property in the North, perhaps in Doncaster. We used to joke that maybe that was where his girlfriend lived."
Doncaster, near Sheffield in Yorkshire, is where Reed met and married Harrington, wife No. 2.
"He would return on a Friday evening and spend the weekend with Denise before departing late on Sunday night or early on Sunday morning," one of her neighbors in Doncaster told the Daily Mail. "She said Mel would only be here for the weekends because he was extremely busy working in his motor business in London during the rest of the week."
On July 19, Reed pleaded guilty to two counts of bigamy and was given a four-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay 70 pounds, about $125, in court costs.
"Melvyn seemed nice enough, an ordinary bloke in his 50s, balding and with a paunch," a London neighbor of Hutchinson, wife No. 3, told the Daily Telegraph. "Not three-wives material, that's for sure."
But there may be a happy ending. Reed and Grafton, wife No.1 and only, have apparently moved back in together.
Nitpicking Motorist Drives Stolen Truck
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A man who police say stopped another driver to warn him about his careless driving was arrested for impersonating a police officer — and driving a stolen pickup truck.
Jessie Joe Hill, 32, of Des Moines, was driving the stolen pickup on Sunday when he turned on a flashing yellow light on the dashboard and pulled another driver over after the driver ran a stop sign, police said.
A police officer pulled up behind Hill and asked him what he was doing. Hill said he had pulled the other driver over to caution him about his driving.
That didn't sit well with the officer, who arrested Hill.
Hill also was arrested for driving with a suspended license and second-degree theft.
The man Hill pulled over said he thought he might be an undercover officer.
"I saw the light flashing ... so I pulled over," said Edin Beganovic. "He said 'Can you slow down?' I said, 'Sure, no problem.'"
Not Much Demand for Teenage Labor
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — Two college-bound teenagers learned a lesson when they decided to sell a week of their time to the highest bidder. They hoped for fortune and adventure — and got neither.
Under the heading "Buy us for one week to do those tedious tasks you hate!" Chris Pullen and Chip Davis posted their pictures on eBay with a minimum bid of $1. Bidding began on July 29.
When the auction closed Monday, the teens learned the winning bidder — a St. Joseph resident — had offered a mere $246.50 for their services.
Davis has e-mailed the teens' future boss, but the details of the work arrangement haven't been reached. Because the teens are headed off to the University of Missouri at Columbia (search) this weekend, the work week might be split up into seven one-day sessions.
"I don't think I'll do it again," Davis said of the experience.
Bank Teller Tackles Would-Be Holdup Man
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — It was an open-field tackle that even John Madden might appreciate.
A bank teller followed a man outside and tackled him after an attempted holdup Monday, police said.
Officers said John Wesley Bradley, 50, entered a Capital Bank and Trust (search) branch and handed the teller a note saying he was committing a robbery and had a gun. When the teller didn't immediately respond, Bradley left.
The 26-year-old teller followed him outside, saw that he didn't appear to be armed and tackled him in the grass as police arrived.
Police said Bradley would be charged with attempted bank robbery.
Supermarket Manager Nabbed for One-Time Sale
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Here's the beef!
Police detained the meat manager of a Hungarian supermarket last month after he allegedly told staff to drastically lower the price of beef tenderloin — and then told his wife to come in and buy 47 pounds.
The manager, who was in custody for suspected fraud, is accused of telling meat-counter staff without a supervisor's approval to put the tenderloin on sale for $4.40 per kilogram, instead of the usual price of $13.95.
A few hours later, the manager's wife showed up at the store in the southern city of Kecskemet and tried to buy the beef at the discounted price. A cashier, aware the meat wasn't on sale, alerted security guards who called the police.
Authorities were still investigating whether the manager's wife knew of the fraud attempt or had tried to make the purchase in good faith, Kecskemet police spokesman Laszlo Ferenczi said.
Compiled by FOXNews.com's Paul Wagenseil.
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