Clever Facts

Some nursing homes in Germany have fake bus stops to keep Alzheimer's patients from wandering away.

Michael Larson was an unemployed ice cream truck driver who recorded episodes of Press Your Luck on his VCR and played them back frame by frame. He discovered the "random" game board only had 5 repeating patterns. He memorized them all. On the show, he hit 45 consecutive winning spins without a single Whammy and walked away with $110,237. CBS investigated and couldn't do a thing.

UC Davis engineer David Phillips spotted a Healthy Choice promotion offering airline miles for pudding barcodes. He bought 12,150 cups for $3,140, earned 1.25 million frequent flyer miles, donated all the pudding to the Salvation Army, and claimed an $815 tax deduction. Adam Sandler's Punch-Drunk Love was based on him.