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You know how sometimes when you're strapped for cash, you empty out your piggybank/pockets/couch cushions and learn that several pounds of change can add up to a surprising amount of cash? That's clearly what some guy in Connecticut was hoping when he swiped some coins from his dad. He plugged them into one of those coin machines and got $60. The difficulty: The coins were part of a coin collection, and they were worth $8,000. Whoops. (And you know? We can't blame the coin machine people one bit for this, because their gear is set up to ID penny, quarter, dime, etc. -- not uber-rare penny, vintage quarter, whatever. So check your coins before you feed them into the machine! Especially if you're stealing coins from your dad to buy crack!)

Also from the Braintrust file, we have advice from a criminal trial in Australia: If you're in a gang and several of your members are on trial for murder, your phones might be tapped. And if they are, you might just want to use a more elaborate code than pig Latin, as the cops have no trouble deducing that when you describe "the un-gay in the ar-kay" you're referring to "the gun in the car." Bonus: The story contains a nifty little explainer box to help readers learn what pig Latin is and how to speak it. (Journalism: We're all about news you can use.)

In our favorite non-animal story of the week - because, let's face it, our favorite story of the week is always, always going to involve baby animals - drivers in China are fighting back against poor road manners by putting scary - seriously, they're scary - reflective decals on their rear windows as a defense against those awful people who tailgate with the high beams on. (You know who you are. And you should be ashamed.)

From the animal beat, we have a video of Peanut the baby panda learning to walk, this puppy in a panda costume (our personal favorite this week) and this sleepy baby clouded leopard.

Happy weekend! Don't drive with your high beams on!

-- Mary Mooney

mmooney@oregonian.com

503-412-7020; @MaryKnitsPDX