Sideswipe: October 27: Reserve your judgment

Labour Money. Photo / Supplied

Opinion

A reader writes: "Folks in South Auckland have just got a flyer from Labour. On the back is printed a perfect $100 note, right down to the serial number, watermarks and Doc Bollard's signature. And no trace of 'sample only'. The folded flyer appears to be the real deal. Perhaps it's a Machiavellian attempt by Labour strategists to drive up inflation and damage the Nats' record?"

Pawns in estate agent's game

Buyer beware ... of auctions: "I feel like I've been used," writes a house hunter. "We rather fancied a house up for auction but instinct told us it was out of our league. But the agent assured us that her feedback suggested it was within our disclosed price range of high 4s-low 5s. Hooray! On the day, after a few tired gags from the auctioneer, the auction started. The price soon shot past our top dollar and kept going until it stopped $75,000 over what we were led to believe was a possible (indeed likely) price. I later learned the reserve had been set even higher at $600,000. So after spending a great deal of time and money to be auction-ready we were used like extras to fill up the stage and make the demand look more than it was."

Strange but true

1. A San Diego man who admitted to stealing an estimated 270 to 450kg of avocados has been banned from owning more than 10 of the creamy, green fruits at a time.

2. Headstones have been broken up and used to build a council wall in Netherton, near Huddersfield. A slab of stone reading: "The beloved ... who died ...", was discovered within a 15m stretch of the new wall by an outraged Rob Campbell who said: "This is a clear disregard for other people's feelings."

3. Nurse Melinda Arnold, 34, from Melbourne was born without a womb but will soon get a transplant - donated by her own mother, which means that Melinda's child will inhabit the very same uterus that Melinda once did.

SOS on behalf of learner driver

Help for a learner driver: "My daughter and I were involved in a car accident at the corner of Green Lane East and Remuera Rd on Saturday, October 22 at around 1.50pm. There was a lot of traffic around that would have seen the crash but no witnesses stopped. I don't want this to affect my daughter's licence and would like to hear from anyone who saw the incident." Please contact Brett on bcaulton@compuspec.com if you saw what happened.