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February 9, 2005
Bad Money
Back in the late 70s, I was a manager of a Quick Trip convenience store in Grandview, Missouri. We had a customer who had extreme Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and was perhaps a bit on the paranoid side. He carried a bottle of Clorox Bleach in his car, and would pour the bleach all over any money he got as change. He also poured bleach over his hands, making his skin look, well, odd.
I had completely forgotten about that guy until I read this.
It seems that the Russian drug rings in the Northeast Corridor have taken to liberally dosing their ill-gotten money with a toxin derived from the bacteria staphylococcus. The money was wrapped in plastic, but when law enforcement got it, they opened the package and got sick.
I guess my bleach guy customer was way ahead of his time.
This is a worry, though - what a way to introduce disease to the general populace - money is passed so quickly from one person to another -- tainted money in the wild could be catastrophic.
Posted by Beth at February 9, 2005 8:23 AM
Comments
Frank Herbert's novel The White Plague used money as a vector, and that was published decades ago. The designer of the disease was attempting to cripple terrorist groups, but his warnings to other groups to stop receiving money were unheeded, and so the selective plague (only killed women) spread worldwide. A nasty little commentary on where people get their money, really.
Posted by: B. Durbin at February 9, 2005 2:37 PM
Money's already likely to have staph on it, just in smaller amounts.
Money's just plain filthy. Mmmmm, money.
Posted by: Sigivald at February 9, 2005 5:53 PM
LOL - too bad this came up while Harvey is out of town. I'll have to point him to this post when he gets back! But yes, money is filthy and a good way to spread all kinds of things. I believe it's been noted that most paper money in circulation is tainted by cocaine. Don't know if it's true or not (after all the MSM did the reporting on it) but it wouldn't surprise me if someone tried this vector to spread disease. I am sure our terrorist experts have thought of it too - I just don't know how they would go about stopping it!
Posted by: Teresa at February 9, 2005 7:31 PM
I have some blog buddies in Philly, and several of them have been extremely sick over the past week. One right now. Scary. The money was on its way from Columbus, OH to Philly. Columbus is only about 2 hours north of here. Jeesh. You wanna sneak in a biological weapon? Do it during flu season and no one will know. *shudder*
Posted by: AFSister at February 9, 2005 8:58 PM
Filthy Lucre.
Always and forever.
I'll take my infection chances with that, but smelly, *perfumed* lucre just drives me up the wall! I swear by Tammy Bruce's bad attitude, I HATE perfumed money!
(I've gotten some in change from time to time, and it generally makes me wanna vomit.)
If we went back to gold and silver coins, as the Founders intended, and as is rational, we could avoid this problem.
Posted by: Justthisguy at March 8, 2005 2:20 AM