Con Man Strikes Minnesota Chemistry Department

In what we in the business call a slow news week, the Minnesota Daily reports that an unidentified flimflammer swindled $37 out of a University of Minnesota chemistry professor. Posing as a former student of the teacher's "general chemistry" course (a class the professor never taught), the hustler also swiped a $150 chemistry book and poked around with lab chemicals. Despite his daily appearances and "bizarre stories," the thief managed to skate by for almost a month before getting caught in a lie.

After asking for the $37 for job training and help from a research assistant to fix his bike, the wily con artist hasn't been seen since. Most surprisingly, say the professor's colleagues, is that the trickster was able to get any money at all out of a teacher who, though he is "benevolent," keeps an eye on his money: "If you buy a two-cent stamp from him, he'll expect two pennies." And to his dismay, the professor admits, "I was conned." –Christina Mueller and Alison Go