Dollar-Bill Doodles on Display
Johnny Bitter ain't no snooty art collector. And Johnny Burrito ain't no Smithsonian.
But Bitter might be on to something at his Johnny Burrito lunch spot, a place that -- in case you were wondering -- he touts as "the cleanest restaurant in Charlotte!"
You see, Bitter has an eye for self-expression. About seven years ago, he started noticing that people doodle, draw and scribble on money. He kept a few examples -- the funniest ones, of course -- and his friends thought they were a crack-up.
Once he got going, he couldn't stop. He hoarded dollar bills with George Washington's wig colored in a lovely shade of pink. He kept Georges with pirate-eye patches, hipster glasses and silly hats.
His collection chronicled political dissent -- "Give inspectors more time," one bill cried out before the U.S. invaded Iraq -- and rebelliousness -- "I am defacing American property! So what?" But not everyone looks to make a big statement. One person, who obviously was not on a diet, used a $10 bill for a grocery list: "Cheetos, Almond Joy, Oreos."
All this gathering -- he has more than 300 bills on his Web site Uglymoney.com -- has earned Bitter recognition. His collection is featured in the March issue of Playboy magazine. But he still wants more funny money.
"My friends all joke that I'll be destitute living on the street," he said, "but I will have thousands of dollars because of this obsessive hobby."
-- Manuel Roig-Franzia
A Free Lunch Could Be Costly
Frederick Gilliland was on the run from the scores of investors who contended he had scammed them of nearly $30 million in an offshore investment scheme. He was avoiding the federal officials who were dying to prosecute him for fraud, and he was gearing up to fight his extradition from his native Canada back to Florida, where he was due to face charges.
Must have taken a lot of energy. Because, apparently, he was also really hungry. Last weekend, more than four years after he allegedly fled north to avoid an investor lawsuit and subsequent FBI and SEC investigations, the fugitive was lured back across the border by a promise of a free lunch.
A private detective who was supposedly one of Gilliland's victims somehow sold him on the virtues of a two-for-one deal at a restaurant in Point Roberts, Wash. Point Roberts sits at the end of a small peninsula, more than 10 miles removed from the U.S. mainland across the Straits of Georgia, and is reachable only by driving south from British Columbia. So, perhaps, it seemed like a low-risk trip.
But as the two drove across the border, they were followed by agents from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who stopped Gilliland, 53.
He was charged Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle with wire and securities fraud and conspiracy to launder money.
-- Amy Argetsinger
