Page 8 - IAV Digital Magazine #556

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
By Gemma Parry For Mailonline
A McDonald's fan was shocked when he received a £100 fine after cameras picked up his car visiting his local restau- rant twice within 14 hours.
Ben Mulhall received a ticket which claimed he had spent over 14 hours in the fast food chain's car park, but he states he went there for dinner before his wife visited the same restaurant
in Coalville, Leicestershire, the next morning for breakfast.
The 32-year-old visited the chain just before 6pm on September 30 before driving home with his meal. However, the car was spot- ted the following morning at 8:22am, trigger- ing the fine.
It appears the car was not captured
leaving the prem- ises.
The fine for the apparent overnight stay will be reduced to £50 if he pays it within 14 days.
Mr Mulhall now intends to send an appeal to the company that manages the car park.
'I know some- times you have to wait for your food but I definitely didn't wait that long,' he told Leicestershire Live.
'My wife some-
times likes a McDonald's breakfast on her way back from a night shift and I think that's what they've caught the next day.'
To prove his innocence, Mr Mulhall has CCTV footage from outside his home showing him binning a McDonald's bag at 6:29pm on the same evening.
'I have lodged an appeal with the parking company,' he added. 'I doubt I'll hear back for days though.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2P5xhKggVY
Woman Scammed by ‘Russian Astronaut’ Who Claimed to Need Money to Return to Earth
By Hanako Montgomery
A man claiming to be a Russian astronaut in space allegedly scammed a Japanese woman into paying for his return trip to Earth, vowing to marry her once he landed.
The man found the 65-year-old unnamed victim on Instagram in June. On his pro- file, he uploaded random photos of space and said he worked at the International Space Station, where astronauts have limited access to cell service.
Their relationship quickly escalated. On LINE, a Japanese mes- saging app, he repeatedly said he loved her and proposed mar- riage. He sent her messages like “I want to start my
life in Japan” and “Saying this 1,000 times won’t be enough, but I’ll keep saying it. I love you,” news outlet TV
Asahi reported.
But to actually tie the knot, he said, he needed money to return to Earth. There were land- ing fees to pay once in Japan and the cost of a rocket to actually fly to the country, he said.
Believing this man would be her future fiancé, the woman paid him about 4.4 million yen (about $30,000) in five installments, from August 19 to September 5, the Japanese news- paper Yomiuri Shimbun report- ed.
But when his demands contin- ued, the woman grew suspicious of his intent and reported him to
the police, who are investigating the case as a romance scam, local media reported.
Romance scams, when a criminal creates a fake online identity to gain a victim’s trust to dupe them into sending them money, have been increasing in Japan.
Though Japanese police do not col- lect data specific to romance scams, the num- ber of fraud cases—which includes romance scams—rose from 8,693 in 2012 to 14,498 last year, a nearly 67 per- cent increase over 10 years. The number of reports peaked in 2017 with 18,212 cases and appeared to have declined after- ward, though the police have reported an uptick since 2020.
McDonald's Fan Gets Fine After His Car Visited Restaurant Twice In 14 Hrs