Fake money causes traffic nightmare outside Moscow

[July 06, 2011]  MOSCOW (AP) -- Drivers who thought they were on the road to riches caused a huge traffic jam on a 10-lane Moscow highway as they scurried out of their cars to pick up what looked like scattered money.

But the Wednesday morning chaos on the Moscow Ring Road was all in vain.

Police spokesman Arkady Bashirov says "somebody made a stupid joke" by throwing wads of bookmarks resembling thousand-ruble ($35) notes along a stretch of the road circling Moscow. He says sprinkler trunks were called in to wash away the fakes.

A similar traffic jam happened last July -- but with real money -- when two Moscow officials detained with 10 million rubles ($350,000) in alleged bribe money threw the cash on the road.

[Associated Press]

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